Personalized Family Nesting Doll Set

 

Hey it's me! In my true nesting doll form! 

I painted this set of my husband our cats at the start of 2021. The smallest doll is our wedding bouquet 💓 I've never attempted painting nesting dolls of real people before, I was worried about capturing likeness - especially on such a weird shaped canvas. Nesting doll shapes can be very unflattering, and it always takes a while to get a character to sit well within the shape. 

I didn't find these to be as much as fun as usual to paint due to the self-pressure of not wanting to insult anyone with a terrible portrait, I do prefer painting fictional characters! Having said that, I think these turned ok - we are at least recognizable, and it's a sweet set to have around the house. 

This is also the first full set of nesting dolls I've painted that have arms. I do like this feature, and I think I will include it in my future designs. We are each holding an item that we commonly use - a game controller for my husband and a hot chocolate for me. I also added our favourite flowers to the back, and an Arizonian cow skull on my husband (it's one of his favourite places). 

I didn't create reference designs for the cats as I felt they were simple enough to free-paint. I really like how our large grey cat turned out, however I think that I got the proportions wrong for the small black kitten, I made his eyes too large and too close together trying to get a cute expression. I actually really struggle drawing cats despite loving them so much, it's definitely something I should practice more of.

Below you can see my initial designs. I designed us wearing our comfy dressing gowns as they fit the shape of the nesting doll well, and I also had fun adding the patterns. I made my husband's hair a bit longer than it really is for the same reason. You can see that I painted outside of the outline for the doll - this really helped trying to visualise the sides. I normally have to improvise as I'm painting the actual doll to make sure everything flows together.

Spot the Monkey Island reference!

I'd love to know what you think about this set, thanks for stopping by!