A Long Break and a Convention

 I know, I know.... It's been a million years since I wrote on the ol' blog! It's been a hectic year after such a quiet couple of years... 

March was full of kid stuff including a bunch of birthday parties. In April, we took a vacation to the Poconos in Pennsylvania - we went to an indoor water park for the second time! SO FUN! May and June are always hectic, with Mother's Day, Father's Day, end of the school year stuff, and so many birthdays... 

Which brings us to July! And my first Paper Doll Convention!! 

I traveled to the convention with Jenny from Portland. First, I hate flying out of Boston and second, it's more fun to travel with friends. We had uneventful flights (thankfully!) and arrived in plenty of time for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. That was the big event/dinner for the first night. There were some technical glitches but overall, it was fine. The souvenirs were Mad Hatter themed. Kwei-Lin Lum, Cory Jensen, and I were all featured. 

My pictures are not great! There are tons of great pictures on the Paper Doll Convention Chatter Facebook page. Also, I was so busy having fun that I didn't even take many pictures! 

The next day there were several things going on. I listed to Kwei-Lin give a talk about women's suffrage ephemera. Teri Petit gave an overview of Donald Hendricks which was great. Eileen "Rudy" Miller gave a really wonderful talk about her career, too. Once the day's activities were over, it was time for dinner and the artist's gallery. I set up my iPad and gave demonstrations of how I draw on that.  The souvenir from dinner featured my art on the cover and a variety of chapter book characters with art by Marilyn Henry, Karen Hunter, Guillem Medina, Patricia Corte Rooney, Andrea Helen Smith, and Tracy Williams. It's a lovely book with a large variety of subjects and artists! 

Another one of my dreadful pictures... 

That image from the cover was everywhere! Jill (who hosted the convention) used it on so many things. I was just delighted to see all of the clever uses all over the place.

Friday was the sales room day! 

Jenny and I shared a sales table. I brought prints and self-published books as well as my newest book, Miss Hollie Day. You can grab it here. It was fun and tiring and great. I ended up mildly dehydrated! My mission in the sales room was to acquire originals to frame for my new office. I snagged a lovely watercolor from Norma Lu Meehan and a fashion drawing from Rudy Miller. After the sales room, we had a roaring time during paper doll trivia! I knew exactly one answer. We all were in hysterics. It was super fun! 

On Saturday, I went to the Milwaukee Museum of art with Rudy Miller, Norma Lu Meehan, and her daughter Mary Meehan Firtl. It was lovely. The museum is a stunning monument to the Great Lakes and resembles a ship. The main exhibit featured the posters of Jules Cheret. Once we got back to the hotel, I was on a panel with Teri Petit and Sylvia Kleindinst ("Jenny and Friends") to talk about three different generations of paper doll enthusiasts. The last question Jenny asked was about how paper dolls have impacted our lives. At that point, I kinda lost it. I've had a few bouts with depression. I started this blog to cope with post-partum depression even though it took years for me to share that here. And it helped my deal with being a caregiver for my grandmother, the pandemic, and so much more. I got weepy talking about it. And then the whole room got weepy listening to me talk about it! I'm in awe and humbled by how much my story resonated with everyone. It really hit me deeply and I will carry that moment with me always. 

Next up was the raffle room! That was another fun event! I'm not a huge collector but there were a few things I really, really wanted! I one THREE things! Two things were piles of childhood-themed paper dolls. One of those I wanted specifically for a Peck-Aubry Anne of Green Gables that I've wanted since I was a teen! Jenny found a copy, too, so now I have both the book and the unopened, larger doll set.

Another stack of children's paper dolls featured a terrific Red Riding Hood. I absolutely love Red Riding Hood and the very, very long history of the folk tale (you can see one that I did that I really need to update here). And I got it! 

 

This is a great set! The art is cool and the format is even cooler! On the left of every page is the story and on the right is a set of outfits. Even if you cut out all of the outfits, you still have a narrow story book. It a fantastic layout. 

Finally, I won a set of Outlander paper dolls by Rudy Miller. I don't have a picture of them handy. They are AMAZING! I love Outlander, I love Rudy's art, and I'm beyond thrilled to add it to my small but growing collection.

Sunday was our travel day. Jenny and I flew home together. We got into Portland late so we crashed at a hotel ear the airport. I slept more in that one night than I slept in the whole week of convention! There were so many people to see. I'd stay up late chatting. I'd get up early for coffee and chat with a whole different group of people. It's an experience unlike any other. There are no firm plans for another convention but there will be an East Coast party in May. Find out everything here.

I'll have more to share about the convention in the coming weeks. It was a joy to meet so many wonderful paper doll pals!

Red Riding Hood

A few days ago I received my Paper Doll Studio magazine. It's a little bittersweet. This may be the last issue but it's also an opportunity, I think. Before Paperdoll Review, I knew very little about vintage paper dolls and I know that there are a lot of collectors who know less about contemporary paper dolls because they only subscribe to Paperdoll Review. With one magazine, everyone gets to read about all of it in one place! It's going to be the best of both worlds.

For the Make Believe issue, I decided to tackle a project I've been thinking about for a while - Red Riding Hood. I took a fairy tale class in college and the idea of evolving fairy tales fascinated me. There's a classification system that traces stories around the world. It's really neat if a little academically dense.   Anyway, Red Riding Hood has a long and rich history that I wanted to illustrate.

I started by sketching the doll. It was tough. I went through roughly 20 sketchbook pages! I just couldn't get it right. And I nearly gave up. Instead, I tried a different pose and that worked better. 

 

That image is composite of the best of the bad sketches! Part of the reason why it was so tough is because I don't make drawing the habit I once did. I don't make the time to draw every day - especially in the insanity of 2020 - and my skills have suffered. It'll come back. It just takes time and dedication.

I finally settled on this pose. I wanted the doll to be a 21st century girl. She has a red hoodie, a pleated skirt, and a timeless hairstyle. Once I got the sketch to this phase, I took a picture of it and worked on it in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, my current favorite program.

In a different file, I worked on the background. I knew I wanted it to look like a traditional fairy tale book illustration. When I think of traditional fairy tale books, I think of gold leaf, illustrated drop capitols, and gorgeous lettering. 

So that's where I started. I used a guide from Ian Barnard's Grid Builder kit to place my title text. (NOT a paid post - that's the tool I bought, for my use, and you can check it out if you want.) I used Photoshop to layout the title and borders. Once I was happy, I printed it and revised my composition.

So far, I have a file for the background, a file for the doll, and a ton of sketches. I colored the doll in Sketchbook and then added tabs in Photoshop. I "painted" my background in Sketchbook, added the gold accents as well as the red marble background in Photoshop, and combined them all into one file for the final illustration. It sounds more complicated than it was. It's not unusual for an artist to create a background and a doll, then combine them. I just did it digitally.

There are quite a few things I'd like to change about this, but overall, I'm happy with it. My compositions are evolving and improving. Her face is weird - her ear especially!! I really need to get back into the habit of drawing. I hope you all have enjoyed Paper Doll Studio magazine. I know I have - it's literally been life changing for me. If you haven't switched over already, go sign up for Paperdoll Review.

And a happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating it! Stay safe & healthy.