Marisole Monday: Knights and Ladies

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I threw this together on Saturday when I realized I didn’t have a Marisole for Monday. It’s not my best work, but I do love the sleeves on the red dress. I’m working on my ruching (sp?) since I got some books on drawing fashion from the library. So, you can expect to see more of it as I practice. I’m also practicing shiny fabric. Neither has come easily as I thought it would.

I’m trying to stretch myself.

Part of that means trying to draw an actual male who looks like a male rather then like a rather unconvincing woman in drag. The upside is there might be a male paper doll someday. The downside is that that male paper doll might look like a woman in drag. We shall see.

Edit 3/28/2016: There is now a black and white version of this paper doll. Find it here.

Marisole Monday: Sweater Style

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Usually, I come up with a color scheme for a post and then work it into the costumes. There’s almost always something with a pattern which I can use multiple colors in. Addison (one of the Pixie paper dolls) and Marisole: Wings & Petals are both good examples of this principle at work. However, since there wasn’t any pattern on today’s Marisole and no ways I could imagine incorporating a coherent color scheme, I just sort of picked colors that reminded me of winter and went with them.

Winter always makes me happy, because I means I can break out my gray clothing and not feel guilty about it. Of all the neutral colors in the world, gray is my favorite. It has all the features I like about black, but it’s not black. It’s like a delightful lighter better black (which I rather suppose is the definition of gray).

Update 8/11/2014: This paper doll is now available in black and white for coloring. You can find her here.

Modern Girl: Fashion Dress up Doll

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Today’s Marisole paper doll started as an attempt to a modern take on some fun Mod clothes and then kinda turned into just a bright citrus based series of Marisole clothing. This is the sort of clothing I would never wear, but would admire and be glad other people wore it.

After all, I can live vicariously through my paper dolls.

Medieval Maiden: Paper Doll to Print

Normally, I try to be historical accurate as much as I can be. I think it’s important to research and think about things and try to cite my sources. (I am in library school, after all…) For this post though, I just wanted to draw some vaguely Medieval looking grab for Marisole after watching one to many episodes of the BBC show Cadfeal, which I confess I certain love of. So, these are research free costumes which I think is okay.

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 Liana apparently dedicates the whole of October to research free costumes. I kinda like the idea, but I don’t think I could stick too it. I like my research,

So, speaking of research, I am doing my own little survey on what I should to for my Fashion Doll Fridays for the next year or so. More information about the poll to create a new Fashion Doll for Fridays can be found on the last Florence post I did. The poll will be open until November 1st. I’ll have the polls on the posts for the rest of the week and then it’ll live in the sidebar for anyone who hasn’t voted.

Cogs & Gears: Steampunk Printable Paper Doll

So, if this paper doll seems vaguely familiar, that’s likely because I have done steampunk things before for Marisole and for Curves. I openly admit I think William Gibson’s Difference Engine is among the boringest books I have ever tried to read; however, I do love anything which lets me play with Victorian fashion and not have my natural need to research to overwhelm me. There might be better steampunk books out there. Suggestions anyone?

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So, if this paper doll seems vaguely familiar, that’s likely because I have done steampunk things before for Marisole and for Curves. I openly admit I think William Gibson’s Difference Engine is among the boringest books I have ever tried to read; however, I do love anything which lets me play with Victorian fashion and not have my natural need to research to overwhelm me. There might be better steampunk books out there. Suggestions anyone?

I feel I should add, I love many of Gibson’s other books including the fantastic art work Agrippa which the librarian in me both loves and hates. Seriously, a mind-blowing piece of artistic work.

Okay, I’m done gushing now about digital poetics which technically have no place on this blog. This blog is about more important things like paper dolls.

So, speaking of paper dolls, today’s Marisole is considerably more brightly colored then my last foray into Steampunk. I like the brighter colors and though I tend to think of the Victorian era as sepia toned, I know the reality is that it was a horribly gaudy era of fashion since chemical dyes had just been invented.

Empire Elegance: Regency Paper Doll Printable

I love regency costume, though not as much as my Mother loves it. I find it simple and elegant and a little romantic, but it can get boring to draw after a while. I try to learn new things about the era each time I draw it- like I learned elastic actually existed (who knew?) and was being used for garters.

Never would have thought of that.

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Days seem slip away quicker than I can blink and suddenly I am realizing time has passed. I suppose that’s the danger of having many commitments on my time- I’m always stretched thinner then I thought I would be. Working while going to school is incredibly forefilling and incredibly challenging. I love my program. I love my job, but my time is a premium. Fortunately, I paper doll to relax, so as long as I know what I am going to do, I can sit down on my couch with my clip board in my lap and draw away when I get home from work. Sure my dishes get neglected, but who needs dishes?

I’m still playing around with skin tones for Marisole, eventually I’ll get a set of them that I like on multiple computers.

Marisole Monday: An Elven Princess

So, a paper doll set! Yay!

I must confess that I didn’t think I would ever get these paper dolls done. The coloring of the clothing was hugely time consuming and I kept disliking how the schemes turned out. I’m still not totally pleased with the gold and red ballgown, but it’s much better then the blue and green version. (Trust me on this one.)

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The original goal was to draw things with trains (because I need practice) and this evolved into a set of clothing a fantasy princess (in this case Elven cause of the ears) would wear over the course of the day. Working left to right, the purple gown with the corset and white blouse is her day dress. The red and gold dress with the cream under dress is her formal dinner gown or ball gown which she wears in the evening. Her short bed jacket is next held closed with a golden pin and that she wears over her long nightgown which is on the far right along with two pairs of shoes. The purple shoe to match her purple day dress and the red shoes to go with her formal ball-gown. She also has two necklaces, one to go with each gown though the gold one can be worn with either dress.

Considering the time it took to get all these paper doll clothes to fit on one image, I am glad I don’t draw dresses with trains so often. I do think I need to start thinking about color schemes when I’m designing rather then at ten pm on Sunday night when I realize “Huh… this paper doll dress has like five layers. Maybe I should’ve thought this out better…”

Planning never was my strong suit, but I like to think that I make up for it with a can-do attitude and a certain amount of gumption.

Edit 8/10/2013: There is now a a black and white version of this paper doll for coloring.

Jessica: City Girl

Today’s paper doll is named after a friend in middle school who always said she was going to leave Juneau and head off into the city down south (when you’re in Alaska, the habit is to call anything outside of the state “South”. It’s a matter of perspective I suppose). Eventually, I think she ended up at college in New York, so I suppose it worked out for her, though I lost track of her since then.

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It’s funny how people we’re close with at one point in our lives drift away from us later. I hadn’t thought about Jessica until I was trying to name this paper doll and then for some reason she came back to me. Odd how the mind works.

Coloring the paper dolls is always a bit of a crap shoot. How they show up after converting them into PNG’s is always a bit of a shock. Colors are always more muted. Sometimes I like it, but it can play havoc on skin tone. I think I managed okay with Jessica’s coloring, but I wish the brightness of the coat had converted better. Oh well, I suppose I’ll just have to keep messing with formats.

She’s also the first paper doll to be posted in a vertical print format, not a landscape print format. Just something to remember when you’re printing out the PDF.

Marisole Monday: Ahoy Matey- Pirate Paper Doll

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So, I haven’t died. I promise.

My friend says to me: You know, if your blog were a child, Social Services would have been called by now.

And I said: If my blog was a child, there would be other more serious concerns.

And she said: Update your damn blog.

And I said: Meh.

And then about a week passed. And here we are. With a blog update. Proving to my mother, who gets concerned about me, that I am, in fact, not dead.

PS: The colors got messed up when I saved it into a web format, so I recommend downloading it.

Snow Day: Printable Paper Doll

So, sometimes I don’t know what to draw. On these occasions, I usually poll friends looking for ideas. In one night, I might get suggests ranging from “ballerina” to “mad scientist” or “snow day”. Obviously, I decided to go with the “snow day” suggestion and I was told that I “had” to add a snowball and a snowman, so Marisole gets her snowman and her snowball.

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When I was a child, my favorite paper dolls had accessories. I don’t think I’m that good at drawing things other then people to do a lot of accessories, but even I can draw a snowball. I’d like to someday draw other accessories for Marisole. I think she needs a pet, but I can’t decide what kinda pet and drawing animals isn’t my gift. We’ll see.

Edit 1/6/2014: Get a colorable version of this paper doll to print here.