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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Musings on Life as an Artist

I was browsing through the blog of my favourite artist, Amanda Louise Spayd, and a thought came to me. How did she start making her creepy bunny dolls? I figured I'd start at the beginning of her blog, and work my way to the present. Her style changed, but she established her look quite early. It got me thinking about my creations from last year, and how much they've evolved this year.

One of my first ever handmade monsters - 2008  © Curious Little Bird  
It also had me thinking about the future a bit. Where will I be, what will happen? I mean, I love my furry guys very much, they're lovely, and everyone else loves them too.

My monsters 2 years later - 2011 © Curious Little Bird 

But the art side of plush dolls is calling me! If it wasn't for this gov't program pressuring me to make a product in large quantities (that, and the need for financial assistance to pay my bills), I probably would be nurturing my more artistic side with art dolls. Because art dolls take so much more time, I feel guilty if I spend half a day working on something that's larger, more complex, and in the end, more expensive.  But it's nice to nurture that side once in a while.

I've been dabbling with the art doll idea. See here:

Mathilda and Marvin © Curious Little Bird  
I think they're cute, in their own little way. I know if I had more time to work on one idea, I could really develop these into something nice. I think I need to work on their clothing. If I could figure out how to make clothes for dolls properly, these could really be artistic, right? I need to wrap my head around making clothing for little people. I need lots of time, and lots of nice fabrics to do this. Making clothes is not a one hour job! I can imagine my female art sculpture with a frilly collar, and maybe a dress that actually flows. I might have to work on their faces though. I like the pinwheel eyes, but maybe it's not the right kind of eye? Maybe I could hand paint the faces. I'm very good at painting depth, colour and shading...

The Elves and the Shoemaker painting - © Melanie Audet 2004
This gives me an idea. I've always loved painting, and illustrating. It's been my passion ever since I was a child and I could pick up a pencil. Maybe I can combine fabric art and my illustration together....

Hmmm...

Great! Until next time. In the meantime, here's a cute photo of me playing with my cat, Squeak, and a moustache sculpey I made yesterday. I love this photo. It took me a full 3 minutes before Squeak would sit still and I could position the moustache in front of his face and get the camera still. :) Success!

It's Mr. Moustachio at your service.

2 comments:

  1. First I love your cat....and the moustache adds a certain charm :-D ahhhh you should deffo try and develpop art dolls, but i can imagine it must be hard to strike a proper balance!

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    1. Thanks! I think once I'm done with the program I'll focus more on art dolls. Right now making a certain amount of money is more important. :)

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