My main doll adventure is humming along nicely (although, not bloodlessly :)). We’re halfway through the 7th sequence (a full round of each doll’s story), with 3 full and one short sequence remaining. With the main plot sketched out, my big remaining issue is sets. I took everything apart when I moved things around last month, and many of the sets are still going through some major changes, so I always have to do some building before I take pictures.
Camellia, as you saw, was making a shelter. I need a partly finished version of that for her next episode, and then I need it to be fully finished in the following one. She also needs a fire, because she’s about to start telling the story of what led her to put a small boat out on the sea, and she needs a warm place from which to tell that story. I also want to work on creating a greater depth to that set, likely by pulling the set away from the backdrop (as the Chiodo brothers recommended in their class.) If I can get all of that done this weekend, Camellia’s story will continue on Monday. Otherwise, I’ll show my work on the setup at the start of the week and push the actual episode to Friday.
The episode after Camellia’s is one of Rosie’s dream sequences, so that lets me off the hook for doing any set design, since I usually just photoshop her dreams against paintings.
That takes us to end of the 7th sequence, and to the middle of April. Next up in April is Lily’s story. I’ve kept Lily out of her garden because I want to build the wall up higher. I’ve found all of my brick-making supplies – so it’s just a matter of making enough bricks to build up that corner of the wall in the next two weeks. If that doesn’t happen, we’ll have yet another episode in her room. But, as you’ll see, that space is about to get a little crowded. Let’s hope we have the more expansive garden space ready.
(Have to type fast, here. We’ve having a windstorm, and the power is flickering). The last scheduled episode in April is one of my side stories. I have three of the dolls for my tree house adventure ready, so I think I’ll start that one up. I had a little epiphany about that side story (called “Up Above,” because it takes place in a treehouse) when my brilliant sister was visiting last week and we were talking through the plans. One of my background thoughts about all of these doll adventures in that dolls tend to be too passive. Not the dolls themselves, I guess – who could blame them for not doing much. But, as playthings for little girls, they tend to present a pretty limited range of choices. So, I like to put my dolls in interesting situations and let them work their way out of it.
What I realized about the treehouse adventure is that I was breaking my own premise by just giving them a treehouse they could sit around it. So, instead of me building a treehouse for them to move into, I’m going to have them plan and build their own treehouse. So, if I start their episode at the end of April, it will be the two sisters making a plan for the treehouse. That should give me enough time to figure out how it’s all done. The featured image is one of my staging shots of the two sisters making their plans.
So, that’s my April. Happy doll adventures!