Paper dolls

Recently i've been jigging between one thing and another. Preparing supports for a new larger painting, fiddling around trying to make a gramophone horn out of wood veneer (futile thus far). And also trying to work out how to get puppets which don't take an age to cut out and sand and prime. Also, wood is not a delicate enough sruface to use for some things, so I thought i'd try paper. Once I hit on that I became (as usual) completely obsessed by it and have an idea for a kind of Theatre scene.

Here's a wee drawing from my sketch book:


I would like to be able to hang the puppet from a discreet rail at the top and also hang other items like a bird cage, balloons, a bird and so on. It would also be great to acquire a Timber slice as a frame. I've done some searching and can't find anything big enough yet.

Either way it will probably be around 3 layers of forest trees cut out and framed by circular cuts of wood, and puppets hung in front. I have already painted the paper doll. (It looks better if you click on it and get the full size!) she has movable limbs.
She is without cloak, but she does have a cloak accessory since forests at night can get cold. Maybe she needs a electric zapper for self defence as well?
I'm thinking that I will probably offer her as a print which folk can cut up themselves as well.

Chinoiserie

The previous reference to chinoise wasn't fully er explained. The hair painting turns into the branches and I was aiming for a kind of chinoise style but a lot simpler. I don't think I fully hit the target but I found some great source images which I thought i'd share!


I love th freshness of the colors and the delicacy of the paintings. So anyway I drooled for several hours over these wallpapers and fabrics. I would love to be able to take some of the colourings/styles into some paintings. No idea exactly how or in what way or when. But, looks nice huh?

Chinoise, commissions, general update

So at the moment my day job has been pretty hectic and i've been filling an order for a commission. It's a lot bigger than i'm accustomed to but it was very enjoyable so I may do bigger pieces in future. Below are some progress shots which are pretty rubbish, the weather has been overcast the last few days. If I can, I will post some better pictures soon.

I tried to keep the whole thing simple and uncluttered, the photos really don't do it justice (even if I do say so myself!).

I've also swapped Jimi Jumping jack for a bag and dress from the wonderful wonderful artist known as Unordinary on etsy. Her etsy shop is really just the tip of a very large iceberg however, check out her great paintings and dioramas here, as well as her blog here. Here's the dress - I LOVE it!

I took some better photos of the Jumpin Jimi before sending him off to her, here's one of them:

Meanwhile I want to get on and start this musical sculpturey type thing i've been gnawing over the last few months and i'll hopefully have the chance to do that tomorrow. Beautiful sunday! pure bliss. I'm also thinking of doing a bit of weird jeweller