CHARACTERS
![gypy princess blog2](https://eagerreaderpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/gypy-princess-blog2.jpg)
One day, as I was considering subjects for my art classes to draw, it occurred to me that I now had the skill to depict the fairy tale figures I couldn’t as a child (to my own satisfaction, at least—except in profile). So with pen and India ink I began to draw fanciful female characters that became more abstract as I went along, some of them even a little risqué. I designed a card with an angel at Christmas and started doodling animals, as well. Then I tried to market packages of my work as cards in a local shop but didn’t have any success. I also created a nude calendar, but that I never worked up the nerve to try to sell. I went through a number of artistic phases in rapid succession, beginning with realistic images that quickly became stylized and eventually abstract—important stages for me to go through because, perfectionist that I was, I’d always been meticulous in my drawing and bound by the literal. I needed both to explore a looser style and to exercise my pictorial imagination.
![](https://eagerreaderpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/princess-rose-blog.jpg)
I couldn’t resist an inclination to push the envelope towards whimsy—tilting the neck at an improbable angle and drawing a tortuous root on the end of the rose, which I eventually decided to lop off.
![](https://eagerreaderpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ballerina-blog2-copy-4.jpg)
How much can I lengthen the limbs, I wondered, before the figure starts to look misshapen?
![](https://eagerreaderpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/princess-gown-scaled.jpg)
How much can I exaggerate the features of the face, I asked myself, and still make it appealing?
![](https://eagerreaderpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/pointed-coif-brt6.jpg)
![](https://eagerreaderpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/heart-cap-profile.jpg)
![](https://eagerreaderpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/harlequin-frame-scaled.jpg)
![](https://eagerreaderpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/angel-blog-frame2-copy.jpg)