Printable Paper Dolls

Fleur: A Fairy Paper Doll

I think fairies should be a little strange and a little other worldly and even a little scary. The Victorian conception of the sweet flower fairy stands in stark contrast to the traditional stories filled with figures like Banshees and the Washer Women and Jenny Greenteeth, or even Baba Yaga.

A flower fairy paper doll with a ten piece wardrobe. From paperthinpersonas.com.

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So, today I went to a Greek food festival with some people and ate much tasty Greek food. It was fun and edible. There was music and children dancing dances which reminded me of nothing so much as Jewish Camp, which I went to in the summers and where we’d learn to dance traditional folk dances. I had a good time and it was nice to get out of my apartment for a while and be social with people. I don’t do that often enough.

By the way, if you decide Fleur needs friends, she can hang out Belladonna and Flora , my other two fairy Pixie paper dolls. My favorite fairy paper doll of them all is Flora Fauna of the retired Curves series, I think she’s more creepy than cute.

Warrior Printable Paper Doll

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So, I was pawing around the internet, as I do, and I stumbled across this wonderful German website that contained some beautiful vintage German paper dolls. The word for paper doll in German is “ankleidepuppen” which literally translates to something like “dress up doll” according to my good friend from Germany, but, she told me, its usually used for paper dolls rather than normal dolls. Paper dolls and paper models are still pretty popular in Germany, though not in the United States.

Right after college, I got a fairly dead-end job working at a local bookstore and toy store. One of the catalogs we received, though never ordered from, was a German catalog that sold beautiful paper models. The prices were far above what we could have possibly sold them for, so we didn’t stock them normally, though I seem to recall a customer who would come in and special order them.

I love beautiful paper toys of all kinds, though paper dolls are, understandably, my first love.

Silk and Steel: Printable Paper Doll with Armor

Color schemes are always challenging. I wanted to keep the colors simple, since so much of it was going to be “silver grey”. As I see it, the “leather” can either be brown or black, but I think it looks off when there is a mix. After some debate, I settled on black and then decided to use white as a contrast color, rather than the more traditional dark shade. The rich red color has a lot of blue into it which keeps it from feeling too “blood red” and softens it against the black and the white.

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Okay, so a question…

Dreamed asked: If you could travel to any time era, in any part of the world, when and where would you go? Why?

Wow… hard question. I have no idea… not very helpful is it?

I guess if I had to go somewhere and visit a period of history, I would want to visit Mainz in Germany when Gutenberg was printing his bible in the mid-1400’s, just so that I could see the press. A little odd, but as a rare books person, I just really want to see it.

I would not want to have to wear the clothing of the early 1400s… that just does nothing for me.

On an utterly unrelated note, I found this beautiful Valentine paper doll on Flickr. I love the way water color looks when it’s well done. Makes me almost want to try traditional media… almost.

Noir Punk or Punk Noir…. Magnetic Paper Doll

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I don’t really know where this started…

I mean, I might have watched “Blade Runner” one to many times or maybe I’ve been collecting to many steampunk reference images in my files, but somehow I just thought that combining 1940’s and 1930’s noir film suits with platform heels and facial peircings seemed like a good idea.

Truth be told, I am rather pleased with the outcome. I figured out a way to do hats that “work” on magnetic paper dolls (who can not have things layered “behind” them very well”) and got to play with some of the diversity that might be possible from the Flock. I chose Starling to show off this style, because there was something about her little smirk/half smile with the hair style that I thought looked good.

So, I am quite pleased with the outcome.

One of the things I wanted to do with the Flock magnetic sets was make sure there was versatility. The pieces which “only” Starling can wear are on her page- the shoes and the hats with the hair attached. The pieces on the other page will fit any of the Flock magnetic dolls.

I think this style should be called “Noir Punk” as in “Steampunk” or I think it should be called “Punk Noir,” but I can’t really decide which one. Either way, you’ll find the downloads below. Let me know what you think in a comment.

Starling: Punk Noir Set PDF Downloads
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Starling Doll PDF Download Punk Noir Clothing PDF Download

Striped Paper Doll Clothes

Clearly, I thought that the Dictionary Girl’s needed to get a little more rough and tumble…. so here they are… rough and tumbling (Is it just me or does that sound like a sexual innuendo?).

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I feel as though I need to say this, since I seem to get a lot of comments or questions that start with an apology- Please ask me question. Please make requests. Please feel free to inquire if I’ve ever done a style or a kind of paper doll. I will respond. I might take a few weeks days but I do try to get back to people.

Not promising that I’ll do a certain style of paper doll, but I try to reply as much as I can to comments and am grateful for everyone I receive.

I just thought I should state that somewhere.

On a fairly unrelated note, it is Speak Like a Pirate Day, so I went in search of a few pirate paper dolls. The pickings were not impressive. Final Fantasy Paper Dolls Made by Animama depict several of the Final Fantasy characters (none of whom I confess I know), but have some stylish pirate wear and fair number of other tongue in cheek outfits.

Lady Pirate Paper Doll depicts a beautiful black and white winged lady pirate. There are other printable paper dolls as well.

Silk and Steel: Paper Doll in Black and White

Marisole has been a lot of things over the years… She’s been a zombie and a pirate and a ninja and a member of Star Fleet, but she’s never just been a warrior chick and I thought she should be, plus I have a friend whose really into Xena and she was remarking that Marisole has been a lot of princesses, but she hadn’t ever really been ready for a fight.

So, here she is, ready for a fight. Though… I confess her armor isn’t really very… practical. Still, she’ll look cute and that’s half the battle.

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Toni Cross

    asked: Did you like playing with dolls as a kid? As in, the non-paper kind? If so, what doll was your favorite? If not, what toy was your favorite and why?

I love dolls as a kid. I still love dolls, though over the years, I have come to realize what I really loved was miniature clothing and things. I loved all the tiny clothing and accessories more than I loved the dolls themselves.

My favorite dolls were Ginny dolls by Vogue. My Ginny’s had all sorts of adventures, but my fondest memories of the Ginny dolls are when my Grandmother came to visit and she would knit and sew them clothing. I still own all the tiny outfits my grandmother made for them and the wooden furniture my grandfather made.

I should mention, Toni has a blog of her own where she has posted a few beautiful paper dolls, I particularly like her baby paper doll named Sammi.

Astrid- Printable Paper Doll

When I was in middle school, I played a character named Astrid in a school play… but that is neither here nor there.

Personally, I really like her axe. That’s probably my favorite part of the paper doll… is that weird?

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So, Boots asked: since you do a lot of coloring, etc. on the computer, what (if anything) do you do with the original art? Also: have you ever considered attending a paper doll convention?

Well, I draw in sketchbooks. So, my paper dolls end up in sketchbooks and the sketchbooks get labeled with the date and the year that they were done and get stuck in a bookcase. I don’t really “do” anything with the original art, except save it, because someday I might need it for something…. I keep a xerox of every common base paper doll (Marisole, Pixie & Puck, Dictionary and Shadow and Light) in a binder, so that I can have something draw off of without damaging the original art. I live in terror of losing the original art, since I tend to beat up my copies.

As for going to a paper doll convention, I totally want too. I’ve wanted to go to one for forever, but they’ve never been in locations or at times that were convenient for me. Living in Alaska was a huge hurdle and then school was a huge hurdle, but I’m hoping next year or something, I might get to go to one.

Mostly, I just think it would be cool to meet people who get as excited as I do about these paper people I love to draw so much. 🙂

Speaking of paper people, I was pawing around the internet and I found this beautiful horoscope paper doll on a dutch (I think…) language website. She’s really lovely and I adore her “theme costumes”.

Roccoco Fantasy- Printable Princess Paper Dolls

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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?

Peter Pan Collars in Yellow and Green Paper Doll Dresses

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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?