Ageing an action figure: Doctor Z
Feb. 19th, 2013 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
modernwizardZenobia Greene, MD, PhD, known to almost everyone as Doctor Z, is a Zombieville denizen. She gives Isabel all the gory details about spondis after she has been diagnosed.
Doctor Z has gone through several possible permutations as I've tried to decide what doll to use for her. Most recently, she was going to be a Wanted Action Figure Judi Dench head, but I didn't want to spend more money on a head and then sit around waiting for it when I had perfectly good dolls already to be recycled!
Anyway, since I knew that Doctor Z was a woman of color, I decided to use my Hasbro African American GI Jane as the base. Previously used as LHFer Materyllis, this doll was barely customized, with the exception of some shading around her eyes and mouth to give her more realism and expressiveness.
Cute, huh? I've always liked the GI Jane sculpts [except for that one with the weird, wavy, shoulder-length flip and the open mouth]. They look plain and average, but in a down-to-earth, appealing way: the sort of people you can easily imagine seeing on the street.
But I didn't want cute, plain or appealing for Doctor Z; I wanted to portray a weathered, haggard woman who looked much older than her 64 years. And she had to look unwell, the way that most PWS do when they have lived with the condition for a long time. So I erased her eyebrows, whipped out my Prismacolors [PC935 black and PC Beats Me, But It's Some Cool Bluish Purple] and began to scribble.
Several hours later, this resulted:
Well, she's certainly not cute anymore! Instead she looks old, saggy and purple. Success!!
I'm now left with the challenge of matching any other exposed skin to her head. I might try covering her hands and her neck area with a few coats of matte varnish, then scribbling on it in a similar manner. Everything else will hide under her clothes.
I also want to give her fiber hair, but the jury is out on whether it should be white mohair, white faux fur or short dreads made from my chunky black yarn.
Doctor Z has gone through several possible permutations as I've tried to decide what doll to use for her. Most recently, she was going to be a Wanted Action Figure Judi Dench head, but I didn't want to spend more money on a head and then sit around waiting for it when I had perfectly good dolls already to be recycled!
Anyway, since I knew that Doctor Z was a woman of color, I decided to use my Hasbro African American GI Jane as the base. Previously used as LHFer Materyllis, this doll was barely customized, with the exception of some shading around her eyes and mouth to give her more realism and expressiveness.
Cute, huh? I've always liked the GI Jane sculpts [except for that one with the weird, wavy, shoulder-length flip and the open mouth]. They look plain and average, but in a down-to-earth, appealing way: the sort of people you can easily imagine seeing on the street.
But I didn't want cute, plain or appealing for Doctor Z; I wanted to portray a weathered, haggard woman who looked much older than her 64 years. And she had to look unwell, the way that most PWS do when they have lived with the condition for a long time. So I erased her eyebrows, whipped out my Prismacolors [PC935 black and PC Beats Me, But It's Some Cool Bluish Purple] and began to scribble.
Several hours later, this resulted:
Well, she's certainly not cute anymore! Instead she looks old, saggy and purple. Success!!
I'm now left with the challenge of matching any other exposed skin to her head. I might try covering her hands and her neck area with a few coats of matte varnish, then scribbling on it in a similar manner. Everything else will hide under her clothes.
I also want to give her fiber hair, but the jury is out on whether it should be white mohair, white faux fur or short dreads made from my chunky black yarn.