fantasy

Marisole Monday: Pattern & Grace- Full Color

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I’m a little ashamed of how long it took me to get this paper doll up and I have absolutely no excuse since the paper doll was colored weeks ago, but with family visits and a nasty cold, it took longer than it should have to be done. If you’ve forgotten, the black and white version contained a rant about how complicated the floral pattern was. I’d like to say it was easier to color than it was to draw, but that would be a lie.

Coloring that floral pattern was a pain in the neck.

Still, I’m quite pleased with how it came in and, while I am in a bit of a cold medication induced haze, I think the whole paper doll is fairly charming. I sort of regret not making her blond so that her hair net things would be more obvious, but that’s my only complaint.

By the way, lately Marisole’s face has been reminding me a little to much of an insect. If I redrew her head, would people be horridly upset? I’d make sure her clothing still fit. Let me know in comments.

Happy Halloween! A Group Paper Doll Project

So… back in August I sent an email to Toria of Paper Closet and Boots of 19th Century Paper Dolls inviting them to join me in a project to draw a doll and then share responsiblities for drawing her clothing. They both kindly said yes.

Later, we asked Liana of Liana’s Paper Doll Blog to join us and the Halloween Paper Doll was born.

This was the outcome:

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{Link to Printable PDF of the Halloween Paper Doll}
The project worked like this: I drew the doll and then with the guideline of “something Halloween oriented” they all drew a costume or two, as did I. I can not express how pleased I am with how she turned out and with all the hard work of my co-artists. Everyone did such beautiful work from Liana’s creepy scull encrusted regency dress to Boot’s (AKA Elena) even creepier La Llorena to Toria’s delicate Wilis. Download her and you can find out about mythological creatures from Morocco to Mexico.

Seriously, I can not thank Toria of Paper Closet, Liana of Liana’s Paper Doll Blog, and Boots of 19th Century Paper Dolls all enough for their hard work. Thank you guys, you made this happen and please please check out their blogs. They are all skilled and talented artists.

Patterns & Grace: A Black & White Fantasy Paper Doll

This printable paper doll set began as a chance to experiment and practice drawing pattern. It ended as an experience best summed up as… “Why did I ever decide I wanted to draw that stupid scrawling floral pattern and it’s a total pain to ink and it’s a total pain to color and I hate my life…”

Not shockingly, this set took me longer to finish than it should have. The full-color version goes up next week and you can all decide if it was worth the agony of the floral pattern from the pits of Hell.

Seriously, my hatred for that floral pattern is still fresh and warm.

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Moving rapidly along, the paper doll that was supposed to go up with week was going to be Halloween themed, but since she didn’t get finished, we have a back up fantasy paper doll set instead.

Also, can I add, that from this paper doll’s accessories she leads a really surreal life- a sword for fighting, a letter for writing, a book for reading, yarn for knitting and a pitcher for… I don’t know… recreational water pouring? There’s no glass so I guess… she drinks from the pitcher? Hmm…

Clearly someone (and that means me) didn’t think this through. She wasn’t going to have a sword, but I had an extra from Silk and Steel and I figured that she could share the love.

By the way, if you have an opinion on the fate of the Dictionary Girls let me know.

Pirate Nammu: Printable Paper Doll

So, back when I drew this paper doll, I was like “I’ll get her up for Speak like a Pirate Day” and now I’m like… “Clearly, that didn’t happen.” I didn’t even have her inked until last week which is a pretty fast turn around for me. I have been playing around with the Pixies lately, so here is the first two page one. I think I will do this again, I enjoyed building a larger pirate wardrobe than I usually can on a Pixie page.

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{Click Here for a PDF of both pages to Print} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG to Print of Page One} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG to Print of Page Two}{Click Here for The Rest of this Series}

Also, I finished inking a few Pucks yesterday and just got them scanned in, so people can expect some Pucks to be posted this month. I have been thinking it would be nice to do some Pucks aimed at boys just like the Dover Paper Action Figures, but I have no idea what little boys might want in a paper doll.

Anyone with a son want to help me out on this one?

Also, I get so giddy and excited when someone I don’t know at all links my site. NZ Ecochick posted pictures of her set of magnetic Marisole’s and it filled me with an unhealthy amount of glee. Paper dolls are so much fun to share and I love it when people do so.

Relatedly, one of the search terms that came up for the blog last month was “purple paper doll” and I am going to be honest. I have NO IDEA what that even means… we live in a strange strange internet, my friends.

Flirty Eyes and Kimono Sleeves: Paper Dolls!

“Flirty eyes” is a term used by doll collectors to describe the side glancing eyes popular in dolls of the early 20th century. I happen to love the look of the side glancing eyes- I think they have more character than front facing eyes and give the paper dolls a slightly mischievous look.

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Ash wrote: I notice that you draw a lot from fashion magazines, which is actually pretty cool. So do you enjoy the early history of Paper Dolls? Do you have a favorite paper doll artist (one who isn’t online)?

I am utterly fascinated by the early history of paper dolls and I am trying on the blog to show off things I find on the web that are both historical and neat. My favorite paper doll artist, at the moment, is Nandor Honti who did a series of paper dolls for MaCalls magazine in the 1920s. Along with the figures, Honti’s paper dolls also include furniture and other items, crossing the fuzzy line between paper doll and paper toy and becoming something much more interesting. I have no idea how many paper dolls Nandor Honti did, but I dream of someday owning a set of the originals. They are so darn inventive.

Got a question you want me to answer on the blog?Ask me here.

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.

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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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

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.

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?