Dolls and Criteria
This hobby is so subjective that sometimes it's hard to figure out what I even like. Hence, I've developed a pretty solid criteria to help me weed out sculpts that just don't and won't work for me.
I find, that if a sculpt doesn't meet it, no matter how pretty the official website pictures are, or how lovely the owner's pictures might be, the sculpt is structurally just not one that I can work with.
My criteria is quite specific on the following:
Resin: good quality, good detail, preference given to a rich, realistic "tan"
Eyes: not O.O sized. I don't particularly love small eyes either, but eyes must be well proportioned with the other features of the face.
Lips: not -___- style. I prefer lips that can actually be seen to be lips, nice and full! In fact, I haven't yet seen a sculpt with lips I thought were too big... but I also like lips that fit the face, adding something to it. As long as they're not thin. I can't abide thin lips. (Particularly the duck-like pucker on the Volks Lucai molds...)
Nose: I don't like the thin bladed nose. I'll go for a big-nosed sculpt over a tiny bump in the middle of the face though. I want a doll with a nose that looks like a real person might be able to breathe through it.
Overall: I'll take uniqueness over realism to a certain extent. I love sculpts that sort of... sing if you will, you lay eyes on it and it starts telling you a story. Any sculpt that I look at and can't immediately get some kind of image for is not for me.
so pretty much every doll on my wish-list fits these criteria in at least 4 out of 5. My favourites pass all 5.
DIM, Dollmore and Dollstown produce some of my all time favourite sculpts, as does Iplehouse, and Musedoll.
It's a motley crew, and there's not a ton of cohesion between all those styles, (in fact there really isn't any) but I love the structural aspect of 99% of the molds those companies produce.
I find, that if a sculpt doesn't meet it, no matter how pretty the official website pictures are, or how lovely the owner's pictures might be, the sculpt is structurally just not one that I can work with.
My criteria is quite specific on the following:
Resin: good quality, good detail, preference given to a rich, realistic "tan"
Eyes: not O.O sized. I don't particularly love small eyes either, but eyes must be well proportioned with the other features of the face.
Lips: not -___- style. I prefer lips that can actually be seen to be lips, nice and full! In fact, I haven't yet seen a sculpt with lips I thought were too big... but I also like lips that fit the face, adding something to it. As long as they're not thin. I can't abide thin lips. (Particularly the duck-like pucker on the Volks Lucai molds...)
Nose: I don't like the thin bladed nose. I'll go for a big-nosed sculpt over a tiny bump in the middle of the face though. I want a doll with a nose that looks like a real person might be able to breathe through it.
Overall: I'll take uniqueness over realism to a certain extent. I love sculpts that sort of... sing if you will, you lay eyes on it and it starts telling you a story. Any sculpt that I look at and can't immediately get some kind of image for is not for me.
so pretty much every doll on my wish-list fits these criteria in at least 4 out of 5. My favourites pass all 5.
DIM, Dollmore and Dollstown produce some of my all time favourite sculpts, as does Iplehouse, and Musedoll.
It's a motley crew, and there's not a ton of cohesion between all those styles, (in fact there really isn't any) but I love the structural aspect of 99% of the molds those companies produce.