Roccoco Fantasy- Printable Princess Paper Dolls

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

Just for Boots, I didn’t make anything pink in this set. 🙂

Originally, there was pink in it, but I do use a lot of pink… which is odd, because I don’t like pink that much in the real world… So, I decided to be anti-pink for a while. Plus I think these dresses are fro-froo enough without adding pink into the mix.

Not that I have anything against pink, mind you… just a thought, really.

And now for a question:

Julie asked: What advice would you give an aspiring paper doll artist? Are there Fashion Illustration books you recommend? How about Figure Drawing books?

To aspiring paper doll artists (and I’m not sure I’m not that far from ‘aspiring’ myself), I’d say the following:

    Draw a lot
    Look at paper dolls you like and try to figure out what you like about them
    Don’t be afraid to copy a style you like- imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
    Reference images are your friend
    Draw what you like and what you love, not what you think is popular or other people will like
    Have fun and stretch yourself… even though that’s scary a lot of the time

As for books, I would recommend… I think that’s worthy of it’s own blog post. So, I will work on putting together a list. If i had to name one, it would be Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm. It’s old, but it’s solid and I still use my copy when I need to draw a face in profile. (You might notice, I don’t do that much… cause I suck at it, but I use Hamm whenever I think I want to try again.)

Here’s a question for my readers, would you be interested in knowing what books I use and/or recommend about historical costume or figure drawing?

From my Sketchbook….

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So, I decided I wanted to photograph my sketchbook on something more attractive than my carpet. Hence the pretty quilt (Thanks, Mom). Along with the quilt, here are the Shadow and Light paper dolls I spent the day inking.

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Gothic Marisole paper doll set which I think will be up sometime in October. I wasn’t thinking of Halloween when I drew it, but if the shoe fits…

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Punky Marisole set meant to be the counter part to the Goth Marisole set above… I need about a page and a half of sketchbook to fill up a Marisole page (or between 11 and 13 pieces), so I usually draw in pairs having the two sets take up three pages.

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A stand alone paper doll who needs both more clothing and some ink… I thought I would give her modern clothing mostly, though I might change my mind later. She’s not even close to being finished- clearly… I really like her pose though and I think I will use it again for something else or for a friend, though maybe I should just finish her first before I start planning other editions to my paper doll nation.

Peter Pan Collars in Yellow and Green Paper Doll Dresses

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG to Print} {Click Here for The Rest of this Series} {Click Here for the Dolls to Dress}

These guys feel totally Easter like to me… I think it’s the spring green and the yellow.

I can’t shake the feeling I did a set for “peter pan collars” before, but maybe I just thought I did, because I couldn’t find it when I did a prowl of the archives. (I decided “Prowling” through the archives sounded better than “staggering” which might be more accurate.)

Speaking of archives, (see what I did there? I’m proud of me), I am nearing my 350 posts mark which I think is entirely more exciting than it really aught to be.

It’s the second week of classes at the University where I work and it’s been hectic. I adore the students and I’m glad they’re back, but it makes my life quite crazy. I hope things settle down soon. 🙂

I really like clothes more than dolls when it comes to paper dolls, but I have gotten curious how other people feel. Hence… A POLL!

Roccoco Fantasy: Paper Doll in Black and White

marisole-printable-paper-doll-fantasy-9-3-12{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

First of all, Happy Labor Day to those in the USA who get the holiday off. Had I realized it was going to be Labor Day when I posted this paper doll, I would have come up with something thematic… but instead we have crazy Rococo dresses. This is what happens when I work several weeks a head.

Though not Labor Day thematic, I love the 18th century… not historically speaking (I really don’t care much about the French revolution or the American revolution or… I digress), but the period is full of wonderful over the top dresses and wigs. I love the wigs.

Not that I would have wanted to wear them, since they were nearly impossible to clean and made of human hair or sheep’s wool…. and that gets gross fast. There are even reports of rats living in women’s wigs…. All I can say to that is “ewww”

Still, crazy wigs are cool in theory, if not in reality.

Now, for a question:

Dorothy D Lafferty asked: So when will you do a “librarian” paper doll?

Probably not anytime soon… though I do seem to draw a lot of books as accessory items for my paper dolls… so that might say something about me.

I suppose I should eventually do a librarian paper doll, but I don’t know what she would wear. What does a stylish librarian wear?

Unless she’s Batgirl…. Because Batgirl was a librarian… and then I would need a paper Batgirl costume and I don’t know if I’m up for that.

On the other hand, I got to say, Yvonne Craig is pretty darn hot as Batgirl.

And I do have one friend for whom the idea of a Batgirl paper doll would make absurdly happy.

What do you all think a librarian paper doll (Batgirl or not) ought to wear?

The Best Friends… A Bunch of Printable Paper Dolls

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{Click Here to Download for a PDF of all pages of this paper doll to Print}
So, this is going to be a Big Image, Small Post sorta day.

Here are the eight pages which make up the Best Friends paper doll set. (Yeah, I need better names for these things… I’m not good with names…)

My goal with this set of paper dolls was to experiment with slightly different body builds and poses while maintaining a similar enough over all style that the paper dolls would seem cohesive. I’ve never tried to draw this way before. I think I succeeded, but only because I drew them all at once. I can’t imagine trying to do this any other way.

Eventually, this set might get a sequel, but probably not for a little while.

I was going to wait until Monday to have my first paper doll post since I went on haitus, but I felt like people waited for two months and the least I could do was give some rapid paper doll gratification.

I hope everyone in the United States is having a fantastic Labor Day weekend. I have spent mine getting caught up with some work things, eating delightful barbecue and tomorrow I might do something radical and go see a movie. Mostly, I’m enjoying getting the time off work to get a little more settled here in Alabama.

I’m Back! Also… News about Changes to PTP

Thank you all for being patient with me while I got settled in here in Alabama. I won’t say that I’m completely settled (there are still a few boxes to go through), but I am pretty settled all things considered.

At least the important things like books and art supplies are unpacked.

So, there are a few announcements.

I’m throwing out the schedule.

This is something I’ve been contemplating for a few months and I was going to make a poll of it, but then I decided I was going to do it anyway… so I might as well just announce it.

There will continue to be a Marisole update each Monday with the first one being a black and white version with the full color version following. I was able to spend a fair bit of my time off working on getting some post backlog set up, so I can confidently say there will be Marisole’s for the next few weeks at least.

I will try to get another paper doll posted each week, along with the Marisole. So, you can expect two paper dolls per week.

While this does mean fewer paper dolls over all, it will open up the styles and allow me some flexibility which I want, allowing me to devote more time to The Flock and also, hopefully, let me draw some more detailed and difficult things.

I’ve also begun work on a joint project between myself, Boots of 19th Century Paper Dolls and Toria over at A Paper Closet. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for this project. It will debut at the end of October, if everything goes as planned.

I will also be posting some older work, both from my days in college and from when I was in high school and middle school. I can’t wait to share some of these really early paper dolls, but I have to say, I had very odd ideas about proportions as a young person.

Though looking at my paper dolls now, you could say I still have some odd ideas about proportion… but I digress…

By the way, I noticed embarrassingly late that there was a slight problem with some of the feet/shoes on the latest set of Flock Magnetic Paper Dolls- Modern Girl. It’s been fixed, so now all the shoes should work properly. It took me cutting them out and playing with them to notice my error… Actually, I didn’t notice, but my friend did. Opps… So glad that’s fixed.

Also, I had some complaints about my RSS feed. I think I also got that fixed. Let me know if I haven’t.

Anyway, I am really excited to be back. There will be a paper doll up tomorrow and on Monday, so everyone can get their fix. If you have any questions, thoughts or ideas for what I should do in the future, please feel free to comment. I love hearing from readers.