Project Ginger + other character work

Ever since I got my second doll, I'd been thinking a lot about my plans for the future. I had two dolls, but what was I going to do with them? Minori had been set aside for a bit due to various reasons. Meanwhile, I struggled with Rosie. I struggled to bond with her and the character I had planned for her was missing something. I hoped that time would fix the problem. However, nothing changed no matter how long I waited. It was only after I immediately fell in love with and preordered Miu that I realised how much I wanted to feel that same way towards all of my dolls. I've always wanted to get a 1/6 boy doll, and brought it up one night while talking with a friend about my doll woes. This friend said "well, if you want a boy so much but you don't want Rosie, isn't there a way for you to trade them out? It just seems like you'd be happier with something like that." While I was thinking about the possibilities, a character concept I've been calling Niko came to mind. I started working in this direction, using Rosie to shell his character. Now, I'm calling this project "Project NIKO", and I've been making concept art and plans for the past month or so.

STAGE 1

Concept art & planning. This is the ideal time to sell what I don't need and put together a list of what I do need. I'm starting a doll character scrapbook/journal, where I'll plan out his character and appearance with plenty of reference notes. It will be full of fabric/colour swatches, concept art, and other things which remind me of Niko so when the time comes to actually do things, I will have lots of reference material. During this stage, I'll make lists of the wigs/eyes/stands and other materials I'll need for Niko, figure out how much everything will cost, and save that amount + buffer.

That's where I'm going to begin, though there's no telling how long this project (or even just stage 1) will take, especially with the beginning of the holiday season and how busy I've been with work/personal life recently. I'll update this thread when I have more concept art to share!

Edited January 23 by frollywoggy
Correcting information, spelling errors

Niko concept art time! I've been sketching him here and there, trying to sort out what his face should look like, and I think this draft is pretty close to what I want.

His design is inspired by Minette from The Tea Dragon Society and Neil from All Saints Street. I'm not sure what kind of creature he is, or what the name for it might be, but the horns were a very last minute decision. (None of the other drafts have them, still not sure why I added them but I think they look nice!) Since whichever head I choose won't have the fox ears like Rosie does, I've decided to custom make his ears out of a fluffy material and use magnets to attach them. Still not sure how to make the horns, but the tail seems simple enough. I think I still want to explore more variations and ideas for him, but this concept is definitely a huge step in the right direction.

A little update on this project: 

Since I last posted about this project, I decided to give bonding with Rosie another try. I have a habit of starting ambitious new projects with much enthusiasm only to abandon them within a few months because the interest fades, and this was one of those experiences. I couldn't bond with Niko's character any more than I bonded with the original doll, so I decided to toss out all of my work and start over again. (If this makes me seem indecisive, it's because I am😅) I wanted to keep many of the elements I originally loved about Rosie when I bought her and add a few new elements to essentially "reboot" her previous character. My current concept for Rosie keeps her previous name and much of her original concept, but incorporates my love of mori-girl fashion and art along with some minor changes. I received a tiny, doll-sized sketchbook for Christmas, which helped me settle completely on this concept. 

Since then, I've slowly been building this project bit by bit, taking it slowly to ensure that it's really what I want instead of throwing myself in headfirst as last time. I honestly haven’t made much progress, though I did create a quick sketch to get a feel for her appearance. I still have a long way to go with this project, but I've actually bonded with Rosie over the past few months and I'm quite excited to see where this experience will take me. I will update this thread as I make more progress on rebooting Rosie❤️

Spoiler

 

*omake: Rosie in a half-hearted mori style outfit made with what I had on hand. It's quite cute, though maybe not quite mori.

 

Edited January 23 by frollywoggy