With the whole world gone nuts right now, we can all use a little break each day, so I've decided to start a 'Smile for Today' album. I've been taking doll photos for over ten years now, and there's hundreds of stories, and thousands of photos, so I'll be pulling some of my favourites. This will be in addition to my regular posts. Today I'll start with something from the Alphabet Challenge back in 2012... "O" is for Nami in her Orange dress, handing an Oar to the Outrageous Octopus getting ready to sail across the Ocean in his Orange boat full of Orchids ...and Ringo in his Kissing Booth, from a 2018 Photo Challenge....
I've been working on shooting scenes for my upcoming 'White Cat Sequel', and had a Tavern set up on my dining room table the past few days. I find it really interesting how combining all kinds of different pieces of furniture and props can create such a different setting..... I've not started posting the story yet, even though the first few scenes have been shot. It's just that I need to take some outside, and the weather has not been conducive. Plus Jan came down with a bug (not the currently dreaded one) and the doctor said he needs to self-isolate for a week. Plus all the worldwide craziness over the coronavirus with all the escalating closures, has me rather stressed, so it's a bit of a challenge being creative right now. I did finish making Prince Adrian's feline alter ego earlier this week though. I still had most of the fabrics I used 25 years ago, except for the blue brocade the original tunic was made from, so had to substitute something else. And I only had an extra pair of brown boots - as opposed to black - but I think I prefer the brown. But otherwise their outfits are quite similar.... So yesterday, after having finished the story photos, and having removed the Tavern owners and all their patrons, I just had some fun with my cat characters. I've removed them all off their bases. Thankfully I didn't use glue much 25 years ago, so it was easy to remove them all. The cats have cloth bodies over wire armatures, so are quite posable. Enjoying dinner together.... ...with Junior seated across the table.... And behind the scene.... Today the Tavern is gone and it's back to setting up a castle interior, but I always take photos of the setting first, just in case I have to recreate it at a later date.
It felt really satisfying to finish that old cat figure, and then I remembered two figures that have been lurking in the back of a cupboard for years, and thought it was finally time to put them together on a finished base. The two figures are Lex and Tim from a scene from Jurassic Park. Lex was made in 1994, and Tim the following year in 1995. They were intended to be part of a scene with Dr. Grant, stopping to look at a nest of empty dinosaur eggs. 'Malcolm was right....life finds a way..." I never enjoyed making contemporary doll clothes, and the two kids had the most contemporary outfits I'd ever made. Plus they were all torn and dirty from their harrowing encounter with the T-rex in the rain and mud. And Tim had been partly electrocuted. They were supposed to be a mess. Unfortunately, Dr. Grant was never made, so the piece was never finished, and the two kids have been in a cupboard ever since. Which seemed like such a waste, since they were highly realistic, and really should be out on display. So I thought I'd just make a base with the two of them at the edge of a dinosaur nest. Which meant I needed empty eggs. After thinking about how to make strong, empty egg shells, I got the idea to cover some small wooden Easter eggs with foil, then cover one end of the egg with a thin layer of Aves Apoxy Sculpt. It worked perfectly. The foil came right out of the insides of the shells.... The insides of the egg shells had the impressions of the wrinkled foil, and I really didn't feel like sanding them, then remembered that the shells from hatched birds have all kinds of dried blood veins on the inside. I expect dinosaurs would have been no different. So I painted the inside of the shells with reddish-brown paint, wiped away the excess with a damp paper towel, leaving just the veining from the foil impressions. Then I rubbed a bit of paint on the outside, and splatter-painted them. After all, who knows what colour dinosaur eggs really were? After a coat of varnish they looked very believable - just like quail eggs.....
And now for the same two dolls, in the same setting, photographed with the sun coming in the window. I shoot everything in RAW, which means that instead of letting my camera make all the setting choices (when taking photos on the Auto setting) I have control myself. It means having to process each photo in Photoshop so I get exactly what I want. Most cameras would totally blow out the scene because of the harsh contrast, and the initial RAW photo is no different..... But since I have total control, I can turn it into this.... One thing I did have to pay attention to, was to shade the lens of the camera when it was in the sun. This next photo I forgot, so ended up with all kinds of flares from the dust on the lens..... I love these two together, so tried several more photos....
One more set of 'window photos', this time with Monica and Lawrence, and this time I did change the background to a more appropriate, older castle interior. This first set of photos was taken earlier in the day before the sun came through the window....
For years I've been avoiding taking doll photos in the sun, thinking the contrast would be too great. But I really liked the last few Curiosity Shoppe photos with the sun shining in through the window, so I thought I'd try it again with another doll, and liked the results so much, that I thought I'd try it with Bianca in her gold Medieval gown, now that she has the veil attached.... I didn't bother putting her own castle interior back up, and just shot in Kassia's castle, so her gown isn't exactly period appropriate, but I didn't care. It was just an exercise in taking more photos in the sun, and I love the results. They remind me of Waterhouse paintings....
With the two new Medieval gowns done, I just have to wait for the two new ladies to arrive before continuing with any Medieval photos. So I got an idea. I have no idea where it came from, but I know better than to ignore inspiration when it hits. It involves the characters from 'the White Cat' photo story my sister and I did almost 30 years ago. At the time, we were just beginning to make our OOAK art figures, and weren't offering them for sale yet. We thought it would be fun to shoot a doll version of an old French fairytale, so we set about making the main characters and the cat figures. These were the original Princess Blanchette, and Prince Adrian..... They stood in my display case for twenty years. But then I got into BJDs, which I thought were infinitely more beautiful. So one day back in 2012 I decided to take apart Blanchette's gown and rework it to fit my JID Isar. I was lucky that thirty years ago I never used glue in costuming. Everything was sewn, often by hand. The only real challenge was that clothes for art dolls were sewn right onto the figure, whereas BJD outfits needed to be removable. But I got it done.... Not long after, I came across a good deal on a Limhwa Mono, and decided to remake the Prince's outfit for him instead..... Because he was a pale normal resin, I thought he should have an equally pale Princess, so I decided to order a normal JID Kassia to be his Princess, instead of Isar. She arrived at Christmas that year, and I had my new Princess.... The two of them have always had an interesting relationship over the years....from the time she lent her gown to Leona for her wedding renewal, and was free to experience life as a 'modern woman', until she had to go back to her Prince... (story) Or just in everyday life around the castle....(story) But the other day, out of the blue I got the idea to revisit their original story......well, not the exact same story, but something new, with a brand new character. I still had an old cat sculpture from my sister, that had never been finished yet, so I took him out and started by making his body, and then started on his outfit.... I took the other cats out of the display case and was happy to see that they were not permanently attached to their bases - just the bottoms of their shoes were glued on - so it was easy to remove them. That meant I could pose them without their unsightly wooden bases being in the way. So this morning I set up the interior of Kassia and Adrian's castle, and took some photos of three of the cats there.... I needed something more opulent, something later historically than the castle interior had been used for recently. And I wanted the window.... So now I can get started on the story....
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
April 2024
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