Beneath the Waves in Black and White Paper Doll

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So… slightly slacker post from me today. I as out of town last week in Alabama and just got back. I prepped this while sitting in the Chicago airport waiting to get on a plane to go home. I posted Beneath the Waves in color last year in June. I found the file and decided to put it up in color. I have been getting more and more requests for paper dolls to color, so here is another one.

I love spring when the rains come and the paper doll blogs are in bloom. Actually, I joke, but I have stumbled across a few new blogs over the last few days. My latest find is called Miss Missy Paper Dolls, slightly unnerving for me since I have a good friend named Missy, never the less, I am enjoying the posts as I work my way through her archive. I recommend her blog to those of us who like such things (and if you don’t like such things, what the heck are you doing here anyhow?).

Meet Ethan… Boy Coloring Pages Paper Doll

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{PDF Download of all four pages for Ethan and his Wardrobe}

Confession time: I think men’s clothing is boring.

I know I shouldn’t, but I do.

Historically speaking, there’s some neat stuff for men, but right now it’s all trousers and shirts and jeans and shirts and suits and maybe some swim trunks and really… that gets old.

Still, my poll in January (and I, like apparently the candidates for president, take polling seriously) said that what people wanted to see was male paper dolls.

Originally, Ethan here had a girlfriend or just a friend… I shouldn’t make assumptions about my paper doll’s sexual orientation. However, I thought she looked like she’d just been hit with a brick or something, so I decided not to post her or draw her any clothing. She won’t be returning to the blog unless I decide I really feel like it and I doubt it.

Instead, I gave him a some clothing (including a styling Star Trek uniform) and have posted him.

How to Make a Stand for Any of the Paper Dolls

For this to work, the doll has to be printed on card-stock or been glued to some. It won’t work if the doll is just made of flimsy paper. I used Florence to demonstrate this method, but it will work with any of the paper dolls that have bases.

Sorry about the image quality. I only have an iphone for picture taking and I know it’s not ideal.

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Cut out the paper doll and place her on top of a spare strip of card stock, at least three or five inches wide. Carefully draw a line in a curved line down from the doll to the bottom of the card stock. I recommend doing this in pencil. I did it in bright red pen so it was visible.

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So, after you cut out the stand, it should look like this. Draw a line a quarter inch in to make the tab to glue to the back of the doll. I’ve drawn the red line where I would fold back this tab.

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Fold back the tab and then glue it to the back of the doll. Double sided tape would also work fine, I think, but I always used glue.


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And now the paper doll can stand on her own.

Prudence and Constance: 2 Paper Dolls in Black and White

Happy Earth Day! There’s an Earth and we should be grateful or else we’d not exist. So, I’m glad for that. Beyond that, I try to avoid politics on this little corner of the web. There are other corners of the web for politics. Here is the corner of paper dolls.

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Two of my favorite recent paper dolls are Constance and Prudence, who I’ve always thought of as best friends, and so today I present them both in black and white for coloring enjoyment. Each paper doll was meant to have a distinct casual and slightly indie style. Prudence is a little bit vintage and Constance is a little bit tomboy. The t-shirt styles for the Constance paper doll are based on mandala designs which are simplified for the small size.

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So, today, I’d like to also call attention to a new blog with some delightful black and white paper dolls called Inflammation Of…, which is about both paper dolls and raising a child with chrons disease. I have had several thank yous sent to me over the years from parents with health issues in their families who like the paper dolls and I always feel very touched that my paper dolls can help in any small way for people in need. Plus there’s a whole set of clothes for her paper dolls inspired by Scoopy-Doo and who isn’t in favor of paper dolls inspired by Scooby-Doo? I loved Scooby-Doo when I was a kid.

(Actually, I still sorta love Scoopy-Doo, but I try to be more of an adult and not admit these things in public.)

Baroque Maiden: Fantasy Printable Paper Doll

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Today’s Marisole was supposed to go up last week, but somehow it didn’t happen. I feel like I start every post apologizing these days which I am trying to stop doing. I have mixed feelings about how she turned out. I really like the colors, but the style seems like I do a lot. I have mixed feelings about it. When I think of the baroque era of art, I think of rich dark colors with golds and reds and purples and black which was the inspiration for this color scheme. I gave her blond hair to contrast with the dark colors of her dresses.

A friend of my send me the link to these wonderful paper dolls from the Museum of Childhood in London. You can download them and print them out. Beautiful full color historic dolls. It’s so nice having friends who support my odd hobbies. So a big shout out to my friends.

Jose: Printable Paper Doll for Boys

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So, today, somewhat late, we have a new Puck paper doll named Jose. When I finished him, he looked like a Jose to me, so I decided that was his name. I like his nose.

I am tired of school, looking for work and stressed beyond belief. In truth, this printable paper doll has been sitting on my hard-drive for several weeks waiting for me to finish it up, reformat it and then posting it. I am continuing to work on drawing more men. I have another male paper doll finished and I hope to get it posted maybe this week, maybe next. I’ve not been very on the ball with this blog lately and that bothers me. Life is very complicated these days. I’ll be happy when school is over, I have a job and I feel a little more settled.

Jesse: A Guy Paper Doll with Clothing

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So when I asked people what they wanted to see on the blog, male paper dolls won out. I don’t really see the appeal myself- after a while, I think guys clothing gets boring, but I am trying to provide what people have asked for (also I have had this drawn for months and coloring it was fast), so here is Jesse- another Puck paper dolls. He joins the other Pucks which can be found with their female counter-parts the Pixies. In total, I’ve done six Pucks, I believe. I guess out of over 250 pages of paper dolls, six males isn’t much of a percentage, but it’s a lot higher than zero.

Today’s Puck paper doll fits in pretty well with Dillon having another fairly standard casual wardrobe. I confess I don’t know much about male clothing, but I do my best with the Pucks. I did just notice I do seem to have a lot of blond Pucks… which is rather odd. I’ll have to work on that.

Spring has Sprung: Asian Printable Paper Doll

Yay, it’s a printable paper doll.

I promised myself I wouldn’t spend this post whining about everything i have been trying to get done or making excuses. I had this last week off for spring break and I did get some stuff done, so I can’t be all unhappy about it. I don’t seem to be getting as much done I had hoped, but perhaps I have less then realistic expectations of myself.

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Today’s Marisole recycles a few things I’ve done before such as the shoes and the sewing machine. I really wanted to have a sewing machine for the paper Marisoles as well as the magnetic ones and I am just pleased that it came out well. The grey shoes are recolored from the set I drew for my Mother’s quilting retreat and the other shoes were drawn at the same time, but not used because she thought the heels were too high. I personally think high heels are fun.

I can’t decide how I feel about the patterned shirts in this set. I like them, but I’m not sure how much I like them… I was trying to do more patterns, but I’m not sure I should have. I really don’t like the black background that seems to happen when my pictures open in a new window… is it just me or do other people see it too? And does it annoy you all as much as it annoys me?

Circuits and Fishnet: Cyberpunk Printable Paper Doll

Today Marisole printable paper doll is going cybergoth since there’s just not enough neon and shiny in Marisole’s eclectic paper wardrobe. This is the first new Marisole in a depressingly long time… I confess I spent time I probably should have spent revising a paper on this, but after five hours in the library my mind is pretty much non-functional anyway. And it’s nice to come home to paper doll coloring as a relaxing project to work on.

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Now, I did recently get my hands on Gothic: Dark Glamour by Valerie Steele. While I normally I like Steele’s work, I was a bit disappointed by this book. It didn’t have the lavish pictures I have come to want in any costume book I buy. Still, it did have a fairly nice description of cyber-gothic and helped me narrow things down to black with neon accents. The hair was the hardest part of this paper doll, but I am actually quite pleased at how it came out. The other piece I am most proud of is the shiny black corset. Shiny fabrics are something I am still practicing and I am totally excited at how perfect the corset turned out to be. It’s rare that I really feel like I’ve achieved what I wanted with texture. Texture is hard.

So, I’ve done a dark steampunk paper doll over the years, a gothic Lolita one and one punk paper doll, but I don’t think I’ve ever really done a traditional gothic paper doll unless you count my vampire paper doll in 2010. I wonder if I should? What do other people think?

Spirit of the North: Black and White Printable Paper Doll

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So, I have good news, bad news and slightly indifferent news. The good news is- Hey, look it’s a paper doll post. The bad news is that it will probably be the only one for the whole week. The indifferent news is that the paper doll is in black and white. I chose to post Spirit of the North in black and white since the dolls dresses have a lot of pattern to them and I thought it would be more interesting to color than some of my other paper dolls.

I think it might be cheating to recycle content like this… But so far people have been nice about it. 🙂

Bateau Necklines and Flowers… Paper Doll Clothes

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Not much to say today (and not a lot of time to say it in), we’ve gotten some snow this week that has stuck to the ground for a little while and I’m enjoying it while it lasts (the temp is supposed to rise again and I suspect it will all go away). I spent most of my spare time these last few days revising my drafts for my MA thesis (oh, what fun…) and working on other things then blog stuff. Blog stuff gets to go to the bottom of my list. I can squeeze out drawing time easily enough, but coloring, cleaning up and posting time is a hot commodity these days.

Someday I should calculate how long it takes me to get a paper doll done and posted, but I suspect it would just depress the heck out of me, so I think I won’t bother.

Anyway, I barely got this done before the end of Wednesday and I am very excited to present these outfits for the lovely, curvy Dictionary Girls. Now, I’m off to bed.

Pixies Printable Paper Dolls in Black and White

Since my primary concern for the next few weeks is class work, thesis writing and job searching, I thought I would just post some Pixie paper dolls I have already posted in color, but post them in black and white. I felt a little guilty doing it as just one, so there are two this week- Blossom and Masquerade– both are paper dolls which I think would be fun to color as they have some pattern in their clothing and bows.. a lot of bows…

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Plus I have been getting requests for paper dolls in black and white, so I guess I could pretend I was listening to people rather than just doing what I knew I could get done and posted without having to spend too much time on it. Despite the practical concerns of getting something up to, as I like to say, “feed the blog”, I know people like to color and I think its important to give people the chance to do that.

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These are also both paper dolls which I really liked the full color versions of (which you can see here and here), so I hope people also like the black and white versions.