An unexpected art attack!

This post will be mostly about 1/6th scale miniatures but first, a bit of background...

A while ago now, Mattel released their newest iteration of Barbie - Made to Move. 

These dolls have incredibly good articulation and after reading a couple of reviews online I knew I needed one or two to add to the 1/6th scale crew. I ordered a random pair from Argos and once I had them unpacked I was VERY impressed. Considering their incredibly low price I'd rate them extremely highly and I can see myself buying more of these in the future as they're really very, very good.

ERMERGERD, BARBIES THAT CAN STAND ON THEIR OWN TWO FEET?! O_O

They fall over a lot because their feet are still ridiculously tiny, but never mind, that can be solved with decent footwear - the articulation is more important to me!

The brunette is now a blonde and nearly ready to be shown off as a portrait of yet another of my Skyrim characters but her friend was destined for another fate. She got a haircut... 

 

(which was an ordeal in itself, hence the hat! XD)

...some new and borrowed clothes and now, she even has a profession!

I decided she’s going to be an artist/photographer which will give me a good excuse to do some miniature paintings and take her out for photoshoots in scenic locations but I think I got slightly carried away the other night making her some art supplies...

The pencil packaging and watercolour box were doll’s house printables I scaled up but everything else is made from scratch. I printed them out on normal printer paper, but set to high quality, then laminated them with clear parcel tape, cut them out and folded everything up. I used superglue to stick them together rather than my usual PVA.

The watercolour palette is all styrene with the leads from watercolour pencils smooshed into each section! The hinge is just tape - I didn't want to risk making a proper one in case it broke from opening it up too much.

The paint tubes were made from the thick metal foil that tops some bottles of wine - I'd been saving some for ages in my stash for a project just like this! The lids are tiny eyelets glued upside down and painted. The pencils and brushes are toothpicks painted with nail varnish - the brush tips are trimmed down real bristles and tufts of faux fur with a scrap of tinfoil superglued on around them. The bag of 'oil pastels' are yet more watercolour pencil leads - they're so fragile!

I found the canvas in a rather unusual place - the £1 shop! In the stationary section they had a few packs of photo paper for printing but they also had some canvas effect matte 'paper' for doing homemade canvas prints. it's real fabric as far as I can tell, but synthetic. I made some (slightly wonky) tiny wooden frames from coffee stirrers, soaked the canvas so it would stretch round them, then held them in place with mini bulldog clips til they'd dried fully, at which point I got the superglue out and glued them on at the back. The watercolour pencils I used for the 'paintings' went on fine, but I wanted a little more realism so I made up a quick and messy gesso using some white acrylic and talc and daubed it on. I have to admit, it's such a minor thing but it makes a big difference! I think the paints adhere better and it has a much more convincing texture than before.

I’m actually going to take some canvases with me on holiday next time I go and do some proper watercolour painting at the beach…just in miniature!

So, with that in mind, I made some sketchbooks as well for that very purpose – the ringbinding on the black one is a little big but I have seen full scale ones a bit like that so meh, artistic licence. :P I used this tutorial for it if anyone's interested. The elastic (a plaiting band from my ancient grooming kit, haha!) hasn't been attached yet.
The green one was a little simpler to make - I just cut out some pages and matching front and back covers, (from a textured christmas card and thin cardboard, respectfully) tapped them on the table a few times so they were level, then clipped them from the bottom and sides to hold them all together. A couple of layers of copydex glue on the spine end were applied, then when that was dry, a folded section of bias binding was glued over the end, and ta-da!

 

I used sketchbook paper for this rather than bog standard printer paper. This had the advantage that it was thicker and more realistic and held up to being repeatedly doused in water!

Obviously it would be a chore to carry all that around in your arms, so I also provided our aspiring artist with this!

The messenger bag is made from some fabric scraps from my old full sized version and has working pockets. (and yes, all the art materials fit inside, minus the canvases obviously)

The chocolates are just printed out labels laminated with clear parcel tape and glued around rectangles of styrene painted with a wonderfully glitzy silver nail varnish which looks exactly like foil. The Rolo one was done exactly the same, but with a bit of clear plastic tubing I had knocking around. I don’t drink coffee myself, but I think she looks like the type to be slightly addicted to Starbucks so I made her two so she can drink on the go!. 

The cups were printed out on two pieces of paper and glued together, then hardened with a couple of layers of superglue so they’re pretty sturdy. I’d have made them from thin card if I had any spare to print but I didn't so this had to suffice. The lid on one was just a couple of circles of cardboard and the frothy creamy bit is a scrap of expanding foam I picked at with a fingernail until it was the right shape, then sprinkled on some chocolatey coloured pastel dust and dabbed on some clear matte varnish to seal it.

She likes her tech, so I kitted her out with a shiny new Macbook, an iPad, and a now rather outdated iPhone 5 to match my own.

 

 

  

 

I made up the printables for them all using stock photos of the real products, printed them out and again, laminated them with clear parcel tape and used double-sided tape to sandwich each layer together.

The one thing she doesn't have yet is a name so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I like short and quirky names but nothing's sticking yet unfortunately.

Anyway, I have great plans for her so watch this space! I'll also be updating with the ponies I got from the Lake District Live at some point - I haven't been able to photograph everything yet but I have quite a few new faces to introduce.