I recently resubscribed to Paper Doll Studio magazine, as one of my goals for 2020 has been to submit more paper dolls to the magazine. I am always nervous about sending things in. I don’t know why, exactly, but I’ve always been shy about sharing my work beyond the blog or the occasional commission.
One of my favorite parts of the magazine is always the interview with the featured artist. In this case, it was the partnership between two artists- Erica Lange and Abby Polakow- who call themselves the Spindle Sisters.
I had seen their work on Etsy before, but I haven’t bought any of they art for my own collection. They mostly work in fairy tales as their source material.
While I like the fairy tale theme, I rarely buy paper doll books these days. I found their interview particularly interesting, because I have never had a collaborator over a prolonged period and reading about that process was enlightening.
It’s funny how I used to buy a lot more paper dolls and since I had to move back to Alaska and decide what I really wanted to move (I did move a lot of paper dolls) I find I’m less interested in adding to the collection. Funny how having to move boxes of paper dolls across the country make you hesitant to buy more paper dolls.
I wanted to show off one paper doll from the magazine. It was hard to pick a single one. In the end, I settled on this paper doll by Ralph Hogden. He drew many more beautiful dresses for the Mona Lisa which I thought was a really cool idea. It was also beautifully executed. The drape on the skirts of the paper dolls was particularly lovely.
One of the things I love about Paper Doll Studio magazine is that I get to see the work of a variety of artists many of whom don’t have a big online presence. And for this issue, the renaissance is such a big period of history with such diversity in dress, it was really interesting to see what places and time periods people chose to illustrate.
There were other amazing pieces, but I don’t want to give everything away. I will also give a shout out to Julie Matthews who had a great article on using Art Rage for illustration. Not something I am going to take on soon, but I love learning about how other people make paper dolls.
If you want a high res download of my paper doll contribution, the top of the page above, head over to Etsy and you can see her here. You can read about my research process if you want to know more about my foray into Renaissance dress.
Other fun features of the magazine included a good article on Renaissance clothing and a nice overview of Shakespearean paper dolls. I’ve never drawn any of Shakespeare’s characters as paper dolls and I don’t think I am likely to.
You can grab a copy of this issue from Paper Doll Review for 8 dollars, or I would grab a subscription. It’s a better deal.
Now, I need to decide what I’m drawing for the By the Sea issue before the end of May.