Black & White

Yellow & Blue Medieval Fantasy Gowns

A Fantasy printable dress-up doll with two dresses and a yellow and blue themed color scheme. The doll has brown hair in braids and tan skin. The two dresses are both mevieval inspired with long skirts and sleeves. She also has books and a sword as accessories.
A Fantasy printable dress-up doll color pages with a pair od dresses and braids. There are accessories for the doll like two swords and a pair of boots.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Ensemble Eclectica Series

Today’s fantasy printable dress-up doll has a pair of medieval inspired gowns with girdles, swords and books, of course. Because all paper dolls are happier with books.

When I’m in the mood for some “basic fantasy,” I tend to go back to medieval stuff. Not the actual medieval period, but rather what the Victorians thought the medieval period was. It’s all big castles, princesses in fancy dresses, dragons, and noble knights. In a nod to actual medieval gowns which were worn over kirtles or underdresses, I like to add the layers. You can see more of this sort of thing on my fantasy medieval Pinterest board if you’re curious.

I confess though that these aren’t the most unusual or inspired pieces for me, but I feel like I am stretching myself enough with the digital art thing without trying something totally new.

I chose the colors for these dresses from classic Norwegian design and old-fashioned children’s book illustrations. I used yellows, blues, and soft ocher shades to make them feel cozy and cheerful, like a sunny day or a calm, clear sky. These colors remind me of curling up by a fire with a big picture book.

And since I was thinking of books, I drew some books to be accessories along with swords. I like drawing books. It’s the librarian in me.

This is the first sort of fantasy set for the Ensemble Eclectica series. My hope is always that this fantasy printable dress-up doll will inspire imaginative play and storytelling. That’s the best part of playing with paper dolls, isn’t it? While I’ll admit that I have been on more of a modern clothing kick as of late, don’t worry. Eventually, I’ll come back to fantasy, sci-fi and other elements. I always do.

A Spring or Autmn Little Cottage Core Paper Doll

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So, most of the clothing for this paper doll began it’s life as clothing for the Dark Victoriana themed paper doll, but that was back when I thought I was going to make all these dolls two page sets. I have since decided I just didn’t feel like drawing two page sets. So I drew a few new pieces and then ended up here.

This whole series is heavily inspired by a long running paper doll series Julie Matthews did called Fashion Doll Fridays. Those dolls were vector drawn and ran weekly on her site from around 2012 until 2016. I think this is the first one. (Did I get that right, Julie?) She still occasionally shares a set that matches like these football paper dolls. Now one of the things I realized over the last few months is that the only way I will get better at digital drawing (and I do want to get better) and more skilled with Procreate (which is the program I am using) is to draw in it.

However, I really dislike how it manages color, so that I am still doing in Photoshop.

As for shadows… I dunno. I’m unconvinced I like them. I do want to try some more digital techniques and see where I end up. I’m particularly curious to play around with pattern brushes in Procreate and also with a more painterly look.

But in the meantime, my line-work needs work and the best way to do that is to keep drawing and just keep drawing.

The Stylish July Round Up: All 31 Creations Together

The Paper Dolls

 I feel like starting the dolls, because well, you need a doll to wear the clothing, right? Right. I was very pleased with this doll and I still am. There’s a few things I would change now, but all in all, I’m quite happy with how she came out.

The Historical Clothing in Order of Historical Period

Originally, this project was going to be all 1910s clothing, but that didn’t last too long. I ended up with some 15th century stuff, some 1890s stuff, and some 1910s stuff. I’m particularly happy with how the folds came out in the 15th century gowns and I fretted for a long time over their headdresses.

The Sci-fi, Fantasy and Steampunk Clothing

I draw a lot of fantasy stuff. I like drawing it. It’s some of my favorite things to work on. I wanted to try out a bunch of different looks and see how I did using digital tools with them, rather than a pencil and pen. At times, I seriously missed my pen, but I can see ways in which I improved as the process went on.

The Contemporary Clothing

 

I didn’t do as many

A Few in Color….

One of the long terms goals of the July Project was to see if I could do a paper doll series similar to many of the ones on this site digitally. Part of that is finding a system, because I am system based soul. I played around a lot with different ways of doing shading and different ways of adding texture.

In the end, I decided I didn’t really love the shading, but I did enjoy trying out several different fun techniques here.

And that’s it! All of them in all of their glory here. If you missed one, you can grab it now and fill out your whole set.

Vivian’s Ballgown & Afternoon Dress for September 2023

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A Colorful Tropical Beach Printable Paper Doll

A cute little asian paper doll with a ten part mix and match wardrobe of beach themed clothing options.
A cute little asian paper doll coloring page with a ten part mix and match wardrobe of beach themed clothing options.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Ensemble Eclectica Series

I rarely get a chance to do something that has this many different outfit possibilities while also being just a one page set. This has 19 different outfits while also being only 10 mix and match pieces. Could it be more? Yes, I did the math once and realized that the most outfits you could ever get from 10 pieces was 25. That would be 5 tops and 5 bottoms which gets you 25 different clothing options.

I have a whole post about calculating clothing options if you feel like having some fun with math. There’s a formula. My best friend in college went on to become a math teacher and while I never will be a big math person, whenever math comes up I think of her.

I got some great name suggestions, but ended up deciding on Ensemble Eclectica, after trying out a few different options including “Wardrobe Wonderland Wanderings” or “Fashion Fantasy Frolics”. I think those two were a little too long.

Anyway, for technical reasons (and because I had a fantasy dress that I could not fit on the page), I ended up resizing these dolls down a bit and redoing some of the formatting. So, the next few after this one will looking a wee bit different. I already updated the PDF files and things from last week’s version.

Pastel Winter Printable Paper Doll

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Ensemble Eclectica Series

Something about winter and pastel colors makes me really happy. I think it might be that where I grew up in Alaska, there was a very long dusk, especially in winter. The sun would never get very high in the sky and so the snow on the mountains would turn the most brilliant pink color as it reflected the light.

Maybe that’s why I associate pastel colors with winter. They feel softer and somehow more mellow and quiet- all things I also associate with winter.

The truth is, if I maybe honest, I wanted to do this set in pastel, because I had this idea of experimenting with texture and I wanted to see how the texture would look on different color schemes. So, this is the first of several dolls I made for this purpose.

Now, since I don’t think I should call this series “Texture Experiment 2.0”, please let me know if you have a series name suggestion. There will be, at least, three of these ladies.

Edit: For a million reasons involving layout and dresses and other things, I ended up resizing and redoing the layout on these paper dolls, so I’ve updated the PDF files. – Rachel 9/12/2023

A Stylish Paper Doll July for Patrons: Steampunk in Knickerbocker Pants

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A Stylish Paper Doll July: The Rose Ballgown

Download Black and White PDF | More July Project Paper Dolls

Am I allowed to have favorites? Because I 100% do right now.

This rose fantasy dress absolutely encapsulates what I am discovering I love about working on my ipad and working digitally.

Layers!

So, my original plan was to draw this dress, though I did adapt it a bit. I changed the ruched bottom piece to a ruffle, added a second layer of roses and did a few other things. The point is that as I was working on the bodice, I realized it could be a totally separate piece.

And this got me thinking about Victorian dresses with several bodices to pair with one skirt.

And then I remembered playing paper dolls with my niece and how she didn’t like the skirts, because they didn’t stay on the dolls very well (and these big skirts don’t unless you add some extra paper strips in the back to hold the skirt against the doll.

And then I was like, but I could make the drees strapless, add a few tabs to the bodice for additional security and then design the bodices to go over the top of the dress.

So, in the end, we have a dress with four different bodices and one jacket.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.

The only thing that I think could be more fun would be a second skirt option, because then you’d double your outfit potential with just one more piece. But that’s unlikely to happen… well, this month, anyhow.

A Stylish Paper Doll July: Ruffled Evening Gown

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Source

As I try to find ways to beat the heat, I’m pleased to share this fully frilly gown with some boning that I drew. I drew it because I saw the skirt and I thought… That looks hard to draw.

And then I was like, therefore I should try it, because I should try something that I think looks hard. I did end up changing some of the tiers, but all in all, I think it came out pretty well. I also altered the neckline, because the dolls don’t have on the right underwear for such a low cut neckline.

I do sort of regret not trying to get the texture from the bodice in the source image, but I’m not sure how I would have pulled that off anyway. Need to think on that one.

Also, I am working on adding my remaining prints and paper doll books to Etsy as product listings which means taking photos (not my strong suit, but I am working on it) and so I hope I can debut those soon. Though given how hot my office (and usual photo space) is at the moment, that might not happen until the heat breaks here.

A Stylish Paper Doll July: Fantasy Adventuring Armors

A printable paper doll coloring page of fantasy armor with a padded gambeson, leggings and boots.
A printable paper doll coloring page of fantasy armor with a sword.

Download the PDF of 24 | Download the PDF of 25 | More July Project Paper Dolls

And now I am pleased to say we are all caught up with this paper doll project! Woo!

I wanted to do something that really let me play with fantasy stuff like armor since I hadn’t done much of that. I had ideas for chainmail, but never could get it to look right without manually drawing every link. I almost bought a brush for it, but then I have have mixed experiences paying for brushes. Some are amazing and some are kind meh. It’s tough, because you can’t really test it before you pay for it.

Anyway, I’m really happy with how both of these came out even if I didn’t end up sorting out my chainmail challenges. Rather then chainmail, I went with a padded gambeson (which I think is the right name… for the quilted padded jackets people wore as armor back in the day or sometimes under plate armor) for one and the other I did a bit more of a fantasy breastplate thing. All five pieces can mix and match, so there really quite a few options.

One thing that this digital process does that my physical process doesn’t do is that it is MUCH faster. The speed at which I can go from sketch to inking to posting is massively increased. Mostly, this is a good thing, but there is one major downside.

One of those downsides is that the human eye tends to miss things. We see as much what we “think” we are seeing as we see what is actually there.

So, I do find when I look at some of these posts I notice little things I don’t think are quite right- like I am not sure about the gauntlets on both the sets. The angles seem… maybe not quite right.

In the long term, this probably means building in a “rest” period and learning some tricks for looking at my digital art more critically. Learning things like that was sort of the point of this whole project.

A Stylish Paper Doll July: Evening Gowns 22 and 23

A paper doll evening down to color and cut out.
A paper doll floral evening dress with 3d flowers on it.

Download the PDF of Number 22 | Download the PDF of Number 23 | More July Project Paper Dolls

Sources:

So, today’s pair of paper doll evening gowns is sort of an exploration of something I can not imagine attempting if I didn’t/wasn’t working digitally. Both these dresses have the same bodice. I drew #23 first, actually, well… I drew the dress and then as I was inking, I thought….

“Oh, I really like that bodice, I bet it would look cool as a slinky fit and flare gown.”

So, I duplicated the layer, saved it and then once I had finished first dress, I pulled it back up and set to work on a slinky dress that I had in my head.

This is the sort of thing that working digitally allows in ways sketchbooks don’t as easily.

Yes, I realize I should have numbered them with the floral gown as 22 and the slinky gown as 23, but I was not paying that much attention at the time.

All right, tomorrow, there will be fantasy armor and then… well, we’ll be caught up.

So, yay!

A Stylish Paper Doll July: Sci-Fi Wardrobe

A black paper doll coloring page with a sci-fi theme.

Download the PDF of Number 19 | More July Project Paper Dolls

So, as I was finishing up my next batch of Stylish July Paper Dolls, I decided to try to share them in groups based on theme. I figured that was a better option and more logical and then just trying to dump a bunch of stuff all at once and share like six things today to get caught back up to where I should be. There will be three today and two shared over the next two days. That’ll get us all caught up.

To start with, here’s three different sci-fi outfits all inspired by Star Trek. I love Star Trek. I’ve become a huge fan of both Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, because they both seem to understand Star Trek in a way most of the newwer Trek hasn’t. Anyway, they were the primary inspiration for these paper doll outfits.

Download the PDF of Number 20 | Download the PDF of Number 21 | More July Project Paper Dolls

I got this great book on Star Trek costumes called Star Trek Costumes (okay, obvious title) and I think it’s where I learned that one of the things they did in The Next Generation era Star Trek is that they didn’t have visible fasteners in general on clothing. It’s subtle, but it does actually make the clothing feel just a little… different. In high def you can totally see the zippers, but in the original definition, they would have been invisible to the viewer at home.

It’s really actually kinda a cool thing to notice. It somehow works really well.

So, I was thinking about that when I designed these sci-fi inspired paper doll pieces.

Is she a space explorer? Is she a space princess? I had no idea, but I did have fun and that’d what matters.

Tomorrow, there will be evening gowns!