Inking paper dolls still terrifies me every time I start. Still, when I finally erase the pencil lines and the paper doll is sort of revealed, it is a magical kind of moment. I felt that way about this 1870s dress and these hats. I wasn’t sure if I liked it until I’d finally lost all the pencil.
I’m glad I didn’t give up on it. I think this Visiting costume from 1871 turned out well. So, I seem to have come down on the “liking it” side of the spectrum. Never would have guessed that two hours ago.
Looking for the paper doll that goes with this outfit? Here she is.
Generally, I find myself feeling dismissive of “flower fairies”. Complicated and often dark folklore seems to always turn into light children’s stories over time, but I still am a purist when it comes to my fairies. I like them grim and dark and full of blood. Of course, the blood has mostly been taken out to make them more acceptable to most parents (not to children who, on the whole, seem to not mind blood so much). Despite my usual distrust of anything deemed “darling” or “cute”, I began this drawing because I wanted to practice drawing flowers. So, I did and the result is… a lot of flowers.
Keeping with my own slightly grimmer views on the world of fairies (and yes, I know I could spell it differently, but writing faeries would make my feel like a pretentious git with a need to spell out the digraph), I have done this Curves paper doll’s face very differently from her other paper doll friends. They are mostly human, after all, she is… Other. But as Other as she might be, I can’t stand her chin. I just… think it looks weird. It didn’t look weird when I sketched it…
So, yesterday, I had a Sweet Lolita paper doll and today we have a Gothic Lolita version of the same doll. Once again, you’ll want to slit along the dotted line on her hair, so she can wear the bows and hat and other hair accessories. Hair accessories seem to be very important in the whole Lolita thing. I openly confess to not being an expert, but I did my best. You can check out the Sweet Lolita paper doll for the list of sources I used.
While I was researching Lolita fashion, I did find this cute paper doll by Ninipowwaa on Deviant Art. She also has her own blog which I can’t read, cause I think it’s in French. In high school, when most people I knew were failing to learn French, I was busy failing to learn Spanish. I love how she colored the paper doll. Someday, I might actually try to shade Marisole. I mean… not in the near future, but it could happen.
And, I should say, doing two different color schemes was really actually difficult. Don’t expect it to become a theme, but by the time I realized how long it was taking me to recolor the whole set, I’d already gotten so far along that I wasn’t stopping. I don’t think I’ll be doing Lolita fashion again in the future for the paper dolls unless I get lots of requests and start to feel guilty. I have a very well developed sense of guilt.
So, I’m a bit late with Marisole Monday, but I think it was worth the wait. I may have gotten a little carried away with these Lolita style paper doll clothes. Just, you know… A bit. See, I got this new paper which is designed for pen and ink (it’s a hot press smooth Bristol with lots of sizing in it) and the result is that the inking goes so smooth and so I sort of was having a lot of fun and kinda forgot that I had to fit everything onto a certain amount of space.
On the list of other confessions to be made about today’s printable paper doll include that I really don’t know anything about Japanese street fashion. I don’t speak/read/understand any Japanese and so most of my information came from the Wikipedia article on Lolita style and a dozen Japanese clothing brand websites like Angelic Pretty and Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. Navigating them while not speaking Japanese was an adventure to say the least. American stores like Candy Violet and Sweet Rococo.
I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to work on improving my art by doing things that scare me and what scared me about these paper doll dresses was the ruffles and the ribbons and the general high level of detail. I didn’t draw any patterns because I didn’t know if I wanted Sweet Lolita (full of pinks, ruffles and floral patterns) or Gothic Lolita (full of black, ruffles and a distinct lack of floral patterns). In the end I settled on Sweet for today’s paper dolls, but there will be an Extra Special Not on Monday, Marisole Monday post tomorrow which the darker Gothic version of the paper doll and her clothing.
On one last note, cut along the dotted line in Marisole’s hair, so that she can wear her bows and hat.
I am a bit belated on this post. I’ve been cleaning my apartment in plans for a visitor coming to stay and it’s been taking up a lot of my time. Today’s paper doll is the last of the Jessica things, so there will be a new short run paper doll starting next Sunday, unless I get too busy to post it which might happen. Life is full of surprises.
My favorite thing about this set of paper doll clothes is the orange sweater. It’s SO orange, but I also love the brightness of the color. Plus my Vogue magazine tells me Orange is the color of the season. And would Vogue lie to me? Of course not.
I’m not totally pleased with how the gray dress turned out. I think the trim looks a little flat and should be more curved and I have mixed feelings about her shoes, but I’m trying to stay positive about the paper doll since in general I like it.
Her hair is my favorite part inspired by the thirties and twenties when women wore their hair in finger waves tight to the skull like Josephine Baker who was an entertainer, exotic dancer, movie star, French Resistance fighter and all around amazing woman. Seriously, cool lady.
And I do regret that my fashions for her aren’t quite as fantastic as a paper doll inspired by the remarkable Josephine Baker deserves, still I had fun with them and I wanted to do something a little retro, but not an actual vintage piece. So… there you go then.
I really have very little to say about this paper doll and her clothing except that I am trying to do more skin tones with Marisole and I draw formal gowns when I can’t think of what else to draw. I have nothing witty nor intelligent to say about the paper doll beyond that. Enjoy her.
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.
So, I’m be bit belated today. Okay… very belated and, to be honest to entirely pleased with either paper doll dress. I wasn’t when I first drew them and I’m still not. I liked the masquerade costume more then the ballgown. I was terrified of drawing the train and I still don’t like how it came out. Oh well, it just means I’ll be doing another ballgown for my Victorian paper doll Florence. It’s been quite a few months since I did the old one, I think I could do it better now.
Trains are totally impossible for me. I need to keep practicing on them.
Oh, and here is Florence, the Victorian paper doll that can wear these outfits.
As some of you have no doubt already figured out, I draw ahead of time as much as I can. It’s easier to work in spurts when I have a few hours to devote to the blog rather then doing fifteen minutes here and twenty minutes there. So on Saturday, after I had run my errands and washed my laundry, I settled down in front of some old Star Trek episodes on DVD and drew paper doll clothes for a few hours.
For next Monday’s Marisole I had my fashion magazines out and windows from clothing websites up on my computer screen. To draw for Florence, I pulled out books of Victorian fashion plates and printouts of doll furniture. But when it came time to draw for Curves, all I had to do was find my thumbnail doodles and put then down next to my notebook. It was entirely liberating not to be bogged down with references.
Of course, it wasn’t as though I didn’t have some limits. The thing about Evil Sorceresses is that it’s a slippery slope and once you are one, you can’t wear just anything. Sure, some might say it’s a bit cliche or even over done, but the Sorceress has to maintain her reputation. And most Sorceresses don’t start bad, they just sort of slide that way. Something about being beautiful and powerful seems to just go to their heads. And once they are an accepted memeber of the Evil Soceress Guild, they can’t wear just anything.
What would people say, after all, if you showed up to a gathering wearing flannel or flowers? Well, flowers are okay if they’re evil flowers. Not, you know, daisies or something.
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.
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