woodland babies

Paper dolls are really fun to make, especially cutting and assembling them. The activity brings to mind long afternoons spent with my sister and brother, gathered around the dining room table quietly creating fairies, monsters and mermaids for our little world. The picture above is the first draft of the dolls, a sketch to see how the parts will fit together.
This is a shot of the transferred sketch (the line drawing) and the watercolor in progress.
The finished watercolor! I like to use a variety of materials when I paint. Egg tempera is used over washes of Daniel Smith's gemstone pigment watercolors, which have a delightful tendency to form patterns while the water is drying. The egg tempera is an opaque paint, which has a satiny sheen that is very luminescent. The last details are painted with acrylic ink and a crow quill pen, for the tiniest lines or dots (like in the eyes).
I took this assembled set to a park where I knew of a few stumps with turkey tail and lichen growing on them. It was really windy, which made taking pictures especially challenging.
Here are a couple close ups of the assembled dolls. I made lots of parts to mix and match between the dolls, which is kind of fun, I think.
I had them printed on heavy cardstock, with a nice satin finish. The colors printed surprisingly well, almost identical to the original. I love this batch so much. I think I'll paint a background for them, although they look pretty good in a shadowbox frame! I'll put these in my etsy shop for sale within the next few days.