40–49cm Dolls Project Anthea

Hello all!

This is my own "little" BJD project. I've named her Anthea and am planning to make her 49 cm tall.
The idea would be to make her in darker skintones as well as tanned ones, because I think her facial features would work nicely for dark skinned ethnicities, but I also feel like she would be super pretty customised as a native american... What do you think?

Anyway, here's her current state. I'm trying to figure out her joints and am pulling my hair out because of them xD
Ignore the hands and feet, they are a work-in-progress (and the hands will be posed once their sculpting is refined).

I'd love to know what your thoughts and feelings are!
Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day/evening/night!

 

Thank you @Miss_Pygmalion and @du-hast

It's a little frustrating because there's no way to acurately test the joints in the 3d program, so I'll have to just cross my fingers and discover if they work or not once she's printed! >< I do hope my logic isn't too far off though!

But I'm very happy that you both like her shape! Thank you!

 

Hello!

I would need some feedback if possible...
What do you think of these types of joints?

They are not the prettiest, but they give a good range of motion with a single joint... Would this be a deal breaker for you? Or wouldn't you mind if you liked the doll's general looks and she was easy to pose?



Thanks in advance for your time and have a lovely day/evening/night!

 

Thank you for your answer @Zardi !

 

Thanks @evie the kid !

Yeah I was asking because I can't make up my mind about them: I like that they should be posable and that they are single joints (i find double joints weird because they get often bent in the wrong place when not exploiting the full range of motion), but at the same time I'm conflicted about the esthetics of those. Not sure if I would like my doll to have pieces cut out of her like that.

So I thought maybe other people's opinions could help me decide

Also, I'm making this doll for myself but don't exclude the idea of making a small batch of them if people end up showing some interest in her. So I thought it could be another argument to help me make up my mind ^__^

 

@evie the kid yeah I'll probably do that
It's just that the printing isn't cheap so I'd like to minimise the tests. But I guess I'll do it that way and hope for the best!

 

Quick update: I commissioned someone who owns an FDM printer, so Anthea is currently being printed! I hope she won't have too much joint problems! Can't wait to get her and string her to see how she moves and looks! I'm so excited!!!

 

Thank you @evie the kid ! I have a photo of the first parts, I'm so excited!!

One of the hands will be replaced (it was printed in symmetry of the other one but there are two different files so the correct one is being reprinted ^__^).
The torso was printed in the meantime but I don't have any photos of that. Supports will be removed then the parts will be shipped to me! I can't wait!!

 

Aaand she's here!!

I'm so happy, she stands SUPER easily!! She can even stand on one foot without too much struggle, eventhough she has only one arm for the moment (so is technically more out of balance than she will be with both of her arms attached xD)

I have to make the neckhole of her headback bigger, because right now the 4 elastics that need to go through there are too big... (which is why her body has no head on the pictures).
I'll try drilling it, and if it fails, I'll make it bigger in the 3D file and have it reprinted.

I also need to adjust the arms: change the arm hole because right now she can't lift her arms. Make the arm a tad longer and the forearm a tad shorter. Make her hands slightly smaller, and make the inside part of the lower arm (above the elbow) longer, because right now it's too short which makes that piece pop out of place super easily. Making the inside part longer should fix it, in theory O_o
So basically, every part of the arms need to be adjusted and reprinted.

The last "problem" is on the knees: the legs get pushed back slightly by the thighs, and I don't know why... I'll try sanding the inner part of the thighs to see if it fixes it... If that doesn't work, I'll have to scratch my head a lot xD

QUESTION: where do you guys buy your elastics and S-Hooks, and more importantly, how do you know what size to get (for the elastics and especially for the hooks) for your handmade dolls?

 

I put her back together again this morning after disasembling her yesterday, to figure out what to do proportion-wise with her hands/arms (and managed to attach her head this time, despite my large elastics! yay!)

Bad news is, I can't figure out what to change... are the hands too long? Or would thickening up the arms make it look right instead? Do I need to make the arm (upper part) slightly longer? Aaaaah I need feedback please! ;__;

Also, forgot to show her arm range, so here it is (third photo). I'm quite happy with it!
Oh, and she sits up straight too, forgot to mention that yesterday!

More bad news... her headback broke ;____; It split on a printing line apprently. The good thing is, it's a clean cut, so I should be able to simply superglue it back together. But I'm afraid she'll be weak now...
Resin IS stronger than ABS, right?

 

@iamkathybrown oooh I didn't think of it that way... I like your way of seeing it! Thanks for taking the time to give me your opinion! And thanks for the encouragements too!

 

Every opinion is valuable (when coming from a non-toxic person) So thanks ^__^

I've sent the entire arms/hands back for printing: made the forearm a tad longer, the entire arm a smidge thicker (not sure it will be visible tbh xD) and shortened the hands slightly. But the changes aren't too drastic so hopefully it will correct the proportions while keeping the same feel ^__^ We'll see when it comes back!

Now on to sanding!

 

@tangy_melon Yes, that is what I intended to do ^___^ The new slightly shorter hands have been sent off for printing, and I figured I'd see once I have both which ones I prefer
And proportion wise, I compared her hand length to her face before deciding to shorten them a little bit, because they were about the right length BUT her fingers aren't straight. So if her fingers could be laid flat, then her hand would in fact be a little too long. Also, they were almost as long as her feet xD And I had made those the length of her forearms since that's the right size for most humans (if you didn't know, try it: put your foot on your forearm, it roughly goes from your "elbow pit" to your wrist! I find that quite amazing xD)
Thanks for her face shape! It makes me very happy that you find her cute! because I know she hasn't got a "standard BJD face", so I wasn't sure if people would actually like her

@StellaMarigold Thank you!!! Like I said to Tangy Melon, it warms my heart to hear comments like that about her face! I'm really happy you like her profile too!
I won't be able to correct all the proportions because of her head ratio (like, she will never be able to fold her arms on the top of her head like we can), but since I did want that large head, it's a concession I need to make xD I do try to keep as much proportions as I can though, like elbow around the waist line, wrist around the crotch area, tip of the fingers about mid-thigh, feet the length of the forearms, hands the length of the chin to mid-forehead, crotch roughly half-way between the soles of the feet and the top of the head (messed that one up though cause she ended up with longer legs, but I quite like it so nevermind xD) but yeah, I tried to be mindful of those while still going for a stylised slightly Disney-esque feel I whole-heartedly agree with you about the proportions based on realistic ones even for stylised sapes though Thanks for your advice!

 

@StellaMarigold ♥♥♥

 

Oops the email notification ended up in my spams so I've only seen it now, and I had doll unrelated work lately so haven't been on the forum for a few weeks! Sorry!!!

@Lomi Oh thank you!!! She's on pause because of other life engagements but I'll continue working on her when I find more time ^___^

@Guavaplant Thanks!! I'm glad her knee joints aren't as weird as I feared! And now that you mention it, you're right, I love how she naturally poses quite elegantly! ♡

@kidgecko Thank you!! Yes, I used zBrush That program is awesome!