Paper Dolls

So over the holiday break I decided to try something new. I got a good deal on some canvases. I had some paper I had painted with lovely textures. I had an old dictionary I was willing to tear up. And I had some simple drawings of girls in my sketchbook.

Shy came first.I did the sketch a couple of months ago - not sure what I was going to do with it. I thought she looked bashful or shy and I think of her as sort of a self portrait. When I found the dictionary I thought, "If the page with the definition of shy on it has shy in the top left corner of the page, I'll use it as a background for the paper doll." I turned to the S section and - can you believe it? There was "shy" right where I hoped it would be. What are the odds? So that's how Shy came to be. She's finished with a shiny glaze, which I'm not sure I like. I used a matte glaze to finish Adventurer.Adventurer started with the dictionary page. I liked the effect of the collage over the definitions so I went flipping through the dictionary looking for good header words where I wanted them. I liked the sound of adventurer and I immediately thought of those Victorian ladies in pith helmets trekking through Africa. I started sketching, doodled away until I had something I liked, and then thought she really needed a butterfly net. I showed her to Alan and asked what he thought, and he said (I kid you not), "I think she needs a butterfly net or something." So a butterfly net she got.

You can click on either picture to see more detail. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these - but they were fun to make.

Next up - Vigilante. I've got an idea but first I need to paint some papers with black and very dark purple textures. . .