Featured In Art Doll Quarterly!

Hellooooo! First I want to apologise for last week's sorta dark post that I wrote.  I've made a note that when feeling lower and low and not my happy self, leave blogging till that passes. *laughs* So, I'm also sorry for not going around to visit. Forgive me, please! *Giving Sad Puppy Eyes*

Anyway...I'm feeling sky high happy today, which is such a great feeling to have again. I think I said some time back that I would have some news in November? Riiighhhtt?? And if you've been with me on Face book during the summer, I kinda blabbed early, but I was so excited!  I'd like to announce now that one of my paper dolls, Toko has been featured in Art Doll Quarterly!!!  I'm still excitedly waiting for the issue to arrive in my mail slot, but I just couldn't wait to share!!

And here's the little lady:

And the gorgeous front cover this the winter issue:

I'm just so super happy to be part of this issue, with all the marvelous doll artists that are are always in there and to share a page with them is such and honour and treat that I could ever hope for!
So, in my uber excitement, I'm going to create some new paper dolls this weekend.  I have one here that is actually part of the book I'm working on:

Her name is Fable and I'll have a better photo shot of her up a little later on. She's fully articulated, her wrists, ankles, head, torso, knees, elbows and shoulders all move.  My first time making a larger paper doll.  I have another one waiting, for the past two months actually, to be inked and coloured, then put together.

My gosh, I still cannot go on about how happy I am.  I've spend the last four years really pushing at the direction I really want to go in.  Submitting things and submitting things and feeling like I've been getting no where. No even getting rejection letters....just a void of silence.  But with this, I strongly feel a change in that, I see a light at that dark tunnel's end.  Seeing that email in the summer, that joyful acceptance letter....someone saying "yes" and thinking that it fits in with their publication, has given me the courage and strength to keep fighting for longer now. You guys have given me that too! So thank you all and Art Doll Quarterly!  The future looks bright again!

Ooh! Before I go, I'll share a little sketch:

I originally posted this on Face book. This is "Juliet" from William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Just a simple pencil sketch while watching a movie.  I always liked Clare Danes outfit from the 1996 film version and I wanted to draw something like it.

Well, that's all for today. ^_^ Wishing you a wonderful, happy and creative week! Cheers my friends!

Two Little Mucha Babies: Splash the Sea maid and Little Su the Cook

Hello luvies! Happy Monday, I hope yours went like magic.  The last two weeks here have been crazy hectic.  Got my apartment painted and some things fixed up by the manager and building owner. So there's been lots of people coming and going.  Haven't got much done in that whole while, outside of a new paper doll and lots of sketches and some drawings that are currently on the colouring table.  Including one for Summer Of Colour run by the lovely and talented Kristin of the wonderful Twinkle, Twinkle blog. (Which I highly recommend you go check out for some delightful and inspiring art awesomeness!) Which sadly I missed because I just can't seem to draw fast enough. *laughs*

So today I bring you two little paper dolls.  I'll start with Splash, the little sea maid.  She was created for Cameron of Paint Myself Pretty during her Mermaid swap last year. I'm still so in love with the piece she sent me.  I thought I had already had this little girl up on my blog, but when I did a search, I couldn't find it.  And I'm much happier now, knowing that I've corrected it. Ha ha, yeah!  Since I've been busy with my book project lately, and had no time to create something new, I was also going to submit this to the July Auction for Femme Thou Art Collective .  I missed that too darn it! My laptop hasn't been feeling well lately, so I couldn't get it posted in time.  But I have next month to make up for it.  Splash is the largest out of my dolls, probably due to her very large tail.  Her tail is sort of based on the movements of a washcloth underwater.  You know the kind you used to play with as a kid at bath time.  And she holds a small trident, ready to jab in the bottom anyone out of line. *laughs*  The background is one that I had on my USB file and can't remember where I got it from...but it suited this little maid very well.

Second little doll I have for you is Su:

Su is from the children's manga, "Shugo Chara Chan!" (English Translation: Guardian Character Chan!) There are four of these super cute characters in the book.  I chose Su because she has to be the most girl-y and sweetest one out of all of them, and well, she also happens to be green, which is one of my favourite colours.  She loves to cook, eat and clean...but I think eating comes out on top for her.  And boy, is she ever the master little chief!  She can cook anything, a skill I can only dream of.  Now, unlike Splash or any other of the little dolls, she's my smallest.  I couldn't make her as tiny as she is in the books, about 10 inches, I think, but I could bring her about as close as.  Even with that she'd still be larger than the manga character. *laughs*

I made a little wire whisk and a green bowl, to match the egg she hatched from (yes these little girls are hatched from very tiny eggs in the story), full of whipped cream.  For the background I used an opening title page from "Curly Locks" from one of my children's rhyme books.  The saying at the bottom really goes well with Su's personality and describes her to a tee.

Well, that's all for this week my dear bloggie friends.  Thank you always for coming by to visit.  Wishing you all a wonderful, creative and delicious week. Strawberry Cheers!

Cinderella paper doll

Hello my lovely friends! Oh my gosh, so happy to have my Internet connection back again!  It's been touch and go for awhile now, but finally settled into my new apartment...which I'll show you my new view in a minuet.  First, I want to talk about this lovely Mucha Baby here, as I'm  still working on part two of The Prince and The Sea maid, while making changes to the first half of the fairy tale.  Thank you guys for reading it and giving me your honest opinions too, you guys are all the sweetest!  Plus I got such and awesome story change suggestion from a great friend about the nature of the prince and I loved her suggestion so much that I've made those changes to the prince to boost his character and hopefully add some more excitement to the story over all. The story will update soon.

So, this little doll here is sort of my take on Cinderella.  I actually did this back in February after I saw a challenge call over at the Somerset Studio website . The theme was to create your favorite fairy tale character and I just couldn't resist giving it a try.  I first took a look at some English and French noble fashions of the 15 and 1600's and added some of my own twists and designs to the final outfit.  Deciding the colour was the hard part, I couldn't decide weather to go dark or a lighter pastel colours.  I found that I had to do some rough tests to see what would go good with her blonde hair...and blue with hints of gold turned out to work well and show up well on the scanner.  Her little detached shoe is sewn onto her hand.  My mum was nice enough to let me use one of her doll needles to do that.  I went a little crazy with the glitter pen for the dots on her outer skirt, but hey, it's fun to sit there and dot away. For the background, I have a huge book on old English castles and flipped through it in hopes of finding something that would complement her.  She only took about two days to complete and stands at about 19 cm tall.

Well, as for my new apartment...it's quite nice and extremely quiet.  Which is so nice, which means I can focus more when I get inspired for either writing or drawing.  My view is like this now, I face the back and on a clear sunny day can see all the way into Richmond and see the mountain line of Vancouver Island.

Wishing you all a wonderful and creative week ahead. Cheers!

A Not So Spooky Giveaway!

Happy (early) Halloween my fellow muggles!  The big spooky day is on Thursday and I thought I'd have my first giveaway as a little Halloween treat.   And since Harry Potter has kinda taken over my life right now, I thought I'd create my first boy paper doll to show how much I love this little wizard.

I'll be drawing 2 names at a random from my cauldron with the prize being this little Harry Potter paper doll you see on this post today.  Harry comes with his wand, book of spells, the golden snitch and Hedwig.  He'll arrive un-assembled, with supplied mini-brads, all you will need is a pair of scissors or an exacto knife.  He looks lovely in a little shadow box, which my mum is doing for the one I gave her.  Who's as much of a Potter fan as I am. *laughs*

I'll be drawing the names and posting them here on Sunday, November 4th.  All you have to do is mention in a comment that you would like to be included in the draw and leave an email where I can get in touch with you in case your name is drawn.

Thank you so much my friends and good luck to you!

I think if I can squeeze in the time I would love to make the whole set of the characters, Ron and Hermione...maybe even Ginny too, along with Fred and George. (Just because those twins are my favourite!)

And since I'm such a lazy pants at creating proper backgrounds for my dolls, I used something I found in an art magazine that I have for children.  Called 4Cats Arts Studio .  If I did have kids, I would definitely take them to one of these places...they look like so much fun.

Thank you for reading my wonderful bloggers.  Wishing you a very happy Halloween! Cheers!

Two Little WIPs came out to play

Woo...hello my dear friends!!  I haven't done too much arting this week, as I'm getting things set up for a shop on Etsy and Luulla.  So I've been looking at other store owners to see how they price their things, how much they charge for shipping and so on. I was supposed to do this last year, but didn't have the confidence enough to think I could actually sell anything. *laughs*  But this year...with being out of work again...I thought..."Well, heck...what could I lose anyway?? Sometimes you gotta spend money to make money." So, I'm going for it!  I'll also be offering special commissions in my shops too...you can do that right??  Because if someone doesn't see what they want...well, I could easily make it.  I'll post a link here when everything is all set up...there's just a few last touches I want to make first.

I have several art pieces on the go right now...and a children's book I've begun work on.  Let's start with the WIP for the children's book first:

Meet little Sandy...she's the lead character in "The Birthday Wish" that I'm currently in the works in writing.  I originally wrote this back when I was in grade 4, but I was cleaning out my closet recently and I came across it.  Though it does need a bit of a major re-write...I couldn't resist giving a fresh hand at it again...the story line is just too cute.  She's learns a valuable lesson in being very careful about what you wish for, as you just may get it.  That's all I'll say about it so far. *wink*  Doing a children's book is something I've always wanted to give a try at...as they are such works of wonders to look at and charming to read in their sweet innocence.  I've been studying on how to draw children, so I hope this little lady looks like she's 8 or at the very most 10 years old.

She was much larger than my scanner could handle, as you can see.  I'll have to get a high res scan at the print shop to get the entire image in.

WIP number two!  It's a little mermaid paper doll!

I still have as yet to ink and colour her...but that will only take about two days to do.  She's for my lovely friend Cameron who is hosting a fabulous mermaid giveaway.  How could I resist that?! Nope...I just can't.  This little mermaid will be about 20 cm when cut out...which I'm probably going to have to get my tiny scissors out for cutting around those tiny beads I drew.  Ahhh, I think I love to torture my hands. *laugh*  I also gave her a little trident to hold...and just to make it seems a little less scary, I capped off the pointy spears with pearls.

Oh! And just to answer a question, I one of the pens I use in doing some illustration work is made by Sakura.  They're called  Gelly Roll and the particular line I'm in love with right now is the Gold series.  I have two:

They come in Pink gold, Black gold, Green gold, Purple gold, Red Gold and so on.  They are really super awesome in that they don't clog, are smooth and quick flowing once the ink starts on the paper and dry fast.  And it's neat to watch the colour change as they dry...they go from a bright basic colour to a gold finish when dry, with a colour outline of what they originally were.  When I get more funds in, I'm going to get the whole lot of them!

I think the Sakura Gelly Rolls also come in white, neon and desaturated colours...I'll have to check though...it's been awhile since I was last at De Serres art store.

Okay, that's all for tonight. I'm going to tuck myself in bed with a good book.  Have a wonderful creative weekend my dear friends! Cheers!

New Mucha Baby: Yuko

A little lady I did as a commission for a good friend on Deviant Art .  She requested Yuko, the Time Witch, from XXXHolic by CLAMP.  My gosh, she was so wonderfully patient with me, she's been waiting for this since Christmas,  I've been so caught up in comic making that I've fallen badly behind in other projects.  I'm a little unhappy about the colouring though, my printer ran out of ink!  So, I had to do some touch ups on the hair and also did some other work digitally on this, so it will look nice on the screen.  I'm just happy that when she does get the original doll, that it will be the proper colour. I'm such a perfectionist that I hate any little detail to be off...even if it is only slightly.

I used watercolour pencils, white and brown ink to colour her in and I added a background from one of my Mucha calenders.  She took me only three days to do.  I hope, Allyson likes the doll she ordered.  There's nothing I love more than to make someone happy with art!

Oh man, only a few weeks ago we had a huge dump of snow here...which in Vancouver, no one is used to driving in or walking in for that matter.  But it was beautiful to watch it fall.



The snow was here for about a week or so, then the rain started and it was all gone in a matter of hours.  As much as I love snow, I'm glad it's gone.  I don't have proper shoes to go out in snow with.*giggles*  I just stayed in and drank warm cocoa and drew.

Now, back to work on my two other short comics.  Hope you are all having a wonderful and creative week my dear friends. Love to you all!



Tiny Beauty: Zoanthia

This was a commission for a good friend, Muffin , on Deviant Art.  It's her own original character that she draws a lot.  I feel a little bad that she had to wait longer than usual, normally it takes only two to three days to finish a paper doll, but, I've been working hard on completing my short story.  It's my first time working with in a tight deadline date, and I really want to make sure I make it.  Plus, my order of the mini-brads is late.  I've been trying to hunt down brads locally, but that has proven really frustrating.  Amazon.com I'm so grateful to, that have everything!  Saved the day!  Now this little lady is set for her plane flight to merry old England where she'll be happily reunited with her lovely mummy.

My own mum has been so kind as to design and make my doll boxes for me. Sakes, that woman has been working really hard with doing research, making a master template and putting them together.  Which sometimes is a frustrating process when it comes to sticking the designs on.  She once stayed up til 4 am trying to fix a problem box!   I'm so grateful to her...more than I could ever express.  She's been such a great help, I really wish I could pay her for all her hard work. 

Here are some of the designs she's been working out....


These were the first two ideas prototypes she made.  They were later scraped because the packaging was a little too tight and there were some major problems in trying to get the coverings I picked to match up.  It also turned out that it would be too weak to travel through the mail.

This is the final design prototype for the box. It's on a hinged lid, which is much sturdier and is easier to open....and also much easier to match the patterns up.  I created  as well, a monogram stamp to seal the tissue paper and to go on the back of the dolls, and, a little Thank You note card that will carry my business card along with it.  I'm quite happy so far with the results.

The drawing that appears on the front of the box.  Took me at least three months to come up with something I felt really satisfied with. Took a lot of tinkering around in Coral DRAW to get it just right.

I'd love to hear your opinions on what you fine, and lovely friends think of this.

Oh! A very happy(I know it's early) Thanks Giving to all my wonderful American Blogger friends!  I hope you guys stuff yourself silly with good food and good friends and family! 

Happy creative week everyone.

Mucha Baby: Little Toko

Finished the newest little paper doll in the Mucha Baby series. Woo!  This is little Toko, a gentle lady of the hostess house...as you can see, with her Obi tied in the front instead of the back.  I kind of misjudged her kimono a bit when I was drawing it out on paper, so I'm hoping I can fix that.  But, I still think she looks cute as is, though.  I wanted to use little red brads for her, but I forgot I had run out of my brads last week...so to amazon.com I go for more!

Doll number seven has been sketched out and I'll start on her when I get my other commission done with.

I thought I'd include some WIP photo's of Toko.

This one was taken with my cell phone after I finished colouring her face.

A close up...

With Partial Kimono coloured...

And just for fun...a little mosaic.  I only just discovered that my cell can take shots like the one below...and I've had my phone for three years now. *giggles*

Have a great week!

The roughest, toughest cowgirl in the west: Jessie

Sorry for not being able to blog in a while. My mum has been ill and I have whiplash. Which I won't say how I got because it's very silly how I ended up with it. *giggles*

Anyway, finished a new paper doll! Woot! This is Jessie from Toy Story. Done as a special gift to my mum who loves Jessie. And she's a favorite of mine as well...and I don't really like most female characters from movies...but Jessie is just so different.  She's sweet kind, yet for a doll holds one of the most fragile hearts I've ever seen.

The hat was a little hard to do..*giggles*, but I think it looks okay.  She took about two days to complete and is done with watercolours.

Anyone else out there a fan of the Toy Story movies?  From what I've heard, there's a fourth one in the works. Yay!

Mucha Baby Doll: Gloria

Doll number four in my Mucha Babies paper doll endeavour.  I'll have to make more soon.  I'm going to work on designing more this weekend.  I did plan to have this little lady up August 1...but I had a commission to finish for a friend on Deviant Art, and the poor girl waited so nicely for two weeks for me to finally finish. 

I hope to at least fit in a little boy paper doll as well.  I have some great ideas planed for him...I'm thinking of making the male a little dandy. I love dandies, just cannot help myself. *giggles*

Gloria is available for adoption if any are interested.  I'm still working on setting up an Esty shop.

Have a great week!

Mucha Baby Doll: Dina

Okay, little miss number 3 in my paper doll making madness.  This little lady is just some fan art from Bizengahst by M. Alice Legrow. The leading lady is Dina who must work her way through puzzles in a mausoleum and live.  I wanted to show my love for the series with this paper doll.

Again I used a Mucha painting as a background, I could have painted one, but, I have some commissions that I need to finish, so, I just didn't have the time.  I'm also in sad need of black Brads and had to use dark blue ones for now.  I never knew Amazon.com sells all sorts of brads online! I was doing a search and was so delighted to have found a huge stash of them there.  I can't wait to order some!

The weather in Vancouver is finally warm and the sun has managed to fight off the clouds. So lovely outside today. Yayyy!  I might have to put down some money for a Starbucks fancy pants drink. More yayysss!  Have a good one everyone.

Mucha Baby Doll: Birdie

Second Mucha Baby paper doll in the collection I've been working on. I have three other's that are done and scanned into my computer.  I finally managed to get her printed out at the right size. Yay! She has a little bird cage for a chest and if you look very closely, there's a tiny bird in there. It's a bit hard to see, but a fun detail to add in.  I think I love her hair the most, but it was the hardest part to cut out...so, I'll have to rethink the hair when I do the others.  I'll also have to fix up the arm length a wee bit...they came out a bit short on her.  I'm happy to see these kinds a little problems now, I can always fix later.

Birdie will be available for adoption once I have an Etsy shop set up. I'm still working on designing the box for these little ladies.  I just can't decide on the two designs I've done already. Ahh, decisions, decisions. *knocks head*

I used a Mucha painting print that I have from my calender for her background.  Her shoes were inspired by Enchanted Doll.  A blog that I follow like a mad fan. *giggles*   Anyway, hope she's lovely to you all.  More paper dolls to come!

Pinoko Paper Doll

Look out world here comes Pinoko!  I've been bitten by the paper doll bug over the last month or so and Pinoko here is the first out of a set of five paper dolls.  She measures 19 cm tall and is printed on a very stiff paper.  She originally came out too small on my home printer so, I'll have to go to a copy shop to get more professional prints done.

And I say! It took me forever to find the mini brads....and I still can't find the right colours either.  I'm thinking of resorting to spray painting them if my quest turns up empty. *giggles*

These dolls will be available for adoption once I have them all scanned into my computer.

Pinoko is from my favorite manga "Black Jack" by Osamu Tezuka. My gosh I love it so!   I found a very lovely fancy envelope kicking about to use as a background for her.

Can't wait to make more of these girls!  The rest will be up soon.

Took me only two days to finish her.  I used Copic multi-liner in Sepia and watercolours.  Was such fun to do.