Fantasy artist Nene Thomas and doll artist Cindy McClure team up.
By Mike Miazga
Throughout history there have been plenty of pairings that have been successful. Peanut butter and jelly falls into that category. History buffs can relate to Lewis and Clark or the Wright Brothers. If you’re into basketball, the Lakers had Magic and Kareem and if you like watching old television programs, the ’70s and ’80s were loaded with the likes of “Chico and the Man,” “Starsky and Hutch,” “Mork and Mindy,” and “Cagney and Lacey.”
In terms of modern-day doll manufacturing, Ashton-Drake Galleries also has itself quite the daily double in fantasy artists Nene Thomas and Cindy McClure, who have combined to create the recently released Emerald Enticement fantasy doll—part of Thomas’ Enchanted Maidens of Dragon Lore collection.
The Emerald Enticement doll is based off a painted piece Thomas, an Oklahoma City, Okla., resident, did entitled “Astranaithes,” and is a character from a book series she and her husband are writing called “The Zarryiostrom.”
“Ashton-Drake saw the painting and asked if they could do a doll of it, and I said yes,” Thomas says.
That’s where veteran doll sculptor McClure enters the picture. She’s been sculpting dolls for Ashton-Drake almost since the beginning of the company’s existence 25 years ago. “I started when there were three employees,” McClure recalls.
The longtime sculptor and the ultra-talented painter have combined to produce the striking Emerald Enticement doll, whose detailing in body features, clothing and accessories projects a lifelike radiance.
“These aren’t cutesy fantasy dolls,” McClure says. “They are beautiful.”
Thomas, who does her work at night, agrees with the beauty assessment. “The doll is simply lovely, and the people who are lucky enough to own it should really enjoy it,” Thomas beams. “If I had to pick a particular feature [that I like best], I’d have to say the color. You never really see dolls wearing green dresses these days.”
Ashton-Drake is equally impressed with the finished product. “She’s stunningly beautiful,” says Ashton-Drake program manager Cathy Crawford, who notes the company’s fantasy and fairy lines continue to grow in popularity. “It’s like ‘wow’ when you see her. The hair and the outfit and the fire dragon—it’s everything. All of the details add up to a very impressive figure.”
The floor-length emerald dress indeed is eye-catching, especially as it parts at the doll’s midriff upward and showcases the character’s striking features, which includes her long, flowing brunette hair.
“It’s a challenge to make them beautiful,” McClure says. “Proportions are always a challenge to artists. I like my proportions. Maybe that’s one reason I gravitated toward Nene. Her proportions are right in line with what I perceive to be a perfect woman’s figure for a doll. I like doing the full-body sculpts. It shows the depth of what I can do. I really like the detail.”
McClure, based out of Vancouver, Wash., is also a major admirer of the doll.
“I like everything about it,” McClure says. “I like the color, and I like the pose. She’s got a great plunging neckline. It’s beautiful. When you are working on full-body sculptures, it goes above and beyond the normal doll-type sculpts. You have to develop the pose and the attitude. It all has to be right.”
Getting To The Finish Line
Thomas generates her art via computer—a medium she embraced over the last decade.
“Working digitally is relatively new for me,” says Thomas, who has not touched a paintbrush since 2004. “I trained myself to be a watercolor artist, and for the first 13 years of my career I stuck with traditional media. My interest in digital art came about recently from a bout of frustration in my own work. I felt I had reached the limit in my ability with watercolors, and I really wanted to continue growing as an artist, but to do that I had to branch out. I thought about oils, but I really hate the smell. So I became interested in several up-and-coming artists and decided to give it a try. It took awhile to get used to working on a monitor, but in the end I can’t imagine going back to doing things the way I used to.”
Thomas says she loves the ability the computer gives her to instantly correct mistakes in her work. “I can try out new colors and techniques without running a painting,” she says of being able to paint on layers on a computer. “The ability to take away mistakes with the click of a button really takes the guesswork out of artwork. With watercolor, you have to be careful all the time because a single drop of water in the wrong place at the wrong time can ruin an entire painting.”
McClure says Thomas’ use of computer-generated art has been a big help for her. “She draws a lot of detail into her work,” McClure notes. “The only difficult part is taking something flat and turning it into a 3-D sculpt. There is a lot of interpretation going from flat to 3-D sculpting, but Nene draws the gowns beautifully. I then take the gowns off of them and create what the doll is wearing on her feet and the pose of the legs and the stance of the body all the way around. There is a little guesswork involved, but it works.”
As does the duo’s partnership.
“I have never met Cindy personally, but I am familiar with her work,” Thomas says. “As a self-employed professional artist there is nothing I hate more than someone coming in and telling me how to do my job or offering me tips on how to ‘improve’ my work. So knowing how much I hate it when people do it to me, I refuse to do it to other people. Cindy is absolutely wonderful at her job. It would be the height of presumption on my part to tell her how to go about doing it, so I left her alone and trusted her to use her own judgment. I think the results speak for themselves, don’t you?”
McClure puts Thomas in some rather elite company. “There are artists like Nene out there, but something about her work sets her apart from all of the others,” McClure says. “I don’t know if it is the look to them—they almost look real. You can pick out her work among the fantasy artists. I love her drawings. I think the two of us have really created a great series.”
And the Emerald Enticement doll is proof of that.
For more, check out www.ashtondrake.com.
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