Wow… it’s already June. This year has just zipped by. However, since it’s nearly halfway over, I suppose it is time to consider how I am doing on my various blog goals for 2014. When I started this post, I set out to find if I had ever actually posted my goals for 2014 and found, much to my own embarrassment, that I hadn’t. Opps.
However, I do have some goals and they were saved in my Red Binder.
When I looked at the list it was a little upsetting, because I hadn’t succeeded at any of my goals. So, I decided that I would try to make my goals more concrete with specific things I would try to achieve.
The Goals for 2014
Original Goal: More male paper dolls.
I look at Boots wonderful men and I feel such guilt over my lack of male paper dolls. I gotta get better at drawing dudes, so that has been one of my big goals which I have to admit I haven’t succeeded on very well this year. I’ve barely attempted it. You can see my male attempts for the past few years.
The Concrete Goal: In the next six months, I will create at least ten male paper dolls.
Original Goal: Create monthly featured artist pages.
I’ve missed two months. However, I am climbing back on the wagon. I have emailed two paper doll artists to see if they would be willing to be featured on my blog. It’s a slow process, but I am doing my best. 🙂
The Concrete Goal: I actually think I have a pretty concrete goal here… I’d like to have at least six of these a year, maybe more if I can do it.
Original Goal: Create a paper doll tutorial.
Wow, this has been hard. I’ve got the first part written, but I need to illustrate it. I thought this would be easy and I was SO WRONG.
The Concrete Goal: Have the first part of the tutorial finished by the end of July.
Original Goal: Encourage more paper doll artists online.
So, one of the things I have been trying to be better about is going to other people’s paper doll blogs and posting comments on them. When I started PTP, before the big crash of 2009, I went nearly a year without any comments. I still remember my first comment and it was from Liana and I was proud that Liana (whose blog had inspired mine) had seen my work and she had said something nice about it. It made my day. I remember that feeling and I want to support other paper doll artists who are beginning their blogging journey.
The Concrete Goal: Visit other blogs weekly and, if there is new content, comment on it.
Original Goal: Provide more “behind the scenes” looks at my process and work.
I am so not doing well at this one either. I am trying and I like writing those posts, but they always seem to take more time than they should.
The Concrete Goal: Post one “behind the scenes” blog a month.
Original Goal: Create more historical paper dolls from periods prior to 1700.
Okay, so it took Gwendolyn’s 10th century anglo-saxon paper doll to kick me in the butt, but I loved working on that paper doll. I learned so much about the period and I had so much fun doing it. I want to do more of historical dolls. Right now, I am researching the 1300s and German costumes from the 1500s. I really want to do something Tudor, but the complexity of the fabric patterns make me whimper in fear.
The Concrete Goal: Create three paper dolls from before 1700 this year.
Original Goal: Build stronger ties to others in the paper doll community.
Honestly, I wrote this down, but I’ll be darned if I know how to do it. I have to think about this and I did and so I came up with some specific things.
The Concrete Goals: 1. Do some more collaborative paper dolls with other artists. 2. Send some art into the OPDAG magazine. 3. Contact someone to be a featured artist whose work I admire, but who I can’t imagine would say yes to being on my tiny little blog.
So, these are my goals. Now, that I have them written down publicly, I guess I better actually achieve them.
Hey, I think it’s a great idea to have your goals written down, so you don’t forget them. I think I have to start doing the same. I’d love to have a guy to hang out with Marisol, it’s a great idea to have more paper dolls. I’d really appreciate a paper doll tutorial as well, I’m so impressed by your work I’d like to give a try. You’re great at this!!!!!
Oops I wanted to say “more male paper dolls” in my previous reply 😛
I really like the doll whose on the banner on this post, but I can’t find her. Who is she?
She is a Marisole Monday & Friends paper doll from December 2013.
Wow, I didn’t realize I was your first commenter! That makes me really happy somehow 🙂 I’m not sure how I found your site, but I’m pretty sure it was from my referrer logs, and I do remember thinking “wow, that’s an awesome name for a paper doll site”!
Good luck with your goals!
It’s weird, because of the site crash in 2009, I don’t have the early part of the blog’s history. So, no one can see the months of silence that began this journey.
I would love to see your work in OPDAG. It seems to me (and I could be wrong, of course) that most of the artists and collectors involved in paper dolls are middle aged or older. I would love to see the next generation become artists & collectors so that this wonderful art form and community continues.
Also, tutorials are tough, for sure! I’d love to see your process. The way an artist works is infinitely fascinating.
Your encouragement is always appreciated 🙂
I there’s a lot of truth to that observation about age. I think that people who were born in the mid-80s (like myself) did not grow up with paper dolls being as common as they were in the 50s-70s. Paper dolls are having a resurgence, it seems to me, as people seek out “simple” toys for their children. I know that a lot of my readers are split between people who are younger than me and people who are older than me.
However, artists like Danielle Meder from Final Fashion make me hopeful that there will be a continued interest in paper dolls in the future. I think the internet is a great leveler. I always mean to get my work ready to send to OPDAG and then I forget and the deadline passes and I feel stupid. This has happened a few times now… (okay, so like 12 times now…)