MONKEY ISLAND Nesting Dolls 10 YEAR CHALLENGE | Chapter 2/5

February 28, 2022

MONKEY ISLAND Nesting Dolls 10 YEAR CHALLENGE | Chapter 2/5 | The Voodoo Lady

Next in my Monkey Island 10 Year Nesting Doll Challenge I will be painting the Voodoo Lady. I actually painted a set of nesting dolls just last year which included the Voodoo Lady so I will be reusing her design but with some alterations. I want to match her outfit with the 2012 version.

Day One - 1.5 hours

Distracted by the storm and things flying away outside, but I at least painted most of the face. She will probably need a few touch ups but I can move onto the hands and turban tomorrow! You might know that I painted a nesting doll version of the Voodoo Lady very recently, here I am using the same design but I tried to make her look a bit older. I will also change what props are included and her outfit.

Tomorrow I also plan to change the eyes so that she looking straight ahead rather than up. I'm not sure how I feel about her face yet - it's very similar to my 2021 version but I added wrinkles and an extra chin. Hopefully the eye change will make a positive difference.

Day One - Left: My Voodoo Lady nesting doll from 2021. Center: Current nesting doll in progress. Right: My Voodoo Lady nesting doll from 2012

Day Two - 1.5 hours

The painting process today felt very hard. I think I am struggling because I did not create a design and plan for this set of nesting dolls. Normally I do a full colour front and back design for each doll. However I skipped this for my current set as I was using a mix of the old designs, the 'Women of Monkey Island' set from last year and a handful of sketches as reference. It makes painting more challenging as I make a lot of mistakes or change my mind about the placement of items, which leads to lots of repainting.

All I managed to paint today is the book, and one arm/hand. I also changed the eye pupil location which I much prefer!

Day Two - Voodoo Lady

Day Three - 3 hours

Today went a bit smoother, I made quite a good bit of progress. However, I have decided to make some sketches and plans this evening in order to make tomorrow's painting even easier. I struggled today with the placement of items and did a lot of painting over. But in general I am happy with the progress made today!

Day Three - Voodoo Lady - Front

Day Three - Voodoo Lady - Left

Day Three - Voodoo Lady - Right

Day Four - 5 hours

I was in a rush to finish the entire doll today, happily I succeeded! I had been putting off painting her head scarf for a while as I wasn't sure exactly how to tackle it - I ended up painting lines and highlights, then adding a thin wash of green paint to soften the harsh lines and finished by reapplying some more highlights and shading. I really like how the head scarf turned out. I feel that this finished doll may be a bit too busy with all of the props, and in the future I should spend more time preparing detailed designs to avoid this.