I thought really hard about the color scheme here. I thought originally, I was going to go the usual neon and black route like I did for my Cybergoth paper doll, but I decided something else might be more fun.
My only regret is that I didn’t use enough shiny in these costumes. I really should have done more of that. Oh well… Also, I think I went a little crazy for the pale green.
By the way, I wanted to mention that I’m rebuilding/editing the Magnetic Paper Doll Index at the moment, so it might be looking a little weird while I get it rewritten. I’m also seriously considering a new blog layout/theme for next year, so things might be a little janky around here while I do all of that.
Today, Marisole is an alien. I’ve been wanting to draw an alien futuristic set with guns and platform heels and absurd over the top clothing, so I did. I previewed it a while ago when it was in my sketchbook. As sometimes happens, I drew more clothing for this set than could fit onto the page, but these things happen sometimes.
In all the years, I’ve been drawing Marisole paper dolls (three now, I think… I started in 2010) and I have very rarely changed her appearance as dramatically as I did for this paper doll. The eyes I’m not totally pleased with, but I like the rest of it. The last time was when she was a zombie, I think. Anyway, I decided she was so different that she almost wasn’t a Marisole paper doll at all.
Playing around with Marisole’s face is a continuation of my thinking about where the series is going in the next year. December is usually the month when I start thinking about these things. Chances are the blog will be a little slow this month, I am traveling to visit family around the the holidays.
Normally, I do my futuristic, cyber-punky sets in blacks with neons, but I wanted to play around with white as a base color, rather than black.
Since I was using white, the citrus candy colors seemed proper to accent the clothes and the candy colors gave this paper doll her name- Kandi. Her dark skin tone was chosen to contrast with the white and pink scheme. I’m mostly pleased with how she came out, though I have some mixed feelings about the hair. It was originally black with pink highlights and I wonder if perhaps I should have kept it that way.
In the end, I’m fairly pleased with how she turned out. I like her clothes and her hair is okay, though I’m not totally pleased with it.
In my head, Kandi is from the same world Thorne, the Cyborg, Jay and Vera, though perhaps a happier more brightly colored part of that world… maybe the tropics.
Today Marisole printable paper doll is going cybergoth since there’s just not enough neon and shiny in Marisole’s eclectic paper wardrobe. This is the first new Marisole in a depressingly long time… I confess I spent time I probably should have spent revising a paper on this, but after five hours in the library my mind is pretty much non-functional anyway. And it’s nice to come home to paper doll coloring as a relaxing project to work on.
Now, I did recently get my hands on Gothic: Dark Glamour by Valerie Steele. While I normally I like Steele’s work, I was a bit disappointed by this book. It didn’t have the lavish pictures I have come to want in any costume book I buy. Still, it did have a fairly nice description of cyber-gothic and helped me narrow things down to black with neon accents. The hair was the hardest part of this paper doll, but I am actually quite pleased at how it came out. The other piece I am most proud of is the shiny black corset. Shiny fabrics are something I am still practicing and I am totally excited at how perfect the corset turned out to be. It’s rare that I really feel like I’ve achieved what I wanted with texture. Texture is hard.
In the epic history of college paper dolls, this one was the result of playing a lot of Shadowrun and drawing while I did it. My memories of the game are fond, though when I look at this paper doll now I see a lot of flaws. Still, I think she’s pretty cute and she’s a little different, so I thought I’d post her up, since I haven’t got anything else to go up.
I did a few different things over the weekend and during the week of blog neglecting (actually, I wasn’t neglecting the blog, I was just busy with a lot of other things for the blog, that weren’t ready to be posted). So, I have a few things to talk about today. I have rewritten my FAQ. I’ve added a few more blogs, not paper doll specific, and removed a few dead links from the Links page. Obviously, the menus have been reorganized. One of these days I will over-haul the Gallery page. I don’t like it. I don’t know what to do with it. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I’m dissatisfied with it. I need to think about it.
I’d kill the Gallery if I knew what the heck to do with the content already posted there. Decisions decisions.
So, I should say that this new paper doll series evolved out of the number of comments I had from people who really liked the shadowed style of paper dolls. I was surprised by the interest in them since I’d always thought I was the only one who liked those paper dolls. How wrong I was.
The truth is that I began this series a long time ago, but never posted it since I didn’t know how to fit it into the schedule and then recently when I looked at the bulging folder full of drawings and the ones in my sketchbook I was really quite proud of, I thought, “I’m bored with Flora. I avoid drawing for her. Just got for it.”
And here we are today with a new paper doll series. I’m excited and pleased (and have songs from the musical Into the Woods stuck in my head, but that’s got nothing to do with this post) and I’d love to hear what people think, as always.
I sort of think of Thorne (named after a friend from high school who looked nothing like this, but that is not here nor there) as perhaps the boyfriend of Jay or at least that they come from the same world. It’s the same world I tend to assume my Cyborg and Vera come from. Perhaps a futuristic place with lots of neon and flying cars.
Sort of Fifth Element meets Mad Max. Of the two, I’d take the visual style of the Fifth Element over Mad Max pretty much any day.
Obviously, I have been watching to much of Demolition Man while practicing my shiny textures. Actually, on Friday, I did just that. A girlfriend and I got together for pizza, a cupcake each from the bakery and movies.
First we watched Demolition Man which is basically everything good about a Sylvester Stallone movies distilled down in to a thick glorious syrup. After Demolition Man (I kinda want to draw the police uniforms from the future now, but I need to make more notes before I try), we watched My Fair Lady.
Yes, a bit of a change of pace but there’s dancing and singing and Rex Harrison in tweed. How can Rex Harrison in tweed ever be a bad thing?
I might have a thing for tweed.
Moving gracefully away from my thing for tweed, I have a poll right now up about the blog schedule. People should vote. Its more for my information then for any major site changes.
Obviously, I have been playing around with shiny a bit lately. I did it for the Marisole Superhero post. I have another shiny post in the early stages of work. I rather like the shiny effect, though there should be a more effective way of doing it then what I have been doing. I just don’t know what that might be at the moment.
I am really lucky to have supportive friends. When I sit around while we watch movies or hang out and draw paper dolls their reactions are usually, “That’s neat.” Rather than making fun of me for being a mid-twenties graduate student whose drawing paper dolls.
When I was in high school and through most of college and I drew paper dolls, it was a tightly kept secret I shared with only a few people. I did say I collected, but it was always- because I have since I was a child… I never wanted to confess I really did still enjoy paper dolls.
I’ve gotten over it. Maybe it’s time or maturity or something else, but I no longer get nervous telling people about my weird hobby… most of the time. It’s still not something I advertise.
I have such mixed feelings about this paper doll and I have such mixed feelings about starting a post with the words “I have such mixed feelings…” I usually try to not talk about what I dislike, but I must confess I don’t think the face of the paper doll Vera was very successful. I love her black and gray kimono-esque costume with the pink flowers though, I think that one came out beautifully.
So, I guess maybe you win some and you lose some when it comes to paper dolls.
One of the unique features of paper doll blogging vs. standard paper doll drawing is that I find I hate going to the trouble of inking something only to decide I don’t like it. Don’t mis-understand me, there’s plenty of things in my sketchbooks that will never see the light of day, but I often feel that the goal of posting on time and regularly is more important then the goal of always being in love with what I post.
While my natural inclination is not to post anything I don’t like, the actual practical consideration is that if I never posted anything I wasn’t totally satisfied with then I would likely only update once a month at most. As it is, I’m learning to be okay with posting paper dolls even when I have mixed feelings about them.
Especially when I really adore their strange futuristic kimono costumes.
