An unusual doll... part 1

      I wrote these posts about the build of the Zelda doll for Jackie's over fences entry for Candyland Live about a month ago when I made the doll. The show was held earlier today in Aurora, Colorado.

Jackie Rossi is an excellent performance shower. She has done well at every level of competition and will often come up with some incredibly interesting and very unique entries. The new jumper entry she came up with for Candyland Live was no exception to that. So when she came to me with the idea for the rider doll I was definitely interested. 

      At this point in my doll making there is not much that I haven't done. Jackie can often come up with things that are completely outside of anything I have ever made, or even attempted to make. This particular doll is a character from a video game. I don't even know what game, so I was completely unfamiliar with it. Jackie sent me a ton of screenshots of the character from all different angles and I put together some reference collages so I had something to work from. I also blew up certain details to make them easier to see. I wanted to get everything as close to correct as possible. 

     The character is somewhat smaller and slim, so the first thing that happened was I needed to dremel the boobs off a Gracie doll. Not that big of a deal, I have done that on at least a couple other dolls. Yvonne/Gracie makes a decent man doll with some modifications. 

     After removing the boobs I started working on the clothes. I decided breeches-like pants were best, ,since the doll needs to ride a Bristol, and freedom of movement is important. The tunic was a bit trickier because it ended up fairly well fitted at the top. I actually had to pop one of the arms out of the socket and after the tunic was on put the arm back in place through the sleeve. Still, not the strangest thing I have ever done when making dolls. 

     There is a design on the tunic which is actually not super complex and has nice, straight lines. Which made it possible for me to draw it on and have it come out nearly symmetrical. Swirly designs are not something that I can ever seem to make symmetrical so I was very glad for all the straight lines. 

    After I drew on the basic designs in pencil I got out the paint, took the tunic back off the doll and painted everything flat. It is not perfect, but the designs are on. And straighter than they look in this photo...

     Next I started on the endless details. From the start I knew there were a lot of pieces involved in this doll and that I would need to work in layers. I had the basic tunic and pants on I next I started on all the different belts and straps. Plus little details like the pouch on the back of the belt.

    Some of the little details I added are useless and I could have skipped. Like I made a loop on the pouch so it is technically removable. But the belt is not, so the detail is sort of useless. It will allow the pouch to be slid along the belt if Jackie decides she needs to change the position of the pouch. So I guess that is something.

     At this point in the build I am, I think, 2 days into the doll and many many details in. But I am making progress and things are looking basically as they should. Still a long way to go but I am fairly confident that I can manage this doll. 

    Now that most of the basics are done it's time to move on to the sword and shield. This is going to take a while...