I must have colored and re-colored today’s Marisole Monday & Friends paper doll set, a dozen times before I settled on this sort of dusty teal, cream and rose color scheme. Seriously, sometimes paper doll coloring is really quite frustrating.
I do love the way the paper dolls look when they are colored and I like choosing colors and playing with color schemes. I don’t think I could ever switch to just black and white.
I really wanted to do a sort of classic princess/fantasy look with this set. I don’t generally draw thinking about children, but sometimes after I’ve done some of my stranger paper dolls (like the dark circus paper doll I’m working on), I find I want to also do things that are strictly for kids.
Of course, I also stand by my rule that if you don’t think one of my paper dolls should be given to a child, than don’t give it to a child.
The next things down the pike are going to be a historical poppet set later this week and then a Marisole circus set and then I’m honestly not sure… Flock need some love and so that might be the next thing to work.
Like Jaunty Summer Styles and Minimalism, today’s printable paper doll was the direct result of me purchasing a bunch of fashion magazines in March. Adannaya is rocking the “sporty” look which is very popular. Sort of high fashion meets gym wear and if that seems like an odd match to you then you are not alone (it seems an odd match to me too). Her hair is based on this fantastic updo which I pinned to my hair board on Pinterest. Lurking around my Pinterest boards provides sneak peaks on what I am currently obsessed with. Feel free to follow me.
Anyway, the name Adannaya is from West Africa, Igbo to be specific, and means “Her Father’s daughter” according to Behind the Name. I’m sure I’ve never used the name before. I liked that I could track it to a specific culture. I think calling a name “African” is just as absurd as calling a name “European”. There are about a hundred major African languages, so I wasn’t going to use a name if I couldn’t trace it back to the root language. For Adannaya the root language is is Igbo, mostly spoken in southeastern Nigeria. Someone who knows more than me about the region would know if it was a common name or not, I have no idea, but I liked how it sounded.
Anyhow, I’m traveling today, so I’ve pre-scheduled this to rule in my absence. I’ve nearly worked my way through my backlog that I spent so much of February and March building. I suppose this means I’ll be drawing a fair bit over the next few weeks trying to get caught up again. What I really need is another snow closing… but I doubt that’s going to happen. 🙂
Last week, I posted this paper doll set in black and white for coloring. I promised I would talk a little about each of the gowns and where they came from.
I need to learn to streamline my method for dealing with elaborate florals, or I need to never do one ever again. Normally coloring a paper doll set takes about 2 to 4 hours, at most. Sometimes longer, but only if I take a lot of breaks and am doing a lot of other stuff. If I have my colors picked out and I’m on a roll, I can do the set in about an hour when I’m really on the ball, though formatting, saving and other detail work takes longer. That single floral dress took me nearly an hour, by itself, to color. NEVER AGAIN.
(I say that and I’m already thinking of other cool florals I might draw… I have a problem, people.)
Let’s talk about where each gown came from. The floral gown, the blue gown and the red gown are all from the V&A in London.
The blue gown is based on this red dress from 1957. The red evening dress was drawn from this evening gown by Hardy Amies was made right after fabric rationing was lifted in England (1949), so lacks the layers of lace and silk that were common in evening gowns on this period. I love the simplicity and shape of the dress. The last dress from the V&A is my favorite, the floral evening gown made in Paris and worn by the wife of the British Ambassador. I tried, but I don’t think I captured the beauty of the rose patterned skirt and layered bodice.
The last pink dress comes from The Met, known as “Tree” this gown was designed by Charles James. Of all of the gowns I drew, I feel like this one didn’t work. My style of flat color just can’t capture the layering of the gowns beautiful fabric. Liana did a beautiful version of Charles james Butterfly dress on her blog several years ago which I think captures his work better than I did here.
Okay, that’s everything. Happy MLK Day to those in the US who are celebrating like me.
I’m pretty pleased with the year as it has turned out. I’ve been more consistent with my posting and I think the blog has grown in positive ways. I do have changes I would like to make in the future and some of them are the same changes I’ve been wanting to make for a while.
2014 will be here in a few days and I will return to work in a few days. I’m excited and nervous and looking forward to the New Year. The next post on this blog will be in 2014. YAY!
Meanwhile, I am totally pleased to show off the Queen of the Dusk fully colored. (By the way, I keep typing Queen of the Duck, which would be a totally different paper doll set, I think.) I started with a more traditional color scheme for me, which means I found a set of colors which I liked and was going to use on each paper doll dress, but after I used them I decided I really didn’t like them and instead went with each paper doll dress being monochromatically one color. I think this causes some problems for the shoes, but I rather like how the dresses came out.
Yesterday, I posted this paper doll in black and white. Today, she’s going up in color. I’m not sure if I like doing this whole… one day black and white next day color thing. It sort of defeats the point of being able to reduce workload. I might start spacing them out a week, depending on how things seems to work out as I get into the crazier time of the year for me.
I went back and forth and back and forth about so much with this paper dolls color scheme. As I often do with questions of paper doll fashion, I think I spent more time on it than was totally rational. I wanted her to be stylish, but not overtly girly. I couldn’t decide between pinks and blues and then I originally conceived of the blouse as being burnt orange with teal flowers. Yeah… that wasn’t my greatest idea ever.
In the end, I settled on a color scheme that was cheerful (which I think we need on these grey days of winter) and mix and matched pretty well, though not as perfectly as some of my other paper dolls have done. There’s really only nine outfit options here, and I think I’d like to do more, but the dolls are fairly large and that limits how much clothing I can fit on a page with them. I have been thinking about doing some sets that are “clothing only” as I have always liked clothes more than dolls, but I don’t want to disappoint people who feel otherwise.
Paper doll outfits or dolls? That’s always the most complicated of questions, isn’t it?
I decided my Tanya paper doll was lonely and needed a new paper doll friend. So, I created Kira, a stylish African American paper doll sporting a retro look. Her hair was inspired by the 1930s. Her shoes are very modern though and she can wear any clothing from the Ms. Mannequin paper doll series. If she needs more friends, eventually I do plan to draw more Ms. Mannequin dolls. These things take time, so be patient with me.
I’m traveling at the moment, back in Alaska for a little while. I really love my home state and it’s great to be able to be home and see the beautiful mountains and things…
Of course, I’ll have to return to Alabama, which is lovely as well, soon, but in the mean time, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much I love and miss Alaska.
Anyway… I think of Kira as a vintage inspired sort of elegant lady. Her style is distinctly art deco, in my head. How much of this resembles reality? That’s hard to say really… there’s nothing terribly vintage about her shoes. Still… she’s elegant and put together and that’s what I’m going with.
Have I mentioned I’m a little sleep deprived from the traveling thing? Well… I am.
So, I used to think that cockroaches were the most annoying pest ever known to man, but recently fleas have taken over as my least favorite pest. I have been working on eradicating them from my apartment over the last few days. The Flea Eradication Effort (FEE) is progressing well, I think, though now everytime I enter my apartment I start itching (fleas or not..). Ugh….
Anyway… Let’s talk about paper dolls.
As far as paper dolls go, Pixie is pretty versatile. So, is Marisole, but perhaps because Pixie sets take fewer pieces (the average number of pieces on a Pixie paper doll set is 8 vs 11 for a Marisole Monday paper doll set), I tend to find them less intimidating. I also think the pose is easier to draw for.
Anyway, I was inspired to do this paper doll set by the episode The Outsider (specifically Belle’s outfit here) from Once Upon a Time. I openly confess I haven’t gotten up the energy to watch the second half of the second season of that show. I enjoyed the first season, but the second season just got a little two soap opera complicated. Trying to follow three different plot-lines each episode was confusing and I found myself feeling like I just didn’t care enough about any of the people involved. I might not finish the season.
Despite my apathy towards the series as a whole, here’s a paper doll inspired by it, vaguely. I don’t dislike today’s paper doll, but her eyes are kinda huge and a little to faun like. Anyhow, enjoy the paper dolls and let me know if it is worth it to finish Season 2 of Once Upon a Time. 🙂
I have named the paper doll Emily for reader who requested her. Emily comes complete with a graphing calculator, space suit, lab coat, safety goggles and a rocket t-shirt. Who doesn’t need that? Emily has short hair so that her space helmet fits properly. I realized after I drew it that the boots should probably not be separate, but it was already colored by the time this occurred to me. I didn’t put a flag on her space suit, because I know I have a lot of international readers, but feel free to add your own.
Personally, I rather like the flag of Yap an island in the Federated States of Micronesia. Now, I’ve never been to Yap, but it’s fun to say and they speak a language called Yapese, which sounds pretty cool to me. (Okay, most of them speak English, but Yapese sounds a lot cooler than English…)
Happy Slightly Belated Birthday, Emily and Enjoy the paper dolls!
Now, I just need to do the cowgirl set people keep asking for… I wish I knew how to draw a cowboy hat… or that I didn’t find horses kinda creepy…
Thoughts? Questions? Ideas about Space? Drop me a comment.
I have a similiar relationship with blond hair and brown skin as I do with red hair and brown skin. This is to say that I try it and than I don’t like it and swear I won’t do it again and than I do it again. Unlike the red-hair brown skin combination which I never feel like I’ve achieved, this blond hair brown-skinned Marisole is look pretty cute to me.
I think it’s her braids. Have I mentioned that I am totally in love with her braids?
So, February has come and gone. Last year I noted African American History Month (which is February) by compiling a list of paper dolls around the web. And um… I kinda forgot this year.So, though I don’t have another list of paper dolls, I would like to draw attention to Paper Doll’s by Gail where there are lots of lovely African American paper dolls including Condoleeza Rice, Michelle Obama, Halle Berry and Fantasia Barrino. Also, though unrelated to African American paper dolls, the entire cast of Twlight.
So, a version of this paper doll set got to become magnetic and is on it’s way to my grandmother, hopefully to get there before Valentine’s Day. Her set has a different doll with it, but I liked this doll a lot. The truth is that I have owed her a magnetic paper doll set for a while and I would be nervous about saying this online, but since she doesn’t seem to believe in the internet, I think I’m safe. I tend to be of the view that when you get to a certain age than you can decide not to use the internet if it suits you. I plan on becoming a grouchy old woman who may or may not chase children off my porch with a shotgun.
Anyway, this is a busy week for me. There’s a birthday in my family and Valentines Day for which I really should draw a paper doll. I did one for the Chinese New Year after all.
I’m also pleased to announce I now have a Showcase page inspired by Toria’s wonderful one. I am looking for more people’s colored versions of my black and white paper dolls or costumes you might have drawn for the paper dolls or anything else related to the paper dolls on this site that I might feature, so please email me“>email me if you have work that you would like included.
Questions? Thoughts? Theories on the meaning of life? Feel free to comment. I do love comments.
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