AEDM Day 30-Ginny Skates

Ginny doll is an 8 inch vinyl doll that Mama bought, then later gave to me. I have several of the Ginny dolls. She is wearing navy jeans, a white shirt and belt, and red plastic skates with yellow wheels. Blonde hair hangs below her waist. I don't know why I like backlighting and theatrical lighting so much, but I do, for some reason. Hence, her face mostly in shadow...again! I like her!

This is the last day of the Art Every Day Month challenge. I'm kind of sad, but also ready for a break. I set my personal goal to sketch 30 of my dolls in 30 days, and I'm happy to say that I achieved that. I could keep going for a long time. I have over 100 dolls, and I may do some more sketches later to add to these, although I will use different paper and I will have some new glasses. :)

Each doll represents 2-3 hours per day for the last month spent experimenting with different poses, doll shapes, ages, hair, clothing, lighting, and personality. I showed up at my table whether I felt like it or not and started putting down marks, and I've come away with a better understanding and knowledge of all the things mentioned. I have surprised myself, and I feel that I've grown as an artist, so my goal was accomplished and I'm doing the happy dance!

Thank you Leah for hosting the challenge. You do a great job! And thank you fellow participants and also the Every Day Matters group (whom I've been sharing my sketches with), for your encouragement and for sharing your wonderful work. I might not have completed the challenge if y'all hadn't helped me. :) I've been so inspired by so many of you, and I'm truly glad that I did the challenge with you this year. Hope we can do it again next year! :)

AEDM Day 29-Doll Sketch with Flowered Hat

This is the same doll that I sketched yesterday from the back. I left the lighting from below her. I like theatrical lighting for some reason. I am also resting from all the folds and wrinkles in previous clothing. It's funny, I decided to rest from wrinkles and tackled a hat with flowers and ribbons. LOL But that was also good practice! AND I managed to get all of her feet on this one! She's not perfect, but I like her.

Each doll has its own personality, and I've gotten much better acquainted with them through the sketches. They are perfect models. What can I say? :)

AEDM 26, 27, & 28-Doll Sketches & a Doodle Sheep

Welcome back to the land of no feet! LOL
AEDM Day 26-Barbie stretching-I decided to try Barbie in a different pose. Unfortunately, her left foot ran off the page and her right foot ran into the previous sketch of Barbie leaping. It looked like ballerina 2 was kicking ballerina 1 on her behind, so I taped a piece of paper over ballerina 1's legs to scan 2's sketch. Not only does the tape show, but the edge of the paper too. This sketch should end where the tiles end. Also, AFTER I posted the sketch I noticed a little ghost in the background looking over the ballerina's shoulder. It's Day 28's sketch peeking through the paper. What can I say? Some days I should just stay in bed. :)

AEDM Day 27-Pirate again- Pirate girl was laying handy, so I decided to try her in a different pose also, and without the huge ruffle. One foot was propped up on something as she leaned against something else. I was mostly finished and decided to take a break. When I returned she had also decided to take a nap and had fallen over, so I did a little more to her and called it quits. I think the dolls are beginning to rebel on me. Anyway, it is what it is. A learning experience. :)

AEDM Day 28-Doll with a Hat-My father-in-law found this doll at a yard sale or flea market and brought it to me. She is white porcelin bisque with a cloth body, a blonde wig tied back in a pony tail, and a painted face with large brown eyes. Her clothes were gone, so I put this red plaid (I didn't have the patience to sketch the plaid this morning) cotton duster on her until I could sew her a new dress years ago. She's still wearing it. The duster was made by my Aunt Nellie in the 50's for my Tiny Tears doll. Anyway, she's also wearing brown cotton stockings, black patent shoes, and a straw hat (which I again got lazy on). She's not an expensive doll, but I like her, and I'm pretty happy with the sketch. Oh yes! I decided to try theatrical lighting and put the light below her. I like it! :)

This a doodle sketch that I did a while ago. It's not part of the AEDM project, but I'm beginning to want to see some color, so I thought I'd share it. I call it "Sheep in Pink." :) Hope you're having a nice weekend and I hope something on here made you smile!

AEDM Day 25-Barbie Ballet Redo

AEDM Day 25- Barbie again-This is what I meant for the sketch yesterday to look like (incidentally I went back added some to the back of the tutu on it to make it more balanced). I had a lot of trouble with this one's face and there was a lot of erasing. I used a spotlight on this one instead of the overhead light. I like it much better, but there's still too much darkness on her face for my liking.

This was my Barbie as a child in the late 50's. I picked the red-haired bubble-cut because she reminded me of a beloved older cousin. I was lucky enough to have a few bought outfits, complete with accessories and shoes, for her, but I had a big bag full of clothes that mama made her. Every time she made my Barbie a dress, she had to make my best friend and my cousin one too. My best friend and I played Barbies until we were fourteen years old (times were different then), and every time we spent the night at each other's house, it looked like we were moving, with our Barbies, their clothes, horses, etc. We had a lot of fun though. Little girls grow up waaay too fast these days, in my opinion.

See, I'm still playing with dolls! LOL

AEDM 23 & 24-Doll Sketches-Pirate Clown & Ballerina

AEDM Day 23- Pirate? Clown? or both?-She is white porcelin bisque with a cloth body, and I rescued her from the flea market also for a couple of dollars. She's wearing a delicate dotted white cotton blouse tucked into white satin knee britches and a white satin skull cap tied behind. A soft pink sash goes around her waist and ties behind, and there's a big net ruffle trimmed in silver over her shoulders and accented with a pearl button holding a soft pink bow. Dark pink strap heels painted on her feet complete her outfit.

Her face is white with delicate blush on her cheeks, a soft reddish-pink on her lips, and soft blue eye shadow over blue painted on eyes.

She's a beautiful doll, and I in no way did her justice. I forgot to turn the overhead light off and also had a spotlight on her, which made the lighting confusing. She isn't posable, so I kind of leaned her up like she's sitting on the edge of something and she kept trying to fall forward. I got lost in all the different textures, shades, etc., but it was a good lesson for me.

AEDM Day 24-Barbie in her ballerina outfit-I know, she doesn't look much like Barbie. She looks awkward and once again I didn't leave room for her feet and her ballet shoes. I barely got her hand on too. LOL This is my original 1958 Barbie with the bubble hair cut, which is red. It's also an original ballet outfit for Barbie.

I turned the spotlight off and used overhead lighting. Not a good idea, but I didn't want to start over. I posed her to look like she was in mid-jump with both legs and both arms behind her. It looked good in person. Unfortunately, I wasn't that adept at drawing it. Thus she looks...well, kind of different. :)

I didn't really want to post either of these sketches, but as they are part of my learning process, and I did say that I was going to show the bad, as well as the better, here they are. I did learn some things while working with them, but I think I'm beginning to need a break from them. I find myself trying too hard to see all the little nuances and I'm straining my eyes. I'm sitting right on top of my setup when I'm trying to sketch them and the light is glaring in my eyes and on my paper, which is not good. That's one thing I've learned. I need to have a little space between me and my subject. That may also be why their feet keep running off the pages. LOL

This series has been really good for me, and I kind of hate for the month to end, but at the same time, as I said, I'm beginning to need a break. I need to do some doodles! :)

AEDM Day 22-Clown Sketches

AEDM Day 22-Clown doll-She's a white china doll with a cloth body and a painted face. I rescued her from a flea market for a couple of dollars. I know I said yesterday that I was going back to sketching one figure, but my mind was changed when I got up this morning and decided that I was a little bored of sketching with a pencil and picked up an ultra-fine black sharpie instead. No darkening in my photo program so the images would show up today.

She is posable, so I sketched her kneeling with her hands outstretched in the first sketch. I also included the hideous huge lace collar that she was wearing when I bought her.

The second sketch has her seated and waving, without the collar. Her toes turn up like elves' shoes. Her jumpsuit and hat are half blue and half peach. There are two gold pom-poms on the front and her shoes are painted gold. The clothes were probably once a rich, bright orange and blue satin, but when I found her they were limp and faded, with the elastic stretched, and the hideous lace collar and trim on the sleeves and legs. She's very bedraggled looking, but loaded with character, which I'm not sure I captured.

The nose is too wide on the face close-up, but there's no second chance with a sharpie. :) Her face is white with blue eyes, gold eye shadow, black liner, pale pink cheeks, and a darker rose bud mouth.

I enjoyed doing these. Most of the time I was in charge, but sometimes, the sharpie was. LOL
Anyway, I feel like I'm getting better and I'm no longer afraid to use my expensive art supplies, even if it's just practice. I have art papers that are years old, because I was afraid I'd ruin them. Not so anymore! I've decided that if I ruin them, I'll still learn something from trying, so I just jump right in and start throwing images and color around and I'm having a blast. Far different from being tensed up and afraid to use the materials, but it's taken me a long journey to get to this point, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. :)

AEDM 20 & 21-Doll Sketch Twofers

AEDM Day 21-Sally & Bunny- Sally is a vinyl doll from the 50's. She's wearing a blue gingham dress with a white yoke and black patent shoes. I wrestled with her eyes until I gave up, which accounts for the darkness, that and I used a carbon pencil. Her eyes actually don't look this bad in the real sketch. Bunny is a little stuffed rabbit that belonged to my Pekingese, Kibbles, only she never got the chance to play with it. He actually has a pink striped body and legs with pink flowered sleeves, but I didn't have the patience to sketch in the patterns today. I see that I also left off the shadows on the floor, and I forgot to ground them again. Why do the mistakes show up AFTER you post them? :)

AEDM Day 20-Griffin and Tululah-Griffin is porcelin with a cloth body. He is the same doll I sketched yesterday, only it was only his head. He's still waiting for a kiss. Tululah is an ice blue bear that hubby got for me. I did a better job on her the other day. Anyway, I tried and I learned. So far, so good! :)

I think I challenged myself too much with these two in trying to sketch two figures. I'm going to cut it back to one tomorrow. I already have her picked out.

AEDM 16,17,18, & 19- Four Doll Sketches

AEDM Day 16-This doll is also Solange, except that I decided to practice foreshortening and posed her this way. I changed her face and hair to give her a different look, and I also added the joints that I left out of the other two drawings. I didn't realize that the face was so round and chubby looking, or that I got carried away with the darks on the face, until I posted it. Oh well!

AEDM Day 17-Also Solange, except I changed her hair and dress. I know there's a hard line around her neck, but this is where her head sits on her neck. She is, after all, a doll. :) I haven't been worrying about getting an actual likeness, but this actually favors her, and if I'd gotten the mouth a little smaller it would have looked a lot like her.

AEDM Day 18-A little 8" bride doll that I found at a flea market. I got her likeness pretty good. She's hard plastic with a mohair wig, The wide piece in the skirt is lace and there's a wide ribbon around the waist, tied in a bow in the back. She's also wearing a veil. The whole thing is brownish with age. Her white shoes are painted on. She's very old, but timeless. I like her a lot.

AEDM Day 19-A porcelin boy doll that daddy got for me. I meant to draw his whole body, but got the face started too big. He would have been without feet AGAIN, so I stopped here. :) I think he's part of a pair. He's waiting for a kiss and has a rose in his hand. Daddy thought he was so cute. His jacket is actually plaid, but I didn't have the patience to try it this morning, so it is what it is. One of the handful of boy dolls that I have in my collection.

A few times I've had to make myself start the sketching, even though I really enjoy it once I get the first mark down, but I am learning so much and gaining in confidence. It's absolutely been worth doing, and I'm glad I've been able to sketch every morning so far.

The next series may be my angel ornaments or a series of painted dolls. I'd never done a series before, and I'm finding it very interesting. Who says dolls are for children? :)

AEDM Day 15-Doll Sketch-Solange 2

I decided to sketch Solange again (see yesterday's post), because I really like her, and she is so posable. I modified her dress some to change the look. I didn't do too well on the foreshortening of her arm, leg, and dress, and she also has a much prettier face than I've given her so far. But that's why I'm practicing. :)

AEDM Day 14-Doll Sketch-Solange

Solange is a hard plastic doll with a vinyl head, from the late 50' s or early 60's, and is fully jointed so that she can be posed in any position. She was made by Uneeda and is one of their Dollikins. I found her at a Nashville flea market in her birthday suit, and she was sooo embarrassed. She had been a ballerina, so I combed her hair into a bun and put soft rubber pink ballet shoes on her. Mama made her a pink satin dress. It's a tad big in the neck, but Solange loves it.

Solange is about 20" tall standing. I seated her because the rubber bands that hold her together need replacing and she can't hold the poses standing. Good thing I decided to sketch my dolls. They are in need of new elastic bands and some other minor repairs. I'll have to get on that soon.

Solange is a great model for practicing real people because she can be posed in so many ways. Even her wrists are jointed, and she's much prettier than one of those blank artist mannekins that I bought years ago. :)

She is seated so far to the left because when I started her this morning I was going to loosely sketch her in two or three positions on the same page. This as far as I got, so I added some words to kind of balance her on the page. I like her! ;)

AEDM Day 13-Doll Sketch-Little Miss Marker

Little Miss Marker was a birthday gift. She is all vinyl and is wearing a nautical outfit. I have to tell you that all of the dolls I've sketched look waaaay better than my sketches. I'm not trying to get a great likeness. I'm just practicing the facial features, the poses, and shading. I can see the shade nuances, but getting them to come out my pencil is another matter. Oh, well! :)

AEDM 10, 11, & 12 Plus EDM 247- Doll sketches

AEDM Day 10/EDM 247-Something Creepy...This is Thumbelina, a vinyl and cloth doll from the 60's, that I rescued from the flea market. I got the bright idea to use a gel pen to sketch her on a paper that had some ink residue on it from the printer. Needless to say, the gel pen was in control. Then I got another bright idea to use a touch of red inktense pencil for accent. Her cheeks looked ok until I used a verrrrrry damp brush on them. Way too red, so I tried a white wc pencil over the top, with the result being what you see here. Thumbelina looks a little too creepy. I wasn't going to post her, but then I decided I would share my flops as well as the better ones.

AEDM Day 11-Thumbelina again, this time I went back to my old standby pencil. I seem to have something against feet. I did get one foot, minus the toes, on this page though. Again, not one of my better sketches, but I'm learning so much from the practice. I know, her head is a little small for the rest of her. I don't know what happened there, but I didn't have time to erase and re-draw it. Maybe I'll do better next time. :)

AEDM Day 12-Tiny Tears-Tiny is one of my childhood dolls from the 50's. She is vinyl except for her head, which is a very hard substance with the crown cut out for her wig to fit into, thus the mask-like line where her wig fits into the edge of her face. She has weighted glass eyes. She was very much loved and played with. Unfortunately, I played Dr. with some nail polish remover on her face and took some of the paint off and her eyebrows. Her eyelashes are also missing. I did re-paint her face when I started my doll collection with the five childhood dolls that I still had after I married. The holes in her mouth and on the sides of her nose are where she drank from a bottle and cried "real" tears. Her light green dress was sewn by one of my favorite aunts, who drowned when I was eighteen. It buttons up the back and has a sash. The dog is a little stuffed Pekingese, light tan. LOOK! She has feet! LOL

The baby dolls are harder to draw, seems like, but I'm getting there. :)

AEDM Days 8 & 9- Mei and Ruthie

I didn't get Mei and her bear friend posted yesterday, so I'm posting them with Ruthie today. Here goes!

Mei is a tiny clown doll given to me by one of my best friends. She is dressed in a satin jumpsuit with a large collar. She has a porcelin head and cloth body and limbs. She didn't want to be sketched alone, so I coaxed the pale blue long-haired bear, given to me by hubby, to pose with her. They held perfectly still while I tried to capture the different textures, but they were glad when I stopped. They were tired and I was too! :)

Ruthie is a vinyl doll from the 60's, rescued from a flea market. I loved her red hair, which was a total mess. It took a long time to get it into some sort of shape. She was also in her birthday suit. Mama made her a light navy blue dress out of velvet-like material and crocheted trim around the neck, sleeves, and tail out of white cotton thread. I added the white ribbon, the white underwear and knee socks, and the black-patin, laced shoes.

I used a carbon pencil instead of a regular one for a change. It was a little harder to control, but I stuck with it til I got ready to stop. Also, the lightest shaded foot was supposed to be making a step forward, but I couldn't get it to go there. Maybe next time!

Anyway, these are my last two attempts for AEDM. I also took a piece of 300# wc paper, wet it, and dropped black and red Sumi ink all over it and let it run and dry, which made a variety of grays. Then I dropped more pure black ink in randomness on top and left it to dry a couple of days ago. It's still sticky. I haven't decided how to proceed on it yet. I just wanted a break from all the pencil shading. When it's a little further along I'll show you. (I "borrowed" the idea from Leah over at AEDM). Thanks, Leah! I hope you don't mind. :)

AEDM Day 7-Doll Sketch-Sonja

I did it again! I failed to leave room for Sonja's feet, and I so wanted to show off her skates that I made for her! :) Sonja is a hard plastic doll from the 50's, given to me by mama for one of my birthdays. She is an ice skater, wearing a golden yellow taffeta dress with a peplum and lace the same color. Her golden blonde hair is swept back into a pony tail. She was barefoot when I got her at a flea market, so I made her some skates out of white felt, laced with gold thread, and sporting paper clip blades. She was so tickled and wanted to try them out right away. :)

I may have bitten off more than I can chew in trying to draw a doll a day for a month. It's taking more time than I thought it would. I'm proud of myself that a fourth of my challenge to myself is completed. 7 doll sketches in 7 days. That's quite an accomplishment for me, if I do say so myself. LOL Only 21 more to go!

AEDM 6-Doll Sketch-Suki

Well, I actually got the whole doll on the page this morning! LOL

Suki was given to me by my sister-in-law for Christmas one year, and I think she's adorable. She has a white porcelin head, arms, & legs on a soft body, and is wearing a white eyelet pinafore over a pink/wht gingham dress with white lace and white soft leather shoes that tie. Her hair is black and the bow is white.

I used the graphite pencil in the Canson sketchbook again and darkened the scan. I am getting much better at seeing the nuances in the lights and shades, even if I forgot to darken the lights in the black hair this time. I got distracted. But I had a great time getting to know Suki better! :)

AEDM Day 4 &5- Doll Sketches-Sasha

I didn't get yesterday's sketch finished or posted, so I finished it and sketched another angle for today and posted them both today.






Yesterday's sketch. I know, I didn't leave enough room for her feet again. LOL Sasha is one of my favorites. She is posable. She is actually dark complected, but I was in enough trouble with the shading. Her eyes and lips are painted on, her hair is almost platinum and her dress is blue/white checked. I ran out of patience. :) Also, I had company while I was working on her face, and I forgot to fine tune it when I resumed working on it this morning. But that's ok. I'm learning so much by trying. You really do learn by doing.

This is today's sketch, a close-up of Sasha, because she was already set up from yesterday, and I didn't want to go pick out another doll this morning. Just lazy, I guess. :) As you can see, this time I didn't leave enough room for her head. LOL I'll get it right...eventually.

So far I've been sketching in a large Canson sketchbook with a regular old school pencil. I turned the book sideways and drew a line down halfway on the page on 15 pages. I've been trying to sketch on half a page, which is kind of awkward for me. I was thinking this would make 30 sketches, then I could cut them apart and make a little booklet of sorts, but I'm not too happy with way the composition is going on them. Maybe I'll get better as I go along. Right now, I'm just worrying about drawing and shading. I'm also having to digitally darken the pencil lines so the sketches show up better on my blog. So my doll sketches may be going through some adjustments in the next few days.

Anyway, I'm having fun, and sketching dolls and their clothes is great practice for sketching people and fabrics. Hope you are all having as much fun as I am! :)

AEDM Day 3-Doll Sketch 3

My attempt at drawing Ninnette, a hard plastic doll from the 1950s. Once again, I didn't do her justice, and once again, I ran out of room for her feet, but that's ok. I had fun trying and the shading practice is good for me.

Her hair is platinum, and she has a faded pink bow in her hair to match her dress which has a floral cotton top with a sheer beige skirt with pink rick-rack on it. She is 8" tall and much cuter than my sketch.

However, I'm proud of myself because drawing with a pencil has always been a huge challenge for me, partly because I didn't enjoy it. Since loosening up with all the doodle drawings, I now enjoy pencil sketching. Look for some color to be added soon somewhere though. :)

AEDM Day 2-Doll Sketch 2

You'd never know that this is the same doll I sketched yesterday, would you? LOL

Yep, it's Tanzy again, only I pulled her little wool coat off to show her dress, which is an off-white linen color with a lace bib. The fold across the front is where it was creased under her coat. I got her face a little too long this time, and didn't have room for her feet. One of my problems is that I start drawing without thinking about leaving enough space for the drawing.

Anyway, it was a good exercise in shading, and I had fun, so it's all good. :)

I meant to draw some more EDM projects and a different doll for AEDM, but didn't get around to it today. Maybe tomorrow!

AEDM Day 1--Doll Sketch

Today is day 1 of the Art Every Day Month challenge for November, hosted by Leah, who also hosts the Creative Every Day Challenge that goes on all year, and she does a wonderful job, both as an artist and a hostess. I have been participating in the yearly challenge for a couple of years, but this is my first AEDM challenge. The goal is to create something every day, post it on your blog, and link to the AEDM post so the other participants can see it. It should be fun!

For all the information, either click on the AEDM red/blue button on the sidebar or go to the AEDM link here. Even if you find it after it's started, you can still play!

That being said, here is my attempt for today.

I am toying with the idea of sketching a different doll every day for November from my collection, then making it into a book. I'm not off to a very good start though and am not at all happy with the sketch for today.

I have to admit that I couldn't get really focused on it after I looked out and saw a HUGE black dog in the back yard eating the cat feed. Mama said there was one at her house and she had tried to get it to move on. I thought it was a little dog, but it's huge and has some pit bull in it. She's very muscular and has been taken care of, but she looks like on of those guard dogs in the movies about Satan. She's used to people, but if she turned on us, she could sure do some damage, plus she could eat Sammidog for breakfast. Maybe we can find her owner, keeping my fingers crossed. She's already found out that Mama and I feed dogs and cats, so she's not going anywhere. I feel sorry for her, but we can't afford another dog, especially one that size.

Anyway, I hoisted up my graphite pencil and my Canson sketch book and proceeded to attempt a sketch. I had problems from the start. I couldn't get the doll and the light situated like I wanted. I've gotten so used to the Moleskine paper that the Canson paper was hard to draw on, and the graphite pencil wouldn't get dark enough to suit me. Nonetheless I tried and here she is. I did digitally darken the sketch so that it would show up better.

Tanzy is a little porcelin doll, wearing a shell pink wool pleated coat over a white dress, white stockings and leather shoes, and there are tiny pearl buttons on her coat and shoes. She reminds me of one of my much loved cousins. She is such a sweet little soul. My sketch certainly does NOT do her justice, but I enjoyed trying.