Sunday, March 21, 2010

My Enchanted Doll Obsession

Enchanted Doll, by Marina Bychkova, have you heard of this? Have you seen these amazing dolls? Go on and take a look. For the last few months I've submerged myself in this world, getting to know the wonderful people on the Enchanted Forum, and feasting my eyes on those beautiful porcelain (and now also resin) ball-jointed creations. I want one so badly that it hurts, but it's such a wonderful obsession.

For her birthday this year, Marina held a contest— we sent in Enchanted Doll inspired handmade gifts, and she chose a winner to receive a free nude Enchanted Doll. Naturally, with such a fantastic prize being offered, tons of people participated with truly lovely submissions. Here's my entry:

Orchid, Silver, and Dove

Hooray!
An excuse to use silver gouache, and to paint elaborate hair, hands, orchids, and pretty doll-ladies!

Looking at it now, there are so many things I wish I had done differently— like I wish I had come up with a more interesting background, and that I hadn't painted in that strange looking dove. Hindsight! I do still like the way things turned out, and I am very glad I participated, even though I did not win. I like how her face turned out, and her hair, and I want to paint a million more orchids now! I love them!

And as long as we are talking about Enchanted Doll fan art, a few weeks back we had a little gift swap among a few members on the Enchanted forum, and I did a painting for that as well:

Roisin, For Jayne

This painting now belongs to my forum friend Jayne, all the way over in the lovely land of Australia. It's her dream Enchanted Doll, Roisin. This painting was completed before the ED B-day contest painting, and the face is very different— I didn't know how to properly translate an Enchanted Doll's face into my own style, but I like the way she turned out all the same, I think she is sweet.

Anywho, I hope I haven't weirded any of you fine people out by admitting to this obsession! It's just such a strange and wonderful thing, finding something interesting to love and communicating with people all over the world with that same interest. It's a great feeling, I highly recommend it.

That's all for now!

8 comments:

  1. Oh my beautiful painting! She takes pride of place in my faffing room. Thank you again.
    Love Jayne xxx

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  2. Oh wow, your contest entry is gorgeous, but I just love that swap painting, she's too cute for words.

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  3. Oh nancy I'm such a fan of your beautiful bright paintings.... these two pictures are just gorgeous, such a vibrant style!!

    The portrait of not-lily is stunning, all those beautiful delicate hands!!

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  4. wow your painting is so beautiful, i especially love the hair, how the strands are winding into each other!

    and the little girl of the ED swap is just so cute, makes me all happy inside! :)
    ~Annina

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  5. Wow, what an interesting thing, Nancy! I spent this morning browsing through the photos on the site and reading about the process. Very pretty and intricate. Lovely paintings on your part--I like the poppy/marigold hybrid design especially. :)

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  6. You don't give yourself enough credit. These pieces are truly from the heart. Anyone receiving these art pieces would show these off with pride.

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  7. Hello my forum ladies, thanks so much for your kind words! I have a feeling that I'll be continuing to paint dolls or at least make doll inspired things for some time yet :)

    And Kali, aren't those dolls amazing? The amount of work that goes into them makes me feel completely lazy in comparison! And thanks, that floral background was one of my favorite bits too.

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