Inspiration Monday: Tillie the Toiler

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I have decided that Mondays could use a little inspirational push, so I am going to restart my "Inspiration Monday" posts. If you come across a new source of inspiration that you would like to see on the blog, please let me know!

Today's inspiration came from my endless search for vintage paper dolls. Some of you may have heard of her, but this was my first introduction to Tillie the Toiler. Tillie was a comic strip, drawn by cartoonist Russ Westover, that ran from 1921 until 1959.

Although she worked as a stenographer, Tillie's real toil appears to have been flirting with scores of men and dressing in the latest fashions. 

The strip also included some Tillie the Toiler paper dolls, which although beautiful to look at, seem like they would be amazingly hard to cut out. I do love her poses, though. They give a lot of clues to her personality, even if you haven't read the comic strip. I have copied a few of my favorite Tillie pages below.

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Dressing for Dinner

Like a lot of you, I have gotten hooked on the tv show Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Classics. Although it is a little out of my typical time period, it is a fantastic period drama. As you would expect, I have been watching the show as much for the costumes as for the plot lines. Here is a little information, in case you were interested, about fashion during the time of the show.

The first season of Downton Abbey is set from 1912, starting with the sinking of the Titanic, through 1914, while the second season takes place during WWI in 1916. Women's fashions were undergoing drastic changes during this time period. The silhouette went from the "s-curve" and enhanced bust of the Victorian era, to something softer and more natural. Corsets were still worn but they gave women a more natural hourglass shape, and towards the middle of the decade, were abandoned for less restrictive undergarments.

Rather than full skirts, women often wore "hobble" skirts, which were widest at the waist and grew narrower at the ankle. Oriental styles were very popular. During the war years, women's clothing became more tailored and military inspired. Hemlines became shorter, as fabric was rationed and as women entered the workforce. Large brimmed hats were most popular in the early part of the decade, but as women started to bob their hair, closer fitting hats became popular.


I leave you with a few images of the great costumes from the show, including one of my favorite moments when Lady Sybil shocks the family by showing up wearing pants.

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Lessons from a Flapper

With all the studying of 1920's fashion that I have been doing, it seems logical that I recently watched Ken Burns' documentary on Prohibition. That whole era in American history is fascinating, although I am sure that living it was a whole different thing that watching it on television. It just seems amazing to me that a freedom loving country like America would have decided to totally ban alcohol because it was seen as the root of all problems. And then, that the very people who voted for and passed the law, would completely ignore it!


One of my favorite things from the documentary was learning about Vanity Fair writer Lois Long, pen name "Lipstick." The daughter of a minister, in the 20's she became the quintessential flapper, recording her escapades in the nightclubs and speakeasys of New York in her weekly column. She was famous for her brash lifestyle and her brash writing style, stating that "Tomorrow we may die, so let's get drunk and make love." She was most definitely a new kind of woman.

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Inspiration Monday: Wonder Woman

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People who are familiar with my art already know that I love Wonder Woman. I have painted her several times, and even turned my sister into her during one of my recent paper doll shoots.

If there is anyone I wanted to be when I was younger, it was Linda Carter from the 70's Wonder Woman tv series. (Why? I have two words for you: Invisible jet)

And, I find comic book art in itself pretty fascinating to look at, so I spent a little time recently studying the origins of Wonder Woman. She was initially created by William Moulton Marston in 1941. His reason, he said, for creating Wonder Woman was:

 Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype 

lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they

 don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good 

women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised 

because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a 

feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the

 allure of a good and beautiful woman.^[7]

The thing I found most interesting about Marston was that he was also the inventor of the polygraph (perhaps the source of his idea for Wonder Woman's lasso of truth?).

I will leave you, appropriately enough, as the Republican candidates for president are currently in my state, with one of my favorite Wonder Woman covers, and my candidate for our next president.

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Inspiration Monday: Haddon Sundblom

I spend a lot of time looking at vintage illustrations for inspiration for my work, both in terms of the subject matter and technique. There is something about how commercial illustrators of the 1930's through about the 50's applied the paint to their images that gives them a very classic vintage look. I have spent a lot of time studying these images and trying to replicate the look in my work.

I especially love the old Coke advertisements. Not only did they serve their purpose- depicting beautiful people enjoying the delights of a refreshing beverage- but they are really beautiful works of art in themselves.

In doing some research into the major illustrators for Coke, I came across the work of Haddon Sundblom. Most of you have seen his work, although you may not have realized it. He is responsible for the image of the "Coke Santa" that we still see in use today, as well as the Sprite elf, and the Quaker Oats guy. Many illustrators working in mid-century America, both for Coke and other companies, learned their techniques from Sundblom. He also painted pin-up girls and scenes of classic American life.

Sundblom subscribed to a type of painting adapted from the Impressionists called "first stroke," which involved using the fewest number of strokes possible to describe one's subject.

I came across the two pieces below just today. I love the loose brushstrokes and the bright sunlight that seems to wash over the figures. They make life during this time seem quite idyllic, don't they?

The coke ads in this post were emailed to me several years ago by a very kind visitor to my studio. The two Sundblom paintings at the bottom of this post are courtesy of the blog Today's Inspiration.

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Sunshine, Progress, and Changes!

I have so much to write about today that this may be an extremely long post, but I have so much news to share. First, I hope you noticed my fabulous new blog header. It was designed by D at The Photo Spot. Be sure to check out her Etsy store to see many more of her fabulous designs. And speaking of Etsy shops, D designed a beautiful new banner for my shop as well, and I will soon be launching a line of small mixed media pieces only available in my Etsy store. More on that in the coming week!

Today was such a beautiful and sunny day that this morning I decided to set my easel up outside the studio and paint in the lovely spring-like weather. I loved chatting with all the folks who stopped by to watch! As you can see, I did some more work today on the painting of my Grandparents on top of the Empire State Building.

I spent a lot of time working on the buildings in the background. I wanted the background elements to be readily identifiable, without painting in every little building and every window. I love how you can tell that it is a skyline, and yet it is still fairly abstract. I also started working on some of the clothing details, as you can see in my Grandfather's uniform.

Finally, for those of you who have been readers of my vintage blog, you may have noticed that I haven't posted there for quite a while. I recently reached the point where keeping up both blogs was too much. However, I don't want to give up sharing all my vintage inspirations with all of you. So, I will periodically be sharing some of my vintage finds on this blog, as it will help demonstrate where I get some of my ideas and inspirations for my paintings. I will start off today by sharing with you a link to a great article about female fighter pilots during WWII. I love these women, and I am so happy they are finally getting the recognition they deserve!