Happy Monday everyone. Today’s paper doll is a beachwear set, which has been a very common request. It is modeled by Monica who I’ve felt is rather neglected over the last while. I try to give all of the Marisole Monday and Friends paper doll styles some love. Monica is the newest member of the family and therefore has the fewest doll sets to her name.
So, today’s paper doll has a fair bit of paisley. I wouldn’t have attempted these patterns until I was comfortable using Photoshop to make complex patterns since redrawing the same paisley shape would have been killer. Instead, I drew one of each design and then placed them using photoshop. Paisley is one of the classic patterns, up there with polkadots and plaids. Paisley originally comes out of Persia, but it’s been being used around Europe as well for centuries.
I have to confess that while I am happy at how the patterned pieces in this set came out, I am not looking forward to the complexity of coloring those detailed patterns. I wanted the pants to be like the loose patterned pants which seem to be popular this season, but I rather think they came out just looking fairly clownish.
Never the less, it’s not uncommon for me to dislike one or two pieces of any paper doll set. I guess if I have to dislike one piece than this isn’t such a bad piece to dislike. Also, I didn’t give her any heels which is very odd for me. I rather like heels, but I suppose even paper dolls need to be comfortable sometimes.
Lastly, the current contest/drawing for a custom paper doll is open until Midnight Central Time on the 18th. Enter if you like.
Wow… it’s already June. This year has just zipped by. However, since it’s nearly halfway over, I suppose it is time to consider how I am doing on my various blog goals for 2014. When I started this post, I set out to find if I had ever actually posted my goals for 2014 and found, much to my own embarrassment, that I hadn’t. Opps.
However, I do have some goals and they were saved in my Red Binder.
When I looked at the list it was a little upsetting, because I hadn’t succeeded at any of my goals. So, I decided that I would try to make my goals more concrete with specific things I would try to achieve.
The Goals for 2014
Original Goal: More male paper dolls.
I look at Boots wonderful men and I feel such guilt over my lack of male paper dolls. I gotta get better at drawing dudes, so that has been one of my big goals which I have to admit I haven’t succeeded on very well this year. I’ve barely attempted it. You can see my male attempts for the past few years.
The Concrete Goal: In the next six months, I will create at least ten male paper dolls.
Original Goal: Create monthly featured artist pages.
I’ve missed two months. However, I am climbing back on the wagon. I have emailed two paper doll artists to see if they would be willing to be featured on my blog. It’s a slow process, but I am doing my best. 🙂
The Concrete Goal: I actually think I have a pretty concrete goal here… I’d like to have at least six of these a year, maybe more if I can do it.
Original Goal: Create a paper doll tutorial.
Wow, this has been hard. I’ve got the first part written, but I need to illustrate it. I thought this would be easy and I was SO WRONG.
The Concrete Goal: Have the first part of the tutorial finished by the end of July.
Original Goal: Encourage more paper doll artists online.
So, one of the things I have been trying to be better about is going to other people’s paper doll blogs and posting comments on them. When I started PTP, before the big crash of 2009, I went nearly a year without any comments. I still remember my first comment and it was from Liana and I was proud that Liana (whose blog had inspired mine) had seen my work and she had said something nice about it. It made my day. I remember that feeling and I want to support other paper doll artists who are beginning their blogging journey.
The Concrete Goal: Visit other blogs weekly and, if there is new content, comment on it.
Original Goal: Provide more “behind the scenes” looks at my process and work.
I am so not doing well at this one either. I am trying and I like writing those posts, but they always seem to take more time than they should.
The Concrete Goal: Post one “behind the scenes” blog a month.
Original Goal: Create more historical paper dolls from periods prior to 1700.
Okay, so it took Gwendolyn’s 10th century anglo-saxon paper doll to kick me in the butt, but I loved working on that paper doll. I learned so much about the period and I had so much fun doing it. I want to do more of historical dolls. Right now, I am researching the 1300s and German costumes from the 1500s. I really want to do something Tudor, but the complexity of the fabric patterns make me whimper in fear.
The Concrete Goal: Create three paper dolls from before 1700 this year.
Original Goal: Build stronger ties to others in the paper doll community.
Honestly, I wrote this down, but I’ll be darned if I know how to do it. I have to think about this and I did and so I came up with some specific things.
The Concrete Goals: 1. Do some more collaborative paper dolls with other artists. 2. Send some art into the OPDAG magazine. 3. Contact someone to be a featured artist whose work I admire, but who I can’t imagine would say yes to being on my tiny little blog.
So, these are my goals. Now, that I have them written down publicly, I guess I better actually achieve them.
I don’t really do balance that well. I tend to work in the grip of obsession and then realize I’ve just spent five hours looking through images of medieval manuscripts in the hope that one of them might show a 10th century women’s neckline which, of course, none of them did. (By the way, you can read all about my adventures in the 10th century here and see the paper doll result.)
So, when I want to draw and I don’t want to get wrapped up in fretting about whether or not my choice of red is the right shade for Turkey red of the 1800s, I often turn to contemporary fashion magazines, as I know I have mentioned before. I find these paper dolls are fun, because in many ways they are easier than fantasy or historical dolls. I can just draw what I see, which is simpler for me than trying to draw from my minds-eye or from actual historical garments.
Amaryllis’ evening gowns are based on actual evening gowns of the “real world”. I wanted to use a spring color scheme that wouldn’t be to heavy and dark. I feel like Clarissa, my last Pixie, had an awfully dark color scheme for a summer paper doll post. I wanted to make Amaryllis’ shoes neutral enough that she could wear them with other outfits in case she wanted to borrow some evening gowns from another paper doll or felt like rocking some jeans. 🙂
Today’s paper doll is, as expected, a Marisole Monday & Friends paper doll in full color with a stylish spy wardrobe.
My mother wanted me to mention, after reading my last post about Secret Agent Man, that she did not like Johnny Rivers and it wasn’t her fault that it came on the radio. And that in the days before playlists I should be happy that I get to pick what music I listen too.
Apparently suggesting that she was a Johnny Rivers fan was a deep insult to her hippy, anti-establishment ways.
So, I went back and forth about the right color scheme for this paper doll set. Part of me thought that yellow and pink were a little bright for a super spy, but then it occurred to me that no one would expect a super spy to be wearing yellow and pink. By the way, the short hair style Marisole is sporting is actually her base hair. These days I often draw my base dolls bald which helps when I have to draw hair for them, but back when I drew Marisole I didn’t do that. In her first post ever, she is sporting this hair style. That was back in January of 2010, though I actually drew Marisole sometime around 2008. She sat in a pile of unused base dolls for years before I finally decided what I was going to do with her. I think that’s sometimes the odd thing about working with her. She’s drawn in a style that I don’t know if I would, or even could, use today as my art has evolved.
Oh, by the way, something I am curious about this whether people like colored paper dolls or back and white paper dolls better, so I have changed out the poll in the sidebar. Vote if you want and also consider entering my current contest/drawing if you haven’t. 🙂
Melissa Smith of Miss Missy Paper Dolls colored my Vivid Victoriana paper doll and did a lovely job. I’m always so flattered when people send me their colored in paper dolls. I have a few more paper dolls colored by other people to get up which I am going to try to do in the next few weeks.
I love Melissa’s coloring style. It feels very painterly to me, which is something I very much admire in other people’s coloring styles.
I am pleased to announce a new contest or more accurately a drawing, since the winner, as usual, will be decided randomly. The drawing is open until June 18th at Midnight and the winner will be announced on Friday June 20th. This gives me a day to get the actual number selection done.
How to Enter:
Put a comment in below (or feel free to email me, if you prefer at paperthinpersonas@gmail.com) with a one or two sentence description of the custom paper doll you would want if your won the drawing. By the way, there is no obligation that the submission actually be the custom paper doll you ask for if you win. So, if your submission is a purple skinned mermaid action hero who fights with a scythe, but two weeks later you decide that what you really wanted was an orange tabby cat-girl ninja with three heads, then that can be changed.
Contest Rules:
1. You can only win one contest a year. 2. I will email the winner at their email address attached to the comment to notify them of winning. If I do not hear back from the winner within a week, I will use a random number generator to select the next winner. Your email address MUST be functional for you to win. 3. The winner will receive a one page custom paper doll based on one of my paper doll series within a month of the end of the contest. Sometimes life gets in the way of this goal, but I will email the winner if that is the case and we can make other arrangements. (A few of the previous prize custom paper dolls include Dark and Steamy, Kadeem and Gabriel Ready for Dates, Marisole Monday visits the 10th Century, Sewing the Seventies and Elven Maiden) 4. You may only enter the contest once. Entering more than once, will disqualify you.
Announcing the Winner:
On June 20th, I will list in a post every entry with a number. This allows everyone to read the submissions, even those which are emailed to me and will announce the winner via a random number generator.
Lastly, it is entirely possible if I really like any of the ideas suggested that they will show up on this blog at some point, but no promises. Have fun. I can’t wait to read the entries. 🙂
The contest is now closed. Thank you to eveyone who entered. The winner will be announced on the 20th of June. 🙂
Today’s Marisole Monday paper doll is Marisole as a super spy. An idea suggested to me by my Aunt. I confess that I had never thought about drawing a spy paper doll before and there’s nothing realistic about my spy paper doll, but I think action heros are fun subjects for paper dolls.
And on the subject of action hero paper dolls, if you haven’t seen them, Bruce Patrick Jones did a really beautiful set of Action Stars paper dolls. I highly recommend them.
The title is supposed to be a reference to the song Secret Agent Man, but maybe I’m the only one who remembers all the lyrics to that song… Okay, so I only know the lyrics because my mother has the most amazing memory for lyrics and I inherited that trait. It’s not like I actually listen to Johnny Rivers actively.
Like any classic spy, Marisole has catsuits for breaking and entering, a trench coat, fedoras and, of course, weapons. She also has two wigs for covering her short hair and some simple office wear. All in all, I’m quite pleased with how she came out, though I confess that those fedoras took far more drafts than I’d care to normally admit.
I think today’s spy would be good friends with the ninja paper doll that I drew… wow… three years ago.
As always, she’ll be in full color next week. 🙂
So, here I am kicking off June with a new Poppet paper doll named Posey.
I’d originally intended to give all my Poppets flower names beginning with P; however, I find I am rather running out of them. The only other two I can think of are Pansy (which I would use, except for that fact that it’s a rather derogatory name for an effeminate man and I just don’t like the connotation) or Peony which I will use one day, but calling the Asian paper doll Peony seemed horribly stereotypical. So, this leaves me with Posey for our new paper doll.
Anyone know of any other P flower names? I suppose I could branch out (pardon the pun) into other P girl’s names or simply other flower names.
Now, Posey’s outfit is based, very vaguely, on a some of the school uniforms I saw when I was studying in England, though it lacks the jacket. I drew the blouse first and I didn’t want to lose the sleeve detail by sticking it under a jacket.
Poor excuse, perhaps, but true none the less.
I confess that I’m not totally pleased with how the skin tone turned out… I recolored it at the last minute, because the other skin tone was horrible. Still, I don’t know how much I like it.
I was hoping beyond hope that I would not have to put the blog on Hiatus at all this year, but that just isn’t going to happen, sadly.
A lot of things are happening at the end of May, so I’ve decided to place Paper Thin Personas on hiatus until June 1, 2014 when I will return with a bang I hope… including a contest and hopefully a new featured paper doll artist. So, high hopes for tall of those things.
I will be checking my email and you can still contact me there if you need too. In the meantime, feel free to look around and enjoy the paper dolls.
See you all when I return in June. It should be a fun ride from there. 🙂
When it comes to pattern building, I find geometric patterns are easy if you have a drafting stencil handy (which I always do). For today’s printable paper doll to color, I wanted to create something that played with pattern, but in a distinct style. I tend to prefer florals in the real world over geometric patterns, so I often draw them instead for my paper dolls. I think geometric patterns are a little more urban and hip than my vintage inspired funky floral patterns tend to be.
I also wanted to contrast Hazel’s vintage paper doll set with something much more urban chic, so I did this set which I think came out pretty well. I particularly like her braided hair that comes back to a tight set of curls. I saw that on a student on my campus recently and I thought it was a really neat way to style box braids. (Forgive me if I get my braid terminology wrong- I’m still learning.) I will confess that I am beginning to feel, as I often do when I work with one paper doll style (contemporary) for too long that I need a break.
So, things might be getting a bit more fantasy and strange around here soon enough.
Of course, considering how far ahead I tend to work, soon enough might be several months…
(Actually less, as I have worked through my backlog leaving me dangerously low on content.)
Not having any backlog is always a rather dangerous place for me to be, as I tend to dislike working against a wire.
Plus, I have busy academic things happening in this month, so I might have to put the blog on Haitus. I had hoped to not do that at all this year, but my academic (and work related) life comes before my paper dolling.
