The primitive toothy thing suggested a primal demon, ruled by primal
desires. He's only a step above primitive man, but endowed with human
behavioral complexities like pride and anger, and lacking in a number
of our more enlightened social qualities. Basically, he likes to thump
his chest, kill things, and baal. Consequently, I felt that the
most natural costuming for him was none at all, and his weapons of choice
are his natural arsenal and whatever was lying around. (The armband was
a lazy afterthought.)
Creating the butt-nekkid look was the real challenge, and the main motivator
which moved this project out of eternal limbo. While I don't like seeing
articulation seams in a figure, I don't mind a few... but a whole figure's
worth? Yecccch! The articulated neck really bothered me. For operational
reasons, it was basically a post sticking out from tapered shoulders,
instead of tapering naturally from the shoulders and back. Some non-skinned
figures cope with this by not articulating with a separate neckpost, and
putting the articulation at the base of the head. However, that solution
sacrifices an important expressive articulation point of the doll.
For the skinned figure concept, I refer you to the "Teaser"
creature project from a long time ago. This project is far less ambitious
than that as it didn't require the multitude of molds-- just a simple
generic skin mold. This was an exercise in blending textures; it helps
that it's a creature with bad skin, which is very forgiving... I doubt
this would work on a babe figure. The other aspect of this was in varying
the skin thickness to go with articulation points. While thinner skin
is desirable at some articulation points (elbows, for example), some areas
(the shoulders) need a bit more, with underlying cushioning to support
and distribute the effect of skin deformation. Unfortunately, I didn't
start this figure with this direction in mind, having revised the torso
articulation twice to better accommodate a non-skinned solution. Likewise,
the overall proportioning was intended for a non-skinned figure. A well-planned
skinned figure would have a less bulky armature (the skeleton), covered
by cushioning (the organs, muscles & fat), and finally, the skin.
The idea is that the skin would ride over the meat and distribute itself
naturally, according to the positioning of the armature. Although I didn't
do that, I'm pleased with the way some of it works, particularly the distribution
of torso belly flesh for body twists and the neck. In other areas (shoulders,
biceps, hands), the wrinkling is too localized because the underlying
structure is too rigid.
It should be obvious that skinned figures aren't very repair-friendly.
If there are problems with the skeleton, the skin has to be cut for access,
and patched when the work's done. I took a few preliminary steps in anticipation
of some of the problems: I made sure to screw/nut-tension some of the
weaker hinges (knees, ankles)-- fortunately some (elbows) didn't appear
to need it. I also used heavier-than-normal elastic tensioning to balance
against the resistance of the skin's elasticity.
One point worth considering with a flexible-skinned figure is the longevity
of the materials. Broadly speaking, flexible materials do not last as
long as rigid ones-- they're inherently less stable. Latex is particularly
bad in this regard. Although the Teaser figure of 5/98 is holding up very
well (at this time, six years later), the boot and arm coverings I made
in 7/98 for my FAKK-Q figure are showing some
of the signs of rubber rot-- brittle at the edges with a gooeyness where
the material is cracked. I believe it's a matter of how well protected
the latex is from exposure to air-- painting seals the surface and doesn't
allow humidity (or whatever reacts with latex) to rot it. I've also learned
that mixing acrylic paint with latex doesn't protect it. It depends on
the unknown qualities of the paint, but various skins I made for my Real
Doll 2020 of 07/01 died very quickly. These didn't have a protective
coating of paint. Unfortunately, there's no way at my disposal to test
the effects of time on a material, other than just letting it pass. As
I've said, flexible materials are naturally less stable than rigid ones,
and I don't think technology has really solved that problem-- but you
can improve your odds of longer-term success by using materials which
have something of a proven track record. Polyurethanes are more expensive,
more of a hassle to work with, and the raw component materials have a
relatively short shelf life, but the fully cured material has a much longer
lifespan than latex. You can also experiment with various caulks sold
at hardware stores, but you should realize that experiments are just that--
experiments, that you won't be able to evaluate without the passage of
time.
I'd like to believe that making a dude-doll with a fat freddie shows
that I'm truly an equal opportunity exploiter. According to our quaint
& quirky social standards, the acceptable sexploitation zone for females
is much wider, with ample opportunity to tease and flirt at the boundaries
of social acceptability without breaking laws. Bare-chested & large-boobed
male figures just aren't in the same league, and the penis doesn't have
cleavage to be exploited-- its only acceptable public expression is a
sock in the jock, or something to that effect. Those standards dictate
that the photo documentation here be somewhat subdued. It's fair, since
I haven't ever shown any graphic detail of the female counterpart in dollflesh
(A degenerate's gotta have standards, y'know?). However, such concerns
seem rather stupid since a well-hung demon doll looks just as natural
and innocent as any other naked beast endowed with a big dick.
07/15/04-
You may recognize this guy from a few articles
ago. I can't say that this is any more interesting, subject matter-wise,
than it was earlier this year. However, the thing that held my interest
this time was the technique stuff. Although I had initial thoughts about
making this into an evil spiked armoured figure (in the spirit of Peter
Jackson's Lord of The Ring's "Sauron"), I decided that the brutish and
primitive look of the headsculpt naturally pointed in the opposite direction.
The physical appearance of the borrowed archetype guides the character
outline, but developing the character outline helps with further design
decisions, like costuming (or the lack of).
