Deciding color schemes for dolls

I often dress my dolls in the colors I feel are most flattering on them (like real people). There are many different resin colors and some look much better in certain colors than others. For example, I have one girl who is older and moderately yellowed who looks absolutely terrible in any shade of pink. She wears a lot of darker colors and looks great in orange, navy blue, and hunter green.

 

I have a huge weakness for fantasy coloured dolls, particularly on the blue/purple/pink spectrum. I'm currently working on a girl whose base colour is a blue purple, with pink accents and a blue shaded face-up, however I don't tend to plan to far in advance what kind of colours combinations dolls are going to have. I just sort of go with whatever feels and looks right for them. It has lead to some problems when I've ordered clothes for a particular doll and they arrive only for me to discover that those clothes are so not their colour or their style.
I guess my thing is probably that there's always some aspect of bright, vivid or bold colour in there somewhere. Whether it's their wig, their clothes or their skin tone, everyone has some colour incorporated in their look. That and contrast. I love contrast. A couple of my favourites include my teal girl who wears a white dress and has dark brown/black hair and my darker purple girl who has a light blonde wig and bright green eyes. (And then you have the all blue girl who is my avatar, but I guess she's the exception that proves the rule )

 

Sometimes I do choose a color scheme, other times I don't. Justin has a lot of red and black, and that's intentional. Hailey ended up with SO much brown, peach, pink, cream and salmon colored stuff, and that wasn't planned, just seemed that everything in her style ended up being those colors!

 

I plan my dolls complexion, eye color and hair color...and I usually stick with it. Then they get dressed in colors that work for each doll.

 

I usally plan my dolls color scheme after developing their character and getting a feel for them once i so their face up. I usally go buy style first then think about what colors would go nice with theme usally something that complements the way ive done their face up

 

Pete is the only doll who has a truly limited palette-- pretty much everything that I buy him is pink or white (plus his white wig and... well, red eyes, and a predominately pink faceup/blushing on white resin). His clothing fits into that palette with very few exceptions (one pair of blue shorts, but they have some pink and white stripe, a hat that has a black veil and red decoration, but the base hat itself is white and another hat that has blue and yellow stripes as well as a pink one, a pair of wine red stockings...), his personal belongings/accessories are all white or pink, like belts, a little 'netbook' mini laptop that I need to replace with one big enough for him, even the little storage boxes I keep his stuff in are pink.

I definitely planned him that way from the start, and whenever I look for things for him, his colors are in the forefront of my mind. There aren't many occasions I would break from that for-- like, a Hallowe'en costume/cosplay, sure, but otherwise I really like him to stick to his things, and I've passed on a lot of things because they just weren't the *right* pink for what I needed.


With Vince, he can definitely wear any color, and I have a lot of fun with that (and he does have a pink shirt that's his even though it probably would fit Pete all right), but I do think of purple and green as HIS colors-- his storage boxes are purple, for instance, as is his velveteen sombrero, and if I have color options, and purple or green is among them, it's often what I'd go to. Both look good with his usual wigs, and seem to suit him. Still, he often wears orange or red and blue, he doesn't necessarily wear his colors all the time because he changes up his style the most. With Vince, a lot of it is influenced by 'getting to know' him-- I knew from the start that I wanted to be able to dress my first doll in a variety of styles and colors, and he just sort of evolved and seeing how he looked in different things led me to what his 'favorites' are.


Marigold is going to be more flexible than Pete, but less so than Vince-- she's an autumnal forest spirit, so her colors are very influenced by fall leaves and overcast skies. A lot of warm natural colors, a little bit of warmer greens and natural purples, like the occasional changing leaf, but much more in the gold/orange/red range. The 'rules' are a lot looser, and it's not like she can't incorporate other colors, only that those colors have to work with her overall palette. But she can also own accessories and props that don't match her personal color scheme, provided they fit her personality and look like a close enough scale match.

 

Many of them gravitate toward wearing particular colours, but it's not something I plan. Once it's happened it does steer my clothing choices for them (currently I'm making ten yoked dresses for my ten "Victorian" SD girls, each in their signature colour of tiny-check gingham... if I ever get them finished!), bu ntone of them wear those colours exclusively.

I don't like white resin - it looks unfinished to me.

Most "normal" resin skintones are a bit too pale and pink for my liking - I prefer most of them after they have yellowed a bit.

Many of the "tan" resin colours look closer to what I would regard as "normal".

I like some of the darker brown resin colours a lot.

Fantasy skincolours like greys, blues, and greens don't really appeal to me, although I do have one in royal blue. SHe's a frmerly white Banji that I just couldn't bond with so I dyed her blue and got her a red wig to make her into a Nac Mac Feegle.

I have a Kaye Wiggs Sage in tan resin that I then had painted with wood-graining - she's a sort of dryad/wood-sprite character.

Teddy

 

The only color themes I have planned out for my girl is in her faceup, which she is currently away to get but she will have warmer tones in that. Everything else I want to have fun with. I already have quite a few different sets of eyes, because I want to change them out and have fun with it. Some are normal colors, and some are wild. I lean mostly to green, but only because thats my favorite color. Outside of that I have bought her a few wigs, but all are different colors, reds, blondes, browns, blacks, but no fun colored ones yet. For her clothes everything I've gotten her is pretty normal clothing, like leggings and shirts, and dresses. But there hasn't really been a color theme to that. I think sometimes it fun to not think too much about matching things and to just enjoy doing whatever you want lol.

 

Initially I had a color scheme in mind. But I found I couldn't limit myself. Not only is it fun to experiment with other colors, but it's tough to get your hands on fabrics in only one or two colors anyway.

 

I don't choose a color scheme ahead of time, but some of my dolls gravitate toward particular colors. When Duke wears blue, it makes his eyes look blue. Everyone thinks he has blue eyes, but he doesn't! I like to dress Hiro in blue or green. Puck tends to wear a lot of white. Gavreau always wears black. I like Maura in vivid colors like orange, red or green. Marjorie looks good in blue or purple. My Volks girls all like pink, they are very girly. I don't limit my dolls to those colors, though.

When it comes to resin colors, I greatly prefer normal or normal yellow. I have three tan dolls and six white dolls. I specifically chose the tan ones in that color, and would not have preferred them in normal. I like the white ones as they are, but I didn't have a choice in color when I was buying any of them! They were all secondhand. It was white or nothing. LOL!

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I like to plan out the general style each doll is going to have, and that usually includes colors.

 

I never planned for my girls to have a color scheme but when I planned for my second bjd, she ended up getting one. I purchased purple eyes for her at first and some how everything else became purple such as her make up, highlights in her wig, and certain pieces of clothing. When dressing her I gravitate to darker clothing and my other girl sticks with the lighter items.

 

When I first got into the hobby, I decided my dolls would only wear specific colors that were unique to their character, but that went out the door cause I would rather have them wearing many different outfits than just a few. So now they each have olors try can't wear, like Mang can't wear pink, or Piper can't wear orange or red. And Lance can't wear anything dark. Etc.

 

I don't think about it too deeply, but I do plan outfits for dolls before buying them. I prefer muted colors or a monochrome scheme. I guess I do try to balance our colors? I know I don't want anything garish.

 

A lot of my dolls just.... declare their fashion style to me. I know that might sound weird but there's a few who just look "wrong" if you put them in something they don't personally "like" lol.
I have one who if you put her in a dress she looks SO MAD.

Usually the colour schemes I pick go with their skin and hair tones. My redheads were autumnal colours mostly, my girl with blue hair wears bright crazy clashing colours because that's just HER.

My newest boy who's still being made is presenting a bit of a problem for me though. He's a custom colour and i'm not 100% how grey and how blue and how green the tone will end up when cast in resin. His colour scheme will really be determined by how vivid his skin tone ends up. If he's quite greyish that'll be one lot of colours, if he's more bright aqua that'll involve other colours.
And i'm totally stumped for what colour his surcote should be.
*headdesk*
I'm leaning toward a dark plum.

My current msd boy is in browns and greens. He's a ranger, so those sorts of tones seemed appropriate. He has a little yellow in his wig and faceup too but most of his outfit is brown and dull drab olive hah.

 

I didn't have any plan for my dolls at first so all of them ended up with blue eyes....I realized I was only putting my favorite color on them, and not all of them looked the way I wanted.
Now I have decided different eyes and wigs for each doll. It just really brings out their personalities I wanted to see in them

 

It seems that color schemes just kind of happen, though I really like to pull out their eye colors in their clothes in retrospect.

Agatha: Green eyes. Has green, brown, and gold as frequent colors.
Nanoha: blue eyes. Has lavender, blue, and white as frequent colors.
Homura: purple eyes. Her colors are black, dark grey, and amethyst purple. Oh, and purple-greys, when those crop up.
Miku: turquoise eyes. Her colors are of course silver, black, turquoise, and hot pank. Not pink. PANK.
Abby: purple eyes, her colors are sky blue, pink, lavender, white, and frills. Yes, to her frills are a color.
Fate: red eyes; red, black, gold, and navy are her colors. Pops of white as an accent are acceptable for contrast/drama.

I seriously didn't realize the eye color/clothes color scheme correlation until JUST now though. LOL!

 

My first and only doll (so far!) is the ghost of a sailor, so I'm having her wear mostly white with a little bit of navy blue. Her eyes are red though! It's gonna look so cool once I give her a faceup, I'm using blues and greys for shading and such

 

Yes my doll that I currently have, and the one I will be ordering soon definitely have set color pallets.

Callista (the doll in my avi) is a sort of 'nature' fairy and has a color pallet of browns, blues, and greenish tones, primarily. Though occasionally she'll wear other colors too, but usually only in her more modern outfits.

The doll I will be ordering is going to have a color pallet of reds, grays, and black. About the only exception to that will be his eyes which are going to be sort of an orange color, and perhaps the odd shirt or pants that will break the color theme but be in darker colors still.

 

Not really, I like to be able to dress them in anything, but I kind of need to be more open as I'm hoping to only have a few dolls this time round... but I also want to be able to make and buy clothing of all styles and colours. The hair I do a little more. Like my first doll will have mostly pale blond or purpleish hair, and my second I'm thinking blues or dark red colours.

I can't say I have certain colours I move toward, it depends on the doll, so I just have to see how I feel after I pick the doll I want. I do tend to plan the wig colour before I buy, but eyes I'll figure that out later.

I adore tan/darker skin tones with blond or dark brown hair, as well as dark green! I also love white skin with white hair and pink eyes!

As for resin, I prefer natural skin tones. In others dolls I tend to love the darker skin tones best, and the lightest white. I tend to go for the lighter skin colours but never white. I would go for tan, but I hear to many bad stories about tan resins... (I'm sure I'm just hearing the worst stories) I am seriously considering risking Luts with the brown skin, or Myou with their Coffee Skin though! If I find that works out fine then I'll think about getting a darker tanned doll, because I would love a really dark resin! I think it's Impldoll that has a really dark colour, I want that it looks so pretty! As for unnatural colours... I can only see going for a light blue, light green, or possibly gray.

 

ahh I'd love to post her but unfortunately she's an off-topic doll ;v; I'm still waiting to get someone made of resin so I can actually start posting pictures of them to the site!! (trying to get all my posts so I can get marketplace access!!)

 

It wasn't hard for me to pick color schemes, believe it or not.
*Johnny has light brown hair and gray eyes, both neutrals that go with anything. I happen to love green, two and two came together, and my Johnny subsequently wears a fair amount of green. He doesn't wear it often enough that it could be considered "his color," but I'm working on that.
*Alistair came to me with red default eyes. They look so good with his pale resin that I made that his default color. He also wears a lot of black and strangely, quite a bit of pink. "What is pink but a lighter shade of red?" he always says.
*Chloe is a green Bobobie. Even though I like green, I don't want to dress her in a lot of it because it's too matchy-matchy. Since Chloe is a YoSD-sized doll a lot of the clothes that fit her are styled for little girls, and a lot of those pieces are in shades of pink. So I didn't really choose pink for Chloe, but it suits her impish personality so I'm okay with that.
*Johanna is a pastel-lover. She'll wear pink, lavender, mint, light yellow, light blue, you name it. She also likes neutrals, so often found in mori style.
*Guinevere is Johanna's half-sister, and the half-siblings are surprisingly inseparable. Guinevere likes to wear outfits that are similar to Johanna's, but in contrasting colors. She is subsequently fond of blue, black, violet, pastels, and neutrals. She's not as fond of pink as some of my other characters are, but she'll wear it without making a fuss.
*Ylla does not yet live among my flock. If any of you out there are Ray Bradbury fans then the name "Ylla" ought to give you an idea of what this doll will look like. I plan for her to be deeply tan with golden eyes and red hair. With that color combination finding things that will look good have been a bit of a challenge, so I've stuck with deep colors like dark purple, deep blue, and maroon. As with Johanna and Guinevere, neutrals will also be used a lot.
*Niki does not live with me either. His character usually does everything possible to avoid being noticed, so gray will likely be Niki's dominant color...unless Anne can bully him into wearing something else.

I think that leaves Anne and Roger unaffiliated if I don't count my two long shots. None of them have a color yet, but that could very well change so this post will likely see future edits.

 

Only a few of my dolls seem to have set color schemes.
Blaze is tan with yellow-orange eyes, and a dark brown wig. She wears mostly warm colors pinks and browns. That seems too fit both her character and appearance.
Ephemera is Soom's "coffee black" which in most lighting looks like grape juice- dark purple, with a purple streaked silver wig and grey eyes. So far she mostly wears white, but pastel colors would also look good on her.
Lilith is tan with dark eyes and hair, and she's a little girl, so she mostly wears bright colors.

The others don't have favored colors yet, partially since they're missing eyes, wigs or face-ups. I'll fix that eventually...

 

General themes, for some of them. Azrael, for instance, has a black and white colourscheme, and Rina goes for black and purple, Balik has a galaxy thing going, tacet's pastel, Frost is blue and white, and I did plan these all out before taking any dolls in.

Admittedly, I have a huge pull toward black and red in general. I have 5 dolls with black hair either here or planned, and 4-6 red depending on funding...

As for unique colours, I've seen some fantastic fantasy resin, like deep purple and jet black. As for colours I'd have never imagined going together, I've seen some splendid blue blushing on dolls, I've seen vivid blue... the sky is the limit.

Resin colours, I decide by characters... the thing is, this also means lots of tan resin (6), and some fantasy resin (3 with clear parts, 3 in fantasy colours). I also have some paperwhite (3) some pale ns (5) and some regular NS dolls (2)--bear in mind half of these are just plans... I choose which colours go with which resin by doing mockups, because, at least with my dark purple beauty, Google wasn't really brimming with results. There was a lot of work on which colours looked right (purple with blue undertones is going to fight anything orangey, and then trying to find cool hues of colours to use... ultimately, her blushing will be in a lighter pink, darker purple and a few shades of blue.

I also have a paper white doll, her girlfriend, ironically, who is getting primarily black and white for blushing, because she has blackish blood, which was a storyline decision.

 

Do you ever plan out a general color theme for your dolls?
I decided my first doll will wear a lot of blueish hues.
Do your dolls ever have any specific colors they tend to gravitate to, whether it's a wig, eyes, or clothes?
do you plan the color themes out before the purchase or after.
For the most part I use crème colors along with light pastels for Abigail. Sometimes I use darker colours.
With Simon I use dark colours with whites and sometimes mix bright colors in.
My no named doll doesn't have clothes but I will get bright blues.
And the doll I'm waiting on will wear a lot of gold with black and bolder clothing.

 

I don't plan out color themes, not really. I just go with whatever fits my mood since I tend to change my doll's clothes and hair fairly often.

 

This wasn't something I originally did but I've started to get more involved with color schemes lately. My first few dolls were pretty haphazard and it was difficult for me to flesh them out because my ideas were so vague. It just felt like I had a lot of incomplete dolls and tons of clothes and accessories that never really amounted to a coherent character or personality.

I've planning out two current dolls and both have been given color schemes - opal and rainbow obsidian. The idea was originally just to get them polished cabochon eyes in those colors but it has evolved from there and it looks like one girl will end up light and opalescent and the other will be darker, with dark rainbow hues. The latter may even end up dyed but I'm still debating that. Honestly, it's been very helpful and has opened up a lot of creative possibilities that I may have overlooked if I just stuck to my usual non-planning.

 

I try to have a plan, but they never seem to work out well. With my doll, my plan was to have her colors be black and purple.. My favorite colors. Unfortunately, once I put everything I had picked out on her it didn't fit her at all. It seems the image in my mind isn't what she wanted. It felt all wrong. So right now I'm back at the drawing board trying to go another direction. I think she is more of a red than a purple.. Oh well. I'll save purple for the next doll!

 

Ramses favors bright red. Etienne likes sage green, black , blue, and gray, and other muted masculine colors. Nefertari and Lili only wear white. Epiphany is a pirate and steals anything she likes, so far her favorite thing is a blue green silk gown. Lahela favours the exotic, and wears African prints and batiks and tends toward bright eye searing reds, oranges, and light bright blue. Jilly likes dark blue, forest green, deep red, bright jewel like colors, deeply saturated.

 

I'm not sure if I think of color schemes for clothes necessarily, but I definitely think of colors for my dolls' skin, because a lot of my characters are fantasy creatures and things like that.

The boy I just bought (a DZ Carter) is a selkie, so he's gonna have patches of color on his face and body, and, though I haven't decided exactly where yet, I think it's going larger patches of light grey and smaller bits of white to break them up, then dark grey freckles and pale pink accents, more like blushing that actual painting. His eyes will be a contrasting teal. His clothes, though, could be almost anything, because he has both tribal and modern influences in his backstory. (Basically, he's my experimentation child. )

So I do technically choose color palettes, just not for clothing! I have another set of boys that will be gold, blue, and white (Miracle Doll Jing and Alieen Dolls Cedric), and gold, green, and brown (DC Lance).

Though...Fletcher, who'll be a Gem of Doll Moky, does kind of have have a palette for clothes. He'll have a lot of creams and golds and light blues, but also really just want to be able to put him in whatever frilly YoSD stuff I can find, 'cause he's so cute. (This got kinda long...whoops.)

 

I definitely do think of color palettes for my dolls! Sticking to those palettes, though; that's the hard part.

Hemlock was originally supposed to be silver, blue, white and pink, but then he insisted on green and brown, too. Then I was planning a yukata for him and it turned into gold and red! My brain, it just does whatever it wants. (I'm still desperately clinging to my plan for a blue, white and pink kimono for him though and nothing will stop me!)

My DZ Mo-2 was originally going to be mostly black and neutrals, but now I'm making him an orange wig?? And there's a green and gold jacket in the works?? With matching pants? What is happening.

 

my girl Andy, her color schemes are mostly pastel and light blue. for Astrea, she goes with whatever color as long as it is light and fits her aesthetic but she loves pink the most.

 

My first doll's style is going to be mostly black, red and white since those colors suit her. : 3 She's a Japanese ghostie. Her wigs are going to be black or white, nothing colorful. I don't know about her eyes though, that's a tricky choice. I bet the choice is going to be easier once I get her and see her face. I might like the eyes she comes with, who knows!

That being said, I would LOVE to have a doll that has a mint chocolate color scheme. =w= Brown and mint green. Such a good combination.

 

I don't really plan a colour scheme. I dress my dolls in colours that are complimentary to their skin/hair/eye colour and that look flattering on them. Some dolls, like some real people, can wear just about any colour and look good, while others really only shine in a few colours. Others, while they look good in a lot of colours, might only wear a certain colour because it makes sense for the character the doll represents. I generally don't plan this ahead of time, unless it's character-related. It's usually something I determine once the doll is in my hands and I have their proper wig and eyes.

 

I like to dress my dolls in both a time period style along with color- mostly in shades of neutrals with small pops of color.

 

I try to plan the color theme for the doll before it arrives. It's easier to decide wigs, eyes and makeup if I'm drawn into something specific theme. Mostly my dolls tend to have black/white/grey/different shades of brown colored theme. Bums me a little bit tho, because it would be nice to try something different for once. But when I try something new, I feel little uncomfortable and return to the old color themes that my other dolls have... I just don't seem to be fully satisfied if the color theme is something I'm not used to and is too different compared to others :O

I have one doll, that has specific effect color, and it's raspberry pink :'D She has lips and eyeshadow of that color and I like her to have some pop of certain kind of pinks on her outfits. Like in the necklaces or prints! Just ordered new wig for her in that color, so let's see how that works out.
I really like basically anything on dolls if the colors compliment each other. I wish I could pull up some of the styles I've seen on my dolls as well:<

Someday I really like own a grey doll! Or greyish-lilac, that would be cool as well. That would make me go out of my comfortzone and try out new things!

 

I tend to dress my dolls in color palettes that compliment their current face-up, eye color and wig, so it changes when I change my dolls, and they enjoy cosplay so they tend to change on a regular basis. It seems like I get obsessed and totally indulge in one character, enjoy it for a period of time and then I'm off to the next. This way of making clothing really limits any mix and match options as clothing items are too specific to one character.

 

After years in the hobby, I just discovered color schemes for dressing my dolls, and I like it. My first one was completely by accident. I went with a black and white theme as the doll is white skin with a black wig. He looks so put together. My second was a fullset outfit in tans. It looks so good and matches his wig, and skin tone, it gave me the idea to try simple color schemes for the rest of my dolls. The one I'm working on now will be three shades of blue with white. Really simple, but easy to put together and I don't have glaring mis matches that bother me so much.

 

I am really bad about making my characters in video games a certain color with dyed armor and such so yeah, I think my need for a color theme is starting to slowly leak into my dolls. I need to try to remember to be more flexible.

 

I chose Linden's pale, neutral faceup and body blushing to coordinate with my favorite colors - browns, greens, greys, and saturated reds and blues.

That said, he has all of two outfits, and both of them are predominantly brown. I'd be fine if he up and turns into a mori boy on me - he's a deer, after all - but I have plans to make him some more flashy, colorful things too.

 

My characters and dolls generally have a clothing color scheme, I color code them. It happened unintentionally and I honestly hadn't noticed until someone pointed it out at me. Hair/skin/eyes tend to not go with the chosen color scheme though, just clothing.
For instance, Oliver is the only that his entire being follows a theme, he has a pastel theme and is pink coded. Pastel blue hair, pink eyes, pink clothing. But he's naturally a ginger with blue eyes and 'chose' to alter his hair and eyes in character to match his theme
Kishen's theme is red and gold. He wears shades of red and likes gold accents, but he has black hair and brown eyes.

 

Quite a bit of intetional colour scheming here! Otakar is black, black, and more black, with only really his eyes - dark purple- and the brown and orange-pink in his face up to counteract it. He's modelled after a crow, though, so it makes sense. Valli was going to be blue, white and grey, but after buying her Official Eyes (tm), which are green, she's leaning more towards reds and browns, with the white. She's still in blue and grey right now, rough, and will be until I can find the fabric dye I want. Hideyasu is black, red, and grey/silver while his future!doll bf Tianzhu is white, blue and gold. Likewise, when I get Otakar's husband as a doll, he'll have a contrasting colour scheme of white and red. Valli's familiar Winterberry (IslandDoll AnAn) and Tianzhu's familiar Yu (Sakura & Paper Xiao Jiu) are both white resin and don't wear clothes, so their colours are eyes (green + black, respectively) and future faces ups - Winter's going from a calico to a white cat, and Yu will probably have either blue or gold decore to match her master.

... I really like black, red, blue, and white, apparently. They're all good colours, but it feels kind of boring when I say it like that...!

 

I had ideas about certain colours for certain dolls but of course, once I tried to put those colours on them, they hated it. Or looked terrible in it. A lot of my dolls tend to end up kind of monochromatic when it comes to eye/hair but it's not something I consciously set out to do in 99% of the cases. Some of my guys definitely have preferences to what they'll wear though.

Moswen and Khale both hate being dressed in red. They turn into the amazing noodle dolls when wearing red and getting them into red outfits is an exercise in patience and frustration. Moswen loves purple and blue. Khale prefers pastels, white or black. Edenlei goes for neutrals on the lighter end of the spectrum (cream, white, sand, light tan, etc.). Saraf likes jewel tones and colours that represent fire (he's the God of Primal Flame). Fei-Lau is all about white and palest blue (he's the God of Winter Storms). Wu-Tyr like dark tones in blues and green (he's God of the Depths). Sleet loves red and black but hates pastels for himself (he's a sociopath that likes to kill).

I have 2 who refuse to wear clothes (Darius and Naicree) even though they are humanoid. And I have Haniel, who is my little fashion disaster. His favourite outfit is a bright orange shirt with a raging out Incredible Hulk on it (with a glitter boarder around the Hulk), brown and green plaid pants, purple sparklie running shoes that light up when he takes a step and a red cowboy hat with a giant brown ostrich plum feather in the hatband. It's eye-searing bad. He's also got baby pink hair which makes the whole ensemble even worse.

As far as resin colour goes, I have white, NY, 2 different tans, 6 different greys, black, red, turquoise and green. The whites vary in tone from paper white to cool white to creamy white to rose white (some creamy white dolls are due to aging). NY varies based on companies and the age of the doll. The turquoise doll is actually an RS old blue that has changed colour due to age (he's about 7 years old now). I have a serious weakness for coloured resin, grey in particular. The only colour I'm not terribly fond of is NP. I'm not sure why.

 

Yes, my dolls do tend to have color schemes. Dorian is pretty monochrome, except for his violet eyes. The tips of his pointed ears also have the faintest purple on them. His character is a psychic shapeshifter, and since purple is a color commonly associated with psychic abilities I wanted to tie that into his look. Astraeus is the personification of the night sky, so his faceup is black, blue, and gold. His eyes are a matching blue. Darius is royalty, and his colors are red, black, and gold, and I wanted to emphasize the gold in his horns so I chose golden eyes for him. Colors are important for my characters, and I like to use it to pull their "look" together

 

My dolls definitely have color schemes. It looks nicer in my opinion. I don't want the "pink shirt with a red plaid skirt and yellow socks" look.

 

I choose a color-scheme for my dolls but they tend to have other ideas so it doesn't always work out. In my experience, their color-scheme is somewhat tied into their personality/style so sometimes the idea that I have for them ends up being totally not what they have in mind and then I have to go about trying out new things until something sticks.

 

Right now I'm choosing pantone palette to match the dolls I'm awaiting to be shipped in

 

I do... But it is a bit more complected than just choosing a couple of colors... I like dressing, and plan to pain the ones I'm painting myself, with their coloring in mind, much like you do for the real person. In fact I have a lot of fun applying makeup and fashion color theories to the dolls wig/eye/skin combo. Currently on the hunt for a very particular pastel shade that I think will look great on the doll I ordered
Correction - color theory says it will, I have not tried it on anyone - don't have any girlfriends in that color combo

 

My dolls are all in a pastel color palette. I love light pinks, baby blues, and sparkly eyes.

I also like to photoshop different looks on a BJD before I even buy it (so I can know whether or not to purchase wigs/eyes/clothes from the same vendor to save on shipping). I get so particular about every detail, that I am also careful to adjust the levels/saturation of the things I piece together to make sure the lighting is consistent (like if a picture of a dress was taken in bluish lighting vs a picture of a wig that was taken in warm lighting). I do this to make sure that I am getting the most accurate depiction of colors for coordinating.

I know it sounds like a lot of effort, but it only takes me about an hour, and it saves me a LOT of $$$ and headache in the long run. No buyer’s remorse for me!

 

I find that having a colour scheme/ palette really helps me as you are less likely to clash with clothes and hair.
I am a visual person and sometimes colours do surprise you when you think they wouldn't go together but I find that this is more unusual and rare.
So I like to have a selection of colours that sit comfortly and harmonise each other so that I don't have to worry.

 

I like to draw my dolls before I buy one. I call them my character concepts to feel fancy like I'm making a animated movie haha As part of the concept I do assign them a color palette. I have a "green witch" whose colors are green (duh lol), brown, taupe, mahogany, and a smidge or dusty pink. Then my goth girl pretty much just wears black haha that one is easy. But sometimes she dips her toes into cyberpunk and wears holograhic blue/purple . . . with black

I like when others have dolls with tan skin/white hair. I think it looks neat! I love to see purple skin dolls too, though I'm not sure if I would get one.

 

Yes! For me, planning things out is half the fun, haha. Plus, I hope to save money/time/effort by knowing ahead of time what color fabrics to buy, or whether a pre-made item will fit into a doll's wardrobe.

For my Unoa, Charlie, I'm using a wardrobe I had planned out for my own self, but would never be able to execute in real life. So her skin, hair, and eye color all match mine. Since I already know what looks good on me, that makes things a lot easier! Right now, her wardrobe is all-black, but with colorful accessories. In the future I hope to add a Fall/Winter wardrobe based around grey, and a Spring/Summer wardrobe based around navy. Whenever I make/buy stuff for her current black wardrobe, I think about whether it would go with navy or grey also. I want to be able to mix-and-match as much as possible!

Ooh, I really like that combo also! Reminds me of Princess Kida from Disney's Atlantis Also: very dark skin with white hair... like X-Men's Storm

 

Do you ever plan out a general color theme for your dolls? Do you plan the color themes out before the purchase or after?
I don't plan it in advance except if the character I've planned for the doll has notable features (for example, my main MSD girl has red eyes and some color options for her clothing will make her eye color pop more than other). Any other case, I just try things then usually end up having some colors picked that fit that particular doll.
Do your dolls ever have any specific colors they tend to gravitate to, whether it's a wig, eyes, or clothes? Are there any favorite or unique color combos you've seen on dolls that you like?
As some others have already stated, white hair is also a thing for me (and in combination with a darker skin color is just wow), so right now one of my dolls is white-haired (and my next doll is going to be Storm from the X-Men so... xD). Other than that, I have no fixed preferences for my dolls. In fact, I think having a myriad of different colors cheers me up.

 

I think only one of mine, or maybe two, have a colour theme. One girl has a lot of pink and white, pink hair, clothes, accessories and furniture. Another is all about black. He’s a very cool dude. He needs either a Harley or a sports bike.

 

In terms of planning a color theme... kind of? Some get more of a color theme, some don't! I more of plan what kind of clothes they wear, and that lends itself to certain colors. For example, my one goth gal leans more into the black/white/purple side of things, but Nikki gets more black/white/red. Nova's supposed to be more homey and foresty, so her stuff is often warm, not super bright in color. Clover gets pastels (and her color scheme is based on a blue tortie bunny, so she's pastel herself!), and an incoming doll who's supposed to be her partner I think will get brighter colors.

Color combos, I don't know if I have any I tend towards, but uh. I'm very fond of purple and it can get pretty obvious Ara has purple hair, again the goth gal with purple in her scheme, Megu tends to get a lot of purple stuff, including a very dark purple wig... I'm typing purple so many times it's not looking real any more!

With resin colors, I'm fine with white and peach/normal, I love tans and pastel fantasy colors, but I'm not really fond of grey or jewel-tone fantasy colors unless they're transparent. Pure black is also good though. I'd guess I have two dolls in fantasy colors, if you count Clover? (Technically there's three but Orchid doesn't wear clothes!) Clover's faceup is super pale to match her coloring, and I didn't worry a ton about blushing since she's supposed to be fuzzy. Thalassus, who's a pale blue, I leaned on the fantasy colors for her blushing. Her scars are a purple-blue, and I blushed her with more purples and I think a bit of magenta? I'd have to double-check what got smeared on her shoulder... Anyhow, cool tones for her actual body, then I went with a contrasting red wig for pizzazz. Most of his clothes thus far are more neutral to let the rest shine, but uhhh. I need to make more anyhow.

 

Some of my dolls certainly do have colour schemes... Alto (on my pfp) is basically themed around his black/white chimerism. I didn't -set- to dress him in mostly black and white fashion too, but it always felt right on him. At least he wears a dash of neon to break it up.

With Yohre, on the other hand, I gravitate towards greens, Zaphiel prefers reds, Astraia wears blues, lavender purples and pinks... Sen is pink himself top to bottom but mostly/only wears white. It's just character quirks mostly, or what just suits them best, the same as with people.

I generally don't plan colour schemes in advance when it comes to clothing, as I feel that dolls always have a way to foil such plans! I do think a lot about their hair and eye colours though when I'm creating their character. It has to make sense for them or it won't work! (Unfortunately half my crew is comprised of middle aged japanese men that don't so much like dyeing their hair... so I'm stuck with a lot of dark haired dolls as a result!)

 

Totally! I do character dolls and the vast majority of the time I do dolls based off of musicians I like so I tend to follow their color palette! I really do favor specific colors and general themes for my dolls, sometimes I will dress them up differently for a cute “special dress up time”! special dress up time usually has a cohesive theme that I pick and then my dolls can get a special outfit in that theme even if it isn’t what they would always wear (but even then I try to add in some colors and vibes similar to their main style)

 

I focus on the sculpt first and then on the aesthetics. My girl has a light make up so naturally she will look better in light colours but darker colours will be fine, too I guess. I bought her more for sewing than collecting and had to give up that idea for a longer time. Now that I can actually do it I rather think of what I can design and her to be a model than to fit her in particular. She's just that - a model, hence I have a couple of wigs for her to change her personality whenever I need it.

I would love to have a white skinned girl, however, with light make up to play with some of designs: like muted colours, or contrasting ones etc. but that's only when I conquer basic sewing :P