First Art Doll On Canvas

Here is my first attempt at making an art doll. Technically, she's half a doll on a 5 x 5 canvas. I wanted to get some practice painting faces and then I needed to give her a body of sorts. I saw on Black Eyed Suzie's blog how she mounted her half dolls onto canvas. Hers are professional and look absolutely gorgeous, but I decided to try it just to see what it felt like to a) work with air-dry clay and b) to put it onto something. It's fun and she turned out better than I thought.

I bought a bunch of these little canvases from JoAnn at 2 for $1. They come with pictures of fruit drawn on them. Easy enough to gesso over that and voila you have cheap canvases to try your techniques on. The other plus is they are small enough that you are not investing much time or energy into them. So for a first attempt I'll keep her. I have a lot more ideas and a lot more dolls (whole bodies!) in different stages of drying.

I started out working with the modeling compound. I really like it. It's very light. Then I went to the paperclay that everyone who uses it raves about. I'm not sure. I need a lot more work with it. You have to work with wet hands to knead it and I'm still getting used to that. I have a few things in process using both kinds of clay. I'll post those when they are ready. Just thought I'd share this little tidbit today. I added the second one (top) after I blended the background more. I like it better. Back to work...