#8 - Character Arc Through Doll Making
Hello folks! I wanted to try something a little different for this blog post. As you may have seen, I made a vampire Bella Swan doll (video showcase linked here) and I realized that this is the first time I have made the same character at two different stages of “life” (or in this case, life and afterlife). Since I recognize that video quality doesn’t do a great job at picking up little details, I thought I’d describe how I approached differentiating the two dolls while still making it recognizable as the same character.
Plus, it gives me yet another excuse to talk about Twilight.
Human Bella:
The faceup for Bella was all about softness and simplicity. Kristen Stewart has a very subtle, natural makeup look in the first Twilight movie. Moving from the bottom of the faceplate up, I started with the lips, which I painted a very light, bubblegum-pink color. I wanted it to feel like she wasn’t wearing any lip product at all. Blush was really the key feature for this Bella doll. In the book, she is described as pretty much constantly flushed. I went a lot heavier with the blush for this doll than I do for most of mine, which I spread across her cheeks, nose, and chin. I’ve found that every doll I make has a main focal point, a key feature, and for Human Bella, it was certainly the blush. Her eye makeup I kept subtle — a light brown pencil for her lashline, a soft brownish-grey powder around the eyes, and a bit darker brown on the lids for dimension. Her eyebrows I rounded out and kept low on the forehead to give her a very docile expression. As with all of my dolls, I applied a very thin pencil line under each eye to give her that weary, eye-bag look.
For her eye chips, I went with her natural brown, a mix-match set of the Twilight Logo with the book cover apple, the foggy forest of Forks, and then, of course my favorite set — the glittery meadow scene eyes of her and Edward in the grass.
It was hard to pick my favorite outfit of hers, but I have to say, I have always found it hilarious that Bella’s choice for her first day at a new school was an oversized, green bowling shirt. I find it so charming to think about her picking that out and saying to herself, “yeah, this is my best outfit.” So, I had to go with that one.
Vampire Bella:
Here was the challenge: I knew I wanted Vampire Bella’s features to be noticeably sharper, but with the naturally round-face of Blythe dolls, I had to figure out more subtle ways of making Vamp Bella look harsher. Once again, moving up from the bottom of the faceplate, I started on the lips, which I opted for a more orange hue of pink, rather than the bubblegum color I’d done for human Bella. Vampire Bella’s makeup in the movie is quite orange-toned, which I find to be a clever way of denoting her transformation. Now, the blush was tricky. On one hand, vampires don’t “blush”, but to leave a faceplate entirely void of it makes the finished product appear flat and one dimensional. So, even for a vampire doll, a tiny bit of blush is needed. I applied an extremely light dusting, just enough to give the face dimension, as I did with my other vamp dolls (Alice, Rosalie, and Victoria). For vampires, especially in the Twilight universe, the focus of the look becomes the eye makeup. Vampire Bella’s eyes were the focal point of this doll. I began with a much darker shade of brown pencil and applied a thicker lash line than I had with Human Bella. Then, as in the movie, I began with a light orange powder and applied it all around the eye holes on the faceplate. I moved in with darker shades of orange and brown, and painted the actual eye mechanism lids with the darkest shade I’d mixed. I then added glitter to my usual resin gloss, and applied it to the lids (I wanted to pay tribute to that classic Twilight vampire sparkle). For her eyebrows, I drew them far more arched and sharp, while keeping them the same color as human Bella’s.
For the eyechips, I used the same mix-match Twilight logo set as before. For the remaining three, I went with her iconic red eyes, and the image of Edward she sees when she wakes up (it made me emotional to compare that picture of him with the one I’d put in Human Bella’s eyes from the meadow scene). Finally, for her last set, I took the brown eyes I’d made for Human Bella, and I turned the brightness way down on them until they were almost black. For those who may not know, the vampires in Twilight have eyes that grow darker the longer it’s been since they’ve fed.
There was really only one choice of outfit for this doll — I knew it had to be the iconic blue dress. Fun fact, her vampire dress is the same shade of blue as her human prom dress from the first movie. God I love you, Twilight series. Finally, I added a little rhinestone to her finger to represent that grotesquely large engagement ring. That ring was... certainly a choice!
Conclusion:
Ultimately, the devil is in the details when it comes to this kind of thing, but once again, I fully accept that most of the artistic choices I’ve described in this post don’t show up too well on video and therefore go mostly unnoticed. Such is the curse of being an online artist!
I am extremely proud of my Bellas, and lets be honest, I’ll probably make another version of her in the future.
As always, much love, and thank you for reading!
xo, Clarity♡
