Today’s printable paper doll is Hazel getting to rock some fantasy gowns. Sometimes I feel odd posting a lot of the same styles of things in a row, as I know I have readers who are into all sorts of different things, but I have certainly been on a fantasy gown drawing kick. Never fear, the March fashion magazines are out and Monday there will be something “completely different.”
That is to say, my other contest winner will get her paper doll set and it is not a fantasy set in the traditional sense.
I suppose in some senses every set is a little bit fantasy. I mean, most of these pieces of clothing, even my contemporary ones, don’t exist in real life. However, I think it is more useful to think in terms of fantasy as a genre. Since I think it helps people find what they might like around here.
Later this week, I’ll show off some of the stuff from my sketchbook (likely tomorrow or Friday) and then Monday there will be a Marisole Monday Post and then I’m not sure what’ll go up next. I have a few different things done.
Okay, so as I mentioned, I’ll be posting some stuff in the next few weeks with the 2014 date on it. That’s because I date things from when I save them, not when I post them on the blog and I’ve got some backlog to go through. Never the less… first post of 2015 and I am going to celebrate that.
In 2015, Greta’s Trousseau is steadily growing. She’s traveling to the seaside with her paper wardrobe to deep sea dive, swim and also, you know, walk around looking fashionable.
Her costumes are, left to right, a diving suit (because who doesn’t have one of those in their wedding trousseau?), a traveling suit, slightly fancier than the last one I posted, a swimming costume with flippers and a spear for fending off aggressive sea-life and a walking dress, because sometimes a girl just wants to look good while walking along the beach.
For those counting this takes Greta’s Trousseau to just over sixty pieces and 21 distinct outfits. Wow. Of course, she can share with her friends Isadora, Hazel and Faye. It’s not like she’s the only one who can wear these outfits.
Next up for her paper doll wardrobe is probably going to be more sporting outfits, including golf, croquet and tennis. I also have a set with a morning dress and a nightgown in the wings.
Nothing exists in a vacuum. This means that anything which is created inevitably is developed from previously existing content. This doesn’t bother me. I love combining diffrent parts to get a unique whole.
This image was not my only inspiration. I was also influenced by traditional Japanese hairstyles and vikings. Everything is better with vikings or pirates or pirate vikings….
Seriously, I should do a set of pirate vikings. I can picture it now… horned helmets and jolly roger flags.
On second thought… maybe I shouldn’t do that.
Moving on… Faye’s world is a harsh one. Her people are known for their skill in leather and silver work. Of a fairly high status, she wears her hair in an elaborate style decorated with a metal ornament. The society travels long distances, mostly by river, and are known for their belief in astrology and careful tracking of the movements of the stars. Their calendars are prized throughout the world for their accuracy. They exist in small townships and a few larger groups. They do not have a centralized government, as we would call it, and form alliances through trade agreements and marriage. They are a largely matriarchal society.
It has been a while since we’ve had to visit to Greta’s Trousseau. I have had these drawn for a few mnths and it has been taking me a long time to get my act together and sort out the adding of tabs. I loath having to add tabs, but it’s easier to add them than to remove them later for the fashion plates and I do like putting together the fashion plates.
So, in this page of Greta’s ever expanding trousseau, there is a ballgown which also has a more conservative long sleeved bodice. Dresses with two bodices were very common in the 19th century. Most “gowns” of the period are actually a top and a separate skirt. This women’s dress from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has an evening bodice and a day bodice. I imagine that Greta’s dress is more of a “ballgown” and then “dinner-dress” sort of arrangement.
Her traveling attire has two major outfits. One is a pair of bloomers with a blouse and hat for exploring or slightly rough and tumble travel. The other is a crisp traveling suit with a jacket, skirt and gaiters (or really long spats). These pieces can be mixed and matched for other outfit combinations, of course.
In total, this takes Greta’s Trousseau to over fifty outfit pieces and seventeen outfits. Technically, based on my paper doll outfit math than there’s about 1300 outfit combinations, more if you include hats, of course. I don’t actually think most of those outfit combinations make a lot of sense, but it was fun to work out how many existed. Greta’s Trousseau isn’t over, by any means. There are more sporting outfits to be finished (including a really cute croquet dress) and a set of clothing for seaside visits which includes a scuba suit, complete with helmet.
I really did not think I was going to get a Halloween paper doll done this year. I was certain I wouldn’t and then I was going through my logs and I noticed that I have done a Halloween paper doll every Halloween since 2010. Over the years, there have been a vampire, a costume set, another vampire, and a collab between me, Boots, Liana and Toria. So, that’s a lot of Halloween paper dolls.
This Halloween, we have a ghostly Greta of the Mini-Maidens. I do a lot of Mini-Maiden paper dolls for holidays. I think because they are black and white and I can get them done quickly.
I often forget about holidays until they are upon me.
I created this paper doll set thinking of ghosts and the idea of ghostly women. They exist in all sorts of cultures. White Lady ghosts are from Europe and usually have been betrayed by a lover. The Leanan sÃdhe is less a ghost and more a fairy, but according to Celtic lore they inspire their loves, but also induce madness and early death. In Japan, there are the Onry? vengeful ghosts of women wearing white marriage kimonos with long unkempt hair. They appear in a lot of Noh theater.
Anyway, I was channeling all that when I created this paper doll set. I made the set for Greta, because she hasn’t gotten a set in a while and I thought she needed some love.
Also, it was an excuse to draw some flowing gowns. I imagine the stuff on her feet is blood, but you can color it anyway you wish.
This is the second Isadora paper doll and a member of the Mini-Maiden paper doll family. I haven’t done a fantasy Mini-Maiden before, so I thought I should and I have been in a psuedo-medieval mood as of late. Perhaps simply because I am wishing I was living somewhere cooler than Alabama which is having a humid hot August.
I can not wait for fall. Fall is full of wonderful things and I can start wearing tights and boots again.
I love both tights and boots.
Plus September brings the big fall fashion magazines and that will mean a spasm of paper doll drawing and a spate of contemporary styled paper dolls, as it always does.
Until then, of course, we have Isadora as a fantasy Mini-Maiden. I am hesitant to call her a princess, as she doesn’t have a crown, but she can still live in a castle, I think. Personally, I think it would have been dreadfully drafty and cold in castles, but I suppose at least it was better than living in a hovel.
Anyway, now Isadora can either be living in a castle or fighting radioactive zombies in the wastes of a destroyed civilization. Basically, she’s ready for whatever life might throw at her, though I think she also might want to raid another Mini-Maiden’s closet for some more… shall we say… normal clothing. I think she’d look awfully cute in Faye’s girly get up or Hazel’s vintage vibe or Greta’s I-couldn’t-come-up-with-anything-alliterative outfits.
There will be one more update this week (nothing major, just some sketchbook stuff) and then hopefully a new Marisole on Monday as I get myself back into the rhythm of things. For updates, you’re welcome to follow me on twitter @paperpersona, though you will also have to put up with other inane, unpaper-doll-related rambling about my life.
Meet my new Mini Maiden printable paper doll named Isadora. This is the first Isadora paper doll, though there will, of course, be others. Her name is for Isadora Duncan, the famous dancer who died in a rather horrible car accident. A rather morbid name for a paper doll, perhaps, but Duncan revolutionized dance and I do really love the name Isadora. I loved the name long before I knew of it’s rather dark history.
My Isadora paper doll is not a modern dancer who revolutionized dance culture, but rather she is armed with several machetes and a knife and comes from a post apocalyptic wasteland desert where she fights mutants and scrounges for water.
I have been traveling a lot lately, three trips in three months. One of the places I am visiting in Las Vegas. At night, the “strip” is all rather glitzy, but during the day it just feels fake. Never the less, as I flew over the desolate beauty of the desert before coming into the airport, I was struck by the vastness of it all. I was inspired to draw todays paper doll long before flying over the desert, but while I flew over the desert I was reminded that she was done and ready to post.
When it comes to pattern building, I find geometric patterns are easy if you have a drafting stencil handy (which I always do). For today’s printable paper doll to color, I wanted to create something that played with pattern, but in a distinct style. I tend to prefer florals in the real world over geometric patterns, so I often draw them instead for my paper dolls. I think geometric patterns are a little more urban and hip than my vintage inspired funky floral patterns tend to be.
I also wanted to contrast Hazel’s vintage paper doll set with something much more urban chic, so I did this set which I think came out pretty well. I particularly like her braided hair that comes back to a tight set of curls. I saw that on a student on my campus recently and I thought it was a really neat way to style box braids. (Forgive me if I get my braid terminology wrong- I’m still learning.) I will confess that I am beginning to feel, as I often do when I work with one paper doll style (contemporary) for too long that I need a break.
So, things might be getting a bit more fantasy and strange around here soon enough.
Of course, considering how far ahead I tend to work, soon enough might be several months…
(Actually less, as I have worked through my backlog leaving me dangerously low on content.)
Not having any backlog is always a rather dangerous place for me to be, as I tend to dislike working against a wire.
Plus, I have busy academic things happening in this month, so I might have to put the blog on Haitus. I had hoped to not do that at all this year, but my academic (and work related) life comes before my paper dolling.
In the continuing epic of Greta’s Trousseau, today we have a bunch of outfits designed to help Greta do more mundane activities than fencing or hunting. Like any fashionable neo-victorian lady, Greta simply must have a costume for all occasions and her trousseau provides.
Today’s outfit set includes an opera toilette which fitted into a rather odd spot in the ladies wardrobe. Opera attire and ballgowns were both considered to be full dress (the most formal sort), but opera outfits usually included some sort of cloak (which I have omitted because eventually I’ll do a whole set of outerwear) and some sort of hat or headdress. I’ve also noticed that they seem to be a little more fanciful than other costumes. Greta’s consists of an off the shoulder top with a boned bodice, a floral decorated top hat and a full skirt without a train. She wears matching shoes.
Her promenade costume and visiting attire would have both been semi-formal wear. The promenade costume features a military influenced jacket where as the visiting attire is softer and more lady-like. Both outfits have matching hats. Her only costume without a hat is her tea dress which she could have worn while receiving guests in her own home and therefore wearing a hat would have been odd. Changing the bodice and adding a hat, turns this outfit into a walking suit, less formal than a promenade costume but with the same military influences.
Hmm… I really should have drawn her a parasol. I shall have to do that in the future.
All of the shoes, except the ones with the opera costume, are “borrowed” for the other sets in Greta’s Trousseau. I just find that I can only draw so many pairs of button up boots in one sitting, though I will be doing more shoes as we expand Greta’s activities. I know I need do to some winter boots for her and she’ll be needing some for the seaside as well.
Faye has decided to do a little time traveling and visit the 1920’s. I love drawing 1920s paper dolls and this one was no exception. Inspired by Anna May Wong (the first Asian-American famous film actress), I knew I wanted to use Faye, my Asian Mini-Maiden in this set.
(I did not give Faye Anna May’s wonderful bangs because every time I tried to draw them they looked… off somehow. Bangs and I just don’t always get along.)
Faye has shoes, stockings, a girdle, a house dress, two day dresses and then a swimsuit. She should probably also have a swimming cap, but I didn’t really think about that until after I finished the set and then it was too late. But she’s got a pretty good set of 1920s clothing to print and color, I think.
Oh well…
I really had fun with this set since I just bought a few more books about 1920’s clothing and wanted an excuse to play with them.
I’m trying to give more information on where I do my costume research when I say something is historically accurate, so I’m including a sources list, in case anyone else wants to dabble in the 1920s. It’s not exhaustive. There’s some other great books out there, just what I happened to use for this set and have on my own shelves at home.
A Few Sources for 1920’s Fashion History
1920s Fashions from B. Altman & Company. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1999. Atelier Bachwitz. Classic French Fashions of the Twenties. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2012. Blum, Stella. Everyday Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs. New York: Dover Publications, 1981. Lussier, Suzanne. Art Deco Fashion. Boston: Bulfinch/AOL Time Warner Book Group, 2003. Peacock, John. 20th-century Fashion: The Complete Sourcebook. London: Thames and Hudson, 1993.
Do people find this idea of sources lists useful? I don’t want to do them all the time, but for my historical stuff I thought it might be helpful for folks. Thoughts from my fabulous readers?
