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So, funny story… Back in 2014, I did a series of fairy tale inspired printable magnetic paper dolls and this one is Vasilisa the Beautiful, a Russian fairy tale. I never finished this one, but I posted about it back then on Patreon as a work in progress.
A week ago, to my shock, a patron left a comment on a very old post on Patreon. It went something like, “I know it’s been almost a decade since this was posted, but I’d love to see another Flock set!”
For those of you who haven’t been following PTP for over a decade. The Flock were a printable magnetic paper doll series I did, specifically for a friend of mine who wanted bigger dolls for kids with smaller hands to handle. They started really mainstream and then got increasingly quirky. This was part of that series and I hadn’t thought about the series in a very very long time.
Anyway, after I got asked this I thought—Wow, I totally forgot I even drew that.
Naturally, I figured I’d look through my files, tell the kind person who asked that I couldn’t find it (because, let’s be honest, I probably wouldn’t), and move on.
But then, after some digging, there it was—exactly where I thought it would be.
And my first thought was, “It’s probably corrupted.”
It wasn’t.
Next thought: “If there’s any coloring left to do, I’m absolutely not doing it.”
It was already fully colored.
Then I thought, “If I have to deal with scaling, I’m not even touching it.”
It was perfectly scaled.
And finally, “If I can’t find a master layout file, forget it.”
Sure enough, the layout file was sitting there, clearly labeled “Flock Fairytale Layout.”
And with that, I was out of excuses.
A few things you should know. This paper doll is magnetic (hence no tabs). Yes, it should work with all the other Flock paper dolls. But no, I did not test it.
The story tells of Vasilisa who is sent into the dark forest by her stepmother to fetch fire from the fearsome witch Baba Yaga, armed only with a magical doll her dying mother gave her. The idea is that the witch will kill her. However, with the doll’s help, Vasilisa completes Baba Yaga’s impossible tasks and earns the witch’s grudging respect, leaving with a skull-lantern that burns her wicked stepfamily to ashes. So, it’s just your typical doll saves the day and you kill your stepmother with witches magic and then marry the Tsar.
When I was a kid, I had a book of fairytales with illustrations by Ivan Bibilbin. His art was a huge influence on me. If you haven’t seen his work, check it out. It’s really beautiful.
Leave a comment if you remember this Flock Fairy Tale series. 🙂 And let me know your favorite.
And if you want to see some very old work in progress pieces, I do have some interesting stuff over on Patreon.