Illustration Friday - Linked

This week's Illustration Friday word is "Linked."  Once again, a lot of ideas came to mind - Links of chain tying a ship to a dock with a family of rats scurrying up the links, links in a daisy chain, a line of elephants with each elephant linking their trunks to the tail in front of them, two tigers walking side by side with their tails linked, a chain-link fence separating two friends.  But the word "linked" can also mean a bond between two things or two people.  After all, how many times have we heard the phrase "romantically linked?" I wasn't in the mood though to do something romantic.  Besides, I've been wanting to have more pictures of children in my portfolio so this led me to my final idea.  I began thinking of friendship and from there I thought about what better way to illustrate the word than to have two children, bonded by friendship, whose arms are linked as they walk their dogs.

The final art was done in Corel Painter 11.  I'm including two sketches.  The first one is a very loose, quick sketch that I did in my sketch book and then scanned.  The second sketch is a digital pencil sketch done in Painter.  This second sketch is a cleaned-up version of the first looser sketch.  It is this more refined sketch that I used as my guide to the finished art.

A Paper Doll That I Can Call My Own Part 1

Okay, I admit it - as a kid, I not only played with dolls, I played with paper dolls.  Between my sister and myself, we had lots of them and we spent hours playing with them.  Being the pack rat that I am and a hoarder of vintage ephemera, I still have most of them.  A few years ago, when we were preparing our family home for sale, my sister decided to part with many of her old paper dolls. Since I couldn't stand to see them thrown out or sold at an estate sale, I decided to adopt them. So, my collection now includes many of those that once belonged to her as well.  I spent this morning scanning many of them.  You can see from the yellowed scotch tape that has defaced many of them, that they are nearly worn out from years of childhood play.

These first two (upper right) are paper dolls of singer Rosemary Clooney.  They are printed on rather thin paper and were cut out by hand. You can see that time has not treated them well.  The poor Miss Clooney on the right has lost a hand.

The next two dolls are of Hayley Mills. The Hayley on the left in the pink underclothes was from a set that came out to tie-in with  "The Moon-Spinners," the 1964 Disney mystery based on the Mary Stewart novel.  The film is often classified as Disney's answer to Hitchcock.  It may not be Hitchcock but it is an entertaining film and made even more enjoyable by some of Hayley's costars - the wonderful Joan Greenwood, Eli Wallach and a former siren of the silent screen, Pola Negri.  The Hayley on the right in the blue undergarments is from "Summer Magic," a 1963 piece of Disney fluff based on a Kate Douglas Wiggin book.

The three beauties on the left and the two men and little girl on the right are from a large set called "Bridal Party" that came out in 1955.  From all of the yellowed tape that as children we employed to reinforce their necks, you can see that they were well loved and played with a lot.


This next group is from a set called "Tiny Tots."  They were some of my favorites, probably because they included a little boy and because their poses were so dynamic. These tots are not standing still with their arms behind their backs or hanging at their sides like so many paper dolls.  They are running, skipping and waving.  Note that the little boy has received a hand-drawn, right-arm transplant.  We often made our own dolls and their clothes.  If something was worn out, or we just wanted an additional doll or item of clothing, we traced ourselves a new one and colored it with crayons.

The sitting baby on the left of this group is also from the "Tiny Tots" set.   She is in relatively good condition, leading me to believe that she was not played with as much as some of the other tots. The three upper figures, including the elf in the red union suit were from a Christmas set put out by Colorforms.  They are printed on heavy cardboard, unfortunately, none of their clothes seemed to have survived.  I don't know the origins of the other two infants (who as you can see on their diapers are named Sunny and Honey).

I was always fascinated by the dolls that were printed with a front side and a back side.  What was the purpose of this?  Was it so that in your pretend game, you could show them walking away?  Or was it just so that you could view their fashions from all sides (yes, even their clothes were printed on the front and back).  Here are a few examples of 2-sided dolls.

  Even though they were printed on rather flimsy paper, these were some of my favorites.  They were large, about 11" and had a wide variety of outfits.  Of course, I look at them now with my jaded adult eyes, and I feel that with their big eyelashes and heavy make-up, that they look like they could have stepped out of a junior beauty pageant.

Here are a few miscellaneous dolls.  The one on the left with the missing right arm was a Colorforms doll.  As I recall, her clothes were made with the same stick-on vinyl that other Colorforms toys were made from.  I don't recall much about the origins of the other two dolls, but I have to say that the smaller one on top looks something like an inflatable adult love toy.  Maybe it's her pose and her partly opened mouth, not to mention her outfit which looks like that of a barmaid, that causes me to think that.  The larger tall blonde paper doll, with her petticoat showing from beneath her skirt, and her adult style neckline, also looks a bit provocative.  But once again, that's my jaded adult voice speaking. I would like to think that things were more innocent back then, at least I know that I was.  Looking at these dolls now, jaded comments aside, does take me back to my innocent childhood and some very fond memories.

I have more paper dolls put away somewhere.  When I find them, I'll post more.  In the meantime, I hope that you have enjoyed these.

Illustration Friday - Dip

The word for this week's Illustration Friday was "Dip."  Several ideas came to mind for this week's word: strawberries dipped in chocolate, dancers dipping their partner, dipping a doughnut in coffee...but, maybe because we've been having some unseasonably warm weather this week, my first thought for the word was of someone taking a dip in a pond or lake.  I then decided I would illustrate the word as a follow-up to last week's illustration.  The word last week was "rescue" and in my illustration for that word I showed some dalmatian firedogs rescuing a screaming female elephant from a burning building.  So this week I decided I would show what happens after the rescue -  everyone goes for a dip of course.  I'm including my original digital pencil sketch so that you can see the evolution of the piece.  The final art was created in Painter 11 using the gouache brushes and various chalks and digital watercolor brushes.

Good Friday Memories and Easter Ephemera

Today is Good Friday. Growing up as a Catholic, and going to Catholic elementary school, I remember that on Good Friday, school was always let out early. But before school let out, we were required to go to Mass. It was a long Mass due to the fact that the gospel reading always consisted of the entire Passion.  Of course it seemed even longer knowing that after Mass was over, we would be allowed to go home and start our Easter weekend.  I always felt antsy during Mass and since Good Friday Mass was so long and it was usually right before lunch, I sometimes started to feel a little light-headed and faint.  This wasn't helped by the strong aroma of the incense that wafted from the censer that the priest swung back and forth as he walked down the aisle.  My feelings of restlessness and discomfort during Mass made me feel guilty since I was supposed to be concentrating on Christ's suffering and death on the cross.  Yes, the pews were hard and I was hungry, but my sore bottom and hunger pains were nothing compared to the agonies of Christ that I was supposed to be contemplating. What I needed to do was to stop complaining and start thinking about the Stations of the Cross, but as a grade schooler, that wasn't always the easiest thing to do. So, of course, guilt ensued.

The other thing I remember about Good Fridays took place at home.  Since tradition held that Christ died around 3 p.m., when 3 o'clock rolled around, my sister and I often joined my mother in saying the rosary.  It was usually just the three of us, since my dad was still at work and my older brother seemed to always manage to get out of joining us in such things.  

Other than having fish for dinner, the rest of the Easter weekend was pretty low key.  I do remember looking forward to Easter Sundays though. When we were very young, I remember that on Easter mornings we would awake to find that my parents (or was it the Easter Bunny?) had given each of us a new Easter basked filled with a stuffed Easter bunny and some pipe cleaner chicks. If we were really lucky, we would also each get a See's candy chocolate-creme Easter egg.   Later on after Mass, which thankfully was relatively short on Easter, my dad would hide plastic, candy-filled eggs in the backyard for us to hunt. Our big meal of the day, as it was every Sunday, came in the early afternoon, usually around 1 p.m. I think ham was what we had for Easter dinner most years. As I got older, moved away from home and spent more Easter's away from my family, most of what I found special about Easter seemed to fade away. With both my parents now dead, and the rest of my family scattered across the country, any Easter traditions that we shared, are now long in the past.  Now Easter seems to creep up on me by surprise. I'm usually taken unawares by the arrival of Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season. And when Good Friday rolls around, it doesn't seem that different than any other Friday. When I think of Easters now, they are tinged with nostalgia and a bit of melancholy. 

Yesterday, I pulled out of my closet a album of postcards that was kept by my Grandma and Grandpa Desjardins.  The album is filled with a mix of scenic cards, portraits, and holiday cards.  The postmark date on many of them, including the Easter postcards that I'm posting here, goes back to 1910 and 1911. So, for your Easter viewing, I hope you enjoy these century old Easter Greetings and may you all have a very Happy Easter.

Illustration Friday - Rescue

The theme for this week's Illustration Friday project is "Rescue."  Here is my take on the word, created in Painter 11 with some slight level adjustments in Photoshop.  Before working on this week's project I had been looking at a lot of Richard Scarry's work, in particular "Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever!" I love his images of small towns populated with all sorts of animals, who are always happily going about their daily jobs.  In my image, the fire-fighting rescue dogs, are a little worried about how they're going to manage to rescue a 4 ton lady elephant from this burning building.