Citrus Summer

Another take on Citrus Summer in Color

A printable paper doll called Citrus Summer with a six piece mix and match summer wardrobe. This version of Citrus Summer is meant to look like she's printed on grey newsprint and has additional highlighting.

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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.

And if you’re a patron, don’t forget to vote in this poll.

Citrus in Color!

Citrus summer is a printable paper doll with tan skin and pig tails. She has a 7 piece mix and match summer wardrobe with three tops, a sun dress, capri pants and shorts. Her theme is citrus fruit and there's a lemon and an orange motif. Also on the image are instructions for printing and cutting out the paper doll and the Paper Thin Personas logo in bottom left corner above the artist's name- Rachel Cohen and June 2023.

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So, you might remember this Citrus Summer paper doll.

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-

  1. 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.
  2. 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… )
  3. 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.

Citrus Summer Paper Doll Printable | Black & White PDF to Color

Download the Black and White PDF

So, like what does it say when you share a piece with another artist and they immediately send you a tutorial and are like… you might want to watch this?

Personally, I think it says you have great friends who want you to improve and know you want to improve.

This is what happened when I emailed Julie Matthews all excited by my second finished digitally drawn paper doll where I proudly said I’d “varied my line-weight”. Julie nicely called my line weight variations “subtle” which I think is polite for “you can’t tell you did that, friend” and sent me this lesson from Proko on Line Weight which was really helpful.

Moral of this story, which I sort of told in this week’s email newsletter: If you want to get better at something, you need to have honest people who can give you informed feedback. So, become friends with people who are better than you at something and are kind enough to be willing to be honest with their observations. Be open to those things and improving your craft (whatever that is), becomes so much easier.

I am incredibly lucky to have Julie to help and her feedback consistently makes my work better.

I often think of this Neil Gaiman quote, “Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” He was talking about writing, but the same thing applies to any creative piece of work. In art, there are “correct” things- like ‘hey, that foot is backwards,’ but once you get into choices that are purely aesthetic, then you need to listen to your own voice and your own taste. Make the art you want to see in the world. Not the art someone else wants to see in the world.

But as long as I am quoting Gaiman, I also think of this one a lot- “Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.” He’s talking about writing, clearly, but it is true of anything creative. You can endless edit. You can endlessly tweak.

I look at this paper doll and I see a dozen things I might “fix.”

That’s okay. Because there’s going to be a next time. So, the best thing I do can is share it here. Declare it done and make the next one.

There’s always a next one. Especially when you are, like me right now, learning new tools. You have to leave space for letting go and moving forward.

So, onto the next digitally drawn paper doll!