Finished another outfit last night

So the subject continues here: for the PD party next month. Can't show you the whole thing yet but here's a picture of the mask it was inspired by.. Oops, it turns out they no longer have it on the website I got it from. Well it's red, checkered and has (?) flame-y edges. I will however post a picture of the boots.

I spent the most time on the mask, which has long brown hair attached to it (doll has short blond hair). I tried something new though. I usually avoid hats or wigs because they never want to stay put, the tabs never work really great. I noticed a PD artist for Paper Doll Studio (The Folk Costume issue) made these little half moon shapes to glue to the back of the hat forming a pocket the doll head slides into. It works fantastically. I'm half tempted to go and make them for every PD I own. I think I will modify the owl mask this way too now.

I was up and down the whole time. The mask was perfect, the hair looked great, then I put it on her. I hadn't traced her head as well as I though and there were gaps of empty space! Really unhappy. This was fixed the the back of the pocket, I colored it brown and added longer unglued pieces to cover up the gaps. That worked out pretty good. Then I started the dress. I drew the outline and was really pleased with the shape, I picked my coloring and got to it. It was aweful, all I could think was "Ugh, I have completely messed this up. It's ruined & I'll have to start over now." I am stubborn though and tried to change it a little in hopes I could at least make it less hate-able. It worked, I'm satisfied with it now, I don't know that I like more than the owl. That will be hard to beat, but the more I look at the red dress, the more I like it. I can't wait to post it for you.

My paper doll for last year's party

So last year the theme was "The Way We Were." I wanted to draw a doll, but couldn't find the time. We arrived at the hotel Friday, just in time for the meet & greet. When I said I wasn't able to make something, the ladies there encouraged me to try to make something anyway. So I ran to Walmart (practically across the street, talk about convenient) and bought all kinds of supplies. It took me maybe 3 hours or so. The doll took three drawings; initial, modified & perfected. Now I didn't have the picture with me and was forced to draw from memory.

The photo is the little me that I was trying to create. I think there may be another very similar photo, posed slightly different somewhere. I thought I was 5 in the photo I was remembering, but looking at it now I may have been even younger. That's my Aunt Mary Ellen in the photo.

I didn't win any prizes, but that's ok. Participating was cool on it's own. Plus when we were all walking around looking at the dolls submitted, one woman pointed to my doll and said "She drew herself at 5, how cute." I had to tell her that it was my doll, but that was probably the highlight of the day for me. There was good stuff, but I was really proud that someone liked my doll. Especially when I hadn't thought I would be able to submit anything at all.

Organizing my collection.

I'm trying to catalog all my sets. So much writing. I worked on it between 4 & 5 hours last night after the kiddles we to bed and I'm still not done. I think I got maybe 3/4 of the way through. I'm sorting them by artist whenever I can and by type when I cannot. What has been surprising is how many doubles I didn't know I had. I buy a lot of my sets from ebay and usually in multiple book deals, so I don't spend as much. However, I now see I still managed to spend quite a bit. I suppose I'll try to do more tonight most likely.

I have postponed my autumn dress for the pd party, I really want to used pictures of foliage from upstate NY as a guide or implemented into the design. So I need to find pictures before I can do that. I did start a rough sketch of a blue snowflake/ice princess costume. I'm not really sure about it so far though, I don't really have a clear picture in my mind yet I guess. I'm sure I just need to get to it and it's figure itself out.

I've been thinking about my Suede doll and I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to make her some flesh toned undies before I make her my official blog doll. I have no issues about colored pencil nudity, but some do. I want them to be able to enjoy my dolls as well. I find that for the most part I prefer no undergarments because sometimes they can show through a pale colored outfit. Also it limits what you can do neckline wise. I think though that if I make her underclothes flesh toned they will cover up the doll and not show through any outfits. *crosses fingers* So that will be coming up sometime this week (publicly committing myself to a deadline makes it more likely I'll get it done).

Found a website (due to a paper doll group member) that is devoted to one of my favorites The Ginghams. http://home.xnet.com/~countzi/ginghams.htm She have pictures of many different (super adorable) sets. She also has a few links to her other websites which you might like.

Will be holding off on masquerade outfits.

I emailed the lady in charge of the Masquerade PD party and asked her if it would be alright to post the doll and here's what she sent back.

"Thank you, too, for your thoughtfulness in asking about our pretty doll from "Costume Party" (Gabriel set). I would be much obliged if you would hold her and her outfits to show later on your blog, after the party. That should make very interesting content to see all your designs!"

So I will maybe post photos of unfinished outfits until then, but will hold off on any completely designs until the party is over. The party is scheduled for March 13th, so sometime after that I will put everything up.

So I guess that means I will have to start work on another project so I will still have something to post in the meantime. So what to do next.....

I'm feeling like doing a costume fall related. I woke up thinking about how pretty the trees are in fall and how I might be able to incorporate that into a dress. Maybe leaves for a skirt, I'm even thinking that maybe I might look up foliage pictures from where I grew up.

A daughter drawing.

My daughter drew this the day before yesterday. Both Eric & I were impressed at how the proportions are pretty spot on. She's 6 and I think maybe the girl's got some talent.


Edit: Forgot to mention her dolls name is Lace.

Finished!!

So here's the whole costume. Ta da! I am very proud of it. The mask came out pretty good too. I can't wait to figure out what I'll draw for her next. I hopefully will be able to post the doll as well (don't see why I wouldn't be able to), but I will double check before I do.

The second picture is the picture I found online (website was mentioned I think two posts ago) that I used as my inspiration.

I'm really thrilled. If I can get the time, I will try to draw something else tomorrow. I feel a little giddy every time I look at it, I keep dancing around and singing "I drew it and it didn't stink." Enough silliness, I have to start thinking about dinner now. :)

Working on a project today

So yesterday I decided to draw something today, either for the PD Party or for Suede. Actually I'll probably do both. So far I'm only partly done with one of the costumes I'm going to bring to the PD Party. This one's a Gray Owl, so far I am super pleased with it. I was a little worried when I first started, I am not longer worried about the dress. The mask might end up being a challenge, but today I am caffeinated & up for the challenge. (As you can see I snapped a pic instead of scanning it.)

If you are interested in a Paper Doll Party here's a link, http://opdag.com/convention.html. Right now there's three advertised (?), but I'm pretty sure there'll be more later in the year if there isn't one in your round-about area up yet. Please check it out.

A recommendation

If perchance you don't already know about it, highly recommend the Google paper doll group ( http://groups.google.com/group/paper-dolls?hl=en ). The people are wonderful and there are so many dolls it's mind boggling. Try searching the archives, just about every set you can think of is there and if it's not just put in a request and chances are someone has it. We've got members from all over the world, there's artists and people who only collect. It's a really wonderful group.

March PD Party

So while I have not RSVP'd yet, I will be going to the PD Party hosted by Jean Sullivan in SC. The theme is Masquerade and I am really liking it. I googled the word Masquerade image search and found this site that make these really cool masks ( http://www.karnevalmasque.com/home.html ). I feel really inspired, I can't wait to get started on it. The doll is actually an older doll who's almost flapper-esq, but she's cute and I think she'll probably end up with some wigs too since she has short blond hair. I printed out shots of the masks I like (there's a ton of them to be honest) so I can use them for ideas. Like paper muses. I will probably, possibly upload them here. I don't really see why I wouldn't. However they will def. be posted to my Picasa. I have ideas swirling around in my head.

On another, yet still similar, note the Paper Doll Studio Dress-a-Doll is also giving me inklings of ideas. I really want to draw for it mainly because the dolls are drawn by Tom Tierney. He's the one person I think I'd actually be star struck over. I don't think it'll be possible for me not to feel like a babbling idiot when I meet him one day. I might even cry. However, the theme for that is western and that's not really my specialty. I don't know if I can post the dolls here, but I can post the outfits I suppose.

It's all up in the air and it's a new year full of art possibilities.