Doodling Doodlebugs

Lately I have been having too much fun doodling. I mean it. I doodle on everything. It started with paper. I doodled all over paper. I drew things and then doodled on those. Paper dolls came out of that. I doodled all over the hair and paper doll clothes. Then, not satisfied with the flat surface, I started doodling on doll faces. All kinds of doll faces. I doodled on tiny little dolls with 1-inch faces. Too small. Not enough surface area. I moved to bigger dolls and started doodling on those. My friend Jean loaned me a Tangkou doll to doodle on. I doodled on that. Blythe is an expensive doll. I wasn't sure if I was ready to doodle all over her. Way too hard to resist. Blythe got doodled on.

I have found that the Blythe face is optimal for me in terms of doll face size. Blythe has a big, giant face, with smallish mountains and valleys.

I did a calavera style face for the doll Esmeralda, adding in my own style of flowers and colorful doodles. Flowers and butterflies and paisley prints are things that fascinate me, both design and color-wise. This doll, Cummings, is a doll for my friend, Jean. Her eyelids contain a quote from an E. E. Cummings poem, which reads, "Since the thing perhaps is to eat flowers and not to be afraid." Seems simple enough. Actually, getting those few words onto the eyelids, which are rather small, was harder than it looks. My handwriting, being kind of tragic, made it even tougher. I talked a lot in elementary school. I was punished regularly with writing sentences, something like, "I will not talk in the classroom or disturb others" 500 times. My handwriting took a downward spiral from there. I took a calligraphy class. It didn't really help.

Hope you are having a doodling good holiday season!