Monkey Island Nesting Doll Set

Quelle surprise! Another Monkey Island nesting doll set! This time featuring some genuinely amazing female characters from the series: the enigmatic Voodoo Lady; quick-witted governor Elaine Marley; highly-skilled swordmaster Carla; Morgan LeFlay; and the long-suffering Kate Capsize. Plus a gate-crashing Guybrush Threepwood in his Mardi Gras dress. 

As you can see from the above photo of the finished set, I have included arms for this set. This is a feature I have only recently started adding to my nesting dolls. They do make the painting process longer but I feel that they are worth it - allowing each character to hold extra narrative props. Each doll now takes between 2 - 8 hours to complete. I would like to cut this time down but not at the expense of simplifying designs. In this case I hope that simply lots of practice will increase my painting speed. 

For this set I also continued the trend of adding props to the back of the designs, such a treasure map and bottle of root beer for Elaine, as seen below:

If you are a long-time follower of my art you may be aware that my very first set of hand-painted nesting dolls was also a Monkey Island one (check it out here!). This latest set included two characters - the Voodoo Lady and Elaine Marley - that I painted in the original set 10 years ago.

Not only is the new set physically larger, but I have also included extra details. I have plans to recreate the entire original set in my updated art style next year, please let me know if you would be interested to see that.

As usual, I find it interesting to compare the finished dolls with the initial 2D designs I created. Painting the flat designs on to a curved 3D surface always presents challenges and requires me to problem-solve as I'm painting - figuring out the best way to avoid an obvious seam at the side. Therefore, I like to consider the initial designs as only a guide and try not to worry too much about replicating them exactly on the dolls' surfaces. I will admit that I do prefer particularly the initial design of the Voodoo Lady to the final doll, however Carla's doll turned out even better.

If you would like to find out more about this particular nesting doll set - I previously wrote a blog post detailing the design process for this set, be sure to check it out here.

And now, what's next? This year I have managed to paint 2 (hopefully 3 soon) full nesting doll sets, as opposed to my previous average of one set every 2-4 years. I would like to take my art and nesting doll painting more seriously and have invested in a camera to start filming the painting process. I am currently working on a (not so) secret set soon to be revealed, and after that I have ideas ranging from Disney's Moana to a  Lady Gaga set - so let me know in the comments if there is a design you would like to see next!  

LINKS

1. See more of the design process of this set

2. My original Monkey Island nesting doll set from 2012