Nostalgia, Paper Dolls, Plastic, and Toilet Paper

What kind of title is that?! Toilet paper???? 

This is a convoluted story and it will all make sense by the end. I promise. 

I've been in a bit of a creative funk lately. Everything feels much more difficult than it should. I'm having a lot of imposter syndrome where I just don't feel like I'm good at anything anymore, especially drawing. And that's ok. Feelings like this come and go. Things around here have been rather hectic. Taking a break is perfectly fine. So I decided to take a paper doll off of my shelf and play with it.

These are TOYS, after all!

This is the Star Originals Designer Set published in 1991 by Western Publishing. There are other ones in this series, including a bride. I had this one as a kid, forgot about it, and then saw it at the Philadelphia party in 2023. (I never wrote about that party for some reason....2023 was a VERY slim year for writing on the ol' blog. I'm not sure why!) My reaction to seeing this was pure "core memory unlocked" as my dear teens would say. One minute, I had no clue that this was a thing and then next, BOOM, I'm 11 again playing with it. 

The kit consists of a large doll - about 13 inches from head to shoes - stickers, tissue paper, a full sheet of color clothing, a clear crayon, and an instructions sheet with templates and clothing to color. 

Take a close look at those images - the fashions are amazing late 80s/early 90s concoctions! Really wild stuff...

So today I thought it would be fun to craft some clothing for my doll without using the things in the kit. I want to leave most of the kit as-is, and really, all I need is the doll. 

And paper. Toilet paper.

Here's the next part of my silly story....

I've been trying to reduce my plastic use. This isn't something totally new. I've tried for years to move away from single-use items but plastic specifically. I'm not here to preach about plastic usage - it's something that's bothering me and I'm making small changes where I can. The first room on my hit list is the bathroom. I'm testing out shampoo and conditioner in aluminum bottles. I've made the switch to soap bars instead of body wash and face scrubs. And we're experimenting with bamboo toothbrushes. I'm trying to be mindful and more aware, not perfect. The kids think I'm nuts but they're on board with the understanding that everything is a discussion not an edict.

That's where the toilet paper comes in. 

I'm trying out a brand that comes wrapped in awesome printed papers.  (Disclaimer bits: I'm not paid to share this. This is definitely not an ad! They don't know that I even exist!! This is just something I'm trying out on my own.) The paper has such a rad 80s vibe to it that I started saving it so that I could use it with my equally rad plastic paper doll.

See? Full circle story! 

I used the doll as a stencil on some light card stock. The kit has instructions for making clothing but I wanted something more "paper doll" and not glued or taped directly to the doll. Because the toilet paper wrapper is thin, I glued it to the light card stock.

I gave myself about an hour to do this. It was so much fun that I kept going! I really had to pull myself away and have lunch! 

I ended up with two dresses, a pair of shorts, and two tops. I dipped into my paper stash to round out the collection.

This dress took me the longest. I combined three papers and some sparkly washi tape that matches the shoes. I struggled with folding the paper ore than I'd like to admit!

A bit of shiny gold paper left over from a previous project. It's boring but also a good base.
 

And then two tops - one accented with more washi tape and the other has some sticker gemstones. 

Is this the best project I've ever worked on? NOPE! Was it super fun? YUP! It's great to actually work with my hands because so much of what I do is digital. The best way to learn how to create a paper doll is with paper and scissors. Really get in there and PLAY. 

Maybe I'll bring this set out from time to time and just play! 

If anyone out there is playing with their paper dolls, I'd love to see it!

Dear Ralph, Dearly Missed

 

 The art form I love is a sort of ephemera, something that is here for a moment and then lost. I suppose people are, too, even if those people are lucky enough to see most of a century.

Ralph Hodgdon died yesterday, on April 1st, at the age of 90. He’d probably have a scathing quip about both the age and the day! “Don’t tell them your age, dahling!”, he said to me on more than one occasion. Age doesn’t bother me. I think you have to have an old soul to love paper dolls.

Ralph was the first paper doll artist I ever met, and I remember the day I met him. Laura Cushing had tracked down my landline phone number, the one I turned on specifically for my grandmother who was living with us at the time. I didn’t know it then, but Laura brought me into the paper doll world at exactly the time I needed it the most. This isn’t that story even though that’s a great story, and I’ve told it many, many times.

Laura invited me to a local paper doll party. I was a bit nervous, so I grabbed my mother and we made the drive to Plymouth. I’m one of those extroverted introverts – I’m a talker, for sure, but my preference is to be alone. I’m not great at joining groups or being a part of a community. I’m still working on it. But I went anyway. It was the day Megan Markle married Prince Harry – May 19th, 2018. I remember this because it was running on the TV in the background during our meet-up! Everyone was very welcoming and I really had nothing to be nervous about. Paper doll people are the best people. I remember Ralph was kind to me and he held court that day in his usual way. Cheerful, boisterous, witty, and charming.

After that, I attended other local parties. At one of them, I gave a demonstration on digital art, drawing on my computer and projecting to a screen for everyone to watch while I explained a bit of what I was doing. Ralph later said to me, “Dahling, I don’t understand how you do it, but you do it beautifully!”.

Everyone was “dahling” to Ralph.

I didn’t know him as long or as closely as other folks did. I had no idea what a pillar he was in the Boston art scene and gay community until long after I met him. To me, he was a great artist and inspiration. He always had a kind word for my art. I saw him at parties and conventions, and even had the privilege of visiting his home twice, which was a shrine to the things he adored.

He loved to tell stories, especially celebrity stories. They didn’t mean a whole lot to me. I’m not really into movies all that much but he had a passion for the classics! It was hard not to be a little bit in love with Vivian Leigh or Marlene Dietrich after a day with Ralph.

Ralph loved this niche art form and he loved the people who make it, collect it, and cherish it. His sharp wit, glamorous tales, and beautiful art will be greatly missed. Thank you for being so kind to me, Ralph. I’m a better artist because I was lucky enough to know you, however briefly. Rest easy, dahling!

Fashion Doll - Bold Florals for March, Page 4

How is it APRIL next week?! Can't even handle it... 

My husband was traveling for work last week and I thought FOR SURE I'd get loads of things done. No. No, I did not. I lost one whole day to a headache and a lot of afternoons were spent shuttling the teens to and fro. Some smaller things did get wrapped up, so that's good, but I still have entire books to make and haven't gotten to it yet.

In the spirit of "getting things done", I've wrapped up this bold florals paper doll series. I like this doll and the patterns - I may revisit this in the future. The doll is here, the second page is here, and the third is here. 

Click on the image for full resolution. Feel free to download and print.

 

I'm really trying to make more time to draw and work on the blog. For reference, this post marks 13 for this year - as much as I posted ALL of last year. It's hard to build back a habit but I'm trying. 

 

I'm not sure what's next up on the blog. April might be a bit tricky because my calendar is already filling up. Gotta stop procrastinating and start producing....!  

Fashion Doll - Bold Florals for March, Page 3

Things are getting so much more spring-like here and I love it. The days are a bit longer, mornings are a bit brighter, and we're even getting some green shoots in the backyard. It's been a bit hectic this week - my husband is traveling for work so the kids & I are on our own. Having a second adult makes life SO much easier! I'll have to make sure to tell him that when he gets back....!

I'm keeping with the bold florals again this week and next week. I'm honestly not sure if I'll get anything together for April. I have some deadlines I need to hit and the Morgantown paper doll party is coming up. (Are you going? You can register here or print a form here. I'll be there!) 

I also just bought the newest version of Clip Studio Pro. I'd like to learn a few other programs besides the Adobe suite and share what I learn. I bought a version of Clip Studio Pro ages ago but never really played around with it enough. Gotta make some time to do that! 

Click on the image for full resolution. Feel free to download and print.

While working on this set, I tested the mix & match capabilities with the previous two sets and I'm pretty happy with it. The color scheme is an interesting mix and I like the bold flowers in a variety of shapes and sizes. You can grab the doll page here and the second page here. Let me know what you think of the series!

Updates to Josephine

I rarely go back and look at older work. Partly, it's the cringe factor and partly it's because any time I'm looking back, I'm not moving forward. I probably should once in a while just to make sure I am, in fact, moving forward! This time, I'm looking back through my Josephine files because of a special request to make them more printable.

First, it was fun to re-open all of those files and update the most egregious errors, mostly my terrible tabs! Second, I was working on a Surface Pro at the time, learning how to use that and Photoshop while now I mostly work on an iPad in Procreate. My skill level has definitely improved with more practice AND better equipment! And finally, skimming over the text of each blog post was a bit nostalgic. These were created in 2017, a year that began a really monumental shift in my life. I didn't know it then and that shows in the writing. I'm not sure why I stopped creating for Josephine. Likely the shift in my life or maybe I got bored. Or both. 

Each Josephine post now includes both the original art and the updated pages with a white background. If you'd like it in book form, it's available here with some outfits that are exclusive to the book.  I don't plan on going back through the 13 years of this blog and updating things - it's very time consuming!! Maybe once in a while but this was a very special project at a very interesting point in my life.

Josephine Page 1

Josephine Page 2

Josephine Page 3

Josephine Page 4

Josephine Page 5

Josephine Page 6

Josephine Page 7

Josephine Page 8

Josephine Page 9

Josephine Page 10

Josephine Page 11

Josephine Page 12

Josephine Special Edition

Josephine Page 13

Josephine Page 14

Josephine Page 15

Josephine Page 16

Josephine Page 17

Josephine Page 18

Josephine Page 19

 

 

Fashion Doll - Bold Florals for March, Page 2

I have another page of bold mix and match florals for today. This set is becoming sort of vaguely 60s-ish. That wasn't the intention - there was no real intention - but that's where it's heading. I'm hoping to keep this up for the rest of the month. Not sure what's next after this. You can grab the doll here and everything should mix and match perfectly!

Click on the image for full resolution. Feel free to download and print.

Sometimes I have a plan but I'm finding myself a little less organized lately. Maybe it's the spontaneity of the teens. Lots of last minute rides to outings and such. I do have things in the works: several book ideas, a couple of commissions, etc. I haven't made time for drawing workshops lately, either, because things have just been too hectic. I'm hoping to cook up a series of something for April. There are already jury duty dates and doctor's appointments on the books so we'll see.

 

I'm also getting organized for Morgantown in May! It should be a great time and I and very much looking forward to it.

Fashion Doll - Bold Florals for March

It is somehow the longest and fastest year ever simultaneously. Somehow, it's already March! I now have two teens in my house - my youngest son turned 13 over the weekend. I started this blog just a few months after he was born as a way to keep myself grounded in a sense of not-mom. Now, thirteen years later, I have two teens who are starting to have their own lives, leaving me with a whole different identity crisis! Who am I after kids? How do I fill this time that I suddenly have? Don't worry - I absolutely manage to fill it! 

One of my goals for this year is to post more sets on the blog. These one-page sets or short series help me practice and refine my technique. I have loads of programs I'd like to test out both on the iPad and on my desktop. I've also had questions about workflow and publishing: can I complete the whole process on an iPad, can I complete it all in Procreate, what other apps, etc... So I want to continue experimenting.

Can a paper doll be completed start to finish in Procreate? For me it's a no. I find the selection and move tools to be utterly useless in Procreate. The app simply isn't able to rotate without a serious loss of crispness. It's always pixelated and blurry when I try. I also used vector shapes to create tabs and I just don't think tabs would be as sharp in Procreate.

 

Click on the image for full resolution. Feel free to download and print.

 

Procreate automatically records a time-lapse unless it's toggled off and I thought it would be fun to include that here. My oldest son is taking film at the high school and he's teaching me how to use Premier Pro! In the video you'll see that I used a hair color chart. I grabbed that on Pinterest via DeviantArt.

I really liked the Jester paper doll from last week and I didn't feel like starting over completely. Instead, I changed a few things. I work in layers (a LOT of layers) and that makes changes easy. I kept the pose, the skin color, the shoes, and face pretty much the same. I drew new hair, made the base outfit a mini dress, and changed the eye color using the hue/saturation adjustment tool. All total, it took less than 4 hours to turn this whole doll around, from editing to sketching to coloring to layout. And that includes preparing the patterns in Photoshop for use in Procreate. 

The patterns are from Nadia Grapes and the now defunct Design Cuts site. I think of patterns like this like fabric - sure I COULD design it myself but there are so many beautiful patterns out by artists with much stronger skills than mine for me to buy. And I have TONS and TONS of patterns and brushes and fonts just sitting on my hard drive, begging to be used. 

For the clothing, I let the patterns sort of inform the design. I did, however, come across this fabulous sewing pattern cover and LOVED the pants and short sleeved blouse. 

Anyway, my plan for this month it to add a sheet each week to go with this set. I couldn't come up with a clever title. Maybe you have one to share! Look for another page next week!

Jester Paper Doll in Color

 This is going live a bit later than I would like. My week has been filled to the brim with kid stuff! Initially, I wanted to take about my layer management and how I use that to color, what my workflow is, etc, etc. Yeah, that didn't happen. In fact, I finished coloring and laying this out on Friday morning when I had every intention of having it ready to go last night. 

Having said all of that, it's finished and I wouldn't miss the "kid stuff" for the world!

 Feel free to expand this image to full resolution, right-click to save and print.

I like the doll here quite a bit. Her face is slightly too wide and her eyes might be slightly too big but I can live with both of those things. I think I might just reuse the doll for a new page next week, maybe begin a series! That would be fun...

The colors overall look more dull than I would like. I'd like to go in and push up the saturation a bit to make it all more vivid. The dress is ok. Both the dress and the collar have a tentacle look to them - I need to figure out how to make pointy drapery thingies better. I had the same issue with my 2023 holiday card. Also, I completely hate the shorts. I didn't like them as I was drawing them, then I thought I could save them with some coloring trickery. Nope. Still hate. And that's ok. The beautiful thing about these one-page sets is that I can practice! Practice and failure are the keys to learning and growing.  I am, however, happy with the accidental movement in the torso of the doll due to my poorly drawn pattern! It gives her pose a twist. I do love a happy accident. 

If you have any random themes you'd like to see, just send them my way!

 

Using Paper Doll Templates

 In the post last week, I shared some paper doll templates I'm working on. It's something I've wanted to do for a while. Blank canvases and pages scare me a lot more than they used to and these seemed like a fun way to tackle that. 

This week, I put them to use! One I'm using for a project that isn't quite ready yet. The other is the paper doll at the end of the post. 

After sketching out all of the pose parts, I went into Procreate and lined each part individually. Each arm, leg, etc, was lined and placed on its own layer. It was tedious but didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. Everything needed to align correctly so that I'd have a closed shape at the end of it. Once I lined the sketches, I popped them into Photoshop. 

I'm not a fan of Procreate's selection, move, and rotate tools. No matter what setting I use, the image ends up blurry. If I need to do any of that I either plan on re-drawing it or do it in Photoshop. That's what I did here - instead of re-drawing each arm, I flipped and aligned them in Photoshop.

 

Here are all of the various layer groups, named in a way that made sense to me. I ended up with 27 possible poses because the downward arm has two hand options. 

On the left, all of my layers turned on. On the right, lines are colored to show the separate layers.

I really, really wanted to draw a doll for this week but I had NO inspiration! I've been playing a lot of video games lately (mostly Animal Crossing). My husband just started playing a card game called Balatro and it looked kinda fun so I grabbed the mobile version for me and the kids to try on our phones.  

We're all addicted now. We talk about it at dinner. We discuss runs and strategies. It's an obsession! 

 These are my sons, sitting head to head playing and comparing strategies! 

And it occurred to me that jesters and jokers would make for a fun paper doll. I don't think I've done anything like that before! 

Here's my jester! As always, click on it for full resolution and right-click to save and print. Everything will layer over the dress except for the shorts. I'm not sure I'm crazy about those and may rework that before I color it.

Let me know what you think! I'm hoping to have the color version of this ready for next week...if I can pull myself away from the game....

Paper Doll Templates

I didn't get a chance to post last week. There were quite a few things on my desk that I needed to wrap up and appointments, etc. Life happens! Some of what I worked on was for the upcoming ballet issue of Paperdoll Review. I wasn't sure if I'd pull something together but I did and I'm rather happy with it. Look for it soon if you're a subscriber (and if you aren't, you can check that out here). 

Part of what I want to do this year is draw more. I often find myself paralyzed by the blank page! Starting can be a challenge. I'm fine once I get going but starting...well, it's not always easy. So I decided to look through my Pinterest and how-to books for some inspiration. I love paper doll how-to books! It's a quirky little subsection of my small (but growing!) collection of paper dolls.

One of those how-to books is Pat Stall's "Paper Doll Design". I've seen this in bits and pieces online and was THRILLED to get a copy! There are loads of black & white paper doll examples as well as lessons for creating paper dolls.

I'll dive more into this book at some point but there's one page I really want to look at - the Lazy Designer's Doll.   

I love the multiple pose possibilities and the great faces! This alone is a wonderful jumping off point for anyone who wants to try drawing paper dolls. I wanted something a bit more fashion model, however, so I kept searching.

This is more what I was thinking about. I grabbed this off of Pinterest - there are loads and loads of similar illustrations for inspiration.  

At this point, I grabbed my sketchbook at started drawing. Normally, I like to work from reference but this time, I just drew straight onto the page, partly to see if I still COULD!!

First, I drew a base doll. It's not overly complicated or detailed. This took maybe ten minutes.

 

Next, I placed tracing paper over the base doll and drew a second set of arms along with two more sets of legs. The trick with legs is that one is weight-bearing and the other is not. The weight-bearing leg (in this case, the one on the left/back on the base doll) needs to be fairly straight to indicate support. The other leg can be more flexible. 

I scanned in both my base doll and my tracing paper, then assembled them in Photoshop. If you don't have a scanner, a phone camera should work but there might be a bit of distortion. You could also do all of this on tracing paper or with a light table. If you choose to work these up digitally, pretty much any program would work. I have Photoshop so I used it.

With two sets of arms and three sets of legs, I made six different poses.

If I separate out the arms, I could have even more poses! 

 

I used one sheet of paper, one sheet of tracing paper, a pencil, scanner, and Photoshop to create 12 poses in less than an hour. The actual drawing time was maybe ten or fifteen minutes! Now, instead of having blank page panic, I have 12 poses to start from! There are many more possibilities, too, with more arm and leg poses, different hand positions, faces, etc. 

From here, I'll pop these into Procreate and see what I can come up with for dolls. Check in next week to see the refined templates!

 

Fan Art Paper Doll

For this last day of January, I have a fan art paper doll to share! I don't create a lot of fan art. Part of that is because I enjoy making my own things. That's not a judgement thing - make whatever resonates with you - but it's just not for me. Second, I'm not a huge pop culture person. I'm just not. I'd be perfectly fine never turning on a TV or attending a movie ever again. My musical taste stalled out around 1998 and very little has been added since then. If not for my kids & husband, I would have no clue about current culture. 

I do, however, like video games.

I'm more of a cozy/exploring and retro kind of gamer. I resisted Minecraft for a long time but my boys dragged me into it. And it's so fun! I often play in peaceful mode because I like exploring, gathering, and building without having a creeper blow me up in a deep dark mine. I have young parents so we had a couple of Atari systems growing up. Also, I've been a Nintendo fan since I first tried it in the late 80s. Super Mario 3 is easily my favorite game ever. I like fun games, not "slaughter monsters" kind of games. All of the men in my house enjoy those and that's fine. Just not for me.

My current cozy go-to game is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Now before you all come here and tell me that I'm a little late to the party, I know. 2020 was a BIG year for Animal Crossing. My 2020 was a bit busy and I posted literally nothing here in 2021. Life happens. 

Anyway...I asked for a Nintendo Switch Lite for my birthday last year. I was tired of sharing with the kids and I wanted to spend less time on my phone. Sometimes I get stuck in the mud of the internet. It's a problem. In keeping with my goal of being a bit more 1995 and a little less 2025, I've been playing my Nintendo a lot. Like A LOT. Most of it in Animal Crossing.

 That's me! That's my character! AND those are all clothing items from my in-game wardrobe. It's fan art so feel free to print it and play with it but it's for personal use only. If you want to see other fan art from over the years, I have Mabel from Gravity Falls here and here as well as Fiona from Adventure Time. 

Because transparency is really important to me, I want to share how I made this paper doll. I tried drawing this one free-hand but I just could not get it. The sketch is so truly bad that I just cannot share it. It's so far outside of my style that I just couldn't crack it. This was meant to be a fun personal project, not a stressful experience. So I traced parts of this and improvised other parts. I learned so much about how these characters are constructed that I would not have learned without tracing it. Tracing is a tool for learning so that's what I did. I learned. AND I had fun. Honestly, I think I might make it a point to trace other things that are way outside of my style so that I can learn different approaches. 

And that's ok. 

One of my favorite social media personalities right now is Scott Christian Sava. If you aren't familiar with him, go to his YouTube. I also follow him on Instagram. Everything about him is an inspiration but what I love most is that he shares his deepest thoughts about art and the art making process. He's shared videos about how he traces to learn even after decades of making amazing art. Check him out because he's excellent!

Let me know what you think of my fan art Animal Crossing gal! I have loads of fun in-game outfits that would make an excellent second page at some point. And if YOU happen to play Animal Crossing, let's connect! I still need cherries and oranges for my island. My current goal is to get all of the fruits.

  

Goals for 2025

I'm not a New Year's resolution kind of person. In January, I look back at the previous year and come up with some very loose goals. In September, at the beginning of the school year (because some habits NEVER go away...), I reassess. This all makes me sound far more organized than I am! Really, it's just that I need the motivation. Seeing a body of work motivates me to keep working, keep practicing. 

2024 was all about practicing. I'd like to continue with that into 2025. So here are some goal-type aspirations for this year, with scribbles that I made in 2024.

Try Something New

This is a really quick, rough sketch from an image I found at Sketch Daily.

There are so many things I want to try! 

• Urban sketching. I need to get out of my house once in a while! I also want to be the person who does these amazing ten minute sketches while on vacation. Right now, I'm not that at all! 
• New programs and apps. At the end of last year, I started tinkering with InDesign. I pay for that whole stupid and expensive suite of programs so I might as well learn how to use them. I'd also like to look into free or cheap programs because cost should not be a barrier to creativity. Also, paper and pencil is just about as affordable as you can get and I'd like to revisit simple techniques.
• Paper doll how-to books. These have become an odd focus of my very small collection of paper dolls. I love how-to books, tutorials, etc, and I'd like to work through some of those.
• Sewing, maybe. I have some non-standard dolls in my collection and I'd like to learn how to sew for them. I also have all of my grandmother's cross stitching supplies. I'd like to use some of that.

Which brings me to my next goal...

Use It Up

Another quick sketch, based on a sewing pattern cover design

I have SO MANY THINGS! I bet you do, too. I have oil paints, watercolors, gouache paints, brushes, panels, sketchbooks, sheets of watercolor paper, mat board, scrapbook paper, embroidery floss and fabric, apps I've never opened, books I've never read....the list goes on! So before I seek out the dopamine hit of buying new art supplies, I'm going to use them up. I want to stretch this goal out to everything. Do I need a new t-shirt just because I like the graphic? Do I need a new book? What does "need" even mean anymore???

And that ties into my third goal...

Spend Mindfully

Faces I drew from the Sketch Daily site

I like the idea of spending money with intention. I really want to think before I buy something. Maybe it's better to buy a higher quality item that will last longer rather than something quick & cheap. And support creative people! Buy things from small businesses and artisans and creative folks. It's good for them, it's good for me, and we can all feel awesome about it.

Pay It Forward

Close-up of a sketch, also from Sketch Daily

 

I'm incredibly lucky! I get to do what I love every day. I've been able to stay home with my kids and create. It's something I am deeply aware of and I want to share it. My plan is to write more tutorials. My work has improved incredibly since I started this little blog almost thirteen years ago. And it's had its ups and downs! But I'm at a place where the teens need me less and I need to channel that time into something productive.

 

And finally...

 

Create More

An art history book I'm very eager to read!

 

Drawing, painting, and such are definitely on my to-do list. I want to make more beautiful things. More paper dolls, paper doll books, paintings, writing, etc. But I also want to make more time. I want to take the time to hang out with the teens. My oldest is a freshman in high school and my youngest is in 7th grade. They have their own lives but they're still here and I want to hang out with them. My husband and I can finally get out once in a while and I want to make time for that, too. And reading! Yes, I read a lot, but most of it is sci-fi for fun and not anything with substance. I have loads of art history books I've never read. There needs to be time for that, too. 

 

Another sort of miscellaneous goal is to spend more time offline. Social media, doom scrolling, online shopping - it's all been a bit much lately. It's making me feel unproductive and triggers my depression. I'd like 2025 to be more like 1995, where I walked everywhere, always had a book and a sketchbook handy, and had to actually CALL or SEE people.

That's all of it. Five very vague ideas for what I'd like to do in 2025. I know everyone talks about SMART goals - that is WAY more organized than I can handle. Maybe these resonate with you, too. Feel free to share your goals and aspirations!

Wrap-up 2024: Life Drawings

I don't think I've shared any of my life drawings on here before. In April of 2023, I decided to jump back into more "real life" drawing. I'm pretty confident with my digital art and my ability to draw paper dolls has improved a lot, but I really missed drawing from life. 

If you're looking for a paper doll, this post is not it. If you're looking for my art story and the work that goes into my craft, stick around! 

My Bachelor's degree is in Art History, NOT Fine Arts. I studied art in high school and was accepted to an art school. I didn't go. I was more interested in an academic path - what I really wanted was to study art itself and Art History was a natural fit. Art was something I could always make, regardless of my professional path. So I went away to a women's college, studied Art History, and took the occasional art class when it fit in my schedule. 

Until I dropped out at 20.

Sometimes life happens. I left the school I loved, took a couple of years off, and went back to the state university. As much as I loved Art History, I just couldn't devote a huge chunk of time to pursuing my PhD the way I wanted to. I was 25 when I finished my BA and felt like I had to choose between becoming an academic and having a life. While finishing my BA, I started taking art classes again. My professors encouraged my to apply for the MFA. I didn't. I should have. 

Fast forward almost twenty years and two kids later, I decided I wanted more. Sure, the paper dolls are great and that's not going anywhere, but I needed to find out if I could still DRAW. There's a local arts group that is very active, with workshops twice a month including a still life and a clothed model. In 2023, I finally got up the nerve to go.

It's been great! 

There's a mentor there as a guide. He's terrific! The whole community has been so nice and so welcoming. I try to go to every session, but that doesn't always happen. In 2024, I went January through July. With the August convention, my family vacation, other emergencies/obligations, holidays, etc, I just didn't make it there. I managed to go once in November.

Here are some of the things I drew in my workshops. And if you're local to northeastern Massachusetts, check it out. 

 First up are the still life images, from my 9 by 12 sketchbook. My youngest son went to quite a few sessions with me and we drew together so it was easier to work on the still life. This one is oil cans.

Coffee grinder and mug. Not one of my more successful drawings. Lots of issues!

A Chinese horse sculpture and a clay pot. Again, quite a few issues with this one.

This one is ok. Still some wobbly lines and bad measurements but ok. I forget what the fruit was...lemons? And maybe an orange?

Peppers! I got some really great blacks in this one, so much so that there's glare. This one was a lot of fun to work on.

Teapot and egg cup. Kinda meh but I liked drawing the folded fabric. 

Plate, mug, and lemons. I really like how the mug came out here. I should have pushed my values a little bit more but not bad overall.

Tea kettle, lemon, and a plate. This is the same plate as the image above, but it's much more successful. I tried to spread out the values, too, so there are more darks and lights.

  

This was the last session I made it to in November. I really liked the still life setup so I drew it twice. I'm not sure which one I like better. I really went for the darks! 

I didn't draw a lot from the model this year. I prefer to draw female models simply because that's what I want to improve on for my paper dolls. It's not to say that I don't draw men - I do, and it IS helpful - but it doesn't always hold my interest. All of these are pencil on toned paper, and maybe a bit of white charcoal.

I drew this from a distance after I had completed a still life drawing. I couldn't see a lot of detail so I could draw a lot of detail! This is one of my favorite drawings from all of the workshops!

This is another instance of drawing the still life, then jumping into drawing the model. Normally I pack a portable easel and stand up to draw. I just like that method better than looking down at my drawing, then looking up at the model. I didn't come to this session prepared to draw from the model, but she had such a wonderful look that I HAD to get something on paper! 

My favorite model drawing of the year! It isn't perfect but I like the lights and darks, the way the hair falls, the nose is pretty good...there's a lot that went right here. I'm not a strong portrait artist and I'd like to improve. I'll keep working at it until I get there!