First I found a cute cheesecake pinup figure that I liked and used her as a template. Then I played around with different ideas: a naughty sleigh-girl, skimpy ice-skater, slutty snow-bunny etc. I ended up designing a cute elf outfit with stockings, boots and a short dress and liked it best! Here is the clean pencil design after a few rough drafts:
I debated about coloring her with marker or colored pencil, but decided to stick with my medium of choice: watercolor. After I painted her, I went over her with black ink to really make her stand out. I supported the back of the doll with some really cute red & green patchwork christmas cardstock paper from DCWV to give her some structure. Then I "laminated" her with some packing tape so that the watercolor wouldn't smudge or fade with moisture. I have to say that I LOVE the way this doll turned out. She is one of my better dolls as of late. I think using the watercolor and then inking in the outline gives it a crisp, air-brushed look. Here is the doll with her cute outfit (PLEASE click the picture to get a bigger view):
Last, but not least, I packaged her up. I REALLY didn't want to make a trip to the post office so I figured out a cute way to fit her into an envelope. I was going to use some dark green cardstock to stiffen the envelope so it wouldn't bend and made it a tri-fold. I slipped the doll inside and it looked so darn cute that I sewed her (with her outfit on top) into place. I found a silver gel pen and wrote a quick note to my swap partner inside. I folded the whole thing up and put a holiday sticker on the front to seal it closed then put it into an envelope! Here's a pic of the inside:
Before I end this post, I have to show you what was sent to me in return. I'm not really bagging on the sender, but this is an example of why I'm not doing many public swaps on swap bot anymore. It looked like someone printed out a template, glued it to some cardstock, did a bad job cutting it out, glued some embellishments on top, inked over some of the features and mailed it out to me. I understand not having a good quality printer, not having tracing paper or a light box, but there are SEVERAL ways to create art using practically nothing. I can't fault the doll, it's not her fault she was poorly made and she really does have a personality, but the artist should have taken more than 5 minutes to put her together. The saddest thing is that on the artist's flikr page, she has made some really cute stuff. I was really disappointed, but am not going to linger on it. The main reason I joined this swap was to create something pretty for someone else to enjoy. Oh, here is a picture of the doll I was given (click the image for a closer look):
I can't wait for my partner (also the swap host) to get her paper doll! I hope she enjoys it and doesn't think the partial nudity is offensive. I doubt she will, but you never know....
Anyways....I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas. I will try to find time to keep my blog updated more often. I've been taking pictures off all my recent crafting so I'll be sure to post everything soon!!!!
