It's kind of appalling how little drawing I have done this year, but I am striving to remedy that.

I am a firm believer in the fact that anyone can learn to draw because I have no particular natural "talent" for drawing, and yet I have managed, slowly, over the last five years, to learn how to do it.  Just in the span of the time since I created this blog, I have managed to improve pretty mightily (frankly I am kind of amazed myself since drawing is probably my most neglected hobby).

So if you are an aspiring artist and frustrated with your inability to draw hands or feet or relatively believable anatomy, just keep at it. Do the work! Copy images out of books, draw from life, use Google image search to find poses to help you. Study animation techniques (you will learn more about dynamic drawing from animation than you will from a straight anatomy text).

If you just keep doing it, and pay attention to what it is you are doing (i.e. learn how the body works under your skin), easier free-hand composition will gradually come to you! Hang in there!

The picture above are the bases for my final bodies. I haven't quite assigned heads to the poses yet but these will eventually be Lewis, James, and Morse. The fourth body might be Mish and I am drawing a fifth for Razi-el.

Enough blathe

The Mix Shop over at Etsy is offering some rather cool pendants.

The charms on this one show a Victorian-era bustle dress (typical of the early 80s) and hat. There is a separate charm pendant with the woman to whom these articles "fit".

It's a rather nifty idea and fabulous for the paper doll lover and has a nice bronze patina for that antique look. The design looks suspiciously like the doll by Helen Page that I posted here earlier.

In other news: my scanner is on its last legs, so I need to purchase a new one. Until I do, I have not really been able to scan stuff, so that's why I have been sort of trolling the internet for items to share rather than posting things from my own collection.  I'll get a new scanner soon, I hope, and then it will be happy days again.

Today's item comes from Fuji Arts, an online auction site dealing primarily in Japanese prints.  

This is a 19th century print of Japanese women in a variety of traditional kimonos. Typical of the style of cut outs in this era, they are created so that the dolls have fronts and backs. It's interesting that "clothing" part to be assembled is the various hairstyles (many of which are similar, it seems).

After the East was opened to Western society, there was a pretty big craze for all things "oriental" (hence the later popularity of The Mikado, for example). But these lovely little dolls appear to be made in Japan for a Japanese audience.

Can't date them very well, but I am guessing late 1800s. Click on the Fu

This is an amazing supplement from the Boston Sunday Globe, which produced numerous wonderful paper dolls and toys at the turn of the century. This was originally posted at an amazing blog well worth checking out called Antique Toy Chest.  

This is an amazing variety of stand-up style dolls depicting scenes from the literary classic Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is very interesting to see such a painful part of American History reproduced so starkly (the man with the whip is pretty skeery~ as are the dogs and dying Little Eva), but the educational value of a supplement like this probably cannot be underestimated.

Like most of the Globe supplements, this one came with instructions which are not provided here. The instructions were usually about how to assemble the various scenes and descriptions of what those scenes represent.

I am tagging this entry "antebellum" because the dolls represent pre-Civil War characters even though this was produced in 1896.

Here are a couple of pictures from another amazing 19th century doll house environments (these are also authentic from the period!). Both feature typical McLaughlin dolls of the late 1900s. To see a couple more "rooms" in this amazing collection, check out A Home for Dolly.

I have always had an ambition to create my own paper doll environment (never so ambitious to want to build it in three dimensions, but have for years conceived of a flat surface "house" with various rooms and props). Probably made a few as a child, but none of them survived, alas. I remember very distinctly drawing and coloring tiny little food items and cutting them out. One of these days maybe I will attempt another.  Looking at these examples lately certainly is inspiring!

This Italian blog shares some wonderful images of the interior of the Victorian Paper Doll House produced by Piggy Toes Press. I had always wanted one of these, but never picked one up. I think now they are getting hard to come by except in used (and tattered, most likely) condition. The pictures show off how much amazing detail went in to designing this lovely pop-up house.

Go to the website to see pictures of the dining room and more. Probably, if I had known the book was this well-done, I would have bought one all those years ago when it could be had for a relatively reasonable price. Maybe they will reprint it. I haven't searched too hard for one lately, so it may yet be out there.

Check out this fabulous Victorian Flash doll designed by Sarah Vaughn and produced by the Hachette Book Group. It is inspired by a character named Alexia Tarabotti from a series written by Gail Carriger.

She's a bit steampunky, but the dresses are generally authentic for the 1880s and she is lots of fun to play with!

Today a gorgeous young Victorian woman from 1885 by contemporary artist Helen Page. You can download this doll and several other beauties at Helen's website.