I love children’s books. Seriously, they make me all sorts of happy. The best ones, I think, are the lavishly illustrated editions of golden age of children’s book illustration. There was this perfect storm of printing technology meeting people newly interested in lavishing attention on their children meeting really talented artists and an obsession with fairy tales.
Truly, what could be better?
I have other favorites like Ivan Bilbun who I’ve mentioned before, and Rackham who I could post way more about than I am going to here. So, this is a partial list for me.
People may have heard of Edmund Dulac, the French illustrator, but what most don’t know is that he did illustrations for a collection of Edgar Allen Poe in 1912. After the Great War, the popularity of lavishly illustrated books were a rarity and he fell out of fashion. The romantic nature of his illustrations belies a certain spookiness.
So, Chicago-born illustrator Virginia Frances Sterrett isn’t very well known, as far as I can tell, which is a pity. She only completed three books before she died at 31 from TB in 1931. Her stuff is both whimsical and otherworldly, with just a hint of art deco. And I’m all about hints of the art deco.
Dorothy Pulis Lathrop, born in 1891 and then died in 1980. I prefer her black and white stuff to her color illustrations, but she, like a lot of my other favorites, has a whole deco influenced whimsical thing going. She’s probably most famous for illustrating Hitty and Her First Hundred Years which is one of my favorite books. Despite the some pretty dated content, the book is still wonderful, but then… I do have a thing for dolls.
So, Kay Nielsen was Danish. His stuff feels somehow every northern to me. He had a somewhat tragic life, but he’s best known for his work with Disney on Fantasia. In his later years, he was quite poor and after his death no museum or library wanted his materials. Fortunately, his manuscripts and other papers eventually found a home at the University of Pittsburgh.
T. Blakeley Mackenzie
Mackenzie was born in 1887, and died in 1944. He win’s my “artist no one has heard of who I adore” award. The poor guy hasn’t even got a Wikipedia entry. It’s a pity, because his stuff is amazing. He avoids the sentimentality that was so rampant in the early 20th century and instead makes things that are fantastical and… like almost everyone else I like… also a little off center.
So, these are a few of my favorites. Does anyone have a favorite one that I missed?
So, several months ago I mentioned that I was collecting skin-tone colors. To the right is the palette I pull nearly all the skin tones I use on the blog. On top of each color block is the alpha-numeric hex code that defines each color. These tones were collected by looking at photographs of actresses and models from a variety of different ethnicity and than simplified from an original image file of over fifty different colors.
After a while, shades of peach and brown start to meld into each other until they all look the same.
Generally, I don’t think in ethnicity when I’m coloring paper dolls. I think in color. How much red is there? How much yellow? How much grey or blue? Is it a warm color or a cool color?
The human species is hundreds of colors, the differences subtle and complicated. Paper dolls on the other hand, especially those who are supposed to share shoes, need to be a smaller collection of colors. I thought someone other than me might find this set useful, so here it is. The other nice thing about this set is this: Each of the colors prints out clearly different from the others on my cheap color printer. That is an advantage which is well worth the limited palette to me.
It’s all Flock stuff today in the preview department.
I’ve been working on a set of Flock’s based on the classic “warrior, thief, wizard, cleric” thing from epic fantasy novels (also Dungeons and Dragons, but I was trying to avoid admitting that). These pieces are part of the “cleric” set which is inspired by the cliche oracle who sends hero on their missions.
I generally don’t think a lot about children, but I wanted to work on a set of pieces that would be easy for kids to manipulate. That’s why I created these fantasy dresses in one piece rather than layering the elements like I did for the Oracle above.
To go with my Little Red Ridinghood, this is a different set of fairytale clothing. I think the story is obvious, but I was told by others it wasn’t. Anyone care to guess?
I recently got a very kind email from a reader named Whitney.
She asked what advice I would give to a someone starting a paper doll blog, because she was thinking about it and she wanted to know what I thought.
The truth is that I’m not an expert on blogging nor am I an expert on website design or SQL or marketing or social media (I don’t even have a facebook page) or really anything else. Problogger has a really solid listing of articles about blogging and blog starting. I’d also recommend reading up about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the pros and cons of various platforms. Doing homework before you start will make you happier later. I promise.
The thing about paper doll blogs (and really all craft/art blogs out there, I think) is that you’re making all your own content.
Making all your own content is time consuming.
So, here is my one big tip that keeps me sane…
Work as far ahead of yourself as you possibly can.
I know this seems like cheating somehow, but it is the only way I can do this and keep sane. I think it’s is better to have one or two posts a week, consistently, than to post ten and then not post for three weeks.
I like to hope my readers agree.
Next time I’ll write a little about making goals and how I keep naturally disorganized self organized.
I don’t usually political on this blog, but today I am pretty annoyed.
I grew up surrounded by Native American culture, particularly Tlingit and Haida. When I moved to the Lower 48, I was shocked to discover that people seemed to have completely forgotten that Native American’s still existed in the world. Mainstream culture accepts depictions of Native American’s that it would never accept of Blacks or Hispanics or Asians or Jews, and it only takes a few depressing internet searches to discover this. Team mascots being the worst offenders.
And I’m pretty internet savvy. I have a freaking library degree, after all, but in my search for paper dolls to celebrate Native American Heritage Month, I have come up pretty blank.
I found these Iroquois paper dolls, both a man and a woman. The art is pretty simple, but they would be fun for a small child, I think.
Native Tech’s virtual paper doll brings back memories of coding javascript back in the day, but seriously needs to be updated with something less cranky.
The Alaska State Museum used to have a really cute one they passed out for free depicting several different groups costumes, but I didn’t see an online version of it.
So, I am putting out the call to my internet friends. Help me find attractive, non-stereotypical, free printable paper dolls of Native Americans. Ideally one’s that specify who they are depicting and don’t fall into the “generic buckskins trap”. Please? There have to be more than these. Edit 11/15/13: I have written further on this topic in my post “Traditional Native American Clothing of the Early 21st Century” By Steven Paul Judd & Native American Paper Dolls.
I’ve been trying to do more historical stuff, but it always takes longer. Theses are for Marisole and both date from the 1860s. I might get them done for Thanksgiving, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
So, here is Puck, rocking some historically inaccurate 18th century gear. I love the hats. I wanted to make a Prince for all the fantasy Pixie paper dolls I have done.
And in a total contrast to the 1860’s… Marisole in SPACE! (Yes, the exclamation point is entirely necessary.) She’s going to be a pink haired alien chick with guns and this fills me with a sort of unhealthy manic glee.
Today, I did a lot of inking after work… and photographed it on an empty box left over from the move… I do seem to still have a fair number of those laying about.
A pirate pixie set I have been working on… I listened to Treasure Island on audio book during the drive down to Alabama and well… I got inspired.
I almost gave her a peg leg, but I restrained myself.
Heads for a few different Pixies and a steampunk-ish Pixie set, I finished inking today. Hence the photo-op on the deck… I love having a deck. It’s a new experience.
I’ve been working on more one-shot paper dolls. I like the freedom of the new less scheduled system, because it allows me to play around with things I wouldn’t normally do. I’m not too keen on her lips though, I have to confess. I think she looks angry.
So, I was pawing around Deviant Art again and came across some really neat paper dolls from a variety of artists. I try to only link one paper doll from each artist (usually my favorite), but you should check out their galleries. There are some really cool paper dolls on Deviant Art. I’ve done this twice before and the same disclaimer applies: Not everything here is totally safe for the kiddies. You’ve been warned.
There’s something beautiful and strong and simple and interesting about the fashion of the 1940’s… perhaps because of World War II and the change between the style during the war and the New Look that came after…
Or maybe I just love the chick’s hat on this pattern cover.
I don’t have a TV at the moment, so I’ve been watching a lot of HULU and, well, now I have the biggest crushes on about half the characters in this stupid TV show, GRIMM… It’s like CSI: Portland meets… Twlight Zone meets… I don’t even know what.
So, I’ve been on this Aubrey Beardsley kick for a few weeks, ever since I came across an original copy of Yellow Book with the plates intact.
P.S. Not all of Beardsley’s stuff is safe for work… he had a thing for men with abnormally large… well… this is a family blog, so I won’t get into it… just be a little careful where you image search him.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve been into on the web lately. Some of this stuff might find its way into a paper doll or two.
So, I am probably not the only person who watched the show “Gargoyles” as a kid. It was a cartoon and there were Gargoyles and like half the cast of Star Trek Next Generation did the voice acting.
I was meandering around the internet this weekend looking for gothic paper doll links for a post on…well… gothic paper dolls, because I am like that, and I found Gargoyles paper dolls.
I am totally absurdly abnormally pleased by their presence.
Sadly, the site looks pretty dead and my email to the “owner” to ask if I could post a pic as a link was not replied to, so I did it anyway. That probably makes me a bad person…. but dude…. Gargoyles paper dolls…
Did anyone else watch this show when they were a kid?
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