I’ve done a lot of futuristic posts over the years. Some I think have been more successful than others. I still consider Shadow and Light Paper Doll 1 to be one of the best in this genre, even if most of her costuming was inspired by Cleopatra 2525.
It was free on Hulu and I didn’t have cable. Don’t judge me.
My idea with this paper doll was do show off some more “casual” sci-fi inspired attire, but in the end I think it’s a little uninteresting. If I’m not careful, and I don’t know what to draw, I tend to draw the same things over and over again. I think these pieces are to close to those worn by Marisole Monday when she was an alien.
Despite my mixed feelings, I am posting her today, because I think it is important to put up what I have finished, even when I’m unsure about it. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, if I only posted what I was certain I liked, than half my posts wouldn’t have ever gone up.
I tend to gather up links to paper dolls, so that once in a while I can post them like this. It’s both to show off the art of people I’ve never heard of before, but it’s also to embrace the intense diversity of these paper novelties. Some of these are printable and some are just photos, but all in all, I think it’s a fun listing.
So, a while ago, I was asked about programs I use to work on my paper dolls. I don’t remember who asked me the question, but as I worked on this paper doll set, I tried to figure out the answer. Not exactly rocket science, but it took some thought.
I use Photoshop CS3 for all my paper dolling (a bit out of date, I know) and I like it, though the learning curve on it is steep. To color my paper dolls, I use a filter called the Bpelt filter, which is designed for flatting comics. Flatting is the process of coloring in shapes with no black line border. Traditionally, newspapers printed all of the color and then over printed the line work. I think comics, in the real world, may still be printed this way though I’m not sure… my printing history gets fuzzy once computers enter onto the scene.
I like Bpelt because it allows me to have my line-work on a separate layer which is useful for me.
Frankly, I don’t have much experience with other programs. I would like to learn Illustrator and Indesign, but I never have. I can’t really provide a helpful review except to say that I am certain I use Photoshop for about a tenth of what it is capable of.
When I was a kid, I was totally into realistic paper dolls (Tom Tierney and Peck-Garde), but now that I am older, if not wiser, I find myself drawn to the more stylized and unusual. Larry Bassin and Kwei-Lin Lum are two of my favorite modern artists.
I don’t have very many Asian paper dolls, partly because it took a long time before I was comfortable drawing epicanthic folds, which are a characteristic of many East and Central Asian people, though are by no means exclusive to those groups. There is a huge variety the shape of the epicanthic fold and I never felt like it looked right until I got to grad school and ended up sitting across from a Chinese student for an entire semester. I don’t know what she did to stay awake, but what I did was use her as a model for my first Asian Pixie paper doll, named Zoe. Of course, she didn’t have blue hair or such a huge head, but I digress.
So, the Poll is over, since January is done and a child paper doll won to my own astonishment. So, I’ll get on that. In the mean time, enjoy Madison.
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?
I seriously feel like I should have saved this for Valentine’s Day, but I didn’t have anything else finished, so up it goes.
It’s not like I started with a plan for the obnoxious color scheme, but somehow the traditional black and red thing I do for punk clothing just wasn’t hitting the mark. So, pink, purple and black became the name of the game.
I do wish the fuzzy sweater looked… well… fuzzier. By the way, the neckline of that sweater is low and it’s meant to go over one of the corsets or other tops, otherwise she shows off more of her swimsuit than perhaps is decent for polite society.
So, I think I’ve mentioned my wacky formula for calculating the number of outfit combos a paper doll set contains before which is the number of tops multiplied by the number of bottoms and then by the number of shoes and then by the number of “jackets” plus 1. Now often the formula doesn’t work, because the pieces aren’t really totally interchangeable, but this is a rare set where I think everything really can go with everything else. The result is a total of 146 outfit combinations (not taking into consideration accessories) which is pretty remarkable.
So, the black and white version of today’s paper dolls went up last week and I, being a space cadet, sorta forgot to post the color version, though I finished it on Sunday. I hope a little belated paper doll posting will be forgiven.
Our first page of this set is just the dolls and the second page is more clothing for them. I chose a soft blue, green color scheme with red accents. Of all the eras of men’s clothing, I confess a soft side for the 18th century.
Have I mentioned this week has been INSANE? Because it has been, and classes get into full swing next week, so things are not looking to be much more peaceful. Despite that, I’m enjoying it. As I know I’ve said before, I would far rather be busy then bored. I also seem to have a lot of stuff inked, but I’m having trouble getting it onto the blog, so I am going to put some more effort into getting it scanned this weekend, so that it can go up.
I am spending my day off doing exciting things like washing laundry and cleaning my kitchen and getting this slightly belated than usual Marisole post up. I decided to use Margot since she’s new. After some thought, I have broken down the Marisole Monday category into sections for Margot, Marisole and Mia, my three different “faces” for Marisole, if that makes sense. The dolls can all share clothing.
Sometimes an whole paper doll set comes out of my desire to draw a single outfit. In the case of today’s paper doll set, it was the high-waisted plaid skirt and the tie. So, after I decided I wanted to draw that then the rest of it came together along similar lines- lots of pleats and a sort of “school girl gone wrong” kinda vibe.
One of my favorite paper dolls blogs has a new address. A Time For Paper Dolls used to be Inflammation Of… and I am really enjoying her dolls. I love their clean crisp lines and simple shapes. If I had small children, I would totally print these out for them and I might just color a few on my own for fun.
Several months ago, it was pointed out to me that I had done several fantasy princess Pixie paper dolls, but there wasn’t a princely Puck paper doll to accompany them. I was going to get this done in color, but since I am behind on my coloring, I thought it was better to post it up today and then worry about finishing it up in color later. So, the color version will be up as soon as I finish it, either later this week or early next, I think.
This month has turned out busier than I thought it would be. I traveled for the first week of January, got back to Alabama and then work picked up. I’d far rather be busy than bored, but when my life gets complicated, the blog sometimes suffers. I’m trying to keep up with the blog, as best as I can, though I feel like I have a lot of stuff “sort of done” and very little actually completed.
Plus I owe my grandmother a set of magnetic paper dolls. She sent me a tin for her “paper dolls” to go in and I think if I don’t get them done this weekend, I may get another hint. She’s far to mid-western to flat out tell me do “get her damn paper dolls done”, but I suspect I will get further nudges down the line.
So, for her, I’ll be working on a curly haired, red-headed Marisole (my grandmother has red curly hair) with some vintage inspired costumes. That may go up Monday or I may finish up a Punk Marisole that’s been waiting in the wings for a while (if I do the punk doll, I think I’ll use Margot for a little variety. She’s new after all.)
