So when I asked people what they wanted to see on the blog, male paper dolls won out. I don’t really see the appeal myself- after a while, I think guys clothing gets boring, but I am trying to provide what people have asked for (also I have had this drawn for months and coloring it was fast), so here is Jesse- another Puck paper dolls. He joins the other Pucks which can be found with their female counter-parts the Pixies. In total, I’ve done six Pucks, I believe. I guess out of over 250 pages of paper dolls, six males isn’t much of a percentage, but it’s a lot higher than zero.
Today’s Puck paper doll fits in pretty well with Dillon having another fairly standard casual wardrobe. I confess I don’t know much about male clothing, but I do my best with the Pucks. I did just notice I do seem to have a lot of blond Pucks… which is rather odd. I’ll have to work on that.
I promised myself I wouldn’t spend this post whining about everything i have been trying to get done or making excuses. I had this last week off for spring break and I did get some stuff done, so I can’t be all unhappy about it. I don’t seem to be getting as much done I had hoped, but perhaps I have less then realistic expectations of myself.
Today’s Marisole recycles a few things I’ve done before such as the shoes and the sewing machine. I really wanted to have a sewing machine for the paper Marisoles as well as the magnetic ones and I am just pleased that it came out well. The grey shoes are recolored from the set I drew for my Mother’s quilting retreat and the other shoes were drawn at the same time, but not used because she thought the heels were too high. I personally think high heels are fun.
I can’t decide how I feel about the patterned shirts in this set. I like them, but I’m not sure how much I like them… I was trying to do more patterns, but I’m not sure I should have. I really don’t like the black background that seems to happen when my pictures open in a new window… is it just me or do other people see it too? And does it annoy you all as much as it annoys me?
Today Marisole printable paper doll is going cybergoth since there’s just not enough neon and shiny in Marisole’s eclectic paper wardrobe. This is the first new Marisole in a depressingly long time… I confess I spent time I probably should have spent revising a paper on this, but after five hours in the library my mind is pretty much non-functional anyway. And it’s nice to come home to paper doll coloring as a relaxing project to work on.
Now, I did recently get my hands on Gothic: Dark Glamour by Valerie Steele. While I normally I like Steele’s work, I was a bit disappointed by this book. It didn’t have the lavish pictures I have come to want in any costume book I buy. Still, it did have a fairly nice description of cyber-gothic and helped me narrow things down to black with neon accents. The hair was the hardest part of this paper doll, but I am actually quite pleased at how it came out. The other piece I am most proud of is the shiny black corset. Shiny fabrics are something I am still practicing and I am totally excited at how perfect the corset turned out to be. It’s rare that I really feel like I’ve achieved what I wanted with texture. Texture is hard.
So, I have good news, bad news and slightly indifferent news. The good news is- Hey, look it’s a paper doll post. The bad news is that it will probably be the only one for the whole week. The indifferent news is that the paper doll is in black and white. I chose to post Spirit of the North in black and white since the dolls dresses have a lot of pattern to them and I thought it would be more interesting to color than some of my other paper dolls.
I think it might be cheating to recycle content like this… But so far people have been nice about it. 🙂
Not much to say today (and not a lot of time to say it in), we’ve gotten some snow this week that has stuck to the ground for a little while and I’m enjoying it while it lasts (the temp is supposed to rise again and I suspect it will all go away). I spent most of my spare time these last few days revising my drafts for my MA thesis (oh, what fun…) and working on other things then blog stuff. Blog stuff gets to go to the bottom of my list. I can squeeze out drawing time easily enough, but coloring, cleaning up and posting time is a hot commodity these days.
Someday I should calculate how long it takes me to get a paper doll done and posted, but I suspect it would just depress the heck out of me, so I think I won’t bother.
Anyway, I barely got this done before the end of Wednesday and I am very excited to present these outfits for the lovely, curvy Dictionary Girls. Now, I’m off to bed.
Since my primary concern for the next few weeks is class work, thesis writing and job searching, I thought I would just post some Pixie paper dolls I have already posted in color, but post them in black and white. I felt a little guilty doing it as just one, so there are two this week- Blossom and Masquerade– both are paper dolls which I think would be fun to color as they have some pattern in their clothing and bows.. a lot of bows…
Plus I have been getting requests for paper dolls in black and white, so I guess I could pretend I was listening to people rather than just doing what I knew I could get done and posted without having to spend too much time on it. Despite the practical concerns of getting something up to, as I like to say, “feed the blog”, I know people like to color and I think its important to give people the chance to do that.
These are also both paper dolls which I really liked the full color versions of (which you can see here and here), so I hope people also like the black and white versions.
Click on the images to download the PDF file for printing the magnetic paper dolls.
First off: I was not abducted by aliens or eaten by a polar bear or killed by some strange monster which lives in the depths of the library stacks.
Rather, I was busy working on class things, working on work things and working on thesis writing things. The truth is that for the next semester, the blog is going to be neglected and I am going to feel guilty about it, but I am really really crazy busy.
My mother attends a quilting retreat each January with some friends and there is a tradition of bringing a little gift for the other quilters. Since I gave her a set of magnetic Marisole paper dolls this year for the holidays, she decided she wanted a set for her quilting friends. Everything about these paper dolls was produced with her consultation.
The magnetic paper doll (who can can clothing with magnetic Marisole) has gray hair, red glasses. She comes with her sewing machine, a rather lopsided quilt and several different important quilting accessories (scissors and things).
After she approved the paper doll design, we went through all of the Marisole paper dolls I have drawn and selected a collection of clothing to go with the doll. Each attending person got one main doll and then one page of extra clothing.
It was fairly entertaining to sit down with Mom and have her select what she liked. Sometimes, I guessed right on what she would pick, but often I was surprised. My mom and I have similar taste in clothing and jewelry and fabric, so I suspected we’d have similar taste in paper dolls.
I knew she’d like the pirates and the commercial fishing paper doll. I was fairly certain she would go for something fantasy and I thought the art deco stuff was a shoe in. I knew Tones and Shades would be important since she shares my love of beautiful textiles that are used in Kimono. I was a little surprised by the fantasy set she liked, since it’s one I’m not totally pleased with.
I have come up with some quick fixes which I think should at least feed the blog while I’m so very busy. There will be some sketchbook posts, probably some black and white posts (mostly of things which have already appeared once in color since that is the easiest sort for me to do) and possibly something else as I figure out what I can find time for. I don’t want to give up PTP, but I do have a thesis to write.
One last note on these magnetic paper dolls, they are sized as an 8 by 10.5 inch image, rather then my usual 8 by 10 inch, since I knew which printer I would be printing them on. Double check the PDF settings before you print them to make sure they will fit. On some printers, they might print slightly smaller than the other magnetic Marisole paper dolls, which is why I’m not putting them in the same category. Enjoy them.
I love how drop waisted dresses look on paper dolls, but lord knows I can’t wear them. Putting a line right across the widest part of my hips isn’t exactly my idea of a flattering look. Still, the wonderful thing about paper dolls is that they don’t complain, so I don’t have to worry about what they think about things.
Emily Clarke Studio is a paper doll blog which I stumbled across recently. The artist is skillful and it updates regularly. She doesn’t just have paper dolls to play with, but also uses paper dolls as a occurring motif in her art which I think is pretty darn nifty. All in all, I’ve been impressed by her work and I enjoy her site. Others should check it out as well, though I confess I don’t know how printable her paper dolls are.
So, unless some miracle happens, there won’t be a Friday post, because I have school things to be doing I’m afraid. Hopefully things will settle into a stable routine in the coming week or two and I’ll be able to actually get on a regular updating schedule.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to all those in the United State who, like me, get the day off. I’m spending mine doing laundry and getting ready for classes, but hopefully other people are having more fun. Marisole is all dressed up for a big gala this week. I confess that my schedule for this coming semester is looking crazy and I don’t know how much time I’ll be able to devote to the blog, but we’ll see how it goes.
So, my father is trying to get me to create some magnetic paper dolls to sell. I’m not so sure about the idea myself, but he’s convinced that in the tourist heavy summers of Juneau Alaska that they would be a hit. He’s promised to do the research, if I draw the paper doll. My question to all those grandparents who read this blog or parents or anyone else who buys gifts for children (or themselves, lets be honest here) how much would you pay for a magnetic paper doll, neatly packaged with an Alaskan theme (assuming you’re in Alaska to begin with, mind you). Five bucks? Ten? I’ve seen them on Etsy for as much as 30 dollars, but I can’t imagine anyone paying that amount (I certainly wouldn’t). How much would you spend?
Embracing the gothic once more, we have another Shadow and Light paper doll. There’s something very saucy about both her outfits. Also today is Friday the 13th, so it seems only fitting we do something suitably gothic here in paper doll land. It’s finally started snowing here and I wish it would stop all ready. Not to say I don’t like the snow…. I do, but I walked through it quite a bit today padding from and to work and getting things sorted before my classes start next week.
I am not really ready for classes to start, but I am working on getting my schedule sorted out as I need to do that before classes begin. I have a big order of textbooks which I am waiting to come in from Amazon (along with a paper doll or two, I confess) and that’s taking what feels like forever.
Still, here we have a shadow and light paper doll and on Sunday there will be a Pixie and then Monday there will be Marisole and we’ll be off and running. In the mean time, vote in the poll if you haven’t and tell me what you’d like to see new for the blog in the coming year. It seems a male paper doll it getting the majority of the interest, so I might have to do what Boots suggested.
We still haven’t had much snow here, but I don’t mind. I’m able to walk home from work which is just about a mile and a half and it’s a nice walk to do when the weather isn’t too cold. I’m dreading when it gets colder and I’ll have to decide between wait ten minutes for the bus or walking 25 minutes in the cold. It’s a hard call and depending on how horrid it is, I usually decide right after work.
I’ve been playing around with color pallets a lot lately. I realized, I’d never done a sort of Norse/Anglo-Saxon/Medieval fantasy paper doll in a pale color scheme. Somehow that lead to this and then the idea of giving the paper doll blue skin came to me last minute. Once the paper doll was fully colored, I knew she had to be some sort of other worldly winter fairy or something. She might be smiling, but I get the feeling she might be very dangerous. Not someone you’d want to cross.
And, in case I haven’t mentioned it or you haven’t noticed, there’s a poll. Feel free to vote or tell me what you think in a comment.
So, this is up a little later then intended. I wanted to do a sort of belly dancer fantasy set, and I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. I think I went through about six color schemes before I settled on this one. It’s not quite what I wanted, but it’s a lot better then the purple and blue version (trust me on that one). When I was a kid, I had a friend whose mother was a belly dancer. I thought that was a most cool exotic thing ever. I’ve never belly danced though- perhaps I will someday.
On a semi-unrelated note, The Black Apple is offering this wonderful Winter Girl paper doll download. If you’re not familiar with her art, Emily Martin has also produced on commercial paper doll book called The Paper Doll Primer. I haven’t bought it yet, but its on my list of things to purchase. I love the whimsical, but not cute nature of her paper dolls. I’m a huge fan of whimsey and I’m not a huge fan of overly cute.
Oh and there’s a new poll on the side bar for people to vote in. I’m thinking about what to add to the blog over the next year, so there are some options listed there. I can’t promise I’ll actually do what wins, but it’ll probably help push me in some direction. (I have a half finished tutorial on how I color paper dolls sitting in a folder and it’s been there for almost a year.)
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