More 2022 Paper Doll Wrap-Up

 Today is the last of my 2022 wrap-up posts. I did a lot more in 2022 than I thought! This post is all about Paperdoll Review so there will be lots of links to those projects. I did a lot with Jenny in 2022 and I can't remember ALL of it, but there are a few projects I want to highlight. 

Women of Letters by Tom Tierney with colors by Julie Allen Matthews

 

At the beginning of the year, I had a really unique opportunity. Jenny asked me if I'd like to color a set of Tom Tierney's drawings. Of course!! And then I was hit with a bit of imposter syndrome. How could I ever do this?! Once I started, it was fine. I colored these in Sketchbook Pro on my Surface. It was this project where David Wolfe gave me the feedback that has stuck with me since: push the values. He was absolutely right! I went back in, punched up the lights & darks, and there we go!! Much better. The cover concept came from David, too, and I executed it. There are loads of pictures in the link above.

 

 Victorian Fancy Dress by Brenda Mattox with colors by Julie Allen Matthews

And then, at the other end of 2022, I colored in a set of paper dolls by Brenda Sneathen Mattox! We met at the convention which was a definite highlight for me. This one was so much fun! Again, I felt slightly intimidated. I really love Brenda's soft watercolors and I wanted this to have that feel. I don't think it does, but I'm really happy with it. One of the great advantages of digital art is the variety of colors available. I tried to use this advantage in this book while staying true to the theme and Brenda's art. The cover concept and execution are all mine here. The illustrations were colored in Procreate on my iPad Pro and the covers were "painted" in Sketchbook Pro on my Surface. 

 I also worked on a lot of books in 2022. Some were reproduction clean-ups. Some were new books. Marilyn Henry's Lady Georgiana and Norma Lu Meehan's Fashions of the Regency Era are two of my favorites. David Wolfe's Cut-Out Club was a real labor of love, too. I really, truly LOVE every book I work on, even the ones I haven't mentioned here. 

 

I have also been working on books by Deanna Williams, two of which were a lot of fun to work on.

Eight in the Evening by Deanna Williams

 

I loved putting together Eight in the Evening! I'm absolutely in love with the cover design. Sometimes, things just come together easily and beautifully. This was one of those times! 

Mod Mom by Deanna Williams

 

Mod Mom was a book I had picked away at for a while. I had the art cleaned up & ready to go but I got stuck on the covers and how to make it all flow. What story is this set trying to tell? Motherhood is a really big part of my life so I approached it from that perspective. The set follows a young mother throughout her pregnancy. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it could just be chronological. I wrote up a little story to go with it and that was it! Some 70s/80s inspired color blocked covers and it was good to go. 

 

Miss Hollie Day by Julie Allen Matthews

 

I illustrated one book of my own this year, Miss Hollie Day. This one took a long time! First, I made the initial sketch years ago. I didn't date it so I can only guess at it, somewhere between 2010 and 2015. I should go back and see if I can narrow down that range... Anyway, I turned it into a Halloween doll. It was great! So I pitched the idea of a seasonal paper doll. This was the last full set that I illustrated in Sketchbook Pro. It feels like a transition. During the whole project, I felt like I was hitting a wall, like there was more I wanted to do and couldn't quite get there. It was shortly after this that I took the leap and got an iPad Pro. THAT helped me push those boundaries...which leads me to the next project.

 

All That Glitters by David Wolfe and Julie Allen Matthews

 

 One of the best parts of working on David's projects is his extraordinary imagination! I would never have tackled the subject of glitter on my own. I LOVED this! It's also the first book I completed in Procreate on the iPad and I think it shows just how much I pushed through my own boundaries. David sent me the drawings, layout, and color suggestions. I rendered it all in Procreate with layout and cover designs in Photoshop. It's such a cool book, start to finish!! 

Like I said earlier, that's not a comprehensive list of all of my 2022 projects. Every one was a learning experience and so much fun to work on. Each and every book is my "baby" while I'm working on it, and each one is my "favorite child". I can't express how grateful I am that Jenny and all of the artists who work with her trust me to do this. I look forward to sitting at my desk every single day! 

So what's next? More books, more magazine designs, more of everything!

More Personal Projects of 2022

 Aside from the submissions I sent to Paperdoll Review magazine, I created a few projects that sold on my own or created for other reasons. There weren't a lot of those projects in 2022. Some of them were re-working previous sets and some were created for specific reasons. 

 

The first project I want to share is my "Hometown Girl". We have a local free newspaper (MethuenLife) who was looking for women who turned their passions into careers. I was featured, along with a couple of friends, and a few other local women. I made and shared this paper doll for the May issue. After that, the arts editor contacted me about an interview, which ran in the December issue. This paper doll features some of the unique things about the town I live in. It was so much fun! 

Another unique opportunity I had was creating paper dolls for a fashion line. Each of the fashions in this set is based on real-life clothing. It was a lot of fun adapting fashions to my existing mix & match paper dolls series. Created on my Surface in Adobe Illustrator. They are available as a file for download on my Etsy site.

This year also marked my first paper doll convention. It might be my last, too, because no others have been booked yet. There are regional parties which I highly recommend! It was a fantastic experience. I don't have many pictures because I was busy enjoying it!! I did, however, submit a painting for the silent auction and this paper doll was created to go along with the painting. This is another Procreate project where I'm still working out how to use the program (app? I dunno!). 

My long-suffering blog didn't get a lot of attention in 2022. I was busy with a lot of things and didn't devote much attention to it. Same goes for the Etsy site. One of the biggest projects on the ol' blog this year was the Witchtober set with Rachel. Another really fun set that I loved so much I re-used the doll. 

My biggest personal project of the year was a commission I received from a lovely lady I met at the convention. She asked me to create a custom paper doll as a gift for her granddaughter. It's a portrait based on a photo and the wardrobe is a mix of her real-life clothing & some that I made up to fit her interests. I printed it as a paper doll book for her and she was just thrilled with it! This might be a service I offer as a custom project on Etsy. I haven't decided yet. Regardless, it was such a learning experience as a joy to work on. 

Finally, my last personal project of the year is one I almost didn't share. I took my 2018 doodle-a-day project and turned it into a calendar. My art has improved significantly since then, but it's a project that still means a lot to me and felt unfinished. I turned it into a calendar (you can get it here) and the feedback was great! Thank you to everyone who bought a copy and shared their feedback online. I very nearly didn't share it. I am SO glad that I did!

Next week I'll share the last of my 2022 wrap-up and see what comes next for February!

Personal Projects of 2022 - Paperdoll Review Submissions

 I find myself in this incredibly lucky position where I get to do exactly what I've always wanted to do: paper dolls! I draw them for myself, of course, but more than that, I get to edit paper dolls of the past & present while learning & growing myself. Some days, it's graphic design. Some days, it's coloring another artist's drawings. Some days, it's drawing my own. Jenny Taliadoros is a total joy and she made this happen for me! She is one of the best people I've ever met. Working with her has made my art and my life better. She wrote up a lovely intro on the Paperdoll Review site if you want to take a look at it. It's been a nice little bit of serendipity for the last few years. I keep busy working on the Paperdoll Review magazine and various books that Jenny publishes. That's going to be a whole different post. Today I want to focus on the personal projects I've done in & around the work I do with Jenny. These are my submissions to Paperdoll Review magazine for 2022.

One thing I push myself to do is include a paper doll in each issue of Paperdoll Review (or OPDAG, when it was separate). I've only missed a few issues over the last ten years. (Ok, so I just realized as I typed this that it's been TEN YEARS. My first submission was the Circus issue in 2012. Unbelievable...) My 2022 submission had an odd, overarching theme: memorials for dead people.

 First up is Mary Shelley.  I actually drew this at the end of 2021 but it was published in 2022 in the Regency issue of Paperdoll Review.  I'm not really big into Regency stuff - never watched Bridgerton, not a Jane Austen fan, etc. I am, however, a fan of women's literature, sci-fi and fantasy, and I skew a bit goth though you'd never know it if you met me. Mary Shelley was a much more interesting subject for the Regency time period for me than anything else. This was drawn on my Surface in Sketchbook Pro. I focused so much on trying to get a good portrait that I forgot to draw a good doll! The hands and arms are not great. I love the layout and composition. 

 

The next issue of the magazine was themed around fashion models. Again, it didn't really hit home for me. I was struggling to come up with an idea and then I heard about the death of Andre Leon Talley. So another memorial paper doll for me! I really loved his work and his style. Although not a model himself, he had gorgeous personal style and was a huge influence on fashion from the 90s onward. I really wanted a "painted" portrait with this one. I took a photo of him and placed it on one side of my canvas and then "painted" in Sketchbook on the other side, just as you see it above. I really tried to approach it the way I paint in oils. Once I reduced it to fit the doll, it looked awesome! Really pleased with this set overall. 

Another theme from 2022 was Awesome Animals. I knew I wanted to draw a fox for my youngest son. He LOVES foxes. I like to create paper dolls that go beyond the typical expectations of paper dolls. I've created a few paper dolls of men and boys over the years, partly because I have sons and partly because dolls are for everyone. It's important to me to push the boundaries of what paper dolls can be and who they are for. Aside from that, this paper doll was my very first in Procreate on the iPad. I learn through doing and I learned A LOT from this project.

 Available as a at Paperdoll Review

My final Paperdoll Review submission of the year is another memorial paper doll. Again, I struggled with this theme - plaids. I shouldn't have. I love plaids. I love creating plaids digitally. I even have tutorials! For some reason, nothing clicked until the death of Queen Elizabeth. I'm a low-key royal watcher. I find the royal family fascinating but I'm not obsessive or anything. Just mildly interested (and an Anglophile, too). When Queen Elizabeth's final photo was released, I noticed that she was wearing a tartan. I knew that certain tartans belonged to certain groups and started researching it. She wore the exclusive Balmoral tartan while at home at Balmoral Castle and had other exclusive tartans. That became the theme for me. Again, I focused so much on the portrait that other things are lacking a bit but I'm happy overall with this one. This one was also created in Procreate on the iPad.

If you want copies of any of the issues I mentioned above, you can grab them at Paperdoll Review. They are all back issues at this point so quantities are likely limited. 

I have a few more personal projects I want to discuss next time, so come back for more!
 

 
 

Happy 2023 and 2022 Growth

 As I write this, it's still 2022. I find I have a little bit of downtime and really wanted to get this out. I wish I was a bit more organized - maybe that'll be the goal for 2023! I'd like to say I have a comprehensive list of all the things I did in 2022. I don't. And that's ok. I want to share a few highlights over the month of January. 

First, I want to compare two paper dolls that are about a year apart - my "January Blues" from January 2022 and my holiday paper doll, which started as a sketch in October and then I shared it in full color as my holiday card.

You can grab a PDF of the holiday paper doll here https://paperdollreview.com/JulieChristmas2022.pdf

To me, these look like they were done by totally different people! I guess they kind of were.... I created the "January Blues" paper doll on my Surface with Sketchbook Pro and Photoshop. It's no secret that I've been frustrated with the Surface line of computers. This is my second one and it will absolutely be my last one. The touch interface is not great. The raw computing power is dismal. The stylus is ok but I'm on my third one. I absolutely destroy the pen tips! Sketchbook Pro is a good program (app? I'm old). I like it. It has a minimal interface and a good selection of brushes. They spun off from Autodesk and lost some of the proprietary color management, but still very solid. And very affordable. 

So that's the technicals. Let's talk about the doll. You can look at some of the process in this post. It's not my best doll. The pose is stiff. A lot of the body and face is poorly drawn. Drawing is such a key part of any art - my art teachers/profs always stressed that. Drawing is fundamental. Color can only cover up so much of a bad drawing! As for the colors, they are ok but totally lack value shifts. It's all just flat and boring.

Next up is the holiday doll. It came out so much better than I could have hoped! I started with a sketch. I find that rough sketching on paper is a really important first step. I can create a whole illustration start-to-finish digitally, but it takes longer. Rough and loose on paper helps. Rachel and I decided to create a Witchtober set (you can find mine here and Rachel's is here). I volunteered to draw the doll because drawing doll bases is hard and I need to work on it. The harder a task is, the more I want to tackle it! This went through several iterations. I was happy with the black & white set, so when the time came to put together a holiday doll, I used this base. But I wasn't crazy about the face. I knew I wanted a sparkly 80s inspired set. I looked up the Rockettes and used several faces as inspiration for mine. I love it! She looks a bit like an 80s Barbie. Not the look I was shooting for but it totally works. Drawing from reference really helped on that one. The other key thing with this set is value. David Wolfe pointed out on a different project that I needed to push my value scale - especially my darks. I really took that to heart and ran with it! Every time I work on coloring now, I think of David. Are my darks dark enough? How can I push the values? It's made a big difference.

The other really transformative difference between this paper dolls is the technicals. In March, I took the leap and bought myself an iPad Pro with an Apple pencil. I'm not a big fan of Apple products in general (nothing wrong with them, of course, just not for me) so I was a bit hesitant. 

I was wrong. 

The iPad, Apple pencil, and Procreate have become the best combination of digital drawing tools I've ever used. The iPad Pro is a great size with a gorgeous screen. The pencil is lightweight and feels incredibly natural. And Procreate is both robust and simple - two qualities that I really like about Sketchbook Pro, too. When I'm drawing on the iPad, I can totally lose myself in it the way I used to when painting or drawing traditionally. I love drawing again in a way I haven't in a long time. 

For me, 2022 was really about growing and getting out of my comfort zone. I tried new things. I pushed my boundaries artistically (more on that later).  This was the year I started to feel like a person again and these two dolls really demonstrate that growth.