Tomato Boys and E-patterns

Well, of course, I'm still working on the Great Creativity Zone Cleanout. I got a little stalled on that because of life. And I'm working on a painting and on a little funny cloth doll.

The painting above was commissioned as a companion piece to a Tomato Girl painting I sold on Ebay. I'm trying to make a Tomato Boy painting that has the same feel and surface texture as the Tomato Girl painting, but I had a crackle failure due to humidity. So now the painting has a really shiny varnish feel. It's not that it's bad as is, it's just that it doesn't have the feel I'm going for as a companion to the other painting. So I began another painting. And it's still humid!

I'm also working on a doll using an Anna Mae Chestnut Junction E-pattern. I had said to myself "No more patterns!" but when there's such a sweet little pattern in e-pattern form, well, what can you do? E-patterns are so easy. I rarely order paper patterns now. I felt like making something that was all cloth - no painting, no clay. Unfortunately for most pattern designers I am unable to follow directions when it comes to finishing faces. I just have to do my own thing. One of these days I will be hauled off to pattern jail. ;-)

As I was making this little doll I remembered a woman named Harriet who was a live-in housekeeper at my granddad's house. We lived two houses up from granddad's house. My grandmom was ill, and Harriet was her care-giver as well as chief cook and bottle washer. :-) She used to read me stories when I stopped in, and let me sew, and give me Poptarts after school. I was about 5 at the time. Anyway, I tried to make a doll that had something about both of us in it - she looks a little more like Harriet, but she has the feeling and innocence of a 5 year old.

Click here to see the original Chestnut Junction E-patterns.

My 2nd Tomato Boy attempt in process. More painting needs to be done on his shirt and tie, and he's looking a little girlie to me. We'll see where he ends up...