aomiarmster

UPDATE: click on this link --> http://aomiarmster.livejournal.com/9995.html (to see the newer aomi doll -made july 21st- )
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FINALLY! AFTER MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS OF PLANNING.
Yes, it has always been one of my dreams to have some sort of 3D Aomi Armster.
There are those of you- that remember when I began this plan to originally make an
Aomipu plushie- but I couldn't finish that project (either it was from laziness or other things). So Aomipu plushie was canceled- but I still held onto a 3D Aomi dream.




Before I get down to the Aomi Doll's deetails, lemme tell you a bit of the background on this project. The base of this doll is 10 years old (nearly the same age as Aomi itself O_O) - given to me by a friend longgg ago- from Iceland. (THANK YOU SASHA!!!) So it was only last year when I planned to make an Aomipu plushie- I started with a sock then dropped that idea, then I decided to use the base of the Icelandic doll to instead make an Aomi!- so I began painting it white- then I realized to my horror that this doll would be HARD ( and it is, almost like lead- and i have tossed the painted doll- shattering everything in its path) that made me delay the project AGAIN, I wanted a soft huggable doll, I just didn't have the resources or knowledge of how to make one properly.

Then came the weeks and weeks of wanting-pleading-thinking-LOTS OF ANGST and many woes. Then came months and months, where I pondered whether I should plead with the developers on IMVU to help me make a 3D Aomi ( i am still debating on this) then thought against it, so up until recently while browsing about on 4chan, I noticed something called papercraft. OMG- SUCCESS! I thought-----WRONG WRONG WRONG, why yes the basis of the crafts are easy, as are teh concepts, 3D origami/paper sculptures, I thought I could make a 3D Aomi, FINNAALLLLY!! Alas, no, I could not, again, I didn't have the proper equipment.

I sat down and began blueprinting, what i wanted to make, what i had, what i needed, when that was over, I realized that I only needed a few things, thankfully everyone else noticed my angst and they helped me out- then began excited and began asking 'IS IT DONE IT? WHERE IS THE AOMI DOLL?' so it became a family-friends project everyone in it, everyone wanting results which was a big motivator for me.

Cyan, Turqoise, light-peach, black and white paints, easy right? NO.
I was at a huge art store and the colors I needed were somehow OBSCURE ( like everything else in my life!) Eventually- I got what I needed, came home and began the cruel 'god work'. Rememer how I said that the doll-base turned into some lead statue? Well because of that I had to HACK UP THE DOLL but it proved to be in my benefit as I saw I could make the Aomi doll very flexible!



I pulled out the doll's guts and skeleton and inserted random cotton balls, fishing wire (as the skeleton) finally, the doll was ready to be AOMI-FIED. With my black yarn ball and I made the hair, with the white yarn ball I painted strands into turqoise for Aomi Doll's bangs. Aomi's ears were made from pieces of the Aomipu sock ( i am not pleased with the ears, they are very 2-D and I was going for 3D, oh well- I will fix them eventually by adding in 2 small triangles to fullfill the triangle ears)
The tip of Aomi's tail was made from some feather scarf thing.

In 5 days Aomi doll was complete and on the 5th day I began painting in the details, stripes, nipples (lol), bellybutton and then Aomi's face. Aomi has a signature glance to the sides so I went with that- to add a bit of charm to the silly thing, Aomi Doll's eyes glow in the dark!

There are so many what-ifs, madness, laziness, drama, angst, love, hate and sadness that went along with this project, my entire family and friends know of Aomi and there were days where i felt I knew nothing of Aomi, I'm gaining some absurd sense of detachment, well, I was feeling that until I finally held the doll, I fell in love all over again.



Back in October of 1996-7 I made Aomi Armster to spite another made up character named Vanessa and I thought nothing of it back then,it was all just fun and imaginations but I had a friend that pushed me to develop Aomi more ( why? I dont know) I didn't know how to develop characters in any shape or form back then, so my friend told me to use traits of good and bad that I saw in people-- I did. I took what I loved-admired and hated from my friends and family and put them into Aomi. I can't really tell what traits of my own I had put into Aomi, think what I got in Aomi is the image, there is a way I want to look and I think i show it in the way I draw Aomi.

And why the fox/white tiger? Well, blame Xaphan, he has the qualities of a fox, I do not know where I got the white tiger thing, I guess its because I like opposites, got a canine thing going with a feline personality, I don't know.
That is what the doll is like too, opposite-ish. One can bend and stretch it but like with most things bend or stretch too far it breaks, the doll is hard but its squishy, rough and smoothe. Honestly, prototype Aomi was not white or had anything to do with cyans or blues or red shorts or had anything kitty like to it. Look at the picture below, my hideous art-designs YES, THIS IS THE PROTOTYPE AOMI.

but that didn't last very long, Sia and Xaphan made me change the design into the Aomi everyone sees today.

I think stuck with Aomi as a coping thing, a way to take from others yet not taking at all. It is all weird, philosophical mumbo-jumbo, I guess.