Doodle-a-Day Project Wrap-Up

Happy New Year!! 2018 was a crazy busy year for us... 

For those who don't know, my grandmother moved in with us October 2017.  So I went from stay-at-home mom to caretaker as soon as my youngest started kindergarten.  Over the course of 2018, my grandmother fell 4 times and broke her pelvis after one of those falls.  On top of that, she's nearly blind (macular degeneration) and has lost much of her hearing.  So I shuttle her to doctors appointments and, in general, take care of whatever she needs.  Overall, she's in reasonable health for an 88 year old but some days are busier/harder than others.

We also found out at the end of 2017 that my oldest son has executive functioning issues and anxiety. Executive functions are everyday organization skills, things like remembering to do all the steps required to take a shower or remembering homework everyday.  It's been a relief, honestly, just knowing that there WAS an underlying issue and helping him work through that. It's a process and we're all learning together. We're also trying to help him with his anxiety and that, too, is an ongoing process.

On top of that, I've been volunteering at the school once a week, which I love! AND I've been doing a little freelance graphic design. I only take the projects I really want to do!

And I managed to do three projects for a collector, joined a paper doll group here in Massachusetts, and published my first book with Paper Studio Press. I also completed 12 black and white sheets in the paper doll collaboration project as well as 63 sheets in the Doodle-A-Day paper doll project.

I'm tired just writing all of that down!

So the next few posts are going to be a recap of 2018.  I want to share some of the projects I've worked on as well as the process for creating them.  After that, well, I'm just not sure! I'll think of something....!

In the meantime, let's talk about this HUGE project I just finished.

This is a screen shot of the entire Doodle-A-Day project as I have it laid out on Pinterest.  It's pretty amazing to see the colors transition throughout the year! I definitely became more bold as the year went on.

Each month had a five-color palette along with black and white.  There were four dolls that rotated throughout the year.

That's all four dolls together. One thing I'd like to do is give each of them a more neutral base outfit.  I tried to stay fairly neutral with the shoes but totally did not with the outfits!

Each set started out as a drawing in ArtRage.  I find that to be my go-to drawing program lately.

I drew everything digitally - from the base dolls to each and every outfit.  The image above shows essentially what I did for each set.  There's a base doll, then a sketch layer, and then a line layer. I used the pencil tool and the ink pen tool in ArtRage. At this stage, I exported to a Photoshop file and worked on it in Photoshop.

Next, I added tabs and a white fill on everything.

I created an action to speed things up a bit.  An action in Photoshop is a recording of several steps in a process that can be played over and over as needed.  My action consisted of 1) select outside the lines 2) inverse the selection and 3) contract by one pixel so that all of the color fills land inside the lines with no bleeding outside of the lines.  This saved me a few seconds on every individual item which added up to HOURS over the course of the year.

Once the tabs were placed and everything got a white fill, I added the text. I used one font and one size (in most cases) for the entire project.  I saved the black & white sheet and went on to coloring.

Honestly, coloring should be a post all by itself! I'll show you a bit of the way I do it but I may go back for more in-depth demonstrations.

In this image, I've circled the layers used to color the doll.  That's JUST the doll - not the layers used to create the background, the clothing, none of that....just the doll. 

After creating the doll - which is always the longest step - each drawing and inking session in ArtRage took about 2 hours. Sometimes more but that was the average.  Creating a black and white sheet took another 2 hours or so.  And then a fully colored sheet took anywhere from 4 to 8 hours depending on the complexity.  So each post took from about 8 to 16 hours.  Each post. Conservatively, I have over 500 hours into this project! Or, put another way, I was spending at minimum 10 hours a week on this project.  That's huge!!

The next step is to figure out what to do with this project.  Should I make it a calendar? A massive book? A series of themed prints? I don't know yet. 

This ended up being a huge write-up!! Did you love the project? Did you have a favorite doll or month or themes? I'd love to know!

The next post will be a summary of a really unique project I did for a collector. So look for that soon.

November Paper Doll - Set 5

FINALLY! The November set is finished.  I feel like I've been behind on this project since it began.... It was a much bigger project than I anticipated but I WILL finish it!

To that end, here's the last set.

First up is "layered" and I went with a tee shirt, flannel, and vest. "Something new" is a retro mini dress that looks like a present. "Scarf" is a vest and scarf.  "Row" is a theme that has come up a few times - this time, I went with a striped sweater. "Sign" is another repeat - I tried to make a ski patrol/rescue type jacket. It's a stretch..... And finally, "cozy place" is a sweater with leggings & booties.

I have five pages to post for December and they will all get posted as soon as I actually draw them!

November Paper Doll - Set 4

As promised, I'll posting the remainder of the November doodle-a-day wardrobe sheets this week. Today I have set 4!

I ended up rounding out this sheet with a few mix & match pieces.  And the themes were difficult for me this time around. Maybe it was the themes, maybe it was the rush to get these done.  I'm not sure.

First, "family" is a skirt with a little bird family. "Pie" is a sweater with a pie graphic. "Turkey" and "thankful" are a shirt & skirt with the same motif.  "Mountains" is a dismal attempt at an all-over graphic dress. And "shop" is a comfy, casual sweatshirt for all of the Black Friday shopping frenzy!

One more set to go!! Should be up Friday.

And if you're looking to order my book in time for Christmas, go grab it here or here!

November Paper Doll - Set 3

Yes, it's December.  But I NEED to finish the November paper doll set! So this week, I'll crank out the last of the wardrobe sheets and then move on to the December set.

And then take a break in January!

For "brush" I used a brush script font. "Jewel" is a jeweled neckline on a fuzzy sweater. "Recipe" is an apron. For "product" I went with math (as in, the "product" in multiplication).  "Big and Small" is a retro dress with a large and a small pattern.  And "luggage" is a vintage inspired coat & suitcase.

Look for more this week - I'm diligently working to finish these up!

November Paper Doll - Set 2

The holiday craziness has already begun.... I'm really hoping to get another page posted next week. Not a great time to fall behind! I'm writing this just ahead of our first snow storm of the year so I'm not sure if the kids are going to school or not. I'm hoping they do!!

My layout is all over the place and doesn't actually follow the list in order.  First is "glow" which I turned into a sort of glowing, bright ball gown.  "Book" goes well with the "handwriting" jacket from March.  For "gadget" and "shoes" I went with a little bit of a steampunk feel -- what says "gadget" more than steampunk?! "Veteran" is a Marine Corps woman's uniform - my grandfather was a Marine, so that was the branch I wanted to illustrate. This uniform is based on an illustration on Wikipedia from the 1980s so I'm not sure it's current.  But I liked it and I followed the illustration faithfully!! Finally, "begins with M" is a maxi dress with a pretty pumpkin print.

I'll get to work on the next set -- stay safe & warm if you, too, are dealing with snow!

November Paper Doll - Set 1

Happy November! The end-of-the-year spiral has begun.... November & December are always crazy months around here. Holidays, birthdays, school activities....It's nutty but fun.

November also means that the doodle-a-day paper doll project is starting to wind down.  There's this doll and December and that's it.  I plan on finishing strong!!

Here are the November themes. If you'd like to follow along, I'm using the drawing suggestions from @ellolovey on Instagram and she's on Facebook, too.

First up, the theme is "sky" and I made a shirt with a sunset color and cloud motif with a sweater vest.  "Theatre" is a dramatic pantsuit perfect for a night out. "Camp" was tough - I went with a buffalo checkered jacket (I have a vintage one that I love) that made me think of hunting camp.  "Market" is a repeat theme and this time I made a mustard colored cozy sweater and canvas bag.  "Breakfast" is another cozy sweater with a t-shirt that has a tea graphic. And finally, "inspiration" is a graphic long sleeved shirt with "New England" on it because I draw a lot on inspiration from my very beautiful part of the country!


I tried to make the background on this one a little lighter than October.  I've been posting these on Pinterest & it's really cool to see them all together!