Rose, Coffee, And Mint Redux

A black and white children's paper doll printable with a mix and match wardrobe. She has two dresses, pants, two skirts, four tops, a pair of shoes and two purses.
A children's paper doll printable of a fashionable black woman with a mix and match wardrobe. She has two dresses, pants, two skirts, four tops, a pair of shoes and two purses.

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Today’s paper doll really feels like a children’s paper doll to me. Don’t get me wrong, I would give any of my paper dolls to my niece (or nephew, if he showed any interest.) However, occasionally, I have a paper doll that I make that I think… this is super kid friendly. Today’s paper doll is one of those very kid friendly designs.

When I think about what makes a children’s paper doll different from one I’ve drawn for adults, it mostly boils down to how easy it is to play with. I believe this paper doll is very easy to play with, which makes it a lot of fun. All of her clothing is in colors that go well together. You can mix and match her outfits in many different ways. She has either 14 outfits or 28 outfits, depending on how much you like shoes. That’s like having a whole closet full of clothes for this little paper fashionista. Also, she’s pretty easy to cut out. The only tricky part might be the shoulders under her hair or maybe the purses. Still, I managed those when I was a kid, so I thin other kids could too.

Like my floral retro paper doll, an earlier paper doll, Coffee, Strawberry and Cream, inspired today’s paper doll. I drew that one in 2011, over a decade ago. That’s hard to believe, but true. One thing I loved from that paper doll was the rose dress and the striped dress. Both are so fun then and I still like them, years later. I remember being so proud of Coffee, Strawberry and Cream when she came out.

There’s a similarity between this paper doll and Lillian, a paper doll from Paper Doll School.Actually, a lot of Julie’s paper dolls are super kid friendly, particularly her long running Kawaii Kids series. I digress. Enjoy the paper doll!

Bows & Pearls in Mauve, Cream, and Green

Printable coloring page of an Asian girl paper doll with clothing.
Printable Asian girl paper doll with clothing.

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A few thoughts on today’s Asian girl paper doll and her romantic wardrobe – I wanted to do a paper doll that would have a pearl feeling color scheme, but I also wanted her to not use pink. I really love pink, but I wanted to get away from pink for this set. Pink just feels like the “easy” way to make things feel feminine. So, instead, I decided to lean into mauve, cream and shades of leaf green. This Design Seeds color palette inspired me.

Honestly, I love all these colors, but I think the clothing is a little too feminine for me. However, I am hardly the most fashionable person on the planet. I went back and forth about the hair style. On one hand, putting a bob on an Asian paper doll feels a little cliche. On the other hand, I really liked the smooth hard lines of the hair in contrast with the hyper-feminine fashions.

Much like Retro Spring some of this paper doll’s clothing comes from the same set Hearts Denims and Bows. I really liked the bow graphic t-shirt in that set and I used it as a jumping off point for the rest of the clothing in this set. With 7 tops and 4 bottoms, there are 28 different outfit combinations here. I guess if I really wanted to maximize my clothing combos, I would draw nothing but crop tops, shorts, and shoes. However, I am trying to be a little more diverse then that.

Personally, I’d really love to get to 100 different pieces of mix and match contemporary paper doll clothing. I think that would be a nice round number for this series, plus I think then I could put together a book or something with all those pieces. I’ll get there eventually, but in the mean time, enjoy this latest addition to the Ensemble Eclectica series.

By the way, if there is a contemporary clothing theme you’d really like to see for these little ladies, let me know in a comment. Right now, I am thinking about a gothic set (because drawing skulls is a good challenge and also October seems the right month for that) and something sci-fi with cute little aliens.

A Little 1970s Retro Inspired Floral Spring

Free coloring page featuring a lovely paper doll and her retro paper doll clothes with jeans, funky florals, and matching purse. A free printable coloring sheet for you to enjoy.
A beautiful redheaded paper doll and her retro paper doll clothes with jeans, funky florals, and matching purse. A free printable paper doll for you to enjoy!

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Today’s member of the Ensemble Eclectica is a cute little redhead with a retro paper doll clothes vibe. She’s not from any specific decade, but there’s something that feels 1970s about the color scheme to me.

I’m having a bit of artists block over the last few weeks. I wanted to draw, but I had no idea what to draw and the idea of trying to think of something to draw just made me sort freeze. So, instead of torturing myself with indecision, I decided to go back to my own archives and draw some things inspired by pervious sets I’ve created.

This set was inspired by Hearts Denims and Bows, a set I first drew a decade ago. One thing I did miss while I was drawing this set was having a paper doll with a side facing foot, so I could really have more fun with shoes. I like drawing shoes. Anyway, given that I have over a thousand paper dolls on this site, I might as well use my own work to feed new work.

Part of the purpose of Ensemble Eclectica is to try out color schemes. So, I turned a little retro for these paper doll clothes.

One of the things I’ve been trying to mimic is the printing styles of vintage materials and since I’ve been trying to play with that and what better way to do that than with some vintage color inspiration. I was heavily influenced when coloring this set by the shades of the 1970s- mustard and coral and a little avocado (though not too much, I leaned into teal instead, which is also a color I associate with that decade.)

Anyway, a fun part of the continuing Ensemble Eclectica series has been color. I love picking out color schemes for my paper doll and trying them out. I’m always fascinated at how color really changes the feel of a paper doll set.

Yellow & Blue Medieval Fantasy Gowns

A Fantasy printable dress-up doll with two dresses and a yellow and blue themed color scheme. The doll has brown hair in braids and tan skin. The two dresses are both mevieval inspired with long skirts and sleeves. She also has books and a sword as accessories.
A Fantasy printable dress-up doll color pages with a pair od dresses and braids. There are accessories for the doll like two swords and a pair of boots.

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Today’s fantasy printable dress-up doll has a pair of medieval inspired gowns with girdles, swords and books, of course. Because all paper dolls are happier with books.

When I’m in the mood for some “basic fantasy,” I tend to go back to medieval stuff. Not the actual medieval period, but rather what the Victorians thought the medieval period was. It’s all big castles, princesses in fancy dresses, dragons, and noble knights. In a nod to actual medieval gowns which were worn over kirtles or underdresses, I like to add the layers. You can see more of this sort of thing on my fantasy medieval Pinterest board if you’re curious.

I confess though that these aren’t the most unusual or inspired pieces for me, but I feel like I am stretching myself enough with the digital art thing without trying something totally new.

I chose the colors for these dresses from classic Norwegian design and old-fashioned children’s book illustrations. I used yellows, blues, and soft ocher shades to make them feel cozy and cheerful, like a sunny day or a calm, clear sky. These colors remind me of curling up by a fire with a big picture book.

And since I was thinking of books, I drew some books to be accessories along with swords. I like drawing books. It’s the librarian in me.

This is the first sort of fantasy set for the Ensemble Eclectica series. My hope is always that this fantasy printable dress-up doll will inspire imaginative play and storytelling. That’s the best part of playing with paper dolls, isn’t it? While I’ll admit that I have been on more of a modern clothing kick as of late, don’t worry. Eventually, I’ll come back to fantasy, sci-fi and other elements. I always do.

A Spring or Autmn Little Cottage Core Paper Doll

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So, most of the clothing for this paper doll began it’s life as clothing for the Dark Victoriana themed paper doll, but that was back when I thought I was going to make all these dolls two page sets. I have since decided I just didn’t feel like drawing two page sets. So I drew a few new pieces and then ended up here.

This whole series is heavily inspired by a long running paper doll series Julie Matthews did called Fashion Doll Fridays. Those dolls were vector drawn and ran weekly on her site from around 2012 until 2016. I think this is the first one. (Did I get that right, Julie?) She still occasionally shares a set that matches like these football paper dolls. Now one of the things I realized over the last few months is that the only way I will get better at digital drawing (and I do want to get better) and more skilled with Procreate (which is the program I am using) is to draw in it.

However, I really dislike how it manages color, so that I am still doing in Photoshop.

As for shadows… I dunno. I’m unconvinced I like them. I do want to try some more digital techniques and see where I end up. I’m particularly curious to play around with pattern brushes in Procreate and also with a more painterly look.

But in the meantime, my line-work needs work and the best way to do that is to keep drawing and just keep drawing.

The Stylish July Round Up: All 31 Creations Together

The Paper Dolls

 I feel like starting the dolls, because well, you need a doll to wear the clothing, right? Right. I was very pleased with this doll and I still am. There’s a few things I would change now, but all in all, I’m quite happy with how she came out.

The Historical Clothing in Order of Historical Period

Originally, this project was going to be all 1910s clothing, but that didn’t last too long. I ended up with some 15th century stuff, some 1890s stuff, and some 1910s stuff. I’m particularly happy with how the folds came out in the 15th century gowns and I fretted for a long time over their headdresses.

The Sci-fi, Fantasy and Steampunk Clothing

I draw a lot of fantasy stuff. I like drawing it. It’s some of my favorite things to work on. I wanted to try out a bunch of different looks and see how I did using digital tools with them, rather than a pencil and pen. At times, I seriously missed my pen, but I can see ways in which I improved as the process went on.

The Contemporary Clothing

 

I didn’t do as many

A Few in Color….

One of the long terms goals of the July Project was to see if I could do a paper doll series similar to many of the ones on this site digitally. Part of that is finding a system, because I am system based soul. I played around a lot with different ways of doing shading and different ways of adding texture.

In the end, I decided I didn’t really love the shading, but I did enjoy trying out several different fun techniques here.

And that’s it! All of them in all of their glory here. If you missed one, you can grab it now and fill out your whole set.

Dark Victoriana Printable Paper Doll

A victorian fashion inspired printable paper doll coloring page with an 8 piece mix and match wardrobe.
A victorian fashion inspired printable paper doll with dark hair, fair skin and an 8 piece mix and match wardrobe.

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This weekend was Rosh Hashanah, so I spent some time in synagogue, made challah, heard the shofar, and ate apples and honey. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, so it is now the year 5784. I often get introspective this time of year, but I don’t know that I’m ready to share any of those thoughts.

I wanted to do something a little romantic and with a darker color scheme, but fairer skin, so I could see how the contrast worked with the dark linework and the added texture. I think it works well.

All this paper dolls clothing sort of reminds me of the clothing of Regina/Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time when not in the fairytale world. I never got through season 3 last time I watched this, so hopefully I’ll be more engaged this time. I honestly think the show works better when you can binge it and don’t so easily loose track of all the threads (there’s a lot of them.) I do really enjoy most of the costuming. Everytime I argue at the TV that there’s more ethical nuance than the show allows, my husband is like, “It’s fairy tales.”

And I am like, “Okay, fair.”

So, if you look closely at this set, you might notice one of the neat things about working digitally. Two of the blouses (the red sleeveless one and the purple button up) became the templates from which I drew the two other blouses- the cream and black one and the teal cropped one. This adaptation is much more possible, because of the digital nature of the art. It’s not something I’ll probably do all the time- because I honestly like drawing- but the possibility excites me.

Also, like how many ways are there to draw a pair of skinny jeans before it gets absurd? Really?

Oh, and I messed around a little with the layout to facilitate printing and getting more clothing onto the page. Not sure I love the thicker gray line, so that might change.

Let me know what you think in a comment! I love hearing from folks.