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Sprites: Flower Fairies Xavier

October 3, 2023November 29, 2016

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Flower Fairies, Cicely Mary Barker and the Book, Fairie-ality

Week before last, I showed off some flower fairy outfits for the Sprites paper doll series. I didn’t have the flower fairy paper doll Sprites done quite yet, but here they are now making their debut. Yesterday, I showed off Yumiko as a fairy and today, I am debuting Xavier, blue skin and all.

Xavier and Yumiko are modeling these flower fairy paper doll looks and you can find more paper dolls with those same faces as Xavier and Yumiko, if you want them.

Just like with Yumiko’s fairy version, I tried a few different skin colors, before I settled on the blue color. It reminded me of the color of the summer sky.

I do worry that he looks a little girly, both because my male paper dolls always feel a little effeminate to me and because the whole flower fairy theme tends to lend itself to a more girly look anyway. Still, I tired to keep him a bit buff with his boots and jacket and kilt made from petals.

In my head, flower fairies are just the size of a deck of cards and could fit in the palm of the hand. How do you imagine flower fairies? Tell me in a comment.

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Looking for something for today’s Sprite paper doll to wear? Pick out some clothing here.

Flower Fairies: Yumiko as a Flower Fairy

October 3, 2023November 28, 2016

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Flower Fairies, Cicely Mary Barker, and the Book, Fairie-ality

A few weeks ago, I posted my flower fairy outfits for the Sprite paper dolls inspired by nasturtiums. At the time, my two Sprite fairy paper dolls weren’t done yet, but now they are. So, today Yumiko of the Sprites paper doll family today is showing off her fairy side. Tomorrow, her male partner in crime Xavier will make his fairy debut.

Even with this new format, I do plan to post Sprites as sets. I like having a lady and a gent of the same theme posting two days in a row. I think it is fun.

And it is my blog, so I get to decide what is fun here.

All of my flower fairy designs owe something to Cicely Mary Barker who illustrated what are now “classic” flower fairy illustrations starting in the 1920s. Here are some of her fairy illustrations.

There is something so innocent about Cicely Mary Barker’s art. I still really love her books and I loved them when I was a child. My favorite was the Willow Fairy. Of course, the book Fairie-ality was also a big influence. Highly recommended.

I went back and forth and back and forth about the color scheme for this one. I tried out blue skin and green skin, but I really like how the purple turned out. If you think she needs a different color, then there’s always the black and white version.

So, here’s my question for my readers today, was I the only Cicely Mary Barker flower fairy fan as a child? Let me know in a comment!

And if you like the blog, and want to see what goes on the behind the scenes, then join us on Patreon. A dollar a month gets you access to the Behind the Scenes blog and five dollars gets you the Vivian Paper Doll Project. Right now, my patrons are voting on a name for a new Marisole Monday and Friends paper doll.

Looking for something for today’s Sprite paper doll to wear? Pick out some clothing here.

Alice & The Mad Hatter Paper Dolls: The Mad Hatter & His Yellow Suit

May 19, 2020August 16, 2016

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The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?” — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7

Victor, one of the Sprite guy paper dolls, is getting to be the Mad Hatter today. The Mad Hatter is one of the well known characters from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Back in the Victorian era, when the book was written, certain types of fur and leather were cured using Mercury, which is toxic. The ‘hatters’ who worked with these materials to make hats often ended up victims of Mercury poisoning. So, this brought about the phrase “mad as a hatter.”

Despite the somewhat depressing origins of the term, the character is highly memorable. I think in part, because of the Disney version where the Mad Hatter is voiced by Ed Wynn. Love that guy.

Anyway, for the rest of the week, Alice from Monday and the Mad Hatter will each be getting an outfits and accessories. As always, the black and white version is linked at the top of the post.

So, feel free to follow the blog on Twitter and, if you like it, support it on Patreon.

Alice & The Mad Hatter Paper Dolls: Alice & Her Yellow Dress

December 6, 2020August 15, 2016

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“Curiouser and curiouser!” — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 2

As many of you might recall, I love Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and I love Alice in Wonderland paper dolls. It’s a story I have gone back to over and over again.

This time, the Sprites are getting into the action with Willow as my Alice paper doll today. Tomorrow, the Mad Hatter with make an appearance. Than there will be two more outfits for each of them and, of course, Accessory Thursday!

I made my Alice paper doll brunette as a nod to the actually girl for whom the story was written, Alice Liddell. Most people picture Alice in a blue dress (and I do have that color scheme over on my Patreon page), but the earliest color illustration is The Nursery Alice and in this version she wears yellow.

The playing card motifs are a reference, of course, to the playing card themes in the book. Some scholars think the whole book’s plot is based on the randomness of the rules of cards.

If you like the blog and you wanna know when I update or see selected stuff from my archives, than follow me on twitter! It’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys! Though that does bring up a good point… how much fun would a barrel of monkeys really be? And who put them in a barrel? And isn’t that cruel and unusual treatment of monkeys?

Anyway… There’s an different color scheme for today’s Alice in Wonderland paper doll on my Patreon page. It’ll be available to everyone until Friday. Patrons will also get an extra outfit for this week’s series later this week, so join if you haven’t!

Ursula & Zachary Under the Sea: Mermaid Paper Dolls (Tails to Come!)

May 28, 2020August 1, 2016

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I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Mermaid paper dolls? Where are the tails?”

So, yeah, there are no tails. This wasn’t my original plan.

My original plan was to have Zachary with a tail on Monday and Ursula with a tail on Tuesday. Then to post joint outfits for them on the following days. I thought this was a great plan, until I realized I could not fit the tail and the Zachary paper doll on the same page together. It simply did not fit.

And to think my layout problems were a thing of the past? Sigh.

So, instead we get two paper dolls and a promise of tails tomorrow. I swear these are mermaids. They’re just tailless mermaids.

Reminder that the black and white versions are linked up at the top of the post, if anyone is looking for it.

Anyway, Zachary and Ursula are both from the Sprites series which I introduced WAY back in January. As some of you may recall, I have been naming the Sprite faces in reverse alphabetical and I had gotten to the letter U, so Ursula it was.

I realized later that making the first Ursula paper doll a mermaid does bring up connotations of Disney’s A Little Mermaid, but that wasn’t my intention. I named the paper doll LONG before I picked out a theme and I could have started with a modern set, but mermaids were more fun. Her hair was inspired by this pin of a woman with teal hair on Pinterest.

Lastly, you love the blog, consider supporting it on Patreon. If you want paper doll updates on Twitter, I’ve moved them over to @paperpersonas.

Víctor in the Afternoon: Casual Guy’s Paper Doll Clothes

May 28, 2020February 5, 2016

For the last Sprite paper doll for a while, I am pleased to introduce Víctor. Víctor is one of the guy Sprite paper dolls. When I draw guy or male paper dolls, I try to think about what paper dolls for boys might look like. I confess that I don’t have sons and I don’t really know what they are into, but it seems to be that the sort of pretend play that paper dolls encourage is just as important for boys as it is for girls.

I will confess that since I was once a little girl, and I was never a little boy, knowing what exactly paper dolls for boys should contain or what paper doll sets that might appeal to boys should contain, is rather hard for me.

Still, I figure all kids like realism in their toys, so I try to be at least as realistic to guy’s clothing as I can be considering that I find guy’s clothing pretty darn boring.

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Víctor here is, in my head anyway, a young man, maybe from Mexico or Argentina. So, in my head, Víctor is Latino, but of course, he can be anything you feel like making him. After all, the things we create don’t behave themselves.

His clothing is a mix of casual pieces that the guys I know tend to wear. T-shirts, pants, shorts and a baseball cap. I like to give paper-dolls sandals in their first set, because sandals are very skin-tone dependent.

I will confess that I am little embarrassed by how out of proportion his novel is. Maybe it’s a very tiny novel…

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As with all the paper dolls in the Sprite series, Víctor can share clothing with Xavier & Zachary.

I do have one more Sprite paper doll mostly finished, but I think I’ll save her for a later date. After all, there are other paper doll series on this blog that need love, too!

As usual, you can support the blog through Patreon. I also wanted to say “Hello” to any new readers who found me through my Viking paper doll which went a little viral on Facebook, or so I have been told.

(Confession- I do not actually have a Facebook page.)

So next Friday, there will be a post- apocalyptic Buxom & Bodacious set and then I haven’t decided between Mini-Maidens or Ms. Mannequin. What do y’all think?

Yumiko’s Spring Styles: A Paper Doll to Print

May 19, 2020January 29, 2016

I have been thinking about spring, but it feels a long away off. Even here in Alabama where the winters are so mild compared to what I have experienced in Alaska and the Midwest. Still, today’s paper doll to print is celebrating the possibility of warm spring fashions.

As I mentioned back when I first introduced the Sprite paper dolls, I want to establish a limited collection of dolls who will get outfits much like the Marisole Monday & Friends and the Mini-Maidens. So, this is the second Yumiko paper doll to print.

I figured after her foray into cyberpunk, the she deserved a chance to be a little more casual. I think her casual wardrobe is a little disconnected. I love all the pieces by themselves, but together they feel less the cohesive. I am getting over my mixed feelings by reminding myself that eventually there will be other Sprite paper dolls with casual clothes she can share with.

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I struggled a bit to select colors for today’s paper doll to print. I am, personally, a lover of color. In the end, I settled on black as the neutral (though I worry with this paper doll’s black curls does that make too much black?) and pale blue as the other neutral. The patterned blouse over the striped skirt caused some problems since the complicated patterned needed a lot of colors to look right, but I think maybe the chose to many different colors for this collection? I think that’s adding to the lack of cohesion that is bothering me so much.

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So, clearly, in case you couldn’t notice, I’ve got mixed feelings about today’s Sprite paper doll. Don’t get me wrong. There are things I love about her- those blouses, that darling purse with the tassel, her cute red shorts. But she feels… a tiny bit discombobulated.

Oh well, not every paper doll is perfect and if I only posted the paper dolls I was “totally in love with”, than I rather suspect I wouldn’t ever post anything at all.

More Yumiko paper dolls live here and there are also more Sprite paper dolls– in case you want Yumiko to get to dress up like an elf for a while or want to print out some friends.

Also, if you love the blog and want to help it keep going- support it through Patreon. There’s a special behind the scenes blog, perviews of sets, and I am way more likely to make patron requests, because… well, they are giving me money. So, consider joining up– it’s a fun group.

What do you think of Yumiko? Let me know in a comment.

Willow: Elven Paper Doll Fantasy

May 19, 2020January 22, 2016

Today’s Sprite is and elven paper doll named Willow in honor of Willow Rosenberg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (More on that later.) I was the biggest Buffy fan when I was in middle-school and early highschool. I stopped watching around season five, I think. Though I keep trying to get through the later seasons, the show gets so darn depressing.

As with many of my fantasy paper dolls, I try to think about “setting” when I designed these outfits. I have decided both of these elves (Xavier and Willow) are warriors, so Willow has armor to go under her silken tunics and a bow as well. I was also thinking about Ancient Grecian tunics when designing these paper doll pieces. Sure, they’re not really practical, but we all know how I feel about practicality and paper dolls. (Never the two shall meet.)

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So, I drew this elven paper doll set and then I colored it and then I was like, “Man, she kinda looks like that elf chick from the new Hobbit movies.” (The character is named Tauriel, but I had to look that up.)

So, then I nearly re-colored the whole set feeling like I wasn’t trying to make my elf look like someone else’s elf and then I decided that I had wanted to make her a redhead ever since I named her in honor of Willow Rosenberg from Buffy:The Vampire Slayer and no random elf chick from a rather bad movie was going to stop me.

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So, as I mentioned with Xavier last week, Willow is the third doll in the Sprite paper doll series. She can, fo course, share clothing with Yumiko and any future female Sprite paper dolls.

There will be other Willow paper dolls, so they won’t all be elves, but that’s what I’ve started with.

I have realized there are five Friday’s in January. So, should I end January with a non-Sprite or should I have a Sprite in the beginning of February? Since they always come in pairs. Let me know thoughts in the comments.

Xavier: Elven Archer Paper Doll

May 19, 2020January 15, 2016

Xavier is the third paper doll in the Sprite paper doll series. Xavier is getting to be an elf paper doll today, though he won’t always be an elf. And since he can share clothing with Zachary, should you decide he needs to be a cyberpunk elf (Shadowrun, anyone?) that’s totally an option too.

Like any good elven archer, our elf paper doll has a back up plan in the form of a sword. Since, sometimes you need to fight people up close and personal. I chose a bird and leaf motif for the weapons and the armor which I thought would seem suitably nature oriented. I always thinks of elves as being nature oriented which might be a horrible stereotype. (Is it possible to stereotype a fantasy creature?)

I think the bird and feather motif his more obvious with the female elf which I shall be posting next Friday as we continue January Sprites! (Yeah, I totally just decided to call it that.)

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So, I like the Lord of the Rings movies, I really do, but it’s tough to not feel like one has to interact with them when designing elven stuff. My main goal was to create two outfits- one casual and one military. After all, you can’t just walk around in armor. Well, I suppose you can… but it wouldn’t be very comfortable.

I wanted to chose colors that were not too bright, but also felt organic and natural- colors from nature, I guess you might say.

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I’m gonna be honest here now. I have been really struggling with artist’s block the last few weeks or, as I like to call it, “the wheel is spinning, but the gerbil is dead”. In short, I just have no urge to do anything blog related, let alone actually draw new content.

But I’m trying to stay on track and stick to my guns about getting two paper dolls up a week. I do have a tiny bit of backlog waiting, so I think I’ll be okay.

As always, comments are appreciated. Thoughts on other themes I should explore with the Sprites?

Yumiko- Digital Girl: A Cyberpunk Paper Doll

December 6, 2020January 8, 2016

One of the rules of long term blogging (or anything really) is build with the assumption of growth. So, while I feel kinda absurd referring to the Sprites as a series, because this is only the second one and so it’s more like a sequel situation, I also recognize that in two years when I look back on this post (or more likely, when someone else does), it still needs to have all the links and make sense.

Speaking of building with the assumption of growth, I am currently converting from using my server to host my image files to using WordPress’ native image management tools. This is prep for a larger shift in the blog infrastructure. If I do my job right, y’all shouldn’t notice a thing; however, if you do find some posts those images are screwy, just drop me a note and I’ll look at it.

There are over 756 posts on this blog, so converting all those images over is going to take a bit of time and I wouldn’t be surprised if I miss something accidentally.

All right, so about today’s paper doll. Yumiko is a Japanese name. Again, there aren’t a lot of names for women that start with Y. I almost went with Yasmine, before I remember I already have a Yasmine paper doll. One of the problems of having drawn over 500 paper dolls for this blog is that at some point, you kinda run low on names.

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Anyway, Yumiko is the first Asian Sprite paper doll, though I confess that’s a little meaningless. I mean, there’s only two Sprite paper dolls right now. I also started the Pixie series off with an Asian paper doll named Zoe. I’d say there was something intentional with my starting series off with Asian paper dolls, but I’ll be darned if I know what it is.

Yumiko’s theme this week is cyberpunk, just like Zachary’s cyberpunk set last week.

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I chose a very different color scheme for Yumiko-Digital Girl. I knew from the start that I wanted to give her pink hair and black lips (it felt sufficiently cyberpunk), so than it was a matter of selecting colors that I thought would coordinate with those two colors. I really like how she came out.

Thoughts on the new series? Feel free to drop me a comment.

And if you’d like to support the blog in 2016, consider becoming a patron.

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