Work-In-Progress

WIP: Cut & Color Couture Designs

So, my flight home from the Paper Doll Convention in Indianapolis got seriously delayed and I had a lot of time to spend sitting in an airport. I spent much of it drawing paper dolls and listening to podcasts. So, I’ve been working on Cut & Color Couture paper dolls.

Two things I love about this series-

  1. My niece has gotten into coloring and I am all about making things that she might like. So, black and white paper dolls for the win.
  2. The dolls are symmetrical which means I can use Procreate to mirror my lines as I draw them. That makes for much faster drawing. (This feels a little like cheating sometimes, but I keep telling myself it’s more like using spellcheck. I still have to do the writing, I just don’t have to remember that there’s a second U in couture.)

So, I’ve been working on three different sets. One is formal gowns. One is historical themed. One is princesses with big skirts.

Formal Gowns

Three of these designs all use the same basic bodice, but modified in various ways to get different looks.

I was playing around with how to use some of Procreates features to play around with similar pieces looking different through variations in form. There’s an old paper doll series that Julie Matthews did of toddler paper dolls. If you look carefully at the dolls, there’s a lot of duplication of basic shapes. The details create the unique dresses.

This is something I’ve wanted to explore and drawing fancy dresses seemed like a fun way to explore it.

The 1920s, 1940s & 1950s

1926 Day Dress
1926 Underwear
1942 Dress
1955 suit
1955 cocktail dress
I’ve been exploring the 1920s, 1940s and 1950s, eventually, I want to do all decades of the 20th century.

The Paper Doll Convention inspired the 1920s set. I used Good House Keeping from 1926 as my source and had a lot of fun. The 1940s foray was based on the 1942 Sears catalog- Spring Summer. I don’t love the 1940s styles, but this was largely an experiment in hair drawing. Also the fun thing about working from Sears catalogs is that they have everything- shoes, purses, dresses, hats, swimsuits and underwear.

One of my all time favorite looks I’ve ever seen is in the 1955 Spring Supper Issue of the Sears catalog. I debated between the one with the teal belt on the left and the one with the black bodice, before deciding on the black bodice one. My interpretation is not exact, but I love love how it came out and I am very proud of it. I can’t wait to see the set finished.

I haven’t started work on it- yet- but I want to do all the decades of the 20th century, but also I sort of have been thinking about also doing all the decades of the 19th century, too. Not there yet.

The Princesses!

Some fantasy designs, because I do love those too!

So, I was going through my own paper doll archives (which I do occasionally) and I was inspired to draw some gowns based on older designs. I wanted to use them as a place to do some more princess gowns. I don’t mind at all borrowing from my own older work.

Plus, I wanted to be able to layer the gowns. So, the over gown could be a separate piece. I’m actually kind of obsessed with this over gown and I might have made more than one version…

You know, I just realized that there’s a lot of dresses here. I didn’t mean for that to happen, but it 100% did. So, might be time to draw these nice paper dolls some trousers.

A Valentine’s Paper Doll Goddess I Didn’t Finish

I’ve always been someone who finds it easier to begin projects than I find it to finish them.

One thing working in paper, as I used too, really did give me was a structure. I penciled then I inked and then I went to the next steps. Because ink doesn’t erase (anyone ever mention that?) once I’d inked, it often felt like I couldn’t correct my errors, so I didn’t. Sure, I occasionally finished major issues in Photoshop if I noticed them, but often I just shrugged and moved on. I’d get it right the next time and the wonderfully continual nature of my paper dolls meant there would always be a next time.

Digital art makes it way too easy to start projects and way too easy to keep futzing with them until I eventually lose interest and move onto the next thing. I think right now I have a dozen or more “semi-finished” creations on my ipad, some of which I shared for my patrons a while ago.

This was one of those “semi-finished” projects. I was inspired by Larry Bassin’s latest paper doll book- Fun Frocks for Flo, Fanny and Fiona– to make my own attempt at a pin-up-esque 1950s comic sort of paper doll. I thought I would draw her a few dresses and then make her into a tri-fold Valentine’s Day card, but, as you might imagine, Valentine’s has come and gone and she’s still sitting on my i-pad unfinished.

I won’t say I’ll never return to her- I know myself well enough to know that I very well may dust her off next year-but I wanted to share a bit about the messier side of my creative process that people don’t always get to see.

WIP: Aliens, Sci-fi and Cyberpunk

So, I don’t exactly recall how I decided to start this project, but somehow I got into the idea of doing a set of cyberpunk/sci-fi fashion and that evolved into this idea I had for cute little aliens.

Right now, it’s looking like three little aliens and one cyberpunk set is going to be the final headcount. I want to do all the aliens in pastel colors. I don’t know why the idea of pastel colored aliens tickles me so much, but it does.

So, that’s what’s on the ipad at the moment.

Work In Progress Update… Rose Ballgown and Halloween Paper Dolls in Progress

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