Work-In-Progress

Creating a Paper Doll Book: Sketching and Inking Paper Doll Clothes

So, last week I shared a little about the brainstorming stage of my latest paper doll book, Big Eyed Girlies. This week, I wanted to take you a bit deeper into my process by showing off a few side-by-side images of penciled versus inked pieces I created for the book.

Penciled and then Inked Versions of Two Designs from Big Eyed Girlies
Big Eyed Girlies from Paper Doll Review

For me, inking isn’t just about tracing over lines (though yes, I do find that part incredibly therapeutic—there’s something so meditative about it). It’s also a stage of refinement. This is where I often make small but meaningful decisions. I might draw something in pencil and realize during inking that it needs a little something extra, or that a line isn’t quite working the way I imagined. In those moments, inking becomes a space for problem-solving and quiet reconsideration.

For a long time, I thought this was a flaw in my process. Somehow, I should be able to make all the right decisions in the pencil stage. I’ve come to understand that this is just how I work. Inking isn’t just a darkening of pencil lines, rather it is where the work settles into its final shape. It’s where the ideas get polished and where I decide what stays and what goes. It’s both editing and clarifying.

And honestly, it’s kind of magical.

As you look at these pencils vs. inks comparisons from Big Eyed Girlies, I hope you’ll see how much things change and how much they don’t.

One thing I like about digital inking is that I can erase it if I need to. I try not to do too much of that because I want things to feel organic and have those natural, human imperfections, but it’s nice to know I can make changes if I want to. Things can get over edited and end up looking too stiff.

I learned to draw with ballpoint pens, and I still sometimes struggle with using a stylus. There’s a lot of muscle memory and feel that goes into drawing, and I forget how much that matters until I’m actually working on something.

In the sketches above, you can see a few of the small changes that happened between penciling and inking: a collar got removed, sleeves were adjusted, a choker was added, and a pattern was refined. All subtle, but meaningful shifts that help the piece come together.

Inking might be my favorite stage of the process. It’s super therapeutic and meditative for me. I pop on a favorite podcast and just get to trace little lines on a screen. Hard to beat that for relaxation mode.

If you haven’t checked out the book yet, it’s currently available from Paper Doll Review! It’s full of big eyes, bold outfits, and lots of whimsy.

Creating a Paper Doll Book: Doodling & Planning Big Eyed Girlies

In honor of my newest paper doll book, Big Eyed Girlies, now available from Paper Doll Review, I thought it’d be fun to take you behind the scenes over the next few weeks. I’ll be sharing a closer look at the creative process, from initial sketches to coloring. All the little choices in between that helped bring this quirky and colorful project to life.

In today’s post, I’m talking about: planning & doodling.

If you know me, you know I’m a planner by nature. So naturally, before I ever picked up a pencil, I did… math!

Yep, so glamorous, I know.

I wanted to figure out how many individual paper doll pieces I would need for the book. I counted the pieces in a few books in my collection per page. Most books had somewhere between six and eleven pieces per page. So, a little math later, anywhere from 48 to 88 individual pieces.

Doodles of mod mini-dress designs.
Doodles with circus designs.
Mod-1960s Doodles (Left) and Vintage Circus Doodles (Right)

Since I tend to be a “more is more” kind of creator, and because I think most people want more outfit options for their dolls, I set my target at around 80 pieces. I wanted plenty of material for the fantastic Julie to work with when it came time to layout the book, even if a few paper doll designs got trimmed during editing.

And to be honest, part of publishing with people you trust is allowing them space to make editorial decisions about what will make the very best paper doll book.

After planning, I started thinking up ideas. As I sketched, four distinct style collections began to emerge. In my mind, I gave them working titles like:

  • Pretty-Pretty Princess Dresses (Bows, Ruffles, Puffy Sleeves)
  • Vintage Circus (Diamond Patterns, Braid, Top Hats)
  • Dapper Gangster Suits (Pin Stripes, Ties, Fedoras)
  • Groovy Mod 1960s Graphic Minis (Tights, A-Line Dresses, Boots)

I knew I would need more than this, but this was where I started. I ended up with six themes in total, which is what you’ll see in the final book.

Doodles of suiting inspired designs.
Doodles of paper doll princess dresses.
Dapper Gangster Suits Doodles (Left) and Pretty Pretty Princess Dresses Doodles (Right)

I never think of thumbnails as final designs. It’s just idea generation. Maybe some will make it past this stage, but most won’t. It’s a space for me to play and explore different ideas before moving on to finished art. I try to keep these sorts of things very loose. I add notes, so I remember what I was thinking or what I thought was important. The most crucial thing about these thumbnails is that I don’t edit myself.

That’s just a peek at the early stages of the process. Next time, I’ll show some of the penciled designs and their inked counter-parts. You might be able to pair a few from these doodles to those designs.

If you’re excited about Big Eyed Girlies and want to be one of the first to get your hands on a copy, it’s available now for pre-order at Paper Doll Review.

Fun Fact: I did not title the book. Titles are not my forte. The fun title was all Jenny of Paper Doll Review.

Thank you so much for following along and being part of this paper doll-loving community. I can’t wait to share more soon!

Celebrating being 50% done on my 100 Day Project- 100 Paper Doll Outfits

If you’re a Patron or follow me on Instagram, you probably already know that I’ve been quietly working away on a 100 Day Project since February. For those unfamiliar, the 100 Day Project is a creative challenge where you commit to doing something artistic every day for 100 days and share your progress online.

My version of the project? Drawing 100 paper doll outfits for a new series of kid-friendly, crayon-approved dolls. It’s been a “just draw and keep going” kind of project—simple, consistent, and as low-pressure as committing to something for 100 days can be. I’ve tried to do this before, but nearly every time I burn out, because I am too ambitious, so this time I was trying very hard not to be ambitious.

I’ve mostly been posting the outfits over on Patreon (with occasional updates on Instagram when I’ve had the time and energy). But now that I’ve officially passed the halfway mark, I thought I’d share a little peek here on the blog—for those of you who don’t follow me elsewhere and may have been wondering why things have been a bit quiet.

While the doll bases themselves are currently only available to paid patrons, the outfit sketches are visible to all patrons—and yes, you can join for free to follow along! Or you can check out more of these on Instagram.

Will this project eventually become a fully finished paper doll set with polished layouts and tabs? Honestly… I don’t know yet. Right now, I’m just focused on showing up and getting to 100. What happens after that is a problem for future Rachel.

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.