fantasy Archives • Page 14 of 39 • Paper Thin Personas

Mini-Maidens as a Paper Doll Warrior Woman

July 5, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Xena: Warrior Princess

As you know if you read this blog, I love Xena: Warrior Princess and I am not about to stop loving Xena: Warrior Princess anytime soon.

So, here’s yet another Xena inspired warrior outfit with more exposed skin than common sense dictates.

I realize that there are some Xena-esque outfits in the new Wonder Woman movie (which is a super fun film), but I drew this long before saw it. I can’t claim any relation between this and that, but I am glad to see a return to absurd armor as a concept.

It’s really very pulpy. I suspect if you really wanted, you could trace a lot of this back to the pulps of the 1930s and 1940s. I am reminded of the Flash Gordon paper dolls I have seen.

And obviously, everyone should want Flash Gordon paper dolls.

I suppose my point is that there is nothing new under the sun and everything is constantly being revamped and recycled.

This recycling is part of why I love collecting reference images on Pinterest as much as I do and why I added the “Inspired By” to the tops of every post. I want people to know that rarely do these thing just “happen”.

I took a poetry class in college. The professor remarked that if you wait around for inspiration to strike, you’ll spend a lot of time waiting and you won’t really spend much of it creating.

In fact, I find I am at my most creative when I already am creating. Sure, everyone needs breaks, but often I find that once I start drawing for one series, other ideas flow much better for me.

Need a Mini-Maiden paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Mini-Maiden Paper Doll Here.

A Mermaid for the 2017 Collaborative Paper Doll Project

June 30, 2017June 30, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Mermaids! Because I like ’em.

So, this isn’t as inspired as Sekhmet by Boots or Julie Williams amazing centaur or Miss Missy’s Lamia/Naga, but this month has been crazy, so I went for a mermaid.

I like mermaids.

The truth is that I was sick at the start of this week and then I had some blog related problems, but I have been assured those are fixed.

However, if anyone has an issue, please email me at paperthinpersonas(at)gmail.com. It seems the blocking issue was only impacting people in specific geographic regions, so it was really hard to track down.

Of course, when the blog is down, I tend to stress out about it and it makes it hard to want to create new content. Luckily, things should be back to normal next week.

This collaborative paper doll project has been so much fun. When we came up with the idea, I confess that I wasn’t sure we’d be able to make it through the whole year, but here we are in June and we’re still going!

That’s very exciting.

Be sure to check out Popculture and Paper Dolls, Miss. Missy and Paper Doll School for three other literature inspired paper doll outfits.

Need a doll to wear this stylish outfit? Grab the Doll here.

An Earth Inspired Sorceress Gown for the B&B Printable Paper Doll Series

June 13, 2017June 13, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Earth!

Today’s B&B paper doll gown is part of the Sorceress Gowns Project in which I am drawing gowns for sorceresses (a fact that might be obvious from the name). The theme for this project was chosen by my Patrons. I’ve started the series with a doll and the four elements. This is the element Earth. I’ve also done Water and Fire.

You can see all the Sorceress Gowns and Dolls under the Sorceress Gowns Project tag.

Earth was a surprisingly easy dress to conceive of. I knew I wanted to focus on rocks rather than plant life. The pattern on her under-gown was inspired by the layers and veins in rocks.

The bottom of her over gown is supposed to look like mountains. On her staff, I put a faceted crystal, because I wanted to capture more rock imagery.

While this was one of the easiest of the various Sorceress gowns to draw, it was one of the hardest to color. I went through three color schemes. I will confess I am still not completely satisfied, but at some point you have to say, “Well, I’m not redoing this again!”

There is an Air gown forthcoming, of course, and then another Sorceress doll.

After that, I’m not sure what I’ll do next. I do have an idea for an arctic/snow themed gown, so maybe I should do a desert/sand themed gown to counter balance it?

Decisions, decisions.

Let me know what you think about that idea in a comment or what you think about today’s gown.

Tomorrow there will be a new installment in the Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme series for the Poppets.

Several folks have let me know that there was a problem with the PDFs. I think I have it solved, but if anyone has a further issue, please clear your browser cache and refresh the page. It should solve the problem.- Rachel

Need to get a Bodacious & Buxom paper doll to wear these fabulous clothes? Pick one out here.

Greta’s Ancient Greek Fantasy Gown

June 12, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Ancient greek fashion

Today’s paper doll is a black and white Ancient Greek inspired Mini-Maiden doll. I chose Greta to be the model for today’s Ancient Greek fantasy gown, though of course it will fit any of the Mini-Maiden dolls.

Her hair was also inspired by Ancient Greek styles, but her shoes were totally not.

I worry about strange things on the blog sometimes, like making sure every paper doll series has equal attention.

There are 52 weeks in a year. There are six paper doll series. That means there are about 8.6 dolls going to be posted per series. Since I don’t know what a .6 doll would look like anyhow, I have to round that to 8 for some series and up to 9 for others.

The truth is though, since I have done at least one all doll week (started on May 8th) I don’t really think my careful planning is going to create evenly balanced numbers of annual dolls per series.

Though I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t created a chart at the beginning of the year in a vague attempt to do this.

What can I say? I am a librarian through and through.

In my head, I categorize the fantasy dresses I draw based on their basic inspiration. There are medieval inspired gowns (like this one), renaissance inspired gowns (like this one), and Ancient Greek inspired gowns, like today’s Greta doll’s gown.

Further evidence of my tendency to categorize things.

And now that I successfully demonstrated what a strangely obsessive human being I am, I’d love to know what you think about today’s Ancient Greek fantasy gown. Leave me a comment if you’d like to share your thoughts.

Need a more outfits for today’s Mini-Maiden Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here.

Xavier Getting his Medieval Fantasy Garb On

May 19, 2020May 12, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Goatees

As anyone whose been following this blog for a while knows, I have mixed feelings about men’s clothing and male paper dolls in general. I am trying to learn to embrace the things that male paper dolls have that lady paper dolls don’t have.

One of those things is facial hair. So, today I am experimenting with facial hair by giving Xavier this dashing goatee.

Beyond that I feel like this is a kinda uninspired set of men’s fantasy clothing. There’s nothing wrong with any of it. Each piece is fine, but I don’t see it and think, “Wow, that was creative.”

Of course, I have to remind myself that not every paper doll has to be perfect. Perfect, I often say, is the enemy of Good.

Frankly, my favorite part of today’s paper doll is the sword. I think that came out pretty well.

If you want to give Xavier some other fantasy clothing I think this set or this set would look pretty cool.

Looking for something else for today’s Sprite paper doll to wear? Pick out some clothing here.

Teresa with a Medieval Fantasy Gown Inspired by the Bliaut

May 19, 2020May 11, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: 12 Century Clothing Like Bliauts

I had originally intended for this to be the first Teresa doll, but I decided I’d done a lot of fantasy stuff so I wanted to change of pace.

As some of you know, the Sprites are a later adaption of a series of paper dolls called the Pixie & Puck. I created a Pixie in 2013 named Phillipa with a similar hairstyle to this one. Pixie dolls and Sprites can’t share clothing, just FYI.

Today’s Teresa paper doll owes something to the 12th century. Her dress is a fantasy version of a bliaut. What, you might ask, is a bliaut?

Well, when you picture medieval dresses with those crazy long bell-sleeves that drape to the floor? That’s a bliaut. It’s a style the seems to have been born in France and spread to England after the Norman invasion in 1066.

Of course, today’s dress isn’t a historically accurate bliaut. I won’t call anything historical unless I can point you all to my detailed sources, but it is a bliaut inspired look. Her hair is also a nod to the 12th century when super long braids were very much in vogue.

The two pairs of shoes were my attempt at fairly flexible fantasy shoes, so she could wear them with a variety of the fantasy outfits I’ve created for the Sprites thus far, personally I think she’d look nice in this one or this one.

Tomorrow, there will be a Xavier paper doll with some medieval fantasy inspired clothing as well.

Looking for something else for today’s Sprite paper doll to wear? Pick out some clothing here.

Faye as a Printable Mermaid Paper Doll

May 10, 2017May 10, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Mermaids! Because I like Mermaids… & My Patrons Asked for Them

Several patrons asked for more fantasy things in 2017, specifically non-human races. So, mermaids!

In a strictly practical sense I have no idea why mermaids would wear clothes. In the ocean, that hardly seems to provide easy movement around the ocean and I tend to be of the view that since modesty is a social construct defined differently by various cultures, I don’t really see why mermaids would have the same concept of modesty as we have in the modern Western world.

In short, I don’t think mermaids would wear clothing if they actually exist.

However, since I am in the business of drawing paper dolls, not writing a thesis on the socio-cultural assumptions that underly how mythological creatures are depicted, I decided to draw clothing. After all, without clothing, mermaid paper dolls are just kinda dull.

I actually really enjoy drawing mermaid paper doll tails, but they take a little bit of work. They are only of the only things that I always draft full-sized before I try to draw them on the nice sketchbook paper. The reasoning is how easy it is to get the curve of the tail wrong and then it looks like it is broken or off. Plus, you have to cover the whole dolls legs which takes some extra work.

I chose Faye to be the mermaid today, because I haven’t done a Faye paper doll in a while and she was the first of the Mini-Maidens, so I think she deserves some love.

I mean, I haven’t done one since November 2016.

And that’s all I have to say about today’s mermaid. Tune in tomorrow for the first of a pair of Sprites paper dolls and probably not another post in which I’ll get to write the phrase “socio-cultural assumptions that underly how mythological creatures are depicted” which is a pity.

As always, I love to hear what y’all think of today’s paper doll. So, let me know in a comment.

Need a more outfits for today’s Mini-Maiden Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here.

B&B’s Paper Doll Sorceress Gowns Continue!

May 5, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Tridents, Water and Ancient Greece

So, back in early April, I posted the first part of my Sorceress’ Gowns Project (I always come up with the most creative names.) In that intro post, I explained that I had a variety of potential long term projects, tossed them out to my Patrons and this was the winning idea.

I had kinda been hoping Space Princess would win the poll, but you can’t have everything in life. And nothing is stopping me from embracing Space Princesses as a future plan.

Anyhow, today’s sorceress gown is based on Water, just like my last gown was based on Fire. I wanted to pair fire and water with a similar ancient Greek influence. Mind you, this a very Hollywood idea of Ancient Greek clothing owing more to Xena: Warrior Princess than actual history.

I wanted to capture the shades of water I tend to think of which are not light blues. I tend to associate water with such a dark teal that it looks nearly black which is what I remember from Southeast Alaska where I grew up.

Her magical staff is based on a trident which is a nod to Poseidon, the Greek God of the Ocean. It’s probably not a very functional trident, what with the center prong being a jewel encrusted thing, but there you have it.

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Need to get a Bodacious & Buxom paper doll to wear these fabulous clothes? Pick one out here.

The Sprites Explore Tudor Fantasy Clothing

May 3, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Tudor Era Clothing, Kinda

I go through phases. This probably isn’t any different from anyone else who does something creative. There are no double periods when someone really feels like playing jazz on the piano or when someone really seems to be into crocheting hedgehogs.

I, on the other hand, seem to fall into patterns where a specific paper doll theme seems super fascinating to me. During this stretches, I often add images based on the theme to my pinterest boards with abandon. About half the time, these spasms of interest don’t actually lead to paper doll outfits, because I have the attention span of an ADHD raven sometimes. However, on occasion, they do.

So, after a few weeks of being really into Tudor influenced fantasy clothing, I actually drew some for the Sprites paper dolls. See? There was a point to that weird ramble that I started today’s post with.

If you hop over to my Pinterest fantasy board, you will not doubt notice the large number of Tudor influenced dresses there. A few of the ladies dresses that inspired me are this one, this one and this one. I also really liked this men’s doublet and this men’s doublet.

The lady Sprite outfit is really only fantasy, because I couldn’t be bothered to do any real research and I refuse to call something historical unless I actually have sources I can cite. The guy Sprites on the other hand… well, that outfit has a lot more fantasy going on. I just think a lot of men’s clothing from the Tudor period looks pretty absurd. What can I say?

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Looking for some Sprite paper dolls to wear these outfits? Pick out Sprite paper dolls here.

A Printable Paper Doll Fantasy Outfit Inspired by Turkish Dress (And Accidentally by a Movie)

May 2, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Turkish and Persian Clothing and This Picture on Pinterest

So, I rarely draw things that are as close to the reference image as today’s paper doll fantasy outfit. I saw this picture on Pinterest and I really liked it. I later realized that this it is basically Kiera Knightly’s costume from Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World’s End. I was almost ashamed that I drew it after that, because I really dislike that film.

Still, once it was done and saved and ready to go, I didn’t want to just abandon it, because it was based off an awful movie costume. The costume is okay I guess, but the film is just so bad. Anyway, I decided I should just get over it and treat it like any other paper doll creation.

So, a little background- the coat in the picture and in this paper doll is based on a traditional Turkish clothing from the 19th century. Here’s an example from The Met, another one from The Met and a Victorian era rendition of the same garment.

There are, of course, a lot of differences between my version of the caftan, the biggest being that it closes all the way up to the neck. This was not how women really wore them back in the 19th century, but that’s what fantasy clothing is for, isn’t it?

I couldn’t see the bottom of the picture, so I decided mine was a gown and the wide leather belt and layers of armor were likely decorative. The paper doll’s boots were my attempt to draw upturned toes on shoes such as these ones and were another nod to Turkey.

What do you all think? Good paper doll outfit? Bad Movie? Thoughts? Let me know in a comment. I love to hear from you all.

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Need a Mini-Maiden paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Mini-Maiden Paper Doll Here.

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