Nesting Dolls - Arrested Development
When a childhood friend commissioned an "Arrested Development" nesting doll set, I was really excited. This one that I've been wanted to do for a few years and I was really happy to finally have an excuse to paint it.
This show has so many great characters so a 10 piece set was necessary to fit everyone in. The first figure was to be the banana stand. I really wanted to have the figure to be the shape of the actual banana stand and Chris came up with the idea of using paper mâché to shape the top.
I started by making the basic shape with heavy paper. I wanted something stronger than the flour and water paper mâché I remembered from grade school so after a bit of research I settled on strips of newspaper dipped in watered-down wood glue. This method was very strong and waterproof once the glue dried but it still had a lot of texture. I wanted it to blend into the wood figure as much as possible, so I spread a layer of Bondo and sanded that down. I then topped that off with wood filler to smooth out any leftover rough spots. The result was a pretty smooth transition from the paper mâché and wood.
The paper framework. This is a test version that I did before I did the final one.
Paper Mâché, test version.
The final version with Bondo and wood filler, before painting.
I had a lot of fun with the design of the banana stand. The front of the stand looks like it does on show but I decided to use the back for some of the show in-jokes. In includes flyers and posters for things like the Cornballer, Sudden Valley and “Love, Indubitably”. I even included a blue handprint.
There can’t be too many in references with this show, so I painted the bottom with the record “Big yellow Joint” and included some money peeking out of the stand because “there’s always money in the banana stand”.
“There’s always money in the banana stand”
“Big Yellow Joint”
The second figure is George Bluth. There are a number of different outfits I could have chosen for this, but I decided to go with the prison jump suit. I always like to include props in the figures as much as I can. For George I decided to go with an ice-cream sandwich in one hand and a VHS tape of his video “Caged Wisdom” in the other.
George Bluth
”Caged Wisdom”
Next up is Lucille Bluth, drink in her hand. For future versions I may include details like her rape horn or having her winking.
The next three figures are Gob, Lindsay and Michael. Gob is on his Segway with the Sword of Destiny; Lindsay has her Shemále shirt and a protest sign and a Neiman Marcus shopping bag. Since I hadn’t been able to reference the Bluth Company in the set, I decided to give Michael a mug with the company’s logo.
Gob Bluth
Lindsay Bluth
Michael Bluth
The final figures are George-Michael, Buster, Maebe and Tobias. These figures are all under 1/2 inch so there wasn’t much space left to fit a ton of details but I was able to put George Michael into one of his weird patterned shirts and to give Buster a juice box. We decided on Tobias as the smallest figure as as long as he’s painted blue, he’d still be pretty recognizable even at less than 1/4 inch high.
George-Michael, Buster, Maebe and Tobias.
This was a really fun set to do and I anticipate doing future versions of these so I can play with different props and outfits.
