Before I sign off for vacation, I thought I should offer at least one Santa Claus paper doll ('tis the season and all). I intend to make my own one day ~ I have some pretty specific ideas about what I want him to look like, and he does appear in my series at least once that I am aware of, so he's officially a "character" of this universe. But in the meantime, here's Tom Tierney's Santa Claus, who deserves the honor since he has the coolest 19th century costumes of all the Santa Claus paper dolls that I have seen. Click on the image to see the costumes in more detail.
The marketing idea of a "Santa Claus" was really born in the 19th century, thanks to Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (more commonly called by its opening line minus a "t'was: "The Night Before Christmas". The idea was popularized by Thomas Nast in the illustrated papers (the patriotic depiction on the left is drawn from a wartime newspaper in 1863 ~ notice the army camp in the background there).
Tierney's paper doll includes an interesting evolution of Santa Claus through the 19th century from his Dutch beginnings in a 1821 image all the way to the turn of the century in his first motorcar. The second costume here is undated, but by the look of the doll it's likely based on an image from somewhere in the 1830s or 40s.
I hope everyone has a happy holiday and I look forward to posting lots of fun stuff in the new year!
Well I exceeded my ambitions in that I finished the whole set of characters (dollwise at least ~ they are still all in their undergarments, however, which needs rectifying!). I have to get to work on some other projects and don't want to spend too much time scanning them properly for now, but I thought I would at least post the "evidence" that they are, in fact, completed. The picture doesn't really do them justice since you can't see the lovely nuances of their faces, etc., but I will share them in more detail shortly. I have a few days left here before departing on vacation, but when I return, I will definitely begin working on their clothing. When you have more than one doll to work on at a time, it's nice to be able to switch back and forth between the two (keeps things fresh and interesting). I'd painted a body for Morse last week, but hadn't done anything with it since. Tonight I made a head for it (click on the image so you can see it in better detail). The best thing about this head is that I think it really captures something about Morse than many of my other pictures of him fail at: namely the sort of serene, vapid look in his eyes. I've never thought of Morse looking especially wise or priestly. I think he can be austere and certainly frightening for the intensity of his gaze, but I think his predominant expression is one of mindless ease: he's in no hurry to get anywhere and no earthly matter can be so pressing as to cause him a moment's fretfulness. This is not to say he doesn't ever fret or that things don't concern him, but in general, he really ought to have this slightly glazed happy look on his face. I made some modifications to the Amy pose that I posted earlier. She seemed too small in the previous incarnation. Somehow, proportionally to the other dolls she was okay, but by herself something didn't seem right. So I made her a little taller and a little stouter. I also changed the posture of her arm and hand. The other position looked awkward and unnatural no matter what I did with it; like she was trying to be sexy or something, which would be peculiar for the character. Anyway, I am much happier with this pose and will transfer it to be painted this weekend. I decided to challenge myself to make some dolls before Christmas. I keep trying to modify the set of dolls I made previously, but something about the James character has just never been right. After much futzing, I've decided that it's his pose that's all wrong and so, yes, you guessed it, I'm going to make him over again (third time's a charm, right?). |
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