Today’s paper doll dresses were inspired by retro-rockabilly styles. I’ve been thinking about rockabilly dresses ever since I posted this version of Aisha and Julie, of Paper Doll School, suggested that the pink haired version needed some rockabilly dresses in pastels.
Well, I confess that pastels just didn’t seem seasonal, so I went with autumn tones (which perhaps don’t go as well with the pink hair), but if you head over to the Patreon page you can download the spring time pastel version.
Meanwhile, there maybe some changes coming to the blog in the new year, so I’ll be putting up some polls looking for thoughts and I hope folks will respond.
And, as always, if you like the blog consider donating to the blog, following me on Instagram, or leaving a comment.
One of the things I love to do is draw paper doll clothing from fashion catalogs and magazines. Clear pictures are useful, but so it seeing clothing I might not have thought up myself.
This set of paper doll fashions were based on the latest Autumn trends. Sleeve details and ruffles are not super popular. So are blouses, so here we have some blouses with sleeve details. To go with this pair of blouses, there is a pair of skinny jeans tucked into boots. The paper doll also has a matching purse.
Today’s paper doll post is a big skirted princess fantasy dress- one of my favorite styles to explore. I’ve done quite a few of these dresses for the B pose ladies before. You might remember my fall steampunk inspired one from a few weeks ago.
I am prepping for some quick travel over the next few days, so this post is going to be short. I still have to figure out how to fit all my liquids in a single baggie.
Meanwhile, I had a lot of fun drawing this retro science fiction astronaut. I know I haven’t done a real astronaut yet, but I am having so much fun with these zany retro ones.
For those of you who don’t know, I keep Pinterest boards as one of my favorite ways to collect images. My Retro Futuristic Fashion board has all sorts of images that influenced today’s paper doll.
Also, if you have a moment and want to do me a favor, there’s a poll about the blog post images over on Patreon. You can vote even if you’re not a Patron and I hope you do! It’s all about how the post images I create of each paper doll set should look.
And speaking of voting, if you are in the USA, I hope you will vote on Tuesday (or perhaps have voted already, if you live in a state that allows that). It’s super important to vote, so please go vote!
I did my first version of Batari back in August, so I am happy to get to post a second version. This version of Batari has lots of shoes (a super important paper doll garment, because they are the least versatile) and a short hair style. Both of the first two Bartari versions had longer hair, so I wanted to do one with short hair.
As I mentioned before, Batari is an Indonesian name that means Goddess. It was voted on by my Patrons. I like to give them the opportunity to choose paper doll names whenever I can.
(Sometimes, I have a name in mind.)
So, some may remember that I was drawing a paper doll for Inktober. My goal was to draw ten paper doll outfits over the course of the month and post them on Instagram. It was a rough month, but I managed to get all ten done. You can see them over at the #ptpinktober2018
If you want to help keep the blog up on the internet and see more behind the scenes stuff, think of becoming a Patron. Also, you get to vote on things there.
Just in case last Friday’s sheet ghost wasn’t your idea of a best Halloween paper doll ever. I wanted to create something else. So, here we have a bit more Gothic fashion take on the holiday. The only thing that really makes these “Halloween” is the color scheme, so you could recolor the black and white version if you wanted a more traditional Gothic fashion version.
I have been trying to do a paper doll for most holidays with the Dames and Dandies series, because I have such fond memories of my Grandmother sending me paper doll holiday cards when I was a child.
I have a Thanksgiving version planned and I want to do something for Veteran’s Day. I’ve never done a paper doll for that holiday before, but I think a World War 2 ladies uniform would be super fun to draw. (Or a World War I ambulance uniform, those intrigue me too.)
I digress.
So, anyway, the A pose paper dolls here are are getting corsets and long skirts for their Halloween attire.
What are people dressing up as? I confess I’ve never been a big Halloween person. I do like handing out candy, but ever since I moved into an apartment I don’t seem to ever get tricker-treaters.
It makes me kinda sad.
Anyway, it’s probably best I don’t have a big bag of candy in my house anyway. I would end up eating more of it than the kids, I suspect.
If you need a way to pass the time waiting for young ghouls or goblins, why not color or cut out Halloween paper dolls? It keeps up manual dexterity and is a lot of fun. You can see all the blog’s Halloween paper dolls in that tag.
So, when I was rounding up all the paper dolls for my C Pose paper doll post with all the sets I’d done in the last few months, I realized how few versions of the guys I had created. The girls all have several versions and the poor guys were just hanging out in their modern hair without much to turn too. I felt bad for them.
So, I set to work designing some new versions of the guys. I still need to design a second Cyrus, but have done elf Cameron, fantasy Carlos and now we have steampunk Changrui. I might have just really wanted an excuse to draw a Victorian mustache. Maybe.
I need a theme for Cyrus, any suggestions? I’m leaning towards cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic.
Also, if you like the blog and want to get behind the scenes, help pay for the server space and support my sketchbook buying habits, consider becoming a patron. Any amount helps.
October has turned into a rougher month than I expected it to be. I know Eliot argued that April was the cruelest month, but personally I have found this October to be brutal. There have been some upsides (I have been enjoying my Inktober paper doll creation), but I am pretty ready to slide into November, thank you.
So, when it came time for the collaborative paper doll theme of Halloween costume, I had no ideas. I tried. I doodled. I looked around Pinterest. And yet… nothing came. So, in the end, I decided on the simplest, most cop-out Halloween costume I could think of- A sheet ghost!
(All right, I do know this isn’t going down as one of my most inspired paper doll outfits, but not every one can be a fancy gown with lots of ruffles.)
If you want to see more “Halloween costumes” (and probably some that are more… interesting than mine) head over to Paper Doll School and Miss Missy Paper Dolls. I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with this theme.
Sometimes I create a paper doll outfit that gives me fits and this was one such paper doll outfit. I must have been seriously out of it when I penciled this. So, I ended up needed to do a lot of Photoshop work to make the whole outfit fit the paper doll. It was a pain.
But I’m actually pretty happy with how it came out once I solved the problem of the fit.
I do try to test everything in Photoshop before I finish it, even if I don’t test everything physically. If I had to cut out every paper doll set I ever designed, I would basically spend my entire life cutting out paper dolls.
Not that I don’t cut them out sometimes just for fun.
I really do enjoy designing these fantasy outfits. They are probably my favorite things to design. I think I watched too much Hercules and Lord of the Rings as a young person. I love the costumes from Game of Thrones, but I confess I haven’t been able to get into the actual show. There’s a little to much violence for me to actually watch the show.
What shows are you watching right now? I’m super enjoying the X-men show, Gifted and I am slowly getting into Doctor Who which I never watched before. I have a long time before I catch up.
If there’s one thing rounding up all the B Pose paper dolls a few weeks ago made me realize, it was that I hadn’t done any short party dresses for them. That seemed like a omission worth rectifying. So, today I have some cocktail dresses for the B pose Dames. After all, the holidays are coming and maybe there’s a party they need to attend.
I tend to make two dresses when I do these sets, because I feel like one dress “isn’t enough”, but I’ve also been thinking about trying to go back to a daily update schedule in which case, think one dress would have to be enough. I haven’t decided yet what makes the most sense. I miss updating daily, but I’m also nervous if I could keep up to it.
The black and blue color scheme was inspired by what I’ve been seeing in the department stores this season. But if you want a more autumnal or summery color combination, hop over to the Patreon page where there’s a second color scheme you can download and print. It’s open to everyone, not just Patrons, but while you’re there I would ask that you consider helping out and giving a little each month to support the blog.
And, as always, I love to hear whatever you’d like to tell me in the comment.
