Like yesterday’s paper doll, today’s paper doll was inspired by some doodles I did of different “themes” for dolls. Once I started really thinking about this project as a project lasting 31 days (oh my) I thought to myself- Self, you need some dolls.
So, I came up with a few themes I liked- strawberries (originally cherries, but strawberries seemed more fun once I started drawing), rainbows and clouds, florals and geometrics. I managed to carve out some time over the weekend to get all of them done and ready, except the geometric one. That one is still in progress.
Today is weather themed and tomorrow will be flowers.
As always, I find it much easier when I batch my work. I tend to work on several things at once.
One of the cool things about Procreate is that you can build your own brush shapes. One of the things I wanted to try was building a braid brush. I tried to follow this tutorial which was excellent, but the results weren’t what I really wanted.
In the process, I became sort of obsessed with drawing a paper doll with box braids- hence how I ended up here with this cute little black paper doll with braids. Because once I get an idea in my head, I tend to try to push through.
Or I don’t. It really depends.
While there’s a few things I would do differently next time, I think the braids came out pretty well. I didn’t figure-out how to make a functional braid brush, but I’m not crying over that. I am not convinced that I like brushes- I mean, I like brushes, but some of the shaped ones are not as useful as I’d have thought if you’d asked me when I started with Procreate. I don’t love how they look and I sort of like hand-drawing things, because I like to draw. If I was working in color, I might feel differently.
I think playing around with the sizes of line gave me a lot of the texture I was looking for and, as a first try, the hair looks pretty dang good. So, I’m proud of it.
Today’s paper doll is part of a series of paper dolls I sketched out all the at the same time (I was in an airport), each of which had a single summery outfit (mostly dresses) and different patterns on their underwear. There will be two more that I’ll share tomorrow and the next day.
For this one, I designed a strawberry and polkadot pattern. There were also flowers, but the flowers looked way too much like the polkadots from a distance, so they didn’t make it to the final finished piece. One thing I am still learning is how thing scale and resize when working purely digitally. The ability to zoom in and zoom out messes with me.
Additionally, this paper doll did inspire me to work on a strawberry themed Lolita dress which I hopefully will finish before the month is out. I think I will. It’s nearly done. I wanted to practice ruffles and that seemed a great way to do that.
Most years I try to do an Independence Day paper doll or paper doll outfit. I didn’t want to give up that tradition this year. So, here’s my Independence Day paper doll. (Halloween might be my next most common paper doll holiday.)
Last month, I found myself at the University of Indiana campus during their new student orientations. I was not there for student orientation, but the bustling atmosphere provided me with an opportunity to observe clothing trends among students, which I always enjoy. Cropped shirts paired with high-waisted jeans and frayed hems seemed to be popular.
The jeans are based on a pair worn by a waitress at a place where I was eating lunch one day. I don’t think she noticed me sketching her pants which is good, because that might be been kinda awkward for both of us.
On this Independence Day, I find myself wrestling with mixed feelings towards the United States. It’s a scary time for a lot of people and a lot of them are very close to me.
However, despite the current political climate, I want the USA to be better and I believe it can be. I think most people are basically decent. Unfortunately, I also study history, so I know that decent people can and will do horrible things to each other.
Anyway, I am desperately trying to be optimistic about the future. So, I thought I would do my 4th of July paper doll as usual. I couldn’t quite bring myself to be as patriotic as I sometimes am, so stars were my compromise.
I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable day in the USA today however you celebrate (or don’t) or a pleasant Tuesday wherever you may be.
By the way, I’ve started numbering these paper dolls to avoid the hassle of coming up with titles. This particular creation is number 4, for those of you who are keeping track.
I’ll need 31 if I get one up every day in July. We shall see!
Today’s 1915 paper doll drawing comes from Perry, Dame & Co. was a New York department store which also did extensive mail order business. The Internet Archive has a few of their catalogs available online one from 1915 and one from 1919-1920.
One of my favorite sources to draw from are clothing catalogs which I did for this 1915 paper doll suit. I love flipping through old catalogs and I love knowing that what I am drawing is clothing women could actually purchase. It’s not hypothetical, as many fashion plates are, or something very high fashion, and it’s fully styled unlike museum pieces.
This suit is from the Spring-Summer 1915 catalog. I didn’t love the original hat that was put with it, so I picked out a hat I liked more from the millerinry section of the catalog. Of course, my modern eye is very different from that of a person from 1915 and who knows if this hat would really have gone with this suit. I chose the hat partly because I wanted to practice drawing feathers in Procreate and I chose the suit in part to allow me to try working with a double line brush that helped me do the complicated braided trim that decorates this garment.
So, this was certainly a “Rachel tries out some new Procreate things” creation. I am pretty happy with how it came out.
I confess I’ve got other things from this catalog in progress, so you might get really sick of the 1915 Spring Summer Perry Dame & Co catalog by the time this month is out!
Do you like 1915? Or is that a fashion era that doesn’t do it for you? Let me know in a comment. I’m super curious.
My husband was shocked to learn that Vogue was around in 1913. The suit is made from wool and trimmed in Russian chipmunk fur. I think chipmunks are very cute, so that took a sort of dark turn when I realized why the fur was striped. The skirt has a slight “hobble” so it is a bit tighter around the ankles. Hobble skirts were very trendy in the early 1910s and very controversial.
One of the best things about researching clothing from the 1910s is that there is a ton to look at. It was hard to pick one suit to draw! I discovered this amazing fashion magazine directory that someone else put together and it’s so good! I wish I’d found it years ago.
A few of my favorites from this era are Vogue, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Half-Century Magazine, McCalls (which began as Queen of Fashion and became Rosie), and commercial catalogs like Sears. Buried within the fashion commentary (which I am totally into) there is some really interesting insight into how women navigated entering the workforce, growing feminist and suffrage movements, and a variety of other social issues.
Each magazine is a little different. Vogue is very fashion focused, most of the others are also interested in “domestic life” which is early 20th century speak for social issues. Half-Century Magazine, which was a women’s magazine specially written by and for black women, is full of calls to action for readers to support various black businesses and enterprises. Good Housekeeping is aimed at a less wealthy audience and has a lot to say about budgets. Ladies’ Home Journal, one of the most widely circulated magazines in its height, mixes condemnations of “radical fashion” with sometimes surprising willingness to mention radical topics like divorce.
I could go on and on, but this isn’t a write up on women’s magazines of the 20th century, so I’ll spare you all.
As I wrote to my patrons earlier this week, I wasn’t sure if wanted to do this idea I’ve had rattling around my head. I really want to get better at drawing line-work and it seems to me the best way to do that is to draw a lot of line-work. So, I thought I would try to draw a paper doll or/and an outfit every day for the month of July and share them here.
I am totally unprepared for this- usually I don’t start projects like this without a big head start and I only have the first two fully finished (though the several others are in various stages of progress.) But I am also trying to get over my fear of failure and how better to do that than try something and possibly fail publicly. Because that’s not anxiety inducing….
Anyway, I decided to start with the 1910s, because my patrons voted a while ago on which time periods I should draw and 1910s was one of the winning eras. It’s not a period I actually knew much about, so it was a lot of looking at things and trying to decide what to draw. I’ve actually not done a lot of 1910s paper dolls over the years.
A little about this paper doll…
Women in the early 1910s wore long corsets that went over their hips. These corsets often unlaced at the bottom and this meant a woman could decide how restricted she wanted her movement to be. Unlacing the bottom of the corset would allow more movement for walking or hiking. Underneath the corset, women wore slips or combinations that were decorated with ribbons and lace. Combinations were underwear that had short pantaloons and a chemise top, similar to a modern romper. The long garters attached to the corset were used to hold up stockings.
Capturing the interaction between the garters and the bottom of the combination worn underneath the corset was hard. I’m still not 100% happy with that outcome, but the whole point of this project is to move forward, even when I am a little conflicted.
As for the hair, I am really pleased with it. Women often styled their hair by pulling it over their ears and twisting it at the back of their heads. This hairstyle was a preview of the short bobbed haircuts that became trendy in the 1920s. It’s common to see women in this era and wonder if the hair is long or short. I was surprised at how many styles I saw included bangs, which I hadn’t known were popular.
What do you think of today’s paper doll? Do you like the 1910s?
Okay, so I somehow got it in my head that I really wanted to try to put Citrus Summer on a vintage background- something that would feel like newsprint- a nod to comic paper dolls. Again, I wouldn’t recommend home printing this one, because the amount of ink you’d need would be a lot.
I stopped doing backgrounds on my paper dolls years ago, because I was trying to respect people’s home printers. However, I still think backgrounds are pretty! And I think they make a more artistic and interesting paper doll.
Something about the limited color scheme, the tones I chose for her, just seemed to speak to me to try this out.
Had I been really wanting to mimic comics, I could have redone my shading with sort of Ben-Day Dot look, but honestly, I haven’t found a Ben Day Dot brush that I like yet. I’ve always been a little conflicted about Ben-Day dots… I think as a black and white effect I like it more than when it was used as a coloring medium, like you see on comics.
If I ever find one I like, maybe I’ll dive into some Ben-Day dots or lines… I’ve always liked the look of copper plate engravings. Another thing I’d need a brush for… thoughts.
Seriously, a paper doll project that I respect so much was done by Boots back in 2015 when she redrew some amazingly wacky illustrations from Judy, the London serio-comic journal as paper dolls. Her line-work is an utter delight and she super captures the feel of the original.
Anyway, back to this paper doll, the background was done using the Phantom Paper Pack from RetroSupply. I tried several free paper backgrouds before, but man, sometimes tools are worth the money. This one was so much easier to use. It really was delightful and the micro-adjustments you can make using it are really great. Well worth the cost.
Okay, I think this is my last version of Citrus Summer. I don’t know what else I would do with her at this point! Let me know in the comments if you had a favorite version.
I decided to try flatting the paper doll in Photoshop and then moving it back into Procreate for details and shading.
(Side note: For those of you who didn’t develop your art-practice based on advice of web cartoonists in the early 2000s, flatting is how comics were traditionally printed. The color was printed so that it completely filled the page and then the black lines were printed on top of the color. I use a plugin in Photoshop called BPelt that allows me to “flat” solid black line-work and THEN go in an color it.
That process is explained in way more detail on this blog post from 2013. My version of Photoshop has changed, by the basic system hadn’t until… well, now.)
Anyway, after I flatted it and then added shadow and some other details, I imported it back into Photoshop.
My thoughts-
I still don’t totally love the eyes. I think they’re too tall and I’m going to work on the face of the doll.
Compared to the Newsletter Doll which she’s based off of, this doll has a less short waist which really does make drawing specific sorts of things much easier. (Proportions… am I right? I really should try to get better at figure drawing one of these days… )
I don’t know if I love shadows… I don’t dislike them, but they feel a little… I dunno. It feels very very digital… that’s not a bad thing, but I’m not sure how I feel about it.
I am thinking I need to break apart two different things I’m working on. One is learning to use Procreate and that is a matter of exposure.
And then there’s trying to tackle my intense fear of figure drawing and moving out of my comfort zone. That’s a matter of maybe taking a class and getting away from sharing things. So, that’s a totally different challenge. Fortunately my mom got me a sketchbook for my birthday this year and maybe that’ll be how I put that one to use.
Thoughts… thoughts…
Anyway, let me know what you think of this new paper doll. The flower in the background is just a stock one from Photoshop-it felt a little like a cut citrus fruit to me.
So, I thought I would try a sketchier looser style for this paper doll, but I’m not convinced it works. Generally, my rule of thumb is to never apologize for my work.
However, I also think it’s okay to talk about things I don’t think were super effective.
I actually don’t think I took the “looseness” far enough. The result is something that just sort of feels like my usual stuff, just a little more loosely colored and I don’t love that. It feels like it’s neither fish nor fowl. The trick to trying out a different style is that you need to “commit” to it and I don’t think I did.
The experience was valuable. I might be a little “meh” about the outcomes, but I’d not unhappy I tried it.
As I told someone recently, I have less of a comfort-zone and more of a comfort puddle. So, getting out of my puddle is very frightening. It’s a big world out there.
I’m also realizing that there’s some core functionality to the program Procreate that I still don’t 100% understand. That’s a big learning curve too- figuring out how to make it do what I want it to do and deciding if it is best tool for certain parts of the process.
Slowly but surely, I am getting there though.
Right now, I am thinking Procreate may end up like my sketchbook used to be and Photoshop will remain my preferred tool for final finishing work. It’s selection tools and resizing abilities are so much better than Procreate and I like how it’s text tools work (I still haven’t figured those out in Procreate.)
Oh, I have a link to the printable pdf, but as with my other experiments lately, I’m not 100% sure I’d recommend home printing due to the massive ink usage the background is going to take. I mean- you do you! But that would be my concern if I was going to do it.
So, I decided to dip my toes into color in Procreate with this paper doll. I also did some experimentation with noise and backgrounds and other things.
While I wouldn’t recommend home printing for this one, because the ink usage will be through the roof, I have added a link to the PDF if you feel the urge to try to see what happens if you do.
East of the sun and West of the Moon illustrated by Kay Nielsen in 1913.
You do you!
And if you do print it, it is scaled to mix and match with the 365 paper dolls.
I’ve been trying to sort out how to get texture. Of course, I think the effect doesn’t work super well unless you zoom in at which point, like maybe it doesn’t work at all?
Hmm….
So, here’s what I was trying to mimic…
One of the things I love very much is the illustrations of the turn of the century. Generally done with a trichromatic printing process (sometimes black was added and sometimes green was added, which is fascinating in it’s own right), the screens used result in a very specific texture to the solid colors in the prints. You can see it in classic illustrators like Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, or fashion illustrations from things like Bon Ton. You can see the texture I’m talking about here and here.
Anyway, trying to archive that effect digitally is not as simple as you might think. So I have been experimenting with noise and other texture effects in Photoshop and Procreate. The result, however, is probably not “strong” enough to be obvious. This is one of the problems of working digitally- you are zoomed in or zoomed out or… whatever. It’s actually super hard to tell what the finished product is going to look like at true scale.
The other factor is that digital printing introduces a bit of noise and I don’t like how it looks, but only because it feels unintentional and I really really value being intentional in my work. I want control, or an active lack of control (hello ceramics, I’m looking at you.)
As I keep saying on these posts, Julie has been a huge help in referring me to tools to try to get this effect.
There are many tools and brushes and things for Procreate that it is super overwhelming. There’s a million different tools and things you can do with those. But I suspect I’ll eventually find 3 or 4 I like and use them 90% of the time. That tends to be how I roll.
But you can’t find the three or four you like without trying out a few dozen, so that’s been the current challenge.
Next up, I’ll be sharing an experiment using a less smooth brush and seeing what happens when I have a “rough” line texture. More on that one next week.
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