Free Paper Doll blank

I love love loved paper dolls when I was a kid! I used to make my own. I was kicking around the idea of making paper dolls again, I have loads of paper around to create clothes and such for them.

So here is a paper doll blank for anyone to customize and make their own. It would be awesome if you could link back with your results!

I printed mine out on cardstock and colored it with colored pencils, but use what you like. Have fun!

Sketchbook Pages

I am running out of pages in my sketchbook super fast! It looks like I will have to get a new one this weekend. I love looking into other people's sketchbooks, so I am offering a couple pages of mine.


This is what a lot of the pages in my sketchbook are like... floating heads and faces with flowers and trees and swirls, and I write little notes to myself in the blank spaces.


I was thinking about compiling my own sort of visual dictionary full of the images and themes I like to use in my paintings, to inspire myself. But... thats what my sketchbook is all about anyway.

I draw a lot of faces. And hair.

Upside-down Bunny! I always forget which way is Up in my sketchbook, so I draw in all sorts of directions, and on both sides of the page. My sketchbooks are a messy messy fun place full of images that stick in my brain... And a place that I don't have to feel like I need to finish anything. There are a lot of half-finished, or barely realized ideas softly sketched in there. I like using pencil and teeny tiny super thin pure black pens. A lot of these floating ideas get turned into paintings, but once you add color into the mix, the images involve into something else.... The girl in the top left corner was the idea for my Spring painting... sometimes I wonder if I lose some of the feeling or mood in the translation from sketchbook to painting.

Finished!

A long time ago I dyed a bunch of papers with koolaid and tea (no one was going to drink the koolaid...) and I just discovered them in a box of papers that I haven't dug through it a while. In that same box there was a big bound stack of scrapbooking papers that I bought because it was on sale. Now I have a lot more surfaces to paint on. (Yay for unpacking and finding fun things!) So, of course, I sat down immediately to paint two new ideas from my sketchbook instead of being good and finishing something I had all ready started. Oh well, I can be good later.
I did manage to finish two pieces. Of course they were two completely new pieces, and nothing from my In Progress stack. (Arg.) But they are finished.



She is named Spring because I was thinking about spring when I painted this. I live in Florida, and we don't experience much in the way of seasons changing but when I did live somewhere cold that first bit of warm weather, the birdsong, and the bits of green were really exciting. There is a tiny sketch in my sketchbook that had a lot of these elements to it, but once I started painting it evolved into its own thing... as paintings usually do. (That is the tea&koolaid dyed paper, I used the fruit punch sort. Too bad it doesn't smell like fruit punch. It smells like paper.)




I was thinking about Alice in Wonderland with this one, so it is now titled Alice. Or Tilty Alice. Just look at her face, I think she is a bit more precocious than your usual Alice. Maybe she's the Alice type to you, maybe not... Maybe I just wanted to paint a little girl and her dog-sized rabbit. I am very happy with the limited palette. And now I want to paint an entire series of little girls and animals.

Saturated with color - 2 finished pieces

I remember when I was in school I kept sketchbook after sketchbook. I would go through one a month or more. I drew these tiny little pictures, floating in the middle of the paper... my art teacher would always comment that I was wasting so much of the paper/page, a 8.5x11" page and my image was always 3"... Why didn't I just get a smaller sketchpad? Or better yet, draw more on the paper.

This always sort of stuck with me. I have a need now, to fill up the entire space of the page with color and marks. And sometimes I think, maybe simpler is better. Maybe white space is a good thing. (While I am coloring it all in ^_^)

2 new scans for today. This one is Roots. I feel like it is finished, but besides that I don't know what I think about it yet. It is a mixed media piece, a study for a more indepth painting. I don't know if I like the brightness of it yet. But... this incarnation is finished.



Another finished piece, yay! She Dreams of Moths Tea stained paper, paint, glitter, gel pens, colored pencils, gold leaf pen, markers, and chalk. A lot of media went into this piece, and like everything else, it evolved from what I thought it was going to be. I am really happy with this piece.

In Progress

I am working my way through my "Work In Progress" stack... slowly but surely. (It is huge!)


Thought Process Cho and Second Thoughts These are also the last of the wooden panels for now. (I think) There is a lot of black, purple, and red in these pieces, and for one reason or another they just don't feel quite Done yet. (I always have this problem.) Thought Process has a lot of things going on in it that you just can see here. There are girls with floating hair floating in clouds, roses that bleed, paint rivers that turn into pages, then birds, then butterflies. Well thats the idea so far, it is still coming together. Cho is based off of a photo of Margaret Cho I saw in the paper. Second Thoughts has evolved quite a bit from what it started out as, in the beginning it was very bright green with gold metallics. She has no eyebrows! HA, I just noticed. Anyhow, these pieces are put them aside for now until I can think of something else to add. I do this with everything which is why my WIP stack is...well... stacking up.

This untitled piece is based off of the Little Red Riding Hood story. There is a lot of collage work happening in the background that I am hoping to reveal in certain bits, and continue layering on paint and more paper. It is interesting to see something in such a beginning stage, this is where, if I don't like it, I will paint completely over it. (Improbable here, there is a lot of tissue and paper collage under all that white.) Little Red has a mood to it that I like, so I will keep painting it and posting progress.



And lastly is a painting for my little sister Krista, Magical Dream Squid. The caption (if I had one...) should read "While other little girls had sparkle ponies to play with, my little sister would go on dream adventures with her magical squid." I started this painting with acrylics, and I finished it digitally. (So, unfortunately, the hard copy remains unfinished and In Progress)

no sleep...must scan

I was counting all the Works In Progress while I was scanning. I have quite a few... I hope there are a million other people out there just as bad as I am. I always five or ten different projects and get stuck on some, like some more than others, or have more inspiration for some. Then I am sitting back feeling accomplished because I've finished one, and there are nine others starting back at me. "Finish me! Finish me!" Which, of course, I do not... I start up another five or so more. ^_^

Speaking of finishing things, how do you know when you are done? I never know. I have this one poor little painting that has been at least four other paintings, but I keep painting over it. Maybe I can name it Indecisive. Ha! (I am really horrible with naming paintings, really horrible. Sometimes I just name them the first thing that comes into my head.)

I am really proud of my little printer/scanner. It prints so nicely, and fast, and Quiet. I can't wait to start making millions of paper craft things like some of those from Paper Forest I will end up covering our little desk with armies of paper birds and people, mwahaha!

Of course, this post wouldn't be complete with out some art lovlies: These two are The Rain Queen and Angel Hair (See what I mean about titles ?) The Rain Queen is all sorts of mixed media on bond paper. Markers/colored pencils/glitter gel pens/paint/collage papers/tissue paper/mica powders... and more probably. She is metallic and glittery in some parts. I really don't know when to stop ^_^ Angel Hair is simple, markers and colored pencil on Bristol. The no-iris thing bothers some people, but I like it the way it is. I also love the scribble technique ... Ursula Vernon of Metal and Magic had a tutorial for it on her deviant art page, and it is ever so much fun. If you are ever feeling to 'tight' with your pencils or paints or whatever, it is a fun fun fun way to scribble and create texture and shading. Scribble! Basically you create a colored ground with acrylics (I used markers) and then over the top of it you make little scribbly bits with colored pencils. So, uhm, check out her art. (Or her blog...) Because she is can paint and is hilarious, and...uhm... I said so.


Well then. The next three are pieces from last year, two are from when I was playing with monotype printing techniques, and the other is a painted sketch which has the same girl plus floaty hair thing that I've been doing for... well, since I started doing this art thing many moons ago. I believe I named them Pink Heart Star Girl and Painted Hearts. The names don't really matter to me. I just keep having this image in my brain and I paint it and draw it and doodle it, and it doesn't leave me. Hearts and stars and pink and girlies oh my! It seems I have stopped being able to speak intelligently about my work.

art Everywhere!

Why is it that after you move, it takes so long to get settled in? I think everything that needs to be out is unpacked... I think. There are still a couple of boxes in the closet and pantry with art stuff in them, but I will have the get to them some other time because I'm running outof space! My corner of the room is completely covered in art things. I was so excited when I was unpacking I found a bunch of fun little treasures that I thought I had lost. I was so so sad when I thought that I had lost yet ANOTHER group of paintings, but No! I unpacked a box today and there were my little wooden pieces and canvas panels waiting for me. Yay! Yay!

You see, normally when I move I end up losing a bunch of paintings... Anyway, I'm not going to be sad about that.

I do have all my art supplies and pieces, but when we moved we didn't take any furniture, only the computer. I don't have a table or an easel yet, but we have a king sized bed, so I paint and draw on the bed... I just spread out all my supplies and sketchbooks and paints and brushes and get to work. Slowly slowly slooooooooooowly we are getting furniture-type things. At the store this weekend we bought a computer desk, and a scanner/printer. Yay! I spent most of the day scanning all sorts of things.

Firefly Galaxies Gloomy and Ghost White

Like these wood panels that I unpacked.

They are around 5x7 so they fit in my tiny scanner, too bad my 16x20 canvas panel won't fit... next we will just have to buy a camera. ^_^