I struggle with setting limits. I am the kind of person who doesn’t bake one cookie recipe when I feel like baking cookies. I make two or three. And while my coworkers appreciate my baking spasms, it occasionally creates problems in my creative life.
So, when I started the Dames and Dandies I knew from the start that I needed to set a few limits or would I end up completely overwhelmed. One of those limits was to start with four dolls of four different skin-tones in each pose. Another limit was to start with just three poses.
I regret the second one occasionally, because I think- what if I had a curvy set of poses or a taller or shorter set of poses or a pose in a wheel chair or…
You see how these things spiral for me very quickly. Paper doll diversity is super important to me in both theme, skin-tone and body shape, but I am a one woman show.
Anyway, the Double-Sets like today’s two Benedita paper dolls were a way of tackling a problem I knew existed. I wanted there to be more versions of each paper doll and I wanted them quickly. So, by fitting two dolls onto each page I could get to a more robust collection of options a bit quicker than if I did one doll per page. Plus, I didn’t have to come up with themes beyond different hair styles.
With Benedita, I wanted to do hair styles and colors I hadn’t used for her before. So, I did a lighter brown bob and blond waves. She also has two different eye colors, but it’s so subtle that I don’t think anyone can tell.
I have more double set to share, so fear not the rest of the dames will get their versions.
I’ve always preferred clothing to dolls. So, I would rather have a smaller number of dolls and lots of clothing options. It occurs to me that you all might not feel the same, so let me know in a comment. Do you prefer lots of dolls or lots of clothing?
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Need a clothing for today’s paper doll? All the B Pose Dolls & Clothing.
I haven’t commented recently because I keep thinking you’ll think I’m sort of stalker-ish – I do really love your work – but this one made me jump on the keyboard, because it’s a topic I have strong feelings about. MORE CLOTHES! please. I’m always disappointed when a paper doll has only a couple of outfits – it’s like she (or he) has almost no life.
I do prefer clothes, but I also love hair. And since your hair is attached to the dolls, I honestly don’t mind having lots of dolls.
I also agree with Kathe. I’m the person that needs to know the backstory of my dolls. Where do they work and what do they wear? What do they sleep in? What do they party in? What kind of clothes do they just lounge around in?
I think of your paper dolls as models, which is why their clothes and hair have no real rhyme or reason. And it works for me.
Dolls are good, but they really need clothes. You can’t really play with them unless they have lots of clothes. I’ve been very happy to share your wonderful paperdolls with my own daughters and granddaughters. It’s nice to see that paperdolls haven’t become obsolete in this day of video games and technological gadgetry.