I thought I'd go ahead and post the progress pictures. Now that I'm a bit distanced from the work, I'm regretting the smile. It would have been better to give him a thoughtful frown. Too late now, unless I want to sand the hell out of Tello's face. And I don't. I spent a month and a week on this lil bastard and I'm not going back now! Those goggles kept breaking, or scraping the paint off the head-for an example.
@somerandomdudelmao thanks for the fun this year. If you see this, I hope Tiny Tello makes you smile.
With today being Jonathan Groff’s birthday, it seems like a good time to share about a silly doll I painted recently 😂 You all probably know I am a long time fan of Jonathan, and you probably also know that the dolls I gave him at the @littleshopnyc stage door back in 2019 were the first Broadway dolls I ever painted. I also painted Jonathan, Dan Radcliffe and @lindsaymendez a group of @merrilyonbway dolls back during the NYTW run, and couldn’t believe it when castmate @morgan.kirner sent me an amazing goofy photo of Jonathan with the 3 dolls. I have both photos hanging in my studio. But… something that immediately caught my eye was the cameo Jonathan’s iconic blue bike helmet made in both of my photos lol.
For years I joked with friends about one day painting him a “bike helmet doll” as he is known for always having that bike helmet but Jonathan doesn’t have social media, doesn’t read fan mail and no longer stage doors so I wasn’t sure how or if I could ever get it to him. However, I recently received a letter from one of the boys who plays Frank Jr (Jonathan’s son) in the show asking if I could paint Frank Jr dolls — of course I said yes — and decided this was a good time to paint that bike helmet doll and send it along with them. 😂
I’ll share more about the Frank Jr dolls in a separate post, but a big thank you to @feliciadanielle for delivering all of the dolls and for sending me some amazing photos and the sweetest messages. I am glad the boys love their dolls, you love the doll I included for you, and I am glad the bike helmet doll made it to Jonathan safely and gave him a good laugh 😂😂😂