Month: December 2012

Magnetic Marisole… A New Layout for New Year

Everything about the magnetic paper dolls is getting revamped this year.

The old Magnetic Paper Doll Index has now been replaced with a new version that resembles the Printable Paper Doll Index much more closely. This is an attempt to streamline updating the magnetic paper dolls, allowing me to do more single sheet updates, like I do with the other printable paper dolls on the site, but it is still a work in progress.

Magnetic paper or adhesive sheets are more expensive than printer paper (as I am sure anyone who has ever printed them out has learned) and so I have re-organized the Marisole Magnetic Paper Dolls to have the shoes on the same sheet as the paper dolls. This means that they are now three dolls per sheet with four pairs of shoes and required re-doing the layouts on all of the magnetic sheets.

I just finished that, so I am posting them today instead of a traditional Marisole Monday update. You can see them here.

 

The Magnetic Marisole Printable Paper Dolls

{ Directions for Making Printable Magnetic Paper Dolls }

 

 

The Dolls

 

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Contemporary Clothing Sets

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Fantasy Clothing Sets

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Historical Clothing Sets

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Everything here has been adapted from paper version of the printable Marisole posts, except for the shoes and the magnetic dolls, many of which have been re-colored to provide for the six different skin tones. If anyone has requests for skin tones which don’t appear here, please let me know. I try to have as much diversity in skin tone as is possible.

Thoughts? Feel free to comment. I know I don’t always answer every one, but I do read them all.

Shadow & Light… Steampunk Paper Doll

Here we are at nearly the end of December and here is another Shadow and Light paper dolls. Today’s paper doll is a bit steampunk-ish (though lacks the gears and goggles that seem to be required), still I hope no one will hold that against her. Truth be told, I can’t draw a gear to save my life, though I have tried on occasion to mixed success.

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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}

I forgot, living in Alabama, how pretty the snow is, but I also forgot how annoying it is to sweep off your car in the morning in the cold wearing black ankle boots. Toes freezing and fingers freezing and snow sticking to eyelashes under a grey sky with lights from the buildings flickering through, there’s nothing like winter in Southeast Alaska.

It’s a beautiful place up here.

Oh and by the way, there’s a poll on the sidebar. Please fill it out. I do actually pay attention to what people vote for and I use it to decide what I will do in the coming year. If there’s something you’d like to see and it’s not on the list, please comment.

Marisole Monday: Fruity Autumn in Color

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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}

I’ve mentioned before my “skintones make shoes a pain” thing, and so I wanted to give this Marisole a skintone that was shared by another doll so that she could share shoes. I chose Candy Coated Couture, but I don’t think the skintones are actually the same. In fact, a quick check with photoshop’s eyedrop tool tells me they aren’t. This has something to do, I think, with how Photoshop saves things for the web.

So, I did a little internet research and found a lovely article

I am going to try a few other methods and see if they help. It’s a strange problem indeed.

Since it’s Christmas Eve, I wanted to wish a everyone a lovely Christmas. Be safe and be merry. I am back in Alaska with my family celebrating.

Flock’s of the Future…

It’s all Flock stuff today in the preview department.

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I’ve been working on a set of Flock’s based on the classic “warrior, thief, wizard, cleric” thing from epic fantasy novels (also Dungeons and Dragons, but I was trying to avoid admitting that). These pieces are part of the “cleric” set which is inspired by the cliche oracle who sends hero on their missions.

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I generally don’t think a lot about children, but I wanted to work on a set of pieces that would be easy for kids to manipulate. That’s why I created these fantasy dresses in one piece rather than layering the elements like I did for the Oracle above.

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To go with my Little Red Ridinghood, this is a different set of fairytale clothing. I think the story is obvious, but I was told by others it wasn’t. Anyone care to guess?

Marisole Monday: Fruity Autumn

I don’t think I’m that great of an artist. This isn’t a plea to be reassured or an attempt to fish for compliments, I’m just being honest. And I say this because what I draw rarely looks like I wanted it to look in my head. I’m often satisfied with my work, but I rarely look at it and think, “Yeah, that came out just like I wanted it too.”

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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}

Marisole’s hair today is a rare case where I can say that it came out just like I wanted it too. It looks natural, bouncy and cute. I am quite pleased.

There were originally a few more pieces on this set, but than there was a tragic run in with a glass of egg nog and well… now there are a few fewer pieces on this set.

Opps.

Oh well… I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season.

By the way, this is the 100th Marisole paper doll post… though not the 100th Marisole design, since she has been posting in both black and white lately… still, not a bad achievement.

Meet Octavia- A New Printable Paper Doll In Black and White

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{Link to a printable PDF of the Octavia paper doll}

I have to confess that this was a paper doll of contrasts. I like certain parts (her hair and her shoes) and I dislike other parts, but I think all in all, it came out well enough for me to post it. I wasn’t totally pleased with her mouth, so that got changed a bit with Photoshop to make her look less angry. Her hair style is based on one a student in one of my graduate courses wore her hair in. I always thought it was neat and I loved how huge the side buns were with her hair teased out a bit.

Somehow, she made it look sophisticated rather than absurd.

Enjoy the paper doll. There will be another one up on Monday.

In a fairly unrelated note, check out these beautiful kimono’s made from African fabrics. I am totally in love with these, but then I am obsessed with anything which mixes cultural garments.

Marisole Monday: In Space! In Color!

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.

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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}
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.

Puck as a Super Hero… In Full Color

I’ve never really gotten into superhero comics unless you count Deadpool or watching the Batman cartoon when I was a kid. When I do read comics, I stick to the compilations and some of my favorites have been Lucifer and Hellblazer, and of course, Sandman, but then, who doesn’t like Sandman?

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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}

So, for the coloring of my superheros, I decided to go with simple primary and secondary colors without a lot of complicated depth. I wanted to reproduce a little of the feel of the old fifties comics, before computer printing made a lot of depth possible. I think I will always think of comics as being bright flat color, even though I know there are some wonderful and skilled artists who bring so much more to the genre. I’m sensitive enough to color that badly colored or art I don’t like, can ruin a comic for me.

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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}

Needless to say, I really enjoyed drawing this set and I hope I will get to draw more sets like it in the future.

After I finished it, I did a little digging looking for other paper dolls aimed at boys and I found this nice list of free paper dolls for boys. And though it’s not a paper doll, I think one of my favorites was this paper city of paris. As I have mentioned before, I am a sucker for unusual and interesting paper toys of all kinds, paper dolls are just my favorites.

Puck Paper Dolls… For Boys?

Back in May, a reader named Harper told me that I would make a little four year old boy really happy if I did this set. Since I’m always in favor of making small children happy (and because I always need Puck ideas) I decided to go for it. Here we have two Puck superheros in black and white. Tomorrow they will go up in full color, so that people who prefer their paper dolls in color can get their fix as well.

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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}

I am going to confess right now that I have no real idea if the cape will really work. I tested it once with scrap paper and it sort of worked… I think the application of tape might assist in it’s functionality for the average child. Sorry about that. It seemed like a cool idea at the time, but in hindsight, perhaps it needed more testing. I usually try not to post things which I know don’t really work quite right. Placement of the slits might also need to be altered to accommodate the tabs properly.

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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}

Additionally, I’d like to wish a very Happy Hanukkah to those readers who, like me, will be lighting candles tonight and mumbling things in Hebrew while trying to fake remembering all the words to those darn prayers you only say once a year. (Maybe I’m the only one who fumbles through the second verse, but surely, I’m not.)

Anyway, best wishes, happy holidays and feel free to drop me a note in the comments. I love hearing from you guys (and see… eventually I do actually do the ideas people suggest… it just takes some time.)

Paper Doll Blogging: Advice and Thoughts

I recently got a very kind email from a reader named Whitney.

She asked what advice I would give to a someone starting a paper doll blog, because she was thinking about it and she wanted to know what I thought.

The truth is that I’m not an expert on blogging nor am I an expert on website design or SQL or marketing or social media (I don’t even have a facebook page) or really anything else. Problogger has a really solid listing of articles about blogging and blog starting. I’d also recommend reading up about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the pros and cons of various platforms. Doing homework before you start will make you happier later. I promise.

The thing about paper doll blogs (and really all craft/art blogs out there, I think) is that you’re making all your own content.

Making all your own content is time consuming.

So, here is my one big tip that keeps me sane…

Work as far ahead of yourself as you possibly can.

I know this seems like cheating somehow, but it is the only way I can do this and keep sane. I think it’s is better to have one or two posts a week, consistently, than to post ten and then not post for three weeks.

I like to hope my readers agree.

Next time I’ll write a little about making goals and how I keep naturally disorganized self organized.

Questions? Thoughts? Drop a comment below.