Amaryllis, a Paper Doll in Evening Gowns

logo-amaryllis-paper-dollI don’t really do balance that well. I tend to work in the grip of obsession and then realize I’ve just spent five hours looking through images of medieval manuscripts in the hope that one of them might show a 10th century women’s neckline which, of course, none of them did. (By the way, you can read all about my adventures in the 10th century here and see the paper doll result.)

So, when I want to draw and I don’t want to get wrapped up in fretting about whether or not my choice of red is the right shade for Turkey red of the 1800s, I often turn to contemporary fashion magazines, as I know I have mentioned before. I find these paper dolls are fun, because in many ways they are easier than fantasy or historical dolls. I can just draw what I see, which is simpler for me than trying to draw from my minds-eye or from actual historical garments.

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Amaryllis’ evening gowns are based on actual evening gowns of the “real world”. I wanted to use a spring color scheme that wouldn’t be to heavy and dark. I feel like Clarissa, my last Pixie, had an awfully dark color scheme for a summer paper doll post. I wanted to make Amaryllis’ shoes neutral enough that she could wear them with other outfits in case she wanted to borrow some evening gowns from another paper doll or felt like rocking some jeans. 🙂

One last thing, the latest drawing is still open. Consider entering if you like. 🙂

Secret Agent Girl Printable Paper Doll in Color

logo-secret-agent-paper-doll-full-colorHappy Monday all!

Today’s paper doll is, as expected, a Marisole Monday & Friends paper doll in full color with a stylish spy wardrobe.

My mother wanted me to mention, after reading my last post about Secret Agent Man, that she did not like Johnny Rivers and it wasn’t her fault that it came on the radio. And that in the days before playlists I should be happy that I get to pick what music I listen too.

Apparently suggesting that she was a Johnny Rivers fan was a deep insult to her hippy, anti-establishment ways.

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So, I went back and forth about the right color scheme for this paper doll set. Part of me thought that yellow and pink were a little bright for a super spy, but then it occurred to me that no one would expect a super spy to be wearing yellow and pink. By the way, the short hair style Marisole is sporting is actually her base hair. These days I often draw my base dolls bald which helps when I have to draw hair for them, but back when I drew Marisole I didn’t do that. In her first post ever, she is sporting this hair style. That was back in January of 2010, though I actually drew Marisole sometime around 2008. She sat in a pile of unused base dolls for years before I finally decided what I was going to do with her. I think that’s sometimes the odd thing about working with her. She’s drawn in a style that I don’t know if I would, or even could, use today as my art has evolved.

Oh, by the way, something I am curious about this whether people like colored paper dolls or back and white paper dolls better, so I have changed out the poll in the sidebar. Vote if you want and also consider entering my current contest/drawing if you haven’t. 🙂

Melissa Smith Colors Vivid Victoriana

Melissa Smith of Miss Missy Paper Dolls colored my Vivid Victoriana paper doll and did a lovely job. I’m always so flattered when people send me their colored in paper dolls. I have a few more paper dolls colored by other people to get up which I am going to try to do in the next few weeks.

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I love Melissa’s coloring style. It feels very painterly to me, which is something I very much admire in other people’s coloring styles.

You can see the original black and white version of Vivid Victorian and the full color version are on this site of course.

Meanwhile, there’s a drawing/constest open for a custome paper doll. Check it out and enter, if you like.

New Contest For a Free Custom Paper Doll Open Until Midnight June 18th 2014

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I am pleased to announce a new contest or more accurately a drawing, since the winner, as usual, will be decided randomly. The drawing is open until June 18th at Midnight and the winner will be announced on Friday June 20th. This gives me a day to get the actual number selection done.

How to Enter:

Put a comment in below (or feel free to email me, if you prefer at paperthinpersonas@gmail.com) with a one or two sentence description of the custom paper doll you would want if your won the drawing. By the way, there is no obligation that the submission actually be the custom paper doll you ask for if you win. So, if your submission is a purple skinned mermaid action hero who fights with a scythe, but two weeks later you decide that what you really wanted was an orange tabby cat-girl ninja with three heads, then that can be changed.

Contest Rules:

1. You can only win one contest a year.
2. I will email the winner at their email address attached to the comment to notify them of winning. If I do not hear back from the winner within a week, I will use a random number generator to select the next winner. Your email address MUST be functional for you to win.
3. The winner will receive a one page custom paper doll based on one of my paper doll series within a month of the end of the contest. Sometimes life gets in the way of this goal, but I will email the winner if that is the case and we can make other arrangements. (A few of the previous prize custom paper dolls include Dark and Steamy, Kadeem and Gabriel Ready for Dates, Marisole Monday visits the 10th Century, Sewing the Seventies and Elven Maiden)
4. You may only enter the contest once. Entering more than once, will disqualify you.

Announcing the Winner:

On June 20th, I will list in a post every entry with a number. This allows everyone to read the submissions, even those which are emailed to me and will announce the winner via a random number generator.

Lastly, it is entirely possible if I really like any of the ideas suggested that they will show up on this blog at some point, but no promises. Have fun. I can’t wait to read the entries. 🙂

The contest is now closed. Thank you to eveyone who entered. The winner will be announced on the 20th of June. 🙂

Secret Agent Girl: Black and White Paper Doll

logo-secret-agent-paper-doll-black-whiteToday’s Marisole Monday paper doll is Marisole as a super spy. An idea suggested to me by my Aunt. I confess that I had never thought about drawing a spy paper doll before and there’s nothing realistic about my spy paper doll, but I think action heros are fun subjects for paper dolls.

And on the subject of action hero paper dolls, if you haven’t seen them, Bruce Patrick Jones did a really beautiful set of Action Stars paper dolls. I highly recommend them.

The title is supposed to be a reference to the song Secret Agent Man, but maybe I’m the only one who remembers all the lyrics to that song… Okay, so I only know the lyrics because my mother has the most amazing memory for lyrics and I inherited that trait. It’s not like I actually listen to Johnny Rivers actively.

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Like any classic spy, Marisole has catsuits for breaking and entering, a trench coat, fedoras and, of course, weapons. She also has two wigs for covering her short hair and some simple office wear. All in all, I’m quite pleased with how she came out, though I confess that those fedoras took far more drafts than I’d care to normally admit.

I think today’s spy would be good friends with the ninja paper doll that I drew… wow… three years ago.

As always, she’ll be in full color next week. 🙂

Meet The New Poppet Paper Doll – Posey

poppets-posey-school-logoSo, here I am kicking off June with a new Poppet paper doll named Posey.

I’d originally intended to give all my Poppets flower names beginning with P; however, I find I am rather running out of them. The only other two I can think of are Pansy (which I would use, except for that fact that it’s a rather derogatory name for an effeminate man and I just don’t like the connotation) or Peony which I will use one day, but calling the Asian paper doll Peony seemed horribly stereotypical. So, this leaves me with Posey for our new paper doll.

Anyone know of any other P flower names? I suppose I could branch out (pardon the pun) into other P girl’s names or simply other flower names.

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Now, Posey’s outfit is based, very vaguely, on a some of the school uniforms I saw when I was studying in England, though it lacks the jacket. I drew the blouse first and I didn’t want to lose the sleeve detail by sticking it under a jacket.

Poor excuse, perhaps, but true none the less.

I confess that I’m not totally pleased with how the skin tone turned out… I recolored it at the last minute, because the other skin tone was horrible. Still, I don’t know how much I like it.

All in all, it’s really good to be back. 🙂

Hiatus Until June 1 2014

hiatus-2014

I was hoping beyond hope that I would not have to put the blog on Hiatus at all this year, but that just isn’t going to happen, sadly.

A lot of things are happening at the end of May, so I’ve decided to place Paper Thin Personas on hiatus until June 1, 2014 when I will return with a bang I hope… including a contest and hopefully a new featured paper doll artist. So, high hopes for tall of those things.

I will be checking my email and you can still contact me there if you need too. In the meantime, feel free to look around and enjoy the paper dolls.

See you all when I return in June. It should be a fun ride from there. 🙂

Hazel’s Geometric Style: A Printable Paper Doll To Color

A printable paper doll to color named Hazel and her twelve piece wardrobe. Logo image. When it comes to pattern building, I find geometric patterns are easy if you have a drafting stencil handy (which I always do). For today’s printable paper doll to color, I wanted to create something that played with pattern, but in a distinct style. I tend to prefer florals in the real world over geometric patterns, so I often draw them instead for my paper dolls. I think geometric patterns are a little more urban and hip than my vintage inspired funky floral patterns tend to be.

I also wanted to contrast Hazel’s vintage paper doll set with something much more urban chic, so I did this set which I think came out pretty well. I particularly like her braided hair that comes back to a tight set of curls. I saw that on a student on my campus recently and I thought it was a really neat way to style box braids. (Forgive me if I get my braid terminology wrong- I’m still learning.) I will confess that I am beginning to feel, as I often do when I work with one paper doll style (contemporary) for too long that I need a break.

So, things might be getting a bit more fantasy and strange around here soon enough.

Of course, considering how far ahead I tend to work, soon enough might be several months…

(Actually less, as I have worked through my backlog leaving me dangerously low on content.)


A printable paper doll to color named Hazel and her twelve piece contemporary fashion wardrobe. Free printable coloring sheet from paperthinpersonas.com

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Not having any backlog is always a rather dangerous place for me to be, as I tend to dislike working against a wire.

Plus, I have busy academic things happening in this month, so I might have to put the blog on Haitus. I had hoped to not do that at all this year, but my academic (and work related) life comes before my paper dolling.

Confessions of a Paper Doll Blogger

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One of the things I have been collecting lately on Pinterest has been blogging prompts and ideas. It was from this list from The SITS Girls that I discovered April 30th is National Honesty Day. I missed National Honesty Day, but I thought it would be interesting to post a few things on this blog that I wouldn’t normally post or share.

My Confessions…

 

— I’ve gotten two emails from readers who thought I was African-American due to the large ethnic diversity of my paper dolls. Figuring out how to politely dissuade them of that notion makes me feel really awkward.

— I live in terror that I will someday draw something and someone will email me telling me that my depiction of their race or culture is wrong and/or racist. This is why I do not draw traditional clothing of other cultures. (Actually, there are about a dozen reasons I don’t draw traditional clothing of other cultures, so maybe I should do a whole post on that…)

— Sometimes I get really strange thank you emails. One came from a bible camp leader who was planning to use my Knight paper doll to teach girls about the “armor of abstinence” and I politely asked them to not do so. Nothing against abstinence or armor, but somehow the idea of sex ed and my paper dolls being in the same room sorta freaked me out.

— Technically, I still owe my best friend a paper doll inspired by the Vorkosigan Saga series by Louise Bujold. It’s very shameful. Someday, I will get it done… (Of course, if she’s reading this she is rolling her eyes at me.)

— Every once in a while someone makes a request, usually a perfectly reasonable kind request and I think to myself, “Isn’t it enough what I do? How dare you ask me to do more? You entitled twit.” Then I drink a glass of tea, calm down and remind myself that I am TOTALLY over reacting. Please don’t stop making requests. I really don’t mind getting them, except sometimes… late at night… after a bad day at work… when I’m in a grumpy mood.

— I was once told my Cybergoth paper doll was inappropriate for children. I suggested that the offended individual avoid giving it to children. See… Problem solved.

— I draw very cartoony paper dolls, because I really don’t know how to draw hyper-realistic ones. Usually this doesn’t bother me, but sometimes I feel like a fraud, especially when people ask me for drawing advice.

— I am grateful everyday for the wonderful readers and fellow paper doll bloggers on the internet who remind me that I am not alone, that my hobby isn’t too strange and that my love of these fragile ephemeral paper toys is something worth sharing.

So, these are my confessions. What are yours? Are there times when you feel like I do about your readers? Or about your art? What’s the strangest email you’ve ever gotten? What’s the one thing about your art you’ve never admitted bothers you? Anyone willing to share your thoughts?

April Showers: A Printable Paper Doll for Kids or Adults

Logo image for Marisole Monday & Friend Series. Printable paper doll with glasses and a gardening theme. First of all, I want to wish a Happy Birthday to my sister without whom I would not have ever started collecting paper dolls. She is the one who bought me my Christopher Columbus Paper Doll Set when I was eight and suggested it was too nice to cut up. This started my uncut paper doll collection.

So, thanks Sis. I love you.

And, speaking of paper dolls… here is last week’s printable paper doll in cheerful full color. I am pretty pleased with everything about her, except my concerns about her mix and match limited wardrobe. I really like how the rainbow shirt came out and the rain-boots and the bright yellow rain slicker, but I’m still feeling that the mix and match options are a trifle limited.

On the other hand, I’ve done enough plain colored tops over the years that surely there’s something that would match in the paper doll archives. I don’t always think of my designs as being “kid-friendly”, but I think this really is a paper doll for kids. She’s got bright colors, a fun theme and I can imagine that on a rainy day, she’d be great to pull out for a quiet inside activity.

The playabilty (is that a word?) of a printable paper doll set is always a major concern of mine. One of the reasons I work in series is because I think it’s more fun to have lots of little ladies and lads who can share clothing, than to have a bunch of paper dolls who can’t. (Of course, I also do it because drawing people is the hardest part of this gig.) There are times I confess that I fantasize about transforming this blog into one where I just posted one outfit a day, everyday.

Someone told me they thought that would be more work than what I do now… honestly, I’m not sure. I think it would depend on how much I had to write about the outfit in question. Post writing is sometimes harder than drawing, to be honest.

April Showers is a color printable paper doll for kids or adults. She's got 14 clothing pieces, gardening tools and a bright red umbrella. Free from paperthinpersonas.com

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Speaking of paper dolls for kids… Another little side project I’ve been working on is a magnetic paper doll for a three year old I recently met. Now, I need some help with this as I do not have children of my own…

How large would pieces need to be for a three year old to easily manipulate them? I want to be sure that she can play with her paper doll friend on her own without needing too much assistance from her mother. Thoughts from those with kids or experience with toddlers? Also, might she eat the pieces? I mean, I think at three most kids are past that stage, but I’m not sure… (Have I mentioned I have little experience with toddlers?)

Lastly, there will be a contest coming up, probably towards the end of the month. So, keep your eyes open for that.

Pixie Paper Doll In Jewel Tones Named Clarisa

jewel-tones-logoThis is a more wintery than summery paper doll, I think. Clarisa is a version of the German name “Clarice” which means bright, brilliant or clear. Clarisa is the Spanish form of this name. I think it’s a beautiful name for today’s Hispanic paper doll.

Lately, I have been struggling on the blog. The hardest thing for me to learn how to deal with in the last year has been this:

Life is Not Ideal. Deal with It.

Though it might not be the most stirring life motto, I find I need it more and more. Every post isn’t going to ever be perfect. Every paper doll isn’t going to be perfect.

And maybe that is quite all right.

I started this blog, because I drew paper dolls and I thought it would be worth it to have an outlet for that art. I have to learn to accept that everything isn’t always ideal.

So, I might have concerns about the lace and how it turned out. I might have concerns about her lips. I might not really be pleased entirely with everything… I might have wanted to post a different series after last weeks Pixie paper doll…

But… life is not ideal. Deal with it.

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In my head, Clarisa is a Hispanic paper doll or Latino, if you prefer. Why? Because I was chatting with a friend whose half-Mexican, and she was complaining about how I didn’t do enough Hispanic paper dolls. So, this is for her. 🙂

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Originally I conceived Clarisa as being on her way to some sort of party- maybe a holiday party, but that was several months ago when I first drew this paper doll. Obviously, a hoiliday party is less likely in May, at least not one where such dark clothing would be appropriate.

Marisole Monday: April Showers in Black and White

logo-april-showers-bwI desperately wanted to get this paper doll up before the end of April, as she is, after all, called April Showers. I posted the base doodle I did for planning, so here you can see the actual paper doll that came out of that planning process.

One of these days, I keep meaning to do a “start to finish” sort of post, but since I take SO LONG to finish anything, I struggle to keep all the relevant pieces together and since so many doodles never make their way into paper doll status, it is a struggle to document the process for me.

I think she’s wonderfully cute with her her braids and her glasses. I try to do one of two paper dolls with glasses a year, as I know when I was a kid and had to wear them I never found paper dolls with glasses. I still draw braids the same way my mother taught me to draw them when I was fairly young. I sometimes think I should learn a new technique, but it seems to work.

marisole-monday-april-showers-bw {Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}

Personally, I love her rain-boots and her floral skirt (those are supposed to be pansies, though I’m not sure anyone can tell that…). I am regretting not making some more neutral tops to go with her other pieces, because I think the mix and match options for her may turn out to be more limited that I like. Never the less, I am proud of her potted plant and her seed packet. I have been trying to draw more little accessories for my paper dolls and I’m pleased with how these ones turned out. Now… if I could only draw a decent looking horse, I would finish that cowgirl paper doll that people keep asking for.