Morgantown 2025

What a fun time! The Morgantown paper doll party was a blast! This year's theme was Think Pink. I drove down on Thursday to visit with Jenny and a bunch of other early birds. Friday was a day spent out & about with the actual party on Saturday.

 

Jenny and I shared a table. I didn't have a lot of new art this time. It's been a bit hectic lately but I do have some things in the works...! I never take enough pictures at these events - I'm always busy catching up with old friends and making new friends. This time was no different! 

I was asked to design the souvenir doll, which was great fun! Jayne Keller created a black & white coloring sheet as well as the dress-a-doll. Linda Ocasio wrote up a very nice essay on the color pink. The whole day was very well organized and oodles of fun. 

Each table at lunch had a lovely centerpiece designed by Andrea Johnson. I was the lucky winner of the one at our table! How fantastic is this?! 

I'm not a big collector, although I always seem to come home with treasures! Working from right to left here's what I picked up. First, Laura and Sara had a lovely tribute for Ralph included a reprint of one of his paper dolls for all of us. Kwei-Lin had a funky and fun freebie sheet as well as a coloring station. Next, is a Peck-Gandre Alice in Wonderland. I have a growing collection of Peck-Gandre/Peck-Aubrey paper dolls that I wanted as a kid and never got! The artist, Linda Peck, has a website where she sells digital downloads. In the back row, I found two "around the world" themed paper dolls: Children 'Round the World (reproductions are available at Paperdoll Review) and Dress Up for the World's Fair. Next, a really cute book of School Children, with six dolls. In front of that, two pantine/jointed dolls by Mercury Nightstone, who joined us for the first time at the party! And finally, the souvenirs in a cute bag. 

 

I also have a Golden Magazine in excellent shape from the freebie table and an immaculate copy of Dolls and Doll Houses from 1959. I love paper doll how-to books and kits. Despite the fact that the paper doll section of this one is slim, I still needed it! 

Let's take a closer look at some of these fun goodies! 

This is the back and front cover of School Children from 1975. These dolls are delightfully adorable and retro and I am in love1

A close-up of Nancy, one of the six paper dolls on the back cover.

The interior has this great grid layout on every page. It's so simple but so clever! It feels more like a 1960s book than a mid-70s book so maybe it's a reissue. Regardless, I love this style! 

Next up, Dress Up for the World's Fair.

This book commemorates the 1964-1965 World's Fair in New York. I immediately loved the cover! The typography, the art, the layout - it's all terrific. 

The dolls are Peter and Wendy. Is that an accident or a reference to Peter Pan? Either way, I really like this art style as well.

I love the detail in all of the world costumes. Each page also includes photos of actual buildings or exhibits from the World's Fair. Even the handwriting is wonderful!

And finally, a quick peek at the Golden Magazine.

I haven't seen many Golden Magazines. There were before my time! But every one of them is full of amazing illustrations. I would have LOVED this as a kid! 

 

Mother's Day is this weekend, so here's a "ham" loaf recipe! As far as vintage 60s recipes go, I've seen worse!  It's kid-friendly for sure.

 

And this amazing calendar at the end!

 

Oh, and one more thing...

 

I know she's a bit shiny, but Mercury's alien doll and No AI Art sticker both have a home on my cork board! Fabulous!

Wrap-Up 2024: My Projects

My inspiration this year came in fits & spurts. I didn't have a plan for the blog or a long-term project. I tried to focus on doing things I loved instead of "feeding the blog" - a phrase I'm borrowing from Rachel! If you haven't seen it yet, Rachel has a terrific coloring book available. I grabbed a digital copy and it's full of fun themes. Check it out! 

2024 was a busy year for me but that's not obvious if you only follow the blog. I use my personal Instagram and Facebook to share my art, too, because for me, it's all the same thing. Especially now that the kiddos are teens, I always share my intentions with them and never post something they don't approve. Feel free to follow along on social media if you'd like but be warned, it's family stuff AND art! 

I spent a large part of 2023 attending a local art workshop and that continued in 2024. I just recently realized that I've shared very little of that here so that will be a separate post in the future.

On to the paper dolls! 

2024 started with a wrap-up of 2023 so nothing new there.

In February, I created a Leap Day paper doll.

I've been digging into vintage paper dolls for pose inspiration. This one is based on a Skipper doll from the late 60s. Frogs just seemed like a natural fit for Leap Day. It was mostly created in Procreate with layout, tabs, and text in Photoshop.

The next personal project I tackled was a solar eclipse paper doll.

The total solar eclipse in April covered a large swath of the US. We were outside of totality but it was such a rare & interesting topic that I wanted to commemorate it. This doll was also mostly Procreate with layout, tabs, and text in Photoshop. You can print this or order a print from Paperdoll Review.

Also in April, I came across a paper doll from the early 1900s. I loved the pose. Even though the image I had was very low resolution, it was enough for me to figure out a pose.

Here's an early sketch with the reference image. I love how the hands came together! Hands are tricky!

I don't think I ever actually shared this book on the blog! This was created completely in Procreate and Photoshop. It's one of the few projects where I didn't start with a sketch on paper. Initially, I started this as a fun little experiment one morning while everyone in my house was occupied. My goal was to demonstrate best practices when using references but I got carried away. By the end of the day, I had every page roughed out! It felt so good to be so focused. I threw myself into it, completed it, and sent it over to Jenny. She was thrilled with it! It was the only book of my own that I fully illustrated in 2024. And that's ok. Timeless Beauty of the Teens is available at Paperdoll Review.

If you follow art trends on social media, you might be familiar with MerMay. I'll admit, I've seen the hashtags and art over the years but I didn't know where it started. If you're in the same boat (lol!!), you can find out more on the origins here. I've always wanted to jump in but never found the time. For 2024, I made the time and created a one-page mermaid.

I sketched this one out on paper in a tiny sketchbook. Initially, I thought about rendering it with watercolors but life just got in the way so I worked on it in Procreate. If I can get myself organized, maybe I'll play along with the official MerMay prompts.  

Around the same time, I was working on the Paper Doll Convention souvenirs. 

The theme for the convention was the 1920s. I agreed to work on something with a circus theme. In my research I discovered Lillian Leitzel, a German acrobat who met a tragic end. I came across a circus poster that became the inspiration for the whole set. I've been trying to become a bit more painterly and imperfect in my renderings so that they have a little more life to them. I feel like I'm getting there, especially with this set. The background is one of my favorites and I'm really happy with the layout.

I really try to submit something to Paperdoll Review for every issue. Some themes speak to me more than others. Issue 91with its Colonial theme was one of them! 

For the colonial theme, I knew I wanted something based on New England. It's my home. My family has been here for centuries, since the Colonial era. So I decided on a Pilgrim inspired by Plimouth Patuxet (formerly known as Plimouth Plantation), a living history museum in Massachusetts. It's a great place to visit if you get the opportunity and they've been actively growing their programs to include all perspectives of colonization, not just the English perspective. 

Starting in August, my life got hectic! My plan August was to attend the convention, send my kids ahead on our family vacation, fly home and leave the next day on a roadtrip with my husband to join my kids & my parents in Tennessee. I managed it but it was ROUGH. My plane home from the convention was delayed for hours. I landed at midnight, drove home, slept two hours, and drove 16 hours straight to Gatlinburg. I do not recommend this sort of silliness but if you try it, I hope your companion is as great as my husband was during this whole adventure.

 

When we returned, I decided I wanted to make a Halloween paper doll series. I LOVE Halloween but I didn't have a lot of time to pull this off. I took a black & white flapper that I created for the convention, colored it, and jumped into a vintage style Halloween set. You can check out the whole series here. There are four pages and one of my goals for 2025 is to complete this set and turn it into a book.  

Finally, I have one more project that I wasn't sure I'd pull off but I did! A couple of years ago, I took old art and turned it into a calendar. It was just a whim but folks really loved it. I wanted to make one for 2024 but never got to it. In October of 2024, I drew a doll for a Round Robin project inspired by Betsy McCall and I COULD NOT stop thinking about it! It took on a life of its own. What would a modern-day Betsy McCall be named? What would she wear? What would she do? And that became Emma McKay!

 Emma McKay Everyday is my 2025 calendar project! More than 70 mix-and-match pieces spread over twelve months each with a timely theme and little story. This only came together because Jenny mobilized her team to help me pull this off. Editing, rewriting, tweaking, etc, and it was all worth it. It's available here and will be available for most of the year. Lulu delists calendars automatically as the year comes to an end, so if you want one (or two!), now is the time.

Next week I'll share some of the IRL art I've been working on. It isn't paper dolls but all drawing helps me make better paper dolls!

Happy Holidays!

 I had every intention of posting this on Christmas but clearly that didn't happy. December is always a really busy month for me, but it was REALLY hectic this year! Regardless, I wanted to share this with all of you. (Click on the image and right-click to save it full sized)

Whatever you celebrate, I hope it's been terrific! Happy holidays, happy New Year, and most of all Happy Paperdolling!! See you all next year :)

Current Projects and Updates

 I don't really mean to go months in between posts! There are a few reasons. First, posting here requires time & effort that I just haven't had lately. Summer is always a challenge for me. The kids are home (which I love) but that takes a lot of time. It's amazing how many meals a tween boy and a teen boy can eat in a summer day!! I have always been very aware of the fact that my time with my kids is short, so I prioritize it. We go to museums, swimming at the lake, visiting friends & family, and we almost always take a vacation at the end of August. This year, we went to Paris. It was amazing! 

Look at my adorable little family at the Louvre! 

 

The second thing that has happened is that my paper doll world has gone from mostly virtual to mostly IRL. I have so many virtual paper doll friends that I've met in real life (Rachel and Melissa among them!!) and that's been great. I started attending paper doll parties in 2018, starting with my local group, and then Morgantown in 2019. That first Morgantown was a blast and I met Jenny Taliadoros - the amazing, wonderful, terrific person behind Paperdoll Review. We've been working closely together ever since. And I COULD NOT be happier! So I have my hands in a lot of projects and sometimes I forget to share them here. I try to share them on Instagram but I'll admit, social media is not something I really focus on.  I have a couple of books coming out soon and I try to have art in every issue of Paperdoll Review Magazine. I'll try to get better about sharing things like that.

This is one of the books I have coming out. "Sisters at Heart" is a tribute to real-life friends Sharry & Laura. It's a lovely book that I'm very proud of - every time I see it, I forget that I made it!! It looks too good to be mine! You can order a copy here.  

I also have a submission in the Spooky issue of Paperdoll Review. Here's a preview - see if you can figure out what I sent in!

Another reason I'm posting less is because I'm trying to find time to improve my art. I've been watching tutorials, drawing more, and just plain practicing! Also, my youngest son and I have been attending a local drawing workshop a couple of times a month. We have the option of drawing a clothed figure or a still-life. I've been encouraging him to draw more, so we usually draw the still-life together. We're both LOVING it! 

Mile's still-life. He knows I shared this and he's fine with it :)

My still-life. It's been great putting pencil to paper again! 

Finally, I've become more wary of posting my art online. Some of it is that I don't want to feed the AI my art. That's not all of it, but I do think about it. I've also had my art stolen over the years (who hasn't at this point?!) and it's frustrating. Stealing art & scraping art for the algorithms devalues the work that I do AND the work of all creatives. I'd rather focus my time and effort on books for Jenny or other physical products. I don't think I'll ever completely stop posting online despite the frustrations.

The blog isn't going away. I just can't promise that I'll post four times a month anytime soon!

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.