Wherein the weight of a small world rests on some extremely tiny shoulders.
I made about 30 different attempts of creating the first episode of this story. While I always had these two main dolls (Kestrel – “The Keeper” is a Dollzone Little Rain and Wren – “The Listener” is a D.I.M. Flowne) I had several other elf-like BJDs when I first started (including a Fairyland Toki and an Aileendoll Camellia).
Here’s the setup with Toki
And here it is with Camellia.
But, handling all those different dolls and their different stories was just too much to handle. Plus, my shooting table wasn’t big enough to fit four of the large Hansa stuffed animals on at once. Although, looking at the shots again, that Hansa Badger is just ridiculously photogenic.
So, I pared it down to just the two characters. There will be more characters coming in and out of the story, but only one other major character will join in later episode (a Dollzone Little Snow as Kestrel’s sister).
When I started the story, I had a sense that they were taking off, but I didn’t really know the where and the why. So the first episode was just a bunch of elves milling around and getting ready for the takeoff. Plus, as you can see from some of my first shots, I didn’t really have anything adventure-worthy clothes for them to wear. I just knew that I wanted some elves and some stuffed animals running around in the forest.
I also did not include the familiars in the first shot. But, for some reason, it felt like BJD elves and Hansa stuffed animals were not enough, so I gave each of the elves a familiar.
Little Trico is a custom sculpt created by Dluonto on Etsy. He’s a marvel of craftsmanship – moves beautifully and articulated absolutely everywhere (his mouth even opens). He’s modeled after the character in The Last Guardian.
Finally, Wren has a small mouse from LittleLifeInside on Etsy. He’s not articulated, but he’s so darn cute that she fell in love with him.
(Unfortunately, I think neither Trico nor little mouse’s sellers are still on Etsy)
And, that’s it for episode 1.
To read the rest of this photo novel, go to the In the Forest main page.