Falling Off The Wagon

[revena]

So, I...uh... I kinda bought some Barbies today.

But they are really cool. And I totally had projects specifically in mind when I got them. So that's ok! Right? Right.

But if anyone wants to talk to me about a commissioned doll, that would be swell.

(gothy_dork, we should chat over email about what you want, muse-wise. My email address is in my profile!)

Comments

[gothy-dork.livejournal.com]

Oh good, I shall send you an email!
BTW, I did on OOAK doll this weekend...check out mah journal. :)

[ct]

I've been contemplating this, and I think it'd be pretty cool to have a CSI doll since I've been stuck in Sara headspace for awhile and I don't see it ending any time soon. Could you do something like that? I was looking through your last few posts with pictures and it seemed like they were all in skirts or dresses. She wears pants or jeans and regular shoes rather than dress shoes.

And would you be interested in trading for something knitted? Hat and/or scarf, stuffed animal, bag... something that size?

[revena.livejournal.com]

Most of the dolls I've done are in dresses because that fits the character, but I've actually got several in progress right now that are wearing pants. If you can link me some images of Sara that you like (both close-ups of face and hairstyle, and long shots showing full outfits), I can give a better answer on whether or not I can do a doll.

And yeah, trading for something knitted is definitely an option. I can knit, myself, but mostly only rectangles. A stuffed animal or something beyond my knitting skill level could be neat. :-)

Sara pictures

[ct]

I uploaded some pictures here. Some of them are sort of huge, but I figured that shrinking them would be counterproductive. That, and I'm not on a computer with decent image editing software. Anyway, what I didn't have handy was many photos of her without her vest on, but I tried to give a good description here. I can pull screencaps if you'd like me too. Also, *please* ignore the little white booties everyone is wearing in the one with the whole cast. Please.

Sara is one of those characters who has a different hairstyle every season, but the color is always the same. A good average is just to say that it's shoulder length(ish) and straight(ish). All of the pictures are from seasons where I liked her hair. She wears it down and loose.

Clothingwise, she dresses simply and in medium to dark shades of colors that are not pink/orange/yellow. Black is pretty common too.

This is what I'd call a typical outfit:

Shoes: non-white sneakers or black or brown boots, be they hiking boots, doc marten-ish, or occasionally the trendy sort with a short, chunky heel.

Pants: blue/black/brown jeans or pants. Never light colored pants like khakis that would show a lot of dirt, and generally not dress slacks that couldn't take any abuse.

Shirt: the style varies by time of year, but almost always a solid color and almost always fitted rather than baggy. The style varies by time of year:
* layered tanktops. Not the ones with spaghetti straps, and generally a dark one over a white one.
* sleeveless shirt. By that I mean the sort that has all of its shoulder but no sleeves.
* t-shirt with girly little sleeves, not guy/unisex elbow-length sleeves
* long sleeved shirt, or jacket over a shirt

Whatever style, she tends toward v necks or rounded necklines that look good with a short necklace. Personally, I'm a fan of the two options with sleeves, especially if you think you can make a little field vest. A note: the top she's wearing in the promo headshot is dressier than normal, probably because it *is* a promo headshot.

Necklace: she almost always wears a short necklace that usually has some sort of chunky, round pendant. Whether it's a chain or cord varies, as does the actual pendant. The only reason I stuck the last photo (the unflattering one where she's wearing a little scarf) in this gallery was because it's the only shot I had handy that showed the length of necklace she usually wears.

Makeup: minimal.

And then there's the field vest, which I really like. You can ignore the little pockets all over it. I'll dig up a photo of the back if it turns out that you can do this, but it just says LVPD in big letters.

Re: Sara pictures

[revena.livejournal.com]

I've got a doll that's a decent match for face shape and a very close match for hair color (and rooted so that I can style it the right way) so, yes, I should be able to make a doll that'll be recognizeable as the character.

I don't think the clothes you describe will give me any trouble, and vests are the easiest of doll clothes to make, pretty much, so a field vest should be very doable.

So, yes, I can do a doll for you. I suspect that she'll take me about five solid hours of work (spread over several days - most of it will be layers of paint that'll need drying), and the base doll and pre-made accessories I propose to use are going to be worth about $15, to begin with (it's hard to say for sure, because I'll be using clothes and jewelry and shoes from other dolls, but if I were to eBay all of the bits I'll use, I'd expect to get about that much). What do you think is a fair trade?

Re: Sara pictures

[ct]

Cool! I'm excited.

For trade... you said that you might like a knitted stuffed toy? Something I've been experimenting with lately is custom sock monkeys. I wish I had a picture to show you, but both of my prototypes are in Boston with my sister. So, borrowing a picture from ThinkGeek, this is generally what I'm talking about, although it's larger than the ones I've made. With the two I made for my sister, one was pretty standard other than color substitutions - she wanted a pastel one - and the other had sort of a graduated stripe pattern running down the limbs. Another possibility might be to put a little Weasley sweater on it. Not *on* it, really, but as part of the body.

Past that... I do have a book of stuffed animal patterns. I know there's a turtle and a clownfish (Nemo!) in there, and if you have a favorite animal I can check to see if there's a workable pattern.