Dolling WIPs

I must confess that I'm one of those dollers that have way too many ideas and not nearly enough time to execute even half of them. In the last few years at university, I've made dozens of concept sketches during various classes. Only a very small percentage of those make it to the pixelation stage. And not all of those who enter that stage go on to the finished doll stage. I'll show you some of the many WIPs I have lying around.

Pink just is not my thing.

Specimen one was inspired by an advert in a fashion magazine. The entire photo was in these gorgeous yellow and pink tones, so I tried making a doll in that style. It went quite well till I got stuck on the background. It has been lying around for about a year and now I don't like the doll enough to finish it anymore.

How do folds work?

Then we've got specimen two, which was started more than a year ago. I began making it after I finished my Eowyn doll (which can be found here). It was supposed to be instalment number two in a Mucha inspired doll series, this time depicting Goldberry. I got stuck while shading the overdress and moved on to other projects, including those shown below. In the meantime, I did release instalment number two in the series, but instead of this doll of Goldberry, it was a doll of Galadriel (which can be found on the same page as Eowyn) XD I will probably finish this doll some time, along with instalment number four, which will be a doll of Arwen. Maybe I'll manage to finish it next year?

Look! The dreaded claw-hands!

 Specimen number three is a personification of the planet Neptune. Neptune would not be a nice person. I started it for a 'solar system' contest, but didn't have the time to finish it before the deadline. While I loved the concept (I had loads of little symbolic details I wanted to add), the pose gave me too much trouble, even when I made it less crouch-y, and I couldn't find a good reference for the windblown clothes. I have since then found some useful references and hope to eventually finish this doll. Here you can actually see how I tend to work: I usually start with a pencil sketch that I scan in. I then resize it, sometimes reduce the amount of colours and start dolling over it, correcting mistakes as I go. Various parts of the doll will be shaded in atrociously bright colours (mostly of the standard MS Paint palette), which will be replaced in the end with better palettes. While the end result might look decent, the WIP stages look pretty atrocious XD

Why, yes sir, mountains do come in standard MS Paint colours.

 This is the WIP I'll most likely finish soon. It started out as an entry for a 'inspired by snow' contest. I was pretty much finished with the PG rated version of the doll when my laptop decided to crash. Since I had to wait for several weeks till I received my current laptop (Hex 3.0), I didn't have access to the file till after the deadline. It seems that life does not want me to enter any doll contests. Not that it mattered much with this one: I haven't seen any awards for this particular contest. Anyway, I just have to finish the background and one hand plus sword on this one and tweak the thing that she's holding up (surprise, surprise, it actually isn't a badly drawn smiley. Let it suffice to say that I do not have an optimistic view about snow). I really want to finish this one since I like the dress and hair.

I have yet another WIP, but since that one is going to be a gift for someone I can't show it here. I actually hope to finish that one in time XD Also, all of these dolls are baseless or on my own base.