January Blues - A Whole Mood & A New Doll

I don't know about anyone else, but January has been tough! I had plans to go to Peabody Essex Museum and had to reschedule it twice. I'll get there in the next week or two & it'll be the first time I've gone to a museum since the pandemic started! We've also had a cold (covid??) going around the house. Both kids tested negative for covid, so I'm going with a cold. But it's been brutal. Sick kiddos and a sick mom make for an unhappy house! January is blah and grey and miserable enough without a horrendous cough, too. 

So I'm using our general malaise as inspiration! I've been scribbling at a new doll and not really getting anywhere. It hit me that a one page "January Blues" might be a fun way to put that scribble to use. It might even become a whole year's project!
 

The color version is way at the bottom, after a bit of chatter about coloring it....

Here's where I landed with the doll. I elongated the legs and slimmed her down a tad. I wanted a model or vintage paper doll kind of look. I could fuss with this forever and never like it!! 

Next up, I sketched a little mix and match wardrobe. I drew this in Photoshop, which I don't typically do. My favorite drawing program (app? I dunno, I'm old!!) is Sketchbook. It used to be free but now it's like $20 USD for the desktop version. Anyway, great program but I wanted to experiment with Photoshop. I grabbed a huge set of brushes and I wanted to test them out. (I'm not selling these or getting paid for these or anything - I bought them myself, just to tinker with.) I used the pencil set, specifically the HB pencil. That's what I use on paper so it seemed like a good place to start!

Once everything was sketched out, I drew lines. I try to have closed shapes when I line my images. After creating lines on the layer above the sketch, I select outside the lines with the magic wand, inverse my selection, and create a white fill under the lines. At this point, I also like to add my tabs so that I can make any fit adjustments before coloring.  

And then I color.

 

For each doll and outfit, I draw all black lines on one layer. Then I color in layers underneath the lines. I like to set the blend more of the line layer to Soft Light. It gives me subtly colored lines. It takes a while but it's what works best for me. If the lips are on one layer, for example, I can edit the shape or color or whatever as needed without altering anything else.

It's a process coloring these! I did all of the coloring in Photoshop and it was loooonnnnnggggg. Photoshop crashed at least a dozen times and lagged out more than that. It would be faster in Sketchbook. Anyway, I have it in black & white and color, so feel free to download and print! 

To download and print, CLICK on the image and then save. If you just save the image, it's low resolution, but clicking on it gives you the full, printable image