It’s the season for spooky portraits, and now it’s the turn of Haunted Dolls, as voted in the poll.

The reward will be available to patrons from tier $3 and above, and those in the Earthquake Critic ($10+) get to ask for special customizations. As usual, feel free to join a specific paid tier in order to get your portrait.

Dolls and dummies ideas

1• Chatty Cathy: the inspiration behind creepy doll superstar Anabelle, she’s fond of families and new homes.

2• My Buddy: Soft, tender and murderous. Likes knives and running with quick little steps after their prey.

3• Pierrot Doll: stylish and melancholic for some, unbearably creepy for others. It’s traditional to keep one as decoration, just to unnerve visitors.

4 • Ventriloquist Dummy: boomer humor is not dead. From time to time, it reanimates one of these vicious wooden puppets, powered by malice and bad attitude.

5 • Automaton: These proto robots were built with clockwork precision to amaze courts, and inspire uncanny dreams of artificial life.

6A • Bisque Doll: Her fine porcelain features are cracked —like her soul. She was the most precious possession of spoiled children in crueler times, and she’s set to haunt the present with mean lessons from the past.

Also comes in (6B) bald version:

Customizations! (for the Earthquake Critic tier)

A different type of puppet or doll.

Holding a knife or other menacing object.

Customizable costume.

Speech balloon with creepy dialogue.

How it works: 

To ask for your portrait, please email with the subject “Haunted Doll”, including a photo reference (or remind me of a picture you’ve sent before) and your choice of doll. Email address is juan@thesecretknots.com

Feel free to ask for a specific gender (or no gendered look at all) for any of the sample ideas, such as a male version of Chatty Cathy, female My Buddy (probably like a Raggedy Ann), etc.

Important: I may share some portraits to promote support to my Patreon. Please let me know if you’d like to keep them private.

I should start sending out and sharing the first portraits in about ten days. I would love to be done by Halloween, but I’ll probably be drawing some portraits well into November.

Leave comments or questions below, and thanks!

Juan

I started sending the Tokens / portraits to patrons, here are a few:

Remember, here’s the post with the reward details, in case you missed it out.

Plus! The tiniest teaser of the comic in progress. I can only say for now that in happens in a video rental from the past.

I’ve been working on a small side project, a kit of Victorian Characters for roleplaying games. It’s basically a collection of illustrated tokens, the character tokens or minis you use in VTT (Virtual Tabletops), with some extra material.

I made a previous attempt at VTT tokens from a series of paper tokens I drew for a convention game:

But this time I tried to make a more interesting product, so besides producing less crude art for the tokens, I added some text, background material for character creation mostly: a table with 36 background history details, and lists of possible names for Victorian flavor. This is the cover:

Looking at the finished art, I thought this could be a fun theme for a Patreon portraits reward, using the tokens as inspiration for the clothing, hairdo or general style of the portrait. So, here it is, the Victorians portrait reward.

Victorian Token portraits.

• This reward is available to members in the $3 tier (Birds Opera Aficionado), and in the $10 tier (Earthquake Critic).

• Choose one of the numbered samples as inspiration for your own token. I will use the overall style of the character, and your own picture, to make an original round portrait in this format.

$10 tier customizations:

• Those in the Earthquake Critic tier can ask for a special prop if you want: a book, a weapon, an animal companion, or any small addition to the basic portrait.

I’ll be sharing some tokens in a post around here, so let me know if you prefer to keep yours private.

If you are in one of these tiers and want a portrait, or just upgraded and would like to ask for yours, please write to juan@thesecretknots.com with the subject Victorians and a reference picture. (Or let me know if I can use one you’ve already sent). 

Leave comments or questions below, and thanks!

Juan