Month: November 2015

The Walking Dead Paper Dolls: Rick Grimes

twd01_rick_thumbI almost feel like this one’s a cheat: Rick Grimes and his sheriff’s uniform. But it kind of had to be done, I guess. I also feel like I have to reiterate that I am making The Walking Dead dolls to amuse fan friends, which has been really interesting for me–typically I only ever make dolls for myself and so I feel passionate about the subjects. A very strong ambivalence can be passion, I suppose. Let’s just say the challenge has been good, but definitely a challenge.

At any rate, I hope the results please you. One of the nice things about these being black and white is that you get to dirty Rick up to your heart’s content: go ahead: splatter some blood on him, make him good and filthy. Also, be sure to draw lots of bruises and band-aids on his face if you feel so inclined.

I’ll tell you what, though: it took me about seven stabs to get that face to look anything like Andrew Lincoln. To be honest, I think it’s passable, but I really just gave in to “close enough for government work”. I can occasionally capture an actor’s likeness, but it’s definitely not one of my strong suits and something I am really working on. I don’t want to be a perfectionist too much about it, though, or else I’ll never get anything done. I struggled similarly with Daryl and Michonne. Everything is a learning process.

I’m also aware that the pose is a little weird. I had in mind a reason for putting him like this (so that he could shoulder a rifle and hold a pistol), but I admit it looks funny. The crooked way he’s holding that pistol is intentional, however: the character can’t seem to hold his gun straight in the series ~ which is the subject of many very silly memes. Again, at some point I just had to stop fussing with it and cut bait if you know what I mean.

[Click here or on the image to download a printable .pdf]

 

Judy : the London Serio-comic Paper Doll : Volume 26, 1880

Vol26_01_thumb

In an effort to collect my work here, I am reposting some dolls from from my previous sites. I want all my Judys in one place, so this is the first from that series. I’ll post the second one next week (probably on Tuesday), and I have an all-new series coming that should be ready around Thanksgiving.

And don’t worry: I’ll still post an all-new doll tomorrow, as per the schedule.

About Judy: Judy; or the London Serio-comic Journal was a weekly periodical published from 1867 to 1907 as a competitor to the much more popular Punch. One of its regular artists was A. Chasemore (possibly a pseudonym), who drew the “Fashion for the week”. These illustrations were fantasy concoctions; nothing anyone would have worn except in a theatrical or masquerade ball. The costumes were allegorical, sometimes political, and mostly whimsical. And since they were published in black & white, the sky’s the limit on as far as color interpretations!

The model for the outfits was a nameless and idealized “everywoman” but I have taken the liberty of calling her Judy after the publication. There actually was a character named Judy associated in the paper, but she was a comical, unglamorous frau.

These costumes are from Volume 26 of the series, published in 1880.

[Click to download a complete printable .pdf of this doll (6 pages)]

My Quixotic Relationship with The Walking Dead

twd_templateLast night’s episode of The Walking Dead is an excellent example of why I continue to ask myself what is the point of watching this show? S6E4 “Here’s Not Here” was 90 minutes of wind-blowing-through-the-trees zen psychobabble about man’s humanity with a character who, while interesting, isn’t all that compelling to me personally. So I sat and watched and rooted for Tabitha the goat and of course it was just one long slog of bleakness interspersed with 9th grade philosophical blithering. Reactions around the web are polarized on this episode, so I know I’m not just being harsh.

I’ve never been much into zombies, but I am a ghoul at heart, so by all accounts I should love this show. And yet it passed three seasons without me giving it more than a cursory thought. Then people started telling me to watch it, and by that time it had become such a phenomenon, I felt compelled to resist.

But I didn’t. I watch the first two seasons and decided it just wasn’t for me. I liked Glenn and Daryl (and even Rick sometimes when he wasn’t being insufferable), but I could barely name anyone else in the cast and I wasn’t moved when they started dying off. Also, I dreaded every moment Lori appeared on the screen with the passion of a thousand suns.

I was begged by my friends to persevere, I was promised grisliness and the death of the monstrous Lori. I trudged onward, but once Carl put his momma down, I’d had enough.

Two more seasons passed. A new set of people began nagging me to watch the show. A spinoff (Fear the Walking Dead) was coming and I decided to get in on the first season of that thinking maybe the problem with how I felt about the flagship show was binge-fatigue. It’s a lot easier to wear yourself out on the redundancy of a program when you try to cram multiple seasons into a couple of weeks’ worth of watching.

So I tried picking up where I left off with The Walking Dead in season 4. I was promised it got better (“There’s cannibals! You like cannibals!” ~ well, yeah, that’s true). Half-heartedly I managed to get through about half of season four (the back half), and random episodes throughout season 5. As far as I’m concerned, I’m as caught up as I’m ever going to get and Season 6 is quickly losing me.

stuff_thangsSo why am I telling you this? And why am I making paper dolls for a series about which I feel so ambivolent?

The Walking Dead has a very loyal and very vocal fanbase. They also generally have a good sense of humor about what’s absurd in the program. Not only that, but the people associated with producing the show have a love for it (the actors seem to enjoy themselves) and that’s evident as well. In response to those things, I can appreciate the series on a lot of levels even if I don’t share the intensity of adoration toward it. So I’ve made a handful of paper dolls for those fans (including my friends) to contribute to the goodwill of the phenomenon. It is, after all, a fairy tale success: skyrocketing from the obscurity of what began as a little creator-owned black and white comic book (now surpassing 145 issues and outselling many of the major superhero books).

There are a handful of paper dolls of The Walking Dead characters out there already. You can find them here:

Don’t expect anything too fancy from me with these. I’ll likely only make Rick, Daryl, and Michonne (they’re the ones I’ve drawn so far), with a couple of plates for costumes and a zombie or two. Yeah, I know I’m not supposed to call them zombies, but whatever.

Expect to start seeing plates for this series this coming Thursday. I’m having a devil of a time drawing Daryl’s silly crossbow, but I should be able to post Rick while I figure it out.