Matryoshka (Nesting Doll) Family

Ever since I painted my first peg doll family, I have developed a real love for painting wood figures.  I just love turning a piece of unfinished wood into something completely new and different.  My awesome-socks husband totally gets me, and he surprised me at Christmas with an unfinished matryoshka (nesting doll) set that I could turn into our family.  I hadn't even thought of that, but I was tickled pink!  I finally had a chance to sit down and paint them a little while ago, and here's the finished product:

I decided to go with a much different face style than I've ever done before (I've always stuck with a super simple set of eyes and that's it), but I took a deep breath and tried to capture all our goofiest grins.  My hubby is sporting his newly cleanshaven face, his favorite leather jacket, and the ever-present Seahawks shirt.  I don't actually have a turquoise chevron sweater, but I would totally dig that... Sam (9) is the oldest and is totally into computer programming, so I had him write down some code for me to put on his shirt.  Josh (7) is the middle, and he has the CUTEST no-front-teeth, scrunchy-eyed smile right now.  (Wanting to capture that smile is actually what made me want to give everyone smiles.)  He gets an air bender symbol on his shirt, as a shout out to his current obsession with Avatar.  Then Eliza (4), the little princess, who gives bats her eyelashes and asks us "So, do you think I'm fascinating?"

These just make me smile every time I see them.  I think I'm going to have to do more in the future!