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...

Art Explosion Wednesday

My art zines that I won on e-bay arrived in the mail today. Yay! Here is the first group. Blogger only lets me upload five images at a time :( so I'll post the rest of the zines and dolls tomorrow. I've been stalking my mail delivery person everyday waiting for these. Oh, btw, Priority Mail does NOT always mean two day delivery. These were mailed Friday and I just received them today. So, when they say they don't guarantee two days, they mean it. There are so many goodies in the box I can't wait to dig in. Lots of inspiration and a variety of art; everything from altered art to bookmaking. Cool stuff! Enough gushing about all of that. I'm like a little kid when I get stuff in the mail.

I also included a sampling of what I've been working on lately. My feeble attempt at doll-making is a learning experience. Air dry clay is great. I love working with it. The learning curve for ME in color blending, etc. in painting the faces is very LARGE. But, I've got lots of faces to practice on and can always make more. ;)

The second picture is a sample of some of my work in progress. I have fallen in love with all of the great yarns out there now. Knitting has made a resurgence, and there are aisles and aisles of yarn that are just yummy! I picked up a ton of yarn at a flea market for $1/pkg. This is the stuff that's at the craft stores for $5 and $6 each. Woohoo, did I love that! So, I went to work teaching myself to knit. And being a lefty, everything is so geared for right-handed people, I just tried it like a "normal" person. I had to laugh when the so called "directions for left handers" included the sentence: "substitute the word "right" with the word "left" and hold your work up to a mirror." What? Are you kidding me?!

So, for now, I knit right-handed! These are some of the wigs for my dolls. I love making these. The fibers in these yarns just scream to be made into doll hair. So, I did. You'll see none of them have faces painted yet. That's coming. Just thought I'd show you a small sample of some wigs. I think after I get them onto the heads, then the idea for the face will follow. The dolls have their own personalities after you give them hair!

The third picture is a small 5 x 5 canvas that I am working on. I love the background. It is sort of a goth feel, but a little softer. I'm working on her dress now. She looks kind of dreamy, and the canvas is working out to have a dreamy feel to it. You'll see what I mean when I finish. I did like her face. After blending three different flesh colors of paint with a hint of pink, I think I came up with the perfect formula.

The next one is my very rough first attempt at "sculpting" a sitting body. I'm not too worried about it because her dress will cover it all up. I just needed a form to fit the dress to. I already have her arms and hands finished, so I just thought I'd show you what the first try looked like. I approach all of this with the attitude that it's fun to try things. There is no pressure to have it look a certain way. It just has to please me! Check out those little boots! I loved them!

And, finally, my little guy that keeps making me laugh every time I look at him. The photo turned out blurry (sorry, my bad), but he's really funny! I'm still thinking about what to do with him. Stay tuned...

I've also had family visiting this past week and tried to spend as much time with them as possible, since who knows when I'll see them again. My visit with Sherry was alot of fun, but too short for my taste. Paula came in Saturday afternoon and had to leave Sunday morning. It was fun to catch up on everything. Unfortunately, that night she and her daughter were both sick. Paula sounds like she has walking pneumonia and her cough kept her up. My niece, Liza, seemed to have a case of the nerves. Just a nervous stomach and a little too much pizza. Not a good mix.

That's all for now. I'll post part two of all of the above tomorrow. Need to tend to some real-world issues so I can get back home and escape into the art world...

Facing A Challenge

UPDATE: My digital altered book is in! Check out the link on the right sidebar under "My Digital Altered Books". It's called "Fairy Castles and Palaces Described by Isabella". They did a fine job of converting it.

Here is my latest endeavor. I get easily distracted, did I ever mention that? I'm taking a break from paintovers for just a minute. I have been browsing through my latest books on dolls: paper dolls, fabric dolls, clay dolls, everything dolls since that is what's been on my mind lately. And after looking through some of the art blogs about dolls that I have bookmarked, I decided I wanted to try this. I'm not ready for polymer clay. I don't want to mess with baking it, and I'm not really interested in learning how to roll it, condition it, etc.

I was going to use paper clay, but I've had this package of air-dry clay longer so I thought I would start with it. I've had the face molds for awhile knowing in the back of my mind I wanted to try this one day. Well, "one day" came last night. I decided to go for it. So, I opened the package and started in. I made so many because a) I've never done this before and didn't know how they would turn out and b) I've also never painted them before and still don't know how they will turn out. So, I figured I better make plenty of them to practice on.

The first couple of faces were a little rough, so those I will paint first! I still want to try the paper clay because I've been reading how the doll makers rave about it. Anyway, this was my first go round and tonight I'll start painting them. You are supposed to let this stuff air dry for about 24 hours.

I still love my brides and my paintovers and will continue those. That last one with all of the crystals was a strain on my eyes! Such little crystals, even with the tweezers. But, I love her and am glad I did that one.

The bodies for these little dolls are going to be another challenge for another blog post. I've got some ideas brewing and I'm not sure how they will translate to real life. Stay tuned...