As sometimes happens, I can’t think of anything to really say about this paper doll. It’s the second page of the Jessica set and there will be one more. I’m fond of the teal dress, because I still like the bodice. Many of the pieces came directly from fashion magazines- the blue dress is one case- but some don’t and I think over all that weakens the paper doll. I wish I’d done either everything high fashion or kept it all more casual.
I must confess that I didn’t think I would ever get these paper dolls done. The coloring of the clothing was hugely time consuming and I kept disliking how the schemes turned out. I’m still not totally pleased with the gold and red ballgown, but it’s much better then the blue and green version. (Trust me on this one.)
The original goal was to draw things with trains (because I need practice) and this evolved into a set of clothing a fantasy princess (in this case Elven cause of the ears) would wear over the course of the day. Working left to right, the purple gown with the corset and white blouse is her day dress. The red and gold dress with the cream under dress is her formal dinner gown or ball gown which she wears in the evening. Her short bed jacket is next held closed with a golden pin and that she wears over her long nightgown which is on the far right along with two pairs of shoes. The purple shoe to match her purple day dress and the red shoes to go with her formal ball-gown. She also has two necklaces, one to go with each gown though the gold one can be worn with either dress.
Considering the time it took to get all these paper doll clothes to fit on one image, I am glad I don’t draw dresses with trains so often. I do think I need to start thinking about color schemes when I’m designing rather then at ten pm on Sunday night when I realize “Huh… this paper doll dress has like five layers. Maybe I should’ve thought this out better…”
Planning never was my strong suit, but I like to think that I make up for it with a can-do attitude and a certain amount of gumption.
Today’s paper doll is named after a friend in middle school who always said she was going to leave Juneau and head off into the city down south (when you’re in Alaska, the habit is to call anything outside of the state “South”. It’s a matter of perspective I suppose). Eventually, I think she ended up at college in New York, so I suppose it worked out for her, though I lost track of her since then.
It’s funny how people we’re close with at one point in our lives drift away from us later. I hadn’t thought about Jessica until I was trying to name this paper doll and then for some reason she came back to me. Odd how the mind works.
Coloring the paper dolls is always a bit of a crap shoot. How they show up after converting them into PNG’s is always a bit of a shock. Colors are always more muted. Sometimes I like it, but it can play havoc on skin tone. I think I managed okay with Jessica’s coloring, but I wish the brightness of the coat had converted better. Oh well, I suppose I’ll just have to keep messing with formats.
She’s also the first paper doll to be posted in a vertical print format, not a landscape print format. Just something to remember when you’re printing out the PDF.
As a paper doll, Marisole provides a few options which the other paper dolls on the site don’t. One of those is to play around with mix and match clothing options which is what I tried to do with this set of paper doll clothes. I wanted to show a variety of options which were available with one dress and several vests, cloaks, jackets which could be placed over it. I stuck to a blue based color scheme when my red based color scheme just didn’t work out very well.
So, my original idea was that Marisole here was some sort of exotic noble lady in a world where fabric (being handmade) was extremely expensive. The resulting society would rely on accessory pieces to turn a simple gown into a lovely dress for a variety of occasions. And since fabric was at a premium, absurd hairstyles could be the status part of a ladies attire. (It is also entirely possible, I just like drawing absurd hairstyles. I would not rule this out.)
Though Marisole’s family has some money, they are not absurdly wealthy. Perhaps some bad investments many years ago have dwindled the family fortunes. So, she must make-do with one dress and a few other pieces to shine in. Her elaborate hairstyle is a sign of her noble status, but she relies on her beautifully made outer garments to keep herself up to date.
Drawing a zombie paper dolls was the source of some slight worry when I turned down a shopping invite because, and I quote, “I need to draw clothing for a dead chick.”
Of course, like any paper doll, dead or otherwise, the clothing is the most important printable paper doll bit, so here we have a nice set of clothes for the printable zombie version of Marisole. But no shoes. I couldn’t seem to get them right.
Truth be told, doing this Marisole set meant I could be a little messier then I usually am. I let myself have rough edges and I didn’t freak out when my inking went bad. It was okay. After all, she was a zombie and distressed fashion was totally all right. Sometimes, I think the absurd and the playful reminds me why I draw paper dolls to begin with.
So, I have this fantasy. It involves ice cream and pie, but also having like saved paper doll posts so that they go up automatically and I’m not constantly scrambling to throw something together while trying to sound like I know what I’m doing. Never in my fantasy is it late at night and I’m staring at my computer screen thinking… Oh god, now I have to say something intelligent.
The sad part is that I’m pretty witty when I’m not staring at a computer screen at 10:00 pm at night.
(In case you’re wondering, I draw my posts the night before they go up, so most of the time they go up at 12:00 am my time- used to be Alaska time, but I am in the mid-west these days with soybeans and corn. Also since I entered grad school, posts going up at midnight is rarer and rarer.)
My best friend in high school was a punky girl. She still may be, though I haven’t seen her in nearly four years, a fact I am saddened by now that I realize it. Besides being one of the inspirations for Curves and one of the smartest people I know, she had the guts to wear punk clothing in a small isolated town before the days of ubiquitous internet shopping.
Unless, I am suffering from some sort of delusion (which is totally possible) I seem to recall someone asking for a redheaded Marisole. I originally just kept the dusky skin tone I usually use and gave her redhead, but it clashed and looked really bad, so I decided I better change her skintone too. I’ve had a thing for redheads ever sense I saw Anne of Green Gables on television.
Sometimes, I can’t think of anything funny, witting or really happy to write here. I’m having a rough month. Still, there are always pretty paper dolls.
Oh, and this is one of those paper dolls that the websave photoshop feature kinda messed up the color. I do recommend downloading the pdf to get the full bright tones. I need to figure out a way around that… But not tonight.
Edit 1/6/2014: Get a colorable version of this paper doll to print here.
So, sometimes I don’t know what to draw. On these occasions, I usually poll friends looking for ideas. In one night, I might get suggests ranging from “ballerina” to “mad scientist” or “snow day”. Obviously, I decided to go with the “snow day” suggestion and I was told that I “had” to add a snowball and a snowman, so Marisole gets her snowman and her snowball.
When I was a child, my favorite paper dolls had accessories. I don’t think I’m that good at drawing things other then people to do a lot of accessories, but even I can draw a snowball. I’d like to someday draw other accessories for Marisole. I think she needs a pet, but I can’t decide what kinda pet and drawing animals isn’t my gift. We’ll see.
Edit 1/6/2014: Get a colorable version of this paper doll to print here.
Despite my inability to get through any modern version of the genre, I do enjoy the old scientific romances such as Time Machine and Tono-Bungay which is not a scientific romance, but I have been reading and enjoying at the recommendation of a friend. Though lesser known then others of Well’s novels, I’m enjoying it as much as I did Time Machine.
Anyway, this paper doll post is dedicated to a few friends who are very into Steampunk and without this flicker group, it just wouldn’t have happened. Thank goodness for that. Of course, knowing a fair bit about Victorian costume, it was hard to not want to draw everything to be actually period and that’s not the point. I did my best, but expect another post like this whenever I feel inspired again.
Oh, and you might want to cut along the sleeves of the blouses next to the dolls body to make it easier to layer her clothing with this set. The more I draw for Marisole, the more her arm placement annoys me. A perfect paper doll pose is such an impossible goal.
