Sunday, December 30, 2012

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!


Friday, December 7, 2012

Bemasked


I have had a fascination with masks for quite awhile. I like masquerade masks, leather masks, painted masks, all sorts of masks. I don't really ever wear them. I just like them. Lately I have been painting dolls with masked faces. It is fun for me. It unleashes my doodlebug. I have always liked to draw squiggly lines and hearts and flowers and that sort of thing.


I spent most of the 4th and 5th grade in elementary school doing just that. Oh, and making paperdolls. Another form of doodling for me. The past couple of weeks I have been working on a skull mask (calavera) Blythe. I didn't want her to be depressing or scary exactly. I wanted her to be colorful. What better way to emphasize color than on a white mask background? So, her face got painted white. I then set to doodling.


My good friend Jean Yates agreed to do the jewelry for me. What's a doll without jewelry, I ask you? This one has some really fabulous things. Earrings (3, for her 3 ear piercings), 3 necklaces, 2 I strung together as a waist decoration, a butterfly pullcharm, and even some little beads at the tops of her shoes. Her name is Esmeralda. Esmeralda will be up for sale on Ebay on Sunday, December 10 at 7 PM PST. Please stop by and have a look if you are interested. The other photos are other masked girls I have been having fun creating. Hope I don't scare you. It's all in color and fun :)