winter

Warm in Winter: African-American Paper Doll Coloring Page

logo-warm-bwHappy Hanukkah to everyone who is celebrating along with me.

Anyway, onto the paper doll, it was important to me to get a coat based set up before it was, you know, March or April. 🙂 So, here is some cute coats along with a fantastic updo and some boots for Marisole Monday and all her friends.

So, I used to think I was really bad about matching up the season to the paper doll set of clothing and I was about to write this whole post about how proud I was for getting these coats up now and not in, you know, June. Then I went through my archives looking for an example of a totally off seasonal post from Marisole Monday & Friends and I couldn’t really find one,

I guess I’m better at pairing up sets to the right season than I ever thought I was. Live and learn, I suppose.

Anyway, today’s printable paper doll is all about the coats. My favorite is the biker jacket. Which one is your favorite?

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}
I love hairsyle magazines for hair ideas, especially for black hairstyles and for short hairstyles- two areas I often think I need help with. I try to pick up hairstyle magazines every few months for new hair ideas. Then I sometimes play a game where I draw things from like every seventh page or I decide I will pick something from an odd numbered page or… You get the idea.

For example, today’s braided style comes from the November 2015 issue of Sophisticate’s Black Hair Styles and Care Guide. According to the magazine, the hair style is a combination of cornrows and box-braids. (I’m still learning my braiding terminology.) I don’t think I captured it perfectly (Marisole has a really low forehead, so that doesn’t help), but I’m pleased with the outcome.

Over on my Pateron, my patrons are busy voting for what the blog goals for 2016 should be. If you’d like to vote too, consider joining up to support the blog on Patreon.

I haven’t decided if I am going to do my usual end of the year drawing for a custom paper doll or not. I confess to being very divided on the subject- there’s a lot on my plate right now.

A Winter Frock and a Summer Frock

ladyship-wig-8My favorite part of this set might be the wacky looking musical instrument. Just maybe, because I also love both of these dresses. Rarely do things come out as close to how I imagined them in my mind.

I am fascinated by historical dress, because dress is one physical manifestation of social and cultural phenomena. By it’s nature, dress is tied to technology and trade of the time when it was created. So, when I am creating a fantasy dress set, part of the process is thinking about consistency in design elements to create an coherent vision for a whole set. This vision comes out in both the sillouhette of the costumes and in specific repeated design elements.

The silhouette for all of Her Ladyship’s paper wardrobe is a high waist with long sleeves and square necklines (the riding and skating outfits don’t have square necklines, but we’ll get there in a minute). Nearly all the dresses are layered with an under-dress and than an over-dress on top. The two dresses that violate these rules are both for activities that, due to their athletic nature, have masculine overtones. The riding habit and the skating costume are both inspired by men’s wear.

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Gowns}{Click Here for Base Doll}
Her Ladyship’s winter frock shares design elements with her archery outfit. Similarly, her riding habit and her skating costume are very similar- both are athletic outfits.

Her Ladyship’s wardrobe feels like a “set”, because the outfits repeat design elements and style. This is also something I try to do with my one page fantasy sets and my contemporary sets. Dionisia’s wardrobe is held together by doublets. Akemi’s armors are all angular and layered. Denise’s contemporary clothing embraces various types of pleats. If a set feels disjointed, chances are that it is because there are not repeating elements to connect the items.

Pixie Paper Doll In Jewel Tones Named Clarisa

jewel-tones-logoThis is a more wintery than summery paper doll, I think. Clarisa is a version of the German name “Clarice” which means bright, brilliant or clear. Clarisa is the Spanish form of this name. I think it’s a beautiful name for today’s Hispanic paper doll.

Lately, I have been struggling on the blog. The hardest thing for me to learn how to deal with in the last year has been this:

Life is Not Ideal. Deal with It.

Though it might not be the most stirring life motto, I find I need it more and more. Every post isn’t going to ever be perfect. Every paper doll isn’t going to be perfect.

And maybe that is quite all right.

I started this blog, because I drew paper dolls and I thought it would be worth it to have an outlet for that art. I have to learn to accept that everything isn’t always ideal.

So, I might have concerns about the lace and how it turned out. I might have concerns about her lips. I might not really be pleased entirely with everything… I might have wanted to post a different series after last weeks Pixie paper doll…

But… life is not ideal. Deal with it.

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{Download a PDF to Print and Color} {Download a PNG to Print and Color} {Click Here for More Pixie and Puck Printable Paper Dolls}

In my head, Clarisa is a Hispanic paper doll or Latino, if you prefer. Why? Because I was chatting with a friend whose half-Mexican, and she was complaining about how I didn’t do enough Hispanic paper dolls. So, this is for her. 🙂

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{Download a PDF to Print in Color} {Download a PNG to Print in Color} {Click Here for More Pixie and Puck Printable Paper Dolls}

Originally I conceived Clarisa as being on her way to some sort of party- maybe a holiday party, but that was several months ago when I first drew this paper doll. Obviously, a hoiliday party is less likely in May, at least not one where such dark clothing would be appropriate.

Spirit of the North: Printable Paper Doll

We still haven’t had much snow here, but I don’t mind. I’m able to walk home from work which is just about a mile and a half and it’s a nice walk to do when the weather isn’t too cold. I’m dreading when it gets colder and I’ll have to decide between wait ten minutes for the bus or walking 25 minutes in the cold. It’s a hard call and depending on how horrid it is, I usually decide right after work.

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Paper Dolls in this Series}

I’ve been playing around with color pallets a lot lately. I realized, I’d never done a sort of Norse/Anglo-Saxon/Medieval fantasy paper doll in a pale color scheme. Somehow that lead to this and then the idea of giving the paper doll blue skin came to me last minute. Once the paper doll was fully colored, I knew she had to be some sort of other worldly winter fairy or something. She might be smiling, but I get the feeling she might be very dangerous. Not someone you’d want to cross.

And, in case I haven’t mentioned it or you haven’t noticed, there’s a poll. Feel free to vote or tell me what you think in a comment.

Pixie & Puck: Delia

I wanted to do a set based on winter clothing, but I liked the idea of playing with color. Rather then doing the traditional color scheme, I wanted to do something in pastels and spring colors.

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG to Print} {Click Here for The Rest of this Series}

It’s slowly becoming spring here in the mid-west. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the idea of seasonal change happening so rapidly. It seems like only a few days ago I needed my hat, gloves and boots to go out and now I can wander around in jeans and a sweater. It’s nice to be coat free, but I always liked the winter, so I shall miss it.

And since it’s supposed to snow tomorrow, I doubt I will miss it for long. 🙂

Marisole Monday: On Ice!

This weekend has been very busy. I spent most of Saturday morning helping my friend push her car out from where it was stuck in a snow berm and then did a lot of reading and homework. I did go play board games with some friends on Saturday and managed to lose at Catan twice, but had a lot of fun while I did.

I need to buy that game. I enjoy it, but I don’t own a copy.

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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}

Today, we have Marisole: on Ice! When I was a kid and I watched figure skating, I always judged them on their costumes, but then…. doesn’t everyone? I also liked it when they skated to things that weren’t classical music. When I was working on this paper doll, I spent a bit of time on websites that sell figureskating gear and I learned some things like the tights that figure skaters wear cover the tops of the boots (this makes a lot of sense, actually, because it would make it easier to move) and that my ice skates don’t look much like actual ice skates.

I had fun drawing them though. 🙂

Marisole’s maroon costume is supposed to look as though parts of it are transparent, but I don’t think the effect worked very well. I need to figure out a way to making things look transparent when I color them on the computer, but I haven’t figured out a good way to do it yet… I think I will eventually. If anyone knows any tricks, I’d love to hear about them.

Curves: Snowflakes

Originally, I drew this paper doll to try to draw things I really wear on a regular basis to work, though I ended up sort of modifying them both since my standard work attire just isn’t that interesting. It’s cold out today with frost and snow on the ground. The sun has been setting early- though I know it’s past the solstice- it seems dark. I find I sleep more when there is a lot of darkness.

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here For the Rest of the Series}

School hasn’t restarted yet, so I’m working full time to make up some missed hours and spending a fair bit of time working on things for the site. I’m trying to end up ahead of the curve for the next year and not behind it as I usually am.

Of course, we know what they say about good intentions and roads to hell.

So, speaking of good intentions, I have been thinking a fair bit about goals for the upcoming year. Some of my goals for the blog are concrete like getting my Gallery page up and running (which should be up, fingers crossed, on Friday) and trying to post at least once a week even if it is a filler doodle. Other goals are more… abstract- like trying to do things with my paper dolls that scare me.

A year ago, I never would have through I could really do a weekly full color paper doll and now I have two (Marisole and Pixie), or that I would end the year having posted 106 paper dolls here on PTP. I’m proud of those achievements, but there’s so many other things I’m afraid of- shiny fabric, hands, figure drawing, draped fabric, animals, any kind of mechanical object or furniture, shading in photo-shop, color in physical mediums… the list is long. So, my other goal is to do one thing that scares me every week.

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

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.