Developing Some Goals for 2024

This is not usually a hard post for me to write. I am a very goal oriented person. I like making goals. I like setting goals and working towards them. It brings me a lot of satisfaction. However, this year I’ve struggled a little with my goal setting.

Primary Goal

Develop a workflow for my paper doll creations that both maintains my momentum and is sustainable within the confines of my other hobbies and obligations.

However, this isn’t a goal that’s easy to measure or on that I really know how to start with, so here’s a few concrete goals I’m working towards-

1. Post to the Blog Weekly- Except when I take vacations

I really like having a simply goal regarding consistency and I think planning for a minimum of a one post a week works well for me. I particularly want to balance pre-scheduling posts and not losing the motivation that a regular schedule gives me.

2. Restart Monthly Newsletters

After a lot of debate, I’ve decided to keep the Newsletter (I almost killed it) and focus on it being a slightly longer monthly format. I want to bring back a newsletter paper doll and I think it will go out either the first or the last Friday of the month. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do that here.

3. Exclusive Monthly Paper Dolls for my Patrons

My plan is to continue a having exclusive paper doll series for my patrons. In February, I’ll have a poll for my patrons to vote on what you’d like to see for this year. Also, there will be occasional exclusive WIP posts and polls and things. If you want to join, it will officially reopen on the 1st of February.

4. Create More Prints

One big development in my artistic life is that I ended up with an art printer, specifically an Epson 3800, which was destined for donation to a recycling center before my husband adopted it. We didn’t know if it would work and it took a bit of work on his part to make it work, but now it does work. We’ve named it Brunhilda. The prints Brunhilda creates are so beautiful. Really really beautiful- like professional art print beautiful.

I never in a million years would have paid to get one of these (because wowzer, these are not cheap), but now that I own one, it seems a pity not to use it. In fact, you have to use it at least once a month, or you can have issues with the nozzles clogging.

Stretch Goals

These are goals that I really don’t think I’ll successfully do, but I think dreaming big is important.

Complete a 100 Day Project

I keep telling myself that one day I will complete a 100 day project. I never have, but maybe someday I could? Or would? I think rather than focusing on doing something for 100 days, I think I want to focus on doing 100 of something over the course of the year. No idea what yet, mind you, but something.

I think I just love the idea of a paper doll with 100 outfits. So, that probably has something (everything) to do with it.

Sell Prints on Etsy

To be totally honest, I don’t know if I want to do this, but again- I have the printer to do it- I just don’t know if I’d like the extra work of trying to mail things to people or if that logistical challenge is one that I would end up absolutely hating. I’ve never done it, so it’s tough to say for sure.

Anyway, those are my goals for 2024. I don’t know where I’ll do with all of them, but I am going to see. I have to keep reminding myself that changing a goal isn’t failure.

Little Break in January

While I haven’t got formal goals yet for 2024, one of my informal ones was not to disappear from the blog without some announcement (if only because my mom then texts me to make sure I am okay), so here’s my little announcement that I’m slipping away for a few weeks.

By the way, if you’re a patron, Patreon did a strange thing with the bank holiday for New Years and time zones and rather than stopping charges, it looks like it might be refunding them for January? I’m not sure exactly what’s happening. Just incase you get an odd message, that’s what that’s about. If you have any questions, reach out to me and I’ll try to help!

Here’s 2023 in Review!

This December has been a little tough. I got walking pneumonia, but am on the mend. I spent a lot of the month resting and recovering. However, as 2024 begins, I have had sometime to reflect and gather some stats. It dawned on me that I used to regularly share year-end posts, a practice I somehow drifted away from. But I missed crafting these reflections on the passing year, so here we are and I hope you find it interesting.

This is not my goals for 2024 post, because I haven’t got those sorted quite yet. Until then, I hope you find some facts, figures and reflections interesting.

Paper Thin Personas in 2023 in Numbers

The 2023 blog stats in colorful circles. 60K unique visitors. 87 blog posts. 28 newsletters.

Let’s start with some numbers… Paper Thin Personas (PTP) had about 60K unique visitors in 2023. I created 87 blog posts of which 62 were paper doll post. I published 28 newsletters. As you may recall, I had planned on transforming PTP into a newsletter in 2023 and that did not work.

The most popular post of 2023.

So, I do plan to continue the newsletter, but I think I’ll migrate it to a monthly little paper doll update for everyone’s email inbox.

  • The most popular new post of 2023 (because this post remains the post popular post of all time, by a wide margin), was my Citrus Summer Paper Doll. (No idea why, but there you go.)
  • Other than Google, I get most of my visitors from Pinterest.
  • The majority of my visitors are from the United States with Canada, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom as other common spots.
  • My busiest month was November 2023 (no idea why) and my least busy month was April 2023 (again, no idea why)
  • On average, visitors to the site stick around about 2.3 minutes and look at 3 different pages. Of course, this is a little messy of a stat, because of how Google counts people.

All in all, I am really very happy with how the blog is doing in the numbers game. Paper dolls are a niche hobby (to say the least) and I don’t expect they are suddenly going to become as popular as K-pop or something.

Achievements of 2023

The cover of the paper doll book- Styles of the 1920s by Rachel Cohen.

My book came out! Paper Doll Review agreed to publish a project I’d been drawing for a while and they did just a really fantastic job. Julie Matthews colored the line-work I created so beautifully. Jenny Taliadoros held my hand through the whole thing.

Also, I went to a paper doll party! I’ve been talking about going for so long. I thought about going last year, but decided to get married instead. I met so many amazing people and it was the push I needed to really commit to moving to digital art.

Anyway, I don’t know how I could have topped either of those two events, but I did also want to share my favorite paper dolls that I posted onto PTP in 2023, each one for a different reason.

The three posts I am super proud of are the first night of Hanukkah set, Stardust Styles, and my 1894 suit.

My Favorite Paper Dolls of 2023

My 1894 suit is a favorite, because it was the first set that I drew where I feel like I really embraced the possibilities of digital art. I learned so much during its creation process and I used so many tools. It felt like a moment where my art shifted in some real way.

Stardust Styles is a favorite, because it surprised me. Sometimes I come up with ideas and then I don’t really like how they end up. Stardust Styles was the opposite. I came up with the idea and I wasn’t sure about it. However, once I drew it and colored it, it came together so much better than I hoped it would.

The first night of Hanukkah set was a favorite, because it came out exactly as I imagined it. Sometimes art is easy (not often for me!) and this was one of those times. It feels timeless. I can imagine my nephew or niece giving this set to their kids. That makes me happy.

Do you have a favorite from 2023? Let me know in a comment and have an amazing start to 2024. I’m taking a little blog break until the 22nd (one of my goals for 2024 is to try not to just disappear for weeks at a time… we’ll see how that goes) while I deal with some behind the scenes stuff and I plan to return on the 22nd.

A Question for my Patrons and Potenial Patrons via A Poll…

All right, friends. Let me start with saying that I appreciate all your support over the last few months

As I’ve been playing with Procreate, I’ve also been thinking a lot about the future of Patreon and I’ve realized I really need to ask all of you what you want.

Because I don’t think I can make informed choices without your input. I have lots of ideas in my head and I want you to be part of the decision making process of the future of Patreon.

So, here’s a poll!

This poll is no longer accepting votes

What kind of thing would you like to see on Patreon from me?

You support makes me so happy!

And I thank you, once again, for it. You are all amazing.

Satisfaction vs Joy: Or Trying New Things for a While

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about satisfaction and joy. Or, more precisely, the difference between satisfaction and joy.

Every few months, I clean out my fridge. I wait for a day when there’s not a lot of groceries in it and then I set to work- taking out everything, washing the veggie drawers in bleach and water, removing the shelves, scrubbing the bins inside the door. I toss anything expired or moldy. It feels good.

Practicing “pressure control” in Procreate by trying to draw thin and thick lines with the same digital brush.

This is satisfaction. The sense of accomplishment that comes from completing a task.

But it is not the same as joy. It is not as though I love the process of cleaning out the fridge. Instead, I love the outcome. Joy is not something I seek from cleaning a fridge. Joy is, however, what I want to feel when I do creative work.

Satisfaction feels good. It’s a good feeling and I get it all the time on the blog. Every time I post something new, I feel a little jolt of satisfaction. I think it’s really easy to mistake satisfaction for joy.

I’d been feeling very stagnant about the blog. Stagnant about my art. And generally frustrated. I liked how I felt when I finished something (satisfaction!), but I hadn’t lately been wanting to start anything new or finish much of anything I’ve started. The number of semi-penciled things in my sketchbooks is a testament to that. I kept telling myself I would feel joy if I just “did the work”, but somehow doing the work wasn’t fun and certainly not joyful.

But because satisfaction feels close enough to joy to pass for it in sufficiently dim-light, I sort of fed on that and kept telling myself that it was enough.

But, after the paper doll party, a few long talks with other artists, and a bit of self reflection (and some whiny draft posts that would make an angst-filled 13 year-old Rachel wince), I’ve decided I need to see how I would feel if there was no pressure on me to create anything. Like what if I was back where I was when this whole blog started (metaphorically speaking, I have no desire to be 23 again) and just did art because I felt like doing it.

And gave myself space to play. That was what Procreate has given me this last six weeks I’ve been learning the program- space to play.

It had been so long that I’d forgotten how it felt to just enjoy making things. Joy instead of satisfaction.

So, that’s my new goal. Just make stuff I feel like making for a little while. Experience some creative joy.

I’m sure in a few a weeks, months, something I’ll need to move again towards satisfaction. I need both, but right now, I’m going to be hanging out in playful land.

And that means, things might be a little erratic and strange around here while I sort out how/what I feel like exploring next.

As always, I’m happy for anyone who wants to hang out along the way. Leave a comment if you see something you like. And later this week, I’ll be sharing a new paper doll that was another experiment- this one with color and texture.

The Philadelphia Paper Doll Party Recap!

So, I thought it might be fun to type up my notes from the Philadelphia Paper Doll Party and add a few photos. I’ve never been to a paper doll event before, so I was more than a little excited, but also nervous to go. I also failed to take photos of a lot of things in the rush of it all, so forgive me. Still if anyone is thinking of attending one of these events, maybe this will be a little inspiration.

The Philadelphia Paper Doll party was organized by Valerie Keller and Linda Ocasio. Having been on academic conference planning committees, I can imagine the complexity of organizing such an event. So much more work than it looks. They did a stellar job. Joining the Facebook group for the event was super helpful, as it helped me plan and gave me a sense of what might happen.

Since I missed the 2022 annual convention, I told myself I would go to the Philadelphia Party even though it meant flying from Alaska. Because of other obligations, I couldn’t take much time off, but I managed to carve a few days to head across country.

Tuesday & Wednesday – Packing & Travel!

Because I live in, well, Alaska, it takes all day to fly to Philadelphia (you lose 4 hours crossing the continent). I left at 1am Wednesday morning (most annoying thing about where I live is the airlines seem to love a red-eye). On the upside, the sun doesn’t set until nearly midnight. On the downside, in summer there is no fun surprise aurora viewing.

I was selling prints for the first time ever, so I packed up my prints, some business cards, some black and white giveaway prints from the blog, a few display items I scrounged from friends who do craft shows and myself. Plus, a few changes of clothing. Costumes for the evening reception were optional, but I couldn’t imagine dressing up and meeting people I barely knew.

Travel was uneventful until the very end, when I found out the hotel shuttle wasn’t running until 5am. Since I had no desire to wait at the airport until 5am, I called Julie who kindly came and rescued me. We stayed up way too late catching up. It felt a little like a childhood slumber party. 

I slept like a rock when I finally did. Staying up too late would be the theme of the event.

Thursday- Hanging out in Philly

We walked around, grabbed a quick sandwich in the cafe and then returned to the hotel for an impromptu Procreate lesson. She showed me how to do a few things I didn’t know how to do and we talked shop. I loved getting to see her procreate files in the flesh. We discussed how to make taps more effectively (vector shapes!) and talked about working from physical to digital and back again (photos).

We both agreed that digital tools could be helpful, but that you still have to learn to draw and practice drawing. She encouraged me to be more willing to use some of the Procreate tools to help make my work easier like texture brushes for drawing lace.

I was swept up by the very friendly paper doll early arrivals that afternoon and we all went to dinner. I promptly forgot everyone’s name and was too embarrassed to ask over and over again.

Friday & Saturday- The Paper Doll Party

The next morning at breakfast Julie introduced me to many very nice people. It was so nice to put real people to various email addresses like Jenny Taliadoros, Melissa Pepe, and Valerie Keller. I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of names.

In the afternoon, I got my badge (with a very cute alien) and brought out Vivian for the Show and Share. I wasn’t sure I wanted to get up and talk about Vivian, but I got called out for keeping my mouth-shut. So, I stood up and explained how she was my childhood paper doll with the most clothing, I had made an index of her outfits, etc. One of the really amazing pieces on display was from Bruce Patrick Jones, a family history work all done in blue tones. It was beautiful. I didn’t remember to take a photo (opps) and so I can’t share. But if you’ve never seen Bruce Patrick Jones‘ paper dolls, go look at this Josephine Baker one. His work is great.

After that, there was a presentation about collage paper dolls and a really moving story about David Wolfe from Sharry O’Hare, along with an amazing custom made coat. I never knew David, but it was clear, he will be very missed. After that, I grabbed some dinner and went to the opening reception where, fortunately, I was not the only person not in costume.

The next day, there was a sales room from 9am until 4pm, with a lunch break. I set up at 8am, settled in with my change and my paper doll prints, plus my book. People were so kind. Several told me about how they already had my book (yay!). I wasn’t sure what would sell, so this was mostly an experiment in seeing what interested people.
In person sales are very different from online sales, I rapidly learned. Emi Lotto kindly gave me one of her original paper dolls. I also ended up with a lovely set by Peggy Jo Rosamond (one of my favorite artists) and two Alaska themed things to add to my growing Alaskan themed paper doll collection.

There was a Dress-A-Doll with voting for the best dress (Julie Matthews’ dress won) and raffles. I won the souvenirs from the 2016 convention in the raffle. There was also a silent auction, but I didn’t really know what I would have done with any of the beautiful original art. I didn’t send anything in for the Dress-a-Doll, since I wasn’t 100% sure how the process even worked. However, seeing it in the flesh, I think I understand it better now. Maybe next time!

Even though the day “ended” at 4pm, I stayed up way too late chatting with folks. I got a few drawing book recommendations, rambled about my love of fashion plates, and learned about different artist’s processes. It was really fun. Everyone was just amazingly friendly and welcoming. I feel like I keep saying that, but it was true.

Sunday May 25, 2023- Homeward Bound

All packed up to head home.

On my last day, I had a leisurely breakfast and headed to the airport.

I rode the shuttle with Renaldo Barnette. We chatted about drawing with ballpoint pens, working with University students, a shared apathy towards Marcel Proust, and stories about gouache paint.

It was a long flight home and I drafted most of this post while sitting in the Seattle Airport, so at least I got something done.

Landed in Alaska at nearly midnight, a friend picked me up and took me home, then I fell asleep almost instantly.

The best parts of the event were meeting people whose art and work I’ve admired for a long time and getting to spend time with people who share my love of paper dolls. Brenda Sneathen Mattox’s paper dolls were super influential on me as a child. Bruce Patrick Jones, Eileen Rudisill Miller, Kwei-Lin Lum, and Renaldo Barnette are all so talented. Living in Alaska meant I never thought I would get to be in the same room as these amazing artists or be able to ask them questions. So, needless to say, it was well worth the long trip.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten or left out people, because it really was a blur. I am so happy I went and I would happily go again.