An Attempt at Bonding

    I must confess that I have trouble bonding with Dream since his return from the faceup artist. I had hoped that by dressing him up and giving him some time, like I had with Cori and Amara, he would eventually grow on me. But by now, it's been almost two months.

    Last month, I brought him to a doll meet and had him pose for a group doll photo when he fell forward on the table and scuffed a small part of the faceup at the tip of his nose. It left behind a minuscule shiny spot, where the white resin underneath was exposed. At the time, it was more of a small inconvenience to me than a world-shaking event, because I felt pretty confident it would be easy to fix with the MSC and pastels I already have at home.

Toronto Doll Meet August 16th

    So I did the touch-up by lightly sponging MSC onto the affected spot and, on another day, re-blushed the area. This past weekend, after a spell of high humidex, I finally got around to sealing the new blush. But after I had done that, the white putty that was supposed to keep the doll's head in place lost its grip, causing the head to fall yet again and resulting in a new, larger chip in the faceup. I felt more disappointed by this accident than the first because when I gently tapped the fresh chip, my fingertip lifted up even more pigment.

    I had no other choice but to do another touch-up. However, the new layer of blush started to look cakey, perhaps because the MSC spot treatment had been applied too thickly the day before. I had sprayed it through a hole in an envelope used to shield the rest of the doll head, but my hands were shaky, hence the closer-than-recommended spraying distance. And although I colour-matched the surrounding blush and resin fairly well, it still looks like an obvious blemish to me. It's not the end of the world by any margin, but I definitely feel frustrated by this flaw on an otherwise pristine (and expensive) faceup.

After photo of having patched up the tip of his nose.

    While he was temporarily decapitated from his body, I undressed him to check for any clothing stains (none, thankfully), and decided to get fully hands-on with him again.  

    First things first, his poseability is still miserable, and those inner hip grooves prove to be much less useful when you want the doll to stand while also holding up a leg, because gravity and its weight work against the leg staying in place. But perhaps wiring can fix that. Then I started dreaming about hip joints that could allow for full leg rotation, because that would be amazing. The elbows are finicky as hell, and in fact, all of the double joints are simply difficult to fully engage.

    I previously said he's a solid free-stander, but only when his feet are completely flat. He likely fell over at the last doll meet because his shoes had a bit of a heel. As it turns out, his feet need to be fully fitted into the shape of the ankles, or he'll stand a little wonky, if not precariously. Okay, but at least he can stand and sit without falling over, which is either the bare minimum to some hobbyists or a miracle of poseability for others.

Comic book accurate.

    After all, I ultimately picked body aesthetics over poseability because his scale (70.5 cm) and more realistic proportions fit seamlessly with Cori and Amara, even if he does have such yaoi hands. He also has very large feet and probably wears the Chinese shoe sizes of 76-78 cm dolls. These characteristics don't bother me in the slightest. In fact, I'm smitten by the sculpting of his hands in particular. 

    However, looking at the nude doll body reminded me of how much I don't love Dream's abs. I need him to be leaner, not only to fit the canon source material but especially to fit my vision of his character. In other words, Dream should be this twinkish God of Sleep with perpetual bedhead.

Not a fan of them dinner rolls.

    Speaking of his hair, I don't have the right wig for him yet. I ordered a short-haired one, probably made of mohair, that's still at the warehouse. I recently considered ordering another from the popular Chinese wig maker fortynine49, but since my last two from her were far from perfect for my girls, I might go to SophyMolly instead for something more specific, and hopefully better fitted. I had commissioned Amara's from her, and it has been a game-changer for her visual design, so I'm hoping the right hair will make all the difference for Dream, too.

The fortynine49 style in question.

    And instead of his canon spiky hair, I could choose to interpret his wild hair as messy curls, like I've done with Amara so they can be twinsies. Maybe curls in a wolf-cut style?

    But I'm going to be real for one second. Maybe the faceup is the problem I'm reluctant to admit. His scowl is too strong, and the pinky tones are clashing with the gothic image I have of him. Perhaps I would also prefer him to look more like his live-action counterpart, since I picked the sculpt after the actor's features. I recall how enamoured I was when I first held his blank head in my hands, and now he barely resembles it anymore. He's obviously still handsome, but why do I feel like he looked better without the faceup?

   So this is where I'm at: struggling to bond with a doll because he falls far too short of my visionary goals. At this point, I think I'm going to stop trying to convince myself that the current look is working and start figuring out what needs to change.

    The sculpt stays. But the faceup and hair are very much on the chopping block. Dream is also in dire need of some sexy fantasy robes after all the uninspired modern clothes I got him to try. And if the Corinthian's hunkiness alone won't secure his twink status, I may very well get into body modification 😤