On my short list of favorite paper dolls are evening gowns. When it comes to printable kids activities, I know not all my paper dolls are super kid designed. However, when I was a kid my favorite paper dolls were the ones with fancy gowns and historical ones. So, I think of today’s paper dolls as being a printable kids activity.
Dusk is only my second Doll Du Jour design. She’s joining Dawn from a few weeks ago.
I knew I wanted to do a set of fancy evening gowns. I wasn’t planning to draw as many purses as I did, but then as I was doing layout, there was a lot of empty space. So, I thought, I’ll fill up this space with clutch purses!
Listen, I don’t judge how your brain works.
One of the fun things about the Dolls Du Jour pose that is that is is really good for showing off trains on dresses. I’m not great at drawing trains, but I do love the idea of them. In practice, I think actually having to deal with one would be super annoying.
I went back and forth about the colors for her dresses, but in the end I decided I wanted to focus on some less typical shades for women’s evening wear. I tend to do a lot of red and blue evening gowns, so I decided on yellow and coral. These colors feel fresh to me. Plus, warm and summery.
The sources on the dresses I honestly can’t remember. I suspect they were also David’s Bridal or some other website. I confess that with the disruption to my life from the Covid-19 thing has sort of blurred my brain.
Anyway, what were your favorite paper dolls when you were a child? Let me know in a comment.
I know I’ve told this story before on this blog, but for those of you who are new, I shall tell it again. When I was a child, my grandmother sent a space princess paper doll card to either me or my sister. Our birthdays are within just a few days of each other. Anyway, I don’t remember much about that era, but I darn well remember that card.
In honor of that, I have a history of creating space princess original paper dolls from this one to this one to today’s, which is made up of my favorite gowns from my Space Princess Week last year. Like most of my Friday paper dolls these days, this paper doll is a “reboot” of older materials, except I’m posting her on Monday, because she’s finished.
Back in 2019, my patrons voted for this space princess paper doll over many other options. I seem to recall I was a little surprised that this was the winner. Space princesses not being typical paper doll topics, but I like letting my patrons have input.
Designing my original paper dolls is always fun, but this one was particularly joyful. Guo Pei’s collections were a big influence on all these gowns. She has a wonderful, almost fantastical style with a strong traditional Chinese influence. A nice article on her work- Guo Pei: Couture Beyond.
A few more inspirations this hair, this gown, this gown both from Dior 2006. Space princess paper dolls need over the top clothing. I recently bought this book on Star Trek Costumes. I keep thinking about what makes something feel futuristic.
I associate purples and gold with futuristic space clothing. So, they made sense as the color scheme for the space princess and her space princess gowns. I don’t entirely know why purple always feels futuristic to me. It’s a very old dye color.
What do you think of today’s space princess? Are you into sci-fi paper dolls? I love them, but they aren’t very common. Let me know what you think in a comment.
I have attempted to complete the 100 Day Project every year for the last 3 years, maybe 4? One year, I succeeded and have not finished every other year that I have attempted the activity. Most years, I enjoy the attempt, but eventually I lose interest, life gets busy, and I fall so far behind that I feel overwhelmed and give up. Inevitably, I end the year feeling like a failure for having not finished.
Not like in a horrible way, just in that nagging “I wish I’d done that” way.
Lately though, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of choosing things proactively, rather than reactively. In deciding to do X rather than Y, even when I’m sort of embarrassed about Y. So, one of the things I have decided is that I am not going to continue the 100 Day Project. This year it is going to be a choice, rather than a failure. I am deciding to stop.
Why am I not finishing the 100 day project?
Well, a few reasons.
The biggest reason is that I was dreading picking up my notebook. Just dreading it. I use a smaller sketchbook for this project. Sometimes, I can work through this feeling and come out the other side. This is the ideal. However, given the number of the times, I’ve put the sketchbook down and then ignored it for days while feeling bad about ignoring and dreading picking it up again- I don’t think that’s happening this time.
My Last piece from the 100 Day Project 2020
I’d rather focus instead on my 365 Day Patreon Project (which is humming along happily) and continuing to work on Jewels and Gemstones 2.0, along with the Doll Du Jour series. Plus, I am working on some needed backend blog stuff which should improve site performance.
Lastly, though not least, I am taking a creative writing class for the next 3 months. It’s weekly and I’m super excited about it, but I want to give it my best effort. That means taking time to really dedicate to it and between Patreon and the Blog, time is sometimes in short supply.
Right now, other things are more important to me. And I am okay with that.
I love reading the fashion magazines in March when they publish the big spring fashion reports. It’s probably my second favorite time to buy fashion magazines. September is my other favorite time. So, one of the things I look for in those magazines are the trends for inspiration when drawing paper dolls with clothes.
One of the trends of 2020 it polka-dots. I knew I wanted to draw some! I love polka-dots. They’re whimsical and playful which is the best way to create paper dolls. There should be something playful about them, don’t you think?
Each of the clothing items I drew for this paper doll was a bit girly-ruffles for sleeves, pleats and such. The grey and coral is a color combination I love and there’s something feminine about polka-dots. Hence the pinks and ruffles.
I also wanted to repeat the circular shape in the dolls hair and her purse. I thought the afro would be a fun match to the polka-dots. Plus, while I have drawn a fair number of black paper dolls, not very many of them have afros.
I also used polka-dots when I was showing how I put patterns on my paper doll clothes. So, if you’re wondering how this paper doll with clothes got her polka-dots, read this tutorial. I still use this method.
What do you think of polka-dots? Are you a fan? I confess I love them, but I rarely wear them.
By the way, you might notice there’s some new layout things around here. I’m trying out a new theme to try to speed up the sites load time- which tends towards the awful. Let me know if anyone notices the change!
I have been really debating what to do about the pandemic. On one hand, I am not in anyway qualified to give anyone medical advice. (I’m qualified to maybe give archives/library/paper doll advice.) On the other hand, I wanted to respond to the current crisis somehow. It felt weird to pretend it wasn’t happening out in the outside world beyond my small isolated corner of it.
So, I decided to respond in paper doll fashion, plus I figure people need kids activity ideas right now. You need to occupy children at home and while I don’t have kids, I have a lot of empathy for folks who do.
When Alaska mandated facemasks a few weeks ago, I pulled out my trusty fabric stash and sewed up a few for me, my partner and some friends who didn’t sew. I’ll openly confess I’m not a great seamstress and mostly I work in doll clothing creation, but the mask pattern was easy enough. I used the New York Times pattern for the pleated mask. Now the mandate is lifted, but I still wear my mask when grocery shopping, as the CDC recommends.
Originally, I had planned to make the face masks for the paper dolls removable, but my prototypes did not work. So, instead, they are permanently attached to each doll. I thought about doing extra heads- the way Dolly Dingle sometimes does- but frankly that kind freaks me out. Paper doll decapitation feels weird for a kids activity idea.
I’ve done all the Jewels and Gemstones paper dolls here, so each page has three dolls and there are 9 dolls in total- Sapphire, Ruby, Pearl, Diamond, Opal, Topaz, Amethyst, Lapis, and Jade. I try not to have favorites, but I really like how Opal’s bangs came out in this set.
I also wanted to do a variety of mask styles. None of these are N-95, but rather the sorts of masks you might wear to the store. There seem to be two major styles- the curved one and the pleated one. I have a pleated mask, but I have seem lots of patterns for curved masks and those seem more popular among the folks I see during my rare grocery forays.
Sharing a new paper doll series is always a little stressful. When I design paper dolls to dress, I think about body poses and I think a lot about how many different styles I think I can get from a single body pose. A few perks of this pose are the 3/4 view and the spread legs, which open up some design options.
She will be hard to make into a mermaid though…
Anyway, the first version of this paper doll showed up on Instagram back in 2018. I had to do some extensive redrawing, because the sketchbook was ruined while traveling to Alaska.
Fixing her right foot was also a priority.
A huge thanks you to my Patrons! Sheryl helped me name the series and had the amazing idea to name the dolls after temporal themes. I love this! Because I tend to like giving my paper dolls names that are not really names. I mean, you can find people named Dawn, but like there aren’t a lot of Dusk or Evening named folks running around.
I like to test out new series with sets that show me how many clothing pieces I can fit on a page. After all, the whole point of paper dolls to dress is that you want to dress them. Otherwise, why have the clothing at all?
Denim is the base of most modern wardrobes. Knowing that I have denim done, so to speak, allows for more variety in later sets. Every person (or paper doll) needs a good pair of jeans after all.
What do you think of this new series? Let me know in a comments! And head over to join us on Patreon if you want to someday help name a paper doll series.
In my head, not always a logical space, I tend to organize princess paper dolls and dresses into categories. There are the medieval looks, the renaissance looks and then these- big skirted looks. If anything, I suppose a nod to the 1860s and 1700s, but really… not much when you come down to it. I have a whole Pinterest Board I keep devoted to these big skirted dresses.
There are two dresses here today- a Spring dress and a Winter dress. Clearly, I’ve been influenced by the current weather in Alaska, which is finally spring! It’s so beautiful. Most of the snow is gone and there’s grass. It’s not green, yet, but it will be.
Also, there’s a lot of birch pollen and my allergies are going nuts. I digress. Let’s get back to paper dolls and dresses.
To keep all these gowns feeling consistent, I kept the same color scheme. That makes all the gowns feel like they go together and come from the same sort of universe. A universe where people don’t have to go through doorways often.
Eventually, I will resize the rest Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 Princess Trousseau and pair those with their own princess with absurd hair. After that, there can be a whole collection of paper dolls and dresses with big skirts and fancy hair. All of them will qualify as impractical self-isolation costumes, let me tell you.
A few final thoughts- the current landscape up here inspired the colors of the Spring Dress- yellows and oranges with just a few hints of early spring green. The accessories here are books, because… well, everyone likes books don’t they? And I do tend to draw a lot of books for paper dolls.
I’m a librarian. What can you expect?
I hope everyone is staying safe and sane at the moment. Let me know what you think of today’s paper doll gowns in the comments. I love hearing from you all.
There’s a lot of content on Paper Thin Personas. And I have far to many favorites to count!
Some of my paper dolls are not super kid friendly, but I wanted to highlight paper dolls you can color for kids that might be great while stuck at home. Specifically, I wanted to focus on sets that might be a bit buried in the archives. The sort of things that might be missed, unless you’re me and you know the archives super well.
(Actually, truth be told, I have a few readers who I think know them better than me. So, if I missed a favorite of anyone’s, please let me know in a comment.)
I drew this paper doll set back in 2014. She started as a one page little foray into something different and quickly expanded into 10 pages of black and white fantasy gowns for coloring. Lots of great potential here!
Her wigs were especially fun to create, though I confess I didn’t test any of them in the real world. I have no idea if they really work. They will all fit I am sure, but I am not sure they will all stay on.
I found in my college library a book with reprints of every fashion plate from a magazine from 1886. It was a fascinating study of seasonal dress over one year. I decided to try to draw some of the dresses from that book and this was the result.
Bustles and I have a had a long complex relationship, but I think the patterns here would be especially fun to color. When I was kid, my favorite paper dolls were paper doll of antique dolls. So, when I was picking out kid friendly paper doll coloring pages, this one had to be included.
These two PDF pages are the only one you’ll need to download individually. There’s 7 amazing outfits in this set along with a fun teddy bear to dress up.
When I was 8 or 9, I drew dozens of outfits for a commercial teddy bear paper doll, including multiple layers of complex underwear. I have no idea what happened to that paper doll, but it was certainly inspiration for this one.
This is a set I drew right before I moved to Alabama in the early 2010s. Originally, it was going to be the basis of a whole new paper doll series, but I ended up burning out on it fast.
I still think the idea of four different poses and matching dresses for each of those poses was a fun concept and there’s lots of coloring to be had with this fun set. Besides, if you’re going to play with paper dolls it is a lot more fun to play when they have friends.
Since it is Friday, I did want to mention there’s always more paper doll content on Patreon on Fridays! Head over there to check it out.
Let me talk about my childhood for a moment. My family had a commercial fishing boat, lovingly known as Lady B. We fished halibut by long line and salmon with trolling gear. It’s hard work, but Southeast Alaska is one of the most beautiful places on earth. At least the view was always worth it. Also, I did learn to gut a fish in 6 cuts, so that’s something.
When I decided I wanted to do another fisher paper doll, after all my last one was many years ago, I knew I wanted to stick to the same basic clothing options. There are a lot of printable career paper dolls out there, but a definite lack of commercial fishers in the paper doll world.
This was the sort of fishing gear I remembered wearing as a teenager. It may not be what people are still wearing, but I don’t think fishing gear has changed much. There’s a set of bright orange heavy duty rain gear, a knit cap, long underwear top and skinny jeans. There are rain boots, deck shoes, gaff hook, gutting knife, halibut and gloves.
Halibut exude a slime when pulled from the water. It’s a defensive mechanism for them. While I adore the way halibut tastes, I personally do not miss the slime. Halibut slime is a uniquely gross substance.
Also, whenever I hear someone singing the praises of how amazing halibut tastes, I want to say, “Yes, but have you ever experienced the slime?”
A few things- all the colors I chose were based on colors from actual garments, except for the t-shirt with the boat on it. I made that one up.
About the boat- after some debate, I chose to draw a gill-netter which is not the type of boat I grew up on. However, my parents first boat was a gill-netter. I do think the rigging is a bit much for the gill-netter and closer to what you see on a toller, but I digress. I don’t think anyone is peering at paper doll clothing going, “Hey, that fishing boat’s rigging looks weird.”
And if they are, well… I think that might point to a deeper issue with them.
Nautical Gothic Sorceress and Modest Steampunk Elf, because why not?
Nautical Cyberpunk Sorceress! Retro Punk Pirate! Sweet Lolita Fairy! Modest Cyberpunk Astronaut! Regency Lolita Warrior! Sweet Fantasy Saytr! 1920s Punk Alien! Rococo Gothic Fairy!
What do all those ideas for paper doll have in common?
They were all randomly generated using a technique sometimes called Idea Roulette. It’s a riff on the old game Exquisite Corpse, where several people write a story each one only seeing the line right before theirs, but with the advantage that you don’t need more people. I was reminded of it from the amazing podcast called Comic Lab (I highly recommend it, though there is language and some sex talk, just FYI.)
What’s the Point?
Idea generation is one of the harder things we do as creators. We all have things we fall back on- comfort zones in our work- and the purpose of Idea Roulette is to break yourself out of those comfort zones by generating ideas you wouldn’t have thought of before and then forcing yourself (even if you don’t like the outcome) to devote at least 5 minutes to it.
This is a bit of a twist on my 25 minute rule, which is another productivity trick I use a lot.
Here’s How to do Idea Roulette
All you need to play: Some way to randomly generate numbers, a few sheets paper and a pencil. I used dice, because like any good gamer girl I have a ton of them
Step 1: Create 3 Lists. These can be of settings, characters and goals, if you are wring stories, or in my case I did character, fashion style, fashion adjective. I’ve listed six items on each of my lists below and I would try to get at least that many on your lists, but the more the better.
Character
Fashion Genre
Fashion Adjective
Princess
Steampunk
Sweet/Romantic
Warrior
Retro
Nautical
Pirate
Gothic
Edgy/Punk
Alien
Fantasy
Modest
Mermaid
Lolita
Historic
Sorceress
Cyberpunk
Masculine/Menswear
Step 2: Next roll some dice! (Or generate your numbers however you like.) So, I would encourage your to roll several times and just write down whatever you roll- no editing.
I had a fourth list for when I rolled Historic where I rolled again on another list of historic periods. But that’s just an added level of random generation, you do what works for you!
Sweet Lolita Fairy on the left and Cyberpunk Nautical Sorceress on the right.
Step 3: Pick 4 from your rolled ideas and write them at the top of paper. I would recommend using paper that carries no pressure. For me, that meant just using cheap printer paper that I folded in half.
Write at the top of the paper whatever idea you’re working to draw.
And then for 5 minutes draw. Don’t edit. Just draw. Whatever comes to mind.
Do this four times.
Regency Lolita Warrior and Sweet Fantasy Saytr
Step 4: Now, you get to edit. Look at your doodles/drawings and decide which of these, if any, you want to expand on or actually draw.
Sweet Lolita Fairy waiting to be inked.
And that’s it!
Of all the things I created, the only one I think was a total bust was the “Nautical Cyberpunk Sorceress” which, in my defense, I’m still not sure what the heck that would even look like.
The others will probably show up somewhere at some point. The Sweet Fantasy Saytr, Sweet Lolita Fairy and Modest Steampunk Elf are all going o be fore my 365 Day Project on Patreon.
Sweet Fantasy Saytr inked and ready for scanning.
I haven’t yet decided for whom I’ll draw the Regency Lolita Warrior, but I do like the designs I came up with.
Let me know if you decide to play Idea Roulette. It’s a lot of fun. If you have any thoughts or questions, let me know in a comment. If you want to see some of these papers dolls when they’re done, join us over on Patreon.
It’s been a while since I shared some sketchbook stuff and so I thought it would be fun to show off some of my work in progress.
A bid skirted princess gown for the Jewels and Gemstones.
I classify my fantasy outfits in my head based on silhouette and my two favorites are my vaguely medieval ones and my big skirted ones. This one clearly falls into the big skirted princesses dress model.
A Gothic Lolita set created at a Patron’s request.
One of my long time patrons asked for more Gothic stuff and fortunately for her, I was already itching to draw a set of gothic Lolita dresses, partly because I really wanted to draw a bonnet.
Some clothing for my new Doll Du Jour Paper dolls.
Before I share a new series on the site, I like to have at least a few sets drawn and finished for them. I have to know that I actually like drawing for the paper doll enough to commit.
More Gothic Lolita.
So, that’s what’s in my sketchbook at the moment. I have been enjoying sharing these with you all and I hope you’re as excited about these up coming paper dolls as I am.
Issue 126 of Paper Doll Studio Magazine Featuring the Spindle Sisters
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.
The interview with the Spindle Sisters.
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.
One of my favorite paper dolls in the magazine by Ralph Hogden.
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.
My contribution was a paper doll with three different dresses from different eras and locations.
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.
Now, I need to decide what I’m drawing for the By the Sea issue before the end of May.
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