Dolls Galore!

I promised that I would share the doll that sparked a mass commission fest for me. I did it as a gift because my friend Evan is a great small business owner, loves what he does and inspired me to take my love of art and work toward opening a brick and mortar store in Vancouver. While life has me tied down right now, I'm in the serious planning stages for this venture. Anyway, Evan is a great guy and has been commissioning me like crazy. I can't complain!

So here he is:

I don't have any photos of his rough sketches, but here's his final body part layout before I started painting.

Painted and cut and ready to be assembled!

Paper chosen, body assembled and doggies applied!

Final.

Another angle before they go in a frame.

Here he is with his pups in their frame.

We (I say "we" in the sense of my fiance and I) are attempting to make shadowboxes by hand for this next commission I'm working on. I think making them ourselves is a great way to keep everything handmade and lets us work together. He's excited about working with his hands, which then makes me more excited to work. I love partnerships!

Progress post

Now that we're in the home stretch of buying our first house (the bank accepted our offer, the home inspection came back ok, now we have to wait for the VA to send out an appraiser), I decided to pick up some work that's been sitting (or leaning, rather) against my art table for the past year and a half while I wrapped up my thesis.

This blog post is dedicated to a couple progress images of the couple of projects that I'm working on. Since I have such a hard time dedicating 100% of my time to one project. I'll find something that frustrates me, and have to move on to another project.

I think there is a good side to working like this. It keeps me interested through the times that I want to just sit and stare out the window, and it gives me a chance to work on different techniques at the same time.

On to what I'm working on!

I'm recreating a piece I did for a class that was in gouache and ink. But since I think she mirrors my pin ups, I figured I'd give her a chance digitally. I still have a lot of anatomy fixes to make before I finalize.

This is a crappy cell phone image of a paper doll that I've been working on since last summer.  At this point, I'm playing with colors and layout. As soon as I've figured out how it will be finalized, I'll scan and shrink this doll to about 8x10 and put it in my shop. I think it's going to be a fun little piece.

I started a series of sketches in 2007 based on the Moirae or the Three Fates. This is Clotho, who was responsible for spinning the thread of human life. She also made major decisions, such as when a person was born, thus in effect controlling people's lives. I wanted to create a series of three, one for each Moirae all depicted as a contemporary woman whose subculture matches the sentiment of each Fate. Since Clotho is basically a mother, creator, life giver, I depicted her as a pregnant woman with dreads. She's a nature lover and her tattoos are symbolic of the energy of the piece. I will also include birds that are also symbolic of each Moirae. The other two will remain a secret until I have sketches of them.

Lastly is an image that isn't a piece of work, but something I'm housing work in. I bought two 19x19 shadowbox frames from IKEA this summer with the intent of putting birds in them. But as my heart works have grown in popularity, so has the desire to have one for our own home. So I'll be creating a big heart for this box with a bunch of added extras. I can't wait to continue working, but I also can't wait to see how all of these turn out.

Progression with a shadowbox

Mental note to myself: I want to re-do the Juniper Tree's full-page illustration into a large poster. (I'll get right on that, right after I make 6 huge paper dolls.)


Alice is coming along slowly. I have another project ahead of her that's a commission for a friend (which is coming along) and then I'm going to putz around with her in between thesis work. Can I do it? Will I find time?! WHERE WILL I FIND TIME?!
I think I should purposely make time, because I have a feeling that my brain is not in working order and that I'm also not working as hard as I should be on important projects.

So here's Alice, and the shadowbox that I found while I was buying frames for my robots. It's about roughly two inches (maybe three) deep and tall enough to hold her. She's one of my larger personal dolls and I just grabbed this box "just in case" I wanted to make something bigger. Well, there you go, my subconscious was working for me this one time,

She's pinned to the board above my work table so that
she's out of the way while I work on thesis stuff.

Hard to see, but she's taped to the glass
area on her shadow box. Can't wait to finish!

Progression

I'm a bad blog operator. I really should have a set schedule to post. I think that would also keep me motivated to continue drawing. This will be my faux-resolution.

I have a handful of projects started. I like it.
I also do not like it. But thus is my scatterbrained dilemma.

I just am starting to feel overwhelmed with the amount of work I'm doing, and it really isn't even that much. It's just that I haven't set aside time to complete it all.

This is where shopping will come in tomorrow. I'm going to pick up a dry-erase calendar that I'm going to keep above my desk with all of my pending projects on it. I'm going to give myself a set amount of time to work on each project and note what days/times I'm going to dedicate to working on each. I have to see them written in front of my face.  I struggle with depression and BPD. It effects how I work. I know I'm not the only person on the planet that struggles. But I feel like it is holding me back more than most.

I lack motivation and consistency to get my stuff done, and it's pissing me off. I let my mind wander off onto other projects and stupid time wasting stuff. Then the next thing I know, it's a month and I still haven't gotten anything finished.
Some of it is a fear of failure. My non-digital work doesn't have an "undo" button (as much as my brain tells me it should). I'm afraid of making mistakes, although, I'm often ok with admitting to them.

I started working on a tattoo commission for a friend. I'm excited about it because it 1.) is a pin up and I love creating new pin ups, 2.) Is for an awesome person and 3.) is starting to look better than most of my pin up work.
Although I'm not even 1/2 through it, I'm so excited about the project I've started taking some progression shots and I'm going to share them here.

I am also struggling with my Sketchbook Project book. We paid to participate and I lost my motivation as soon as I started school back up. I figured I'd have enough time to work on it in between class assignments. I didn't realize that my thesis proposal would take so much out of me. So now I'm scurrying to get stuff in my book. Luckily, I have some ideas, but now it's all about tactics. How am I going to assemble this book?

Anyhow, here's the progress porn. Er, photos.

Here's a quick shot of my progress on Alice. I'm not as far along as I want to be, but she's what I work on when I take breaks from other projects.

And a shot of my sketchbook project page. I'm so far behind on this I've lost interest. I'm not sure how I'm going to attach it to the page yet though.

I hope to be a little more motivated and caught up tomorrow, with my post-float glow. Pfft.