Happy new year! Well, the final week of December was only three days, so this will be a shorter post. I timed it perfectly to fill up my dollar store sketch pad, so my new drawings (whenever they happen) will be on the lovely new, high quality pages of a sketchbook from my good friend Alison Price at Starzology.

Day 29. Winter Dryad

I was in such a hurry to color this one with my new pens that I forgot to take a picture in it’s black and white state. Oh well, instead, here is the reference shot that inspired it, me posing “cheekily” in a stairwell at the Mural Fest in Vancouver a couple of summers ago.

If you live in or near Vancouver, I highly recommend checking out the Mural Fest next year. It always takes place in early August when Vancouver is at its heady sun worshipping best.

Throngs of people drift from exhibit to exhibit in the sweltering heat, taking in a multitude of wares from local artists, listening to music, playing games, eating and drinking.

It’s a great place to buy gifts, learn about the thriving (and not so thriving artists) that make up the Vancouver’s art scene, and dancing to local DJs after you’ve already broken a sweat just walking around.

And let’s not forget, it’s a great place to appreciate a ton of cool murals packed into the space of a city block, much including a charming mid-century motel converted into artist live-work studios. Here are some more photos:

Day 30. Fire Goddess

This one was all done with ink, no pencils, and the hair is a combination of colored pens and orange and yellow highlighters, which reminds me of a story that may seem unrelated but bear with me…

I recently started re-listening to the audiobook of Tina Fey’s Bossypants, a very funny autobiography which I highly recommend. It was published in 2011 and Rodger and I listened to it together when it first came out and laughed out loud many times.

She talks about her childhood, years as head writer and Weekend Update anchor, creator of the hilarious show “30 Rock” and motherhood. For context, Tina Fey and her daughter are both brunettes.

When her daughter was just 18 months old, she had a reversible cloth doll that was Snow White on one side and Sleeping Beauty on the other. Her daughter preferred Sleeping Beauty, but Tina Fey would always flip it over to the Snow White side.

“Snow White is so pretty,” she would say, and her daughter would say, “No!” and flip it back to blonde Sleeping Beauty. As a mother, this early stereotype internalization pained her greatly.

When she read books to her daughter where a character had blonde hair, she would always read the word “blonde” as “yellow” because brown and yellow are colors and “blonde” makes it sound more like some rare and valuable element.

Although I don’t have children, the poignancy of this story reminded me of my mother and her struggles with my early obsession with Barbie. As a hippie and a feminist, she tried to interest me in other types of dolls that were better “role models,” an effort that worked about as well as you might imagine.

Let the Sun Shine

In the mid-70s, there were these dolls called the Sunshine Family, which consisted of a wholesome, hippie mother and father with their baby, clothed in natural fibers and earth tones. A set of grandparents were also available.

The mother’s smiling face was clean of makeup and her feet were as flat as the father’s. Also made by Mattel, they were marketed as a kind of whole wheat alternative to the disco era pink excesses of Barbie, but apparently they only lasted four years.

Barbie’s magical power over the young minds of girls proved far too powerful a drug to be replaced by a natural remedy.

Day 31. Dragon Ring

This drawing was inspired by a photo of me the night I volunteered to help at the door of Glam Slam, a wacky night of burlesque and wrestling hosted by my friend, choreographer and local burlesque celebrity Melody Mangler.

I’ve also attended as an audience member and it is a truly original event combining the camp and chaos of wrestling with the cheese and glamour of burlesque, with a healthy dose of social commentary and local inside jokes thrown in. Here are some more photos:

Well, that’s it for my Drawcember! I’m hoping to do a couple of posts in January compiling some of my favorite audiobooks, shows and whatever else I can think of from the past year. I know it’s traditional to do “best of” lists in December, but I had my hands full with the daily drawing challenge and the holidays.

In mid-January, be sure to check out my interview with Alison Price on her Alison Hazel Art blog. I’ll also be settling into a new job starting next week, so wish me luck!

Drawcember & Links

You can see the whole month of drawings at the links below:
Drawcember week one
Drawcember week two
Drawcember week three
Drawcember week four

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