October 2014 • Page 2 of 2 • Paper Thin Personas

The Court Alchemist Gets Some Extra Printable Paper Doll Dresses

May 22, 2020October 8, 2014

Last week, as you may recall, I posted my Court Alchemist paper doll. This week I am posting three more printable paper doll dresses and two pairs of shoes which gives her five outfits in total. I really do think the clothing makes the paper doll. I was always that kid who would have rather have had dozens of outfits over dozens of paper dolls.

In fact, I remember when American Girl magazine published paper dolls and I used to get so annoyed that the dolls were “almost” in the exact same pose, but not quite. So, they couldn’t perfectly share clothing. Drove me just nuts as a kid. Here is a picture of one of the paper dolls.

Are there any children’s magazines left that still publish paper dolls?

I recall with much fondness the feeling to getting to check the mail for my American Girl magazine and it’s promised paper doll. In fact, if you want a similar experience (and you have an HP web enabled printer), then you might consider my HP Paper Thin Personas Printer Ap which prints a full color or black and white paper doll every Monday, automatically. You can also print the paper dolls on demand directly from the printer which is, I have to confess, pretty neat.

{Download a PDF of this paper doll to Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG of this Paper Doll to Color}So, there are three dresses in this set. In my head, these are all fairly informal dresses. And who doesn’t need socks held up by some odd sock suspenders? (There is something inherently hilarious to me about sock suspenders… I might have a problem.)

I went back and forth about the patterned dress. I wanted it to look like a pattern that could be woven on a simple loom, but it ended up looking sort of like abstract eyes and now all I can think is, “The dress is staring at me…”

{Download a PDF of this paper doll in Full Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG of this Paper Doll in Full Color} {More Bodacious and Buxom Printable Paper Dolls}As for tools, along with last week’s tool collection, this set adds a sextant, which is a tool for measuring the angle between any two visible objects, most often the horizon and stars. It was crucial for navigating back in the days before high levels of technology. As a girl with NO sense of direction, I am totally grateful to whoever invented GPS. If I had to navigate via sextant, I think I would end up lost way more often than I already am.

So, Friday there will be another page of Her Ladyship and Monday there will be an elf.

Meanwhile, you can follow me on twitter @paperpersonas for blog updates, random paper doll thoughts, and a smattering of librarianship.

Southwest Boho Paper Doll to Print

May 22, 2020October 6, 2014

So, with last week’s paper doll I spoke a little about why I decided to dabble in the Southwest trend this season and today I wanted to show off the colors I used for the paper doll set. I knew from the start that I was going to be using a desert inspired color scheme. It is the Southwest, after all.

As a child, we visited the Grand Canyon. I will always think of reds, browns, ochre and sandy khaki when I think of that landscape. I confess to not being much of a desert person by nature; however, I do think they can be astonishingly beautiful.

I did not want to fall into the trap of just using a monochromatic warm color scheme though, so I also decided to include a pale turquoise, a very pale bayleaf green and a darker green for contrast. Normally I try to keep my color schemes to five colors, but this set needed a lot more. (I blame it on that patterned pencil skirt.)

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}Things I love: All the skirts. The bag. Those shoes. That cardigan.

Things I’m not sure about: Her hair. The V-neck top. The choice of base color.

Still, I am going to call this one a win.

Contemporary Marisole Monday’s As Far as the Eye Can See

May 22, 2020October 5, 2014

As I know I have mentioned in the past, I work in bursts. This is for two reasons. Reason one is that I just seem to work better that way and reason two is that I’ve figured out how many sketchbook pages a paper doll set is likely to take up and I loath wasting paper.

So, taking Marisole Monday & Friends as our example… I know that the average mix and match set for Marisole Monday & Friends contains 11 outfit pieces and two pairs of shoes. Feel free to check my math, but I am pretty sure that I’m right about this one.

In sketchbook pages, that is roughly 1.5 pages. This is why I trend to draw Marisole Monday & Friends posts in sets of two, but ever since I stopped drawing stands and started using “The Power of Photoshop” to place shoes on their stands, I have found sometimes sets take up much less room.

This is the page of hair and accessories for the four contemporary sets I drew in September. One of them posted earlier this week “Southwest Boho” and the others will post as I finish them. Obviously, I tend to leave hair and shoes out when I am first starting to sketch.

Lady-like is a thing I’ve seen a lot of in the fashion magazines for fall. I’m dreading putting together the complicated floral patterns that this set is going to need. The small afro and ankle boots from the first image are going to go with this set and it will be modeled by Monica.

One of the trends for fall is for bright colors, but simple shilouettes. This set is going to be all about the bright color scheme. The ladylike hairstyle at the bottom of the first image will go with this set and it is going to be modeled by Margot.

The only one of these sets not based on September fashion magazines. I wanted to so a fun, bright colored, sort of Harajuku street fashion thing. The pigtails on the first image in this post are going to go with this set. It was also inspired by some of the outfits worn by Blythe on my Pinterest boards.

So that people don’t get totally sick of contemporary sets, before the end of the year, I will be mixing in some fantasy and other things. I’d get sick of contemporary sets, I think, before my readers.

Considering how long it sometimes takes me to finish things, it might be next fall before some of these make it onto the blog, but that’s neither here nor there.

Introducing Her Ladyship: A Paper Doll Mini-Series

May 22, 2020October 3, 2014

In life, there are certain rules, like stopping at red lights and not stealing library books. One of my rules is: Don’t waste blog content.

In that vein, I’ve decided to make my new fantasy set, Her Ladyship, a mini-series. There will be a new page every Friday until sometime in December. (I haven’t decided if I am going to skip Halloween to post something more festive.)

My plan (though we all know about the best laid plans of mice and men) is that I will post these Friday paper doll updates in addition to my regular two posts a week. For those keeping score, that means three paper doll updates a week.

Pretty good deal, no?

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Gowns}

Also for those keeping score, Her Ladyship is the update of the Lady of the Manor paper doll set that I have mentioning for the last several weeks. You can see some of the early doodles and a sketchbook page. This is what she turned into, though there’s nine more pages to share.

She’s not a princess, though she may yet marry a prince. Rather, I imagine she is a noble women and she may or may not be married. Her dresses are all based on fantasy versions of Italian renaissance dress and, of course, she has wigs. Only one wig today, but I promise in later pages there are a lot more wigs to be had. Most of the wigs have floating tabs to help keep them on the paper doll’s head.

Thoughts? Opinions? Feelings about my ten week plan? Feel free to let me know.

Fantasy Alchemist Printable Paper Doll

May 22, 2020October 1, 2014

Obviously, I am embracing the fantasy options for my paper dolls today. Actaully, I have been really paper doll productive over the last few weeks and have managed to get a lot done as far as wrapping up old projects. This set is actually the first thing I drew in my current sketchbook and I am now, finally, getting it posted live on the blog, several months later.

Next week there will be a page two of this set with three more dresses, two more pairs of shoes and some other accessories. Sometimes, I get into something and draw more than I mean too. Also, I am still learning with B&B paper dolls how many pieces I can fit on one page.

{Download a PDF of this paper doll to Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG of this Paper Doll to Color}To give credit where credit is due, I was inspired by this gown from Armstreet which is entitled The Alchemist’s Daughter; however, why be the daughter when you could be the alchemist? I would way rather be the alchemist than be the daughter of the Alchemist.

Oddly enough, Alchemy was considered serious business for hundreds of years. Newton, for example, was an alchemist (he was also a bit of a crazy dude and stuck needles in his eyes to test various optics theories, but that’s a whole different issue.) Probably the earliest attempt to clarify chemistry from alchemy was Robert Boyle‘s Skeptical Chemist (1661) and we can either thank or blame Boyle for helping found modern chemistry. As someone who hated chemistry in high school, I confess to mostly blame Boyle. Never the less… important chap.

{Download a PDF of this paper doll in Full Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG of this Paper Doll in Full Color} {More Bodacious and Buxom Printable Paper Dolls}My favorite part of drawing this paper doll set was getting to draw the accessories. I imagine this alchemist is also the court astrologer. Astrology, mythology and religion were all wrapped up in alchemy theories. Our alchemist has an astrolabe, a tool for predicting the star and planet movements, a falcon, a tool for hunting small mammals, and an armillary sphere, a tool for modeling the planet’s movements. Most of the symbols on her bottles are actual alchemical symbols. So, that was fun to research.

The dress on the left is more of a work dress with a heavy leather apron for protecting her gown from spills and the dress on the right is more of a formal costume with the fancy chain belt. Also, she has some closed toe boots in case of spills of mercury and other things.

Next week I will show off her other three dresses, also more tools and some other rocking shoes. On that note, I am going to go to bed. 🙂

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: