Creating a 4th of July paper doll was hard this year, but I have been wanting to try to get a paper doll done for all the major holidays I can. The thing about these holiday paper dolls is that they are super handy to have around (like instant social media content) and easy to draw (theme’s kind of done for you). However, I confess that I’ve been pretty angry and depressed about the current state of affairs in the United States. So, it was harder to build up enthusiasm to draw Americana then usual.
Still, I have so many fond memories of the 4th of July. It’s a big holiday in my hometown. There’s two parades, fireworks at midnight on the 3rd (the sun doesn’t go down until 10pm) and huge bonfire organized by our family friends. I do mean huge- it’s like several stories high and designed by architects and engineers made from pallets. There’s usually a theme for the bonfire- it’s been a T-rex, the throne of swords from Game of Thrones, and many other structures.
We make our own fun up here in the Northland.
Anyway, today’s paper doll is a riff on my Valentine’s Day vintage themed paper doll. She originally had different hair, but it did not look good. I didn’t have time to redraw it, so I borrowed the hair from the Valentine’s doll. Of course, I made a few little changes in photoshop, but it’s basically the same . I’m still trying to hit my 10 DDJ paper dolls in 2022 goal and this gets me a little closer!
By the way, there are some changes coming to Patreon (more on that later). So, just an early heads up for folks. You might start seeing posts on the site like these which are blocked unless you’re a Patron. Basically, I’m slowly adding old Patreon content to the blog in the months when it appeared on Patreon. Just so no one is super confused as to what is happening.
I’m taking a vacation in June from the blog. I hope everyone has an amazing June!
I had thought I would have time to load up a bunch of preplanned content before I left town to get married and you know what? I didn’t, because planning a wedding is super complicated even when you have amazing support. But there will be newsletters! Those I got done.
So be sure to sign up for the newsletter below and you can still get some fun new paper doll coloring pages during the month of June.
When it comes to creativity, I’m a sprinter, not a long distance runner. When people talk about doing one thing very day for ten minutes for a year or two years or ten years, I get twitchy. I don’t work that way. I like to work intensely for short periods and recoup with something else for a while. As I said, it’s a sprinter sort of mentality.
The new Etsy coloring pages with vintage 1940s fashions.
The downside is that I sometimes have ideas and I work on them intensely and then I stop when I lose interest, get distracted, have other things to do, or whatever. One thing I’ve been planning for years has been to do a better job of repackaging my Patreon content for Etsy. I want people to get to engage with the stuff I’ve made there, but also not have to sign up to be a patron if that doesn’t seem appealing. It’s not for everyone and that’s 100% cool with me.
Back when I drew my 1940s, 1930s, and 1960s sets, I intentionally drew more clothing than I knew would fit in my usual paper doll format with plans to use that extra content for some Etsy sets. (Okay, the first time I did it, it was 100% an accident, but like after that it seemed like a good idea.)
Lately, I’ve been having a big of a creative lull. I don’t really feel like drawing and I thought I’d turn to these older pieces and see what I could do with them. After all, sometimes working something that isn’t creative in the same way that drawing is creative helps me get through minor blocks. So, I thought- I’ll focus on layout and some older things I’m proud of and give my brain a little break. Never under estimate the value of brain breaks.
Long story short- there’s a new Etsy coloring page set of 4 pages of 1940s clothing! It’s 50% exclusive and new content and 50% recycled content from the site which has been reformatted. Some of the new and exclusive pieces include an additional doll, overalls, dresses, hats, and a very 1940s evening gown.
Anyway, if you nab one, leave a review, because that always helps. If you don’t want to nab one, 100% cool- enjoy all the free 1940s paper doll content on this blog (there’s a fair bit). If you’d like to join Patreon then you can do that here, there’s a lot of more paper doll stuff over there waiting for a second lease on life.
The other good news is that this did help with my creative lull and I am now working away on a big mermaid collection (probably also destined for Etsy and Patreon) and a dog paper doll for the next issue of Paper Doll Review. Yes, a dog paper doll. No, I’m not 100% certain it was a good idea, but I’m too far along to turn back now!
I don’t mean to brag, but I pride myself on the diversity of my paper doll drawings. I do a lot of different themes, but Alina Kolluri might well give me a run for my money. Her work ranges from animals to mermaids to Christmas to 1960s fashions. Today, I want to look at the two paper doll books of hers I own- Gal Pals Paper Dolls and Mod Brides. These two were a gift, clearly by someone who knows my taste in paper dolls. These are probably the two I would have chosen, because I love historical fashion paper dolls. Both are from Paper Doll Review, but my feelings about them couldn’t be more different.
Spoiler: One of these books I loved so much and one of them I was super disappointed by. Let’s start with the one I didn’t like, so we can end on a high note.
Mod Brides Paper Dolls
Mod Brides is, as one might expect, a foray into 1960s fashions. The book is smaller, measuring 8.5 by 11 inches, rather than 9 by 12. There’s four dolls on the back which confused me a little, because from the cover I would have thought there would have been five, but that’s not really important. I like the cover design, I think it has some wonderful movement and the doily design really echos the flowers in the background and the pop graphic quality of Kolluri’s art.
I confess the rest of the graphic design in the book is kinda boring. The dresses are laid out fine, but there’s no backgrounds and no real attention is paid, it feels, to making the interior shine.
I wish, as always, there had been more variety in the dolls skin tones. The poses are also very stiff, but that’s just Kolluri’s style. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the paper doll’s hair. It didn’t read as super 1960s to me, because it felt like it lacked the volume of the era, but I think some of that was done to accommodate hats and veils, so I 100% understand those compromises.
Mod Brides is stuffed with clothing. It’s a total of 8 pages of very very 1960s fashions with peaches and pistachio greens abounding. It all looks pretty correct to me- including the shapes of the dresses- which for the 1960s are super specific. The lace details on a lot of the clothing are amazing, as is the drape of those veils. As someone who has avoided drawing wedding dresses, because I hate drawing lace, I have to say this felt like a reminder that it is possible to render lace beautifully in line work.
Plus, when you work in white, getting depth is hard. The light grey Kolluri uses really works to her advantage here.
My phone is in focus, but this veil somehow isn’t.
As usual with Paper Doll Review, I am always happy with the quality of the card-stock and the paper. The covers are a little thin, but the paper feels satin smooth. I think it would be a dream to cut. I can imagine spending hours carefully trimming out these little outfits.
Not that I plan to do that, but if I did, I think I would be happy.
So, now for the big problem- I was super disappointed in the quality of the images. So disappointed that I almost didn’t review this book. The entire book looks slightly out of focus. And somehow the blacks aren’t black enough, so it almost feels pixelated. Or like somehow the images were interpolated one two many times by a graphic design program. For whatever cause, the results are disappointing and distracting.
I tried to capture this on camera and I don’t think I really managed to do it. It’s a case, I suspect, of the digital printing being part of the problem.
Because of the image quality, I just can’t recommend picking up Mod Brides. It’s super frustrating, because over all, the book’s content is fun. However, I can’t seem myself ever flipping through it again to just enjoy the visuals.
Let’s move on to a book that I am utterly in love with and will now get to gush about.
Gal Pals Paper Dolls
The Front CoverThe Back Cover
To start with the basics, Gal Pals Paper Dolls has four dolls and a lot of clothing. It’s a 9 by 12 inch book. The cover says 93 fashions and I could get nit-picky about that. There’s probably 93 pieces, but is a purse a fashion? Hmmm… Never the less, I’ve rarely seen a paper doll book so stuffed with clothing. This seems to be a trend with Kolluri’s work and I like it! Each doll has at least a dozen outfits, one of which is a wedding dress. Plus, there’s matching hats and purses for many of them.
The doll’s faces are super cute, the poses feel borrowed from a WW2 magazine which is awesome. I adore their victory roll hairstyles. Can we gush over the Gal Pal’s cover for a minute? It’s maybe the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. The dolls are flowers! Flowers in a watering can!
(Note: I’m like 95% sure this is a reference to 1940s paper doll books where the cover would have cut outs revealing the doll’s faces beneath.)
Also, did I mention that the borders on the pages of clothing for each doll match the doll’s swimsuits? How fun and cute is that. It’s so clearly thought out that it makes me super happy. This is paper doll book design at its best. All over the book the design is top notch. So much glorious attention to detail.
Granting that I didn’t exactly look for sources, within the confines of the highly stylized art, the clothing seems accurate to the era. There’s day dresses, coats, suits… everything. Even though I am not a wedding dress person, how fun is it that every doll has a wedding dress? The one for Patty (bottom left) looks strikingly like what my Grandmother was married in during WW2 (which might be why I photographed it.)
The fact that each doll basically has a micro-wardrobe is such a cool concept. I can totally imagine how much I would have liked this book as a kid. I can picture myself on the couch carefully cutting out each outfit, penciling the doll’s name on the back, and diligently storing them all in little envelopes.
(Yeah, given my paper doll storage habits as a child, I sorta should have known I would end up a librarian.)
So, if you haven’t already guessed, I love Gal Pals! I really have nothing negative to say about it. If you like color, whimsy, and want a fun diversion, here it is. It was wonderful to see a black doll included, though another skin-tone or two would have been nice.
I’m super happy to have added this to my collection. If you don’t own one, go grab it! Gal Pals is the kind of paper doll book that makes my heart happy!
(Also, I don’t think I’ve ever used this many exclamation points in one blog post. I feel like I should apologize to my college writing professors who would be wincing right now.)
I guess, as I finish this up, I think that these books illustrate how important graphic design is to an effective paper doll book and how work by the same artist can strike me totally differently. Even if the image quality of Mod Brides had been up to snuff, Gal Pals is just a better book. So much attention has been paid to all the tiny details and those details matter so much.
As my niece gets older and more ready for paper dolls, I often think about if I would buy the books I review for her. And Gal Pals I 100% would pick her up a copy.
I’m still sort of playing around with getting used to drawing for the Talia Tuesday and Friends dolls. I enjoy the pose and I like playing around with the motion, though I am still not 100% confident with it. It’s a fairly new pose to me and so it’s a bigger stretch than drawing for poses I’m used to drawing for. Since I’m not formally trained as an artist, and I don’t really enjoy drawing figures, it’s always a little scary working with a new pose for me.
So, anyway, this is Tanya. Tanya is the Russian diminutive of Tatiana. I named the paper doll Tanya, because I already have a Talia and a Tashi. I felt like the name Tanya fit in with the other names neatly. So, nothing too fancy there- I picked it because I liked how it sounded.
Tanya here has my first fantasy foray for the Talia Tuesday and Friends dolls, but I do love drawing princess paper dolls. Her crowns are designed to fold around the head, so you have some flexibility, if you want to use them on another doll with different hair.
If the pose is a stretch for me, this style is like cooking a recipe you’ve made a million times and know will probably come out okay. I both like drawing medieval fantasy gowns and am super comfortable drawing these fantasy princess looks. The color scheme was a bit different from many I tend to be attracted too. It feels more autumnal than I intended when I started, but I am super happy how it turned out.
As usual, a big thank you to my patrons who got to see the first proto Talia last year and helped me name Tashi, though I picked out Tanya’s name on my own. You all are the best!
So, when I do historical clothing sets, I’ve learned drawing two takes about the same amount of time as drawing one. Of course, the downside is that I always worry if I make a mistake then I’m likely to repeat it. I’m not 100% sure about the waist lines on these, but that’s okay.
The paper doll is wearing a shift with a gathered neckline which seems to be the style in Italy. It’s a lot more fitted than these would have been for layering reasons. There’s some debate from my research in what women wore under these gowns. There’s not a lot of evidence for stays, but there’s no way to get the smooth line shown on the bust in these portraits without some sort of support either built into the bodice or underneath the bodice. If you look closely at side of the pink gown, you’ll see there’s a fold between where the armpit meets the shoulder and that suggests there is something under the bodice; however, I have not been able to find any evidence on what that undergarment might have looked like.
Later, there’s this Venetian Woman with Moveable Skirt from the 1560s and there might be a set of stays there or it might be an artistic choice to continue the bodice after the skirt is lifted. It’s tough to know. I tend to think it’s likely stays, because the work is erotic art and there’s nothing erotic about a bodice (or is there?). When I do a Venetian set (and I plan to do that someday) I’ll use that as my base design I suspect. However, we’re not working on Venetian clothing today. Today, we are in Florence.
Both of these dresses are again based on portraits. Both sitters are probably from Florence, based on professional folk’s assessments of the paintings. Lucrezia Panciatichi, for example, was the wife of Bartolomeo Panciatichi, a Florentine humanist and politician. The other sitter there’s some debate over, but her clothing does look like that which was worn in Florence according to folks who know more about this than I do which isn’t I grant you a high standard at this point.
Portrait of a Lady in Green by Bronzino?, c. 1528-1532Lucrezia Panciatichi by Angelo Bronzino, 1540
Despite the few small changes I might make to these in the future (and my annoyance that I couldn’t seem to track down a full length portrait to get skirt shapes right), I’m super proud that I did these despite feeling like I don’t “know enough” to do them well.
I will say that I want to do something later in the 1500s from Venice, as I mentioned, because the Venetians had these wild shoes called chopines which were platform shoes so high that women needed help walking in them. They’re so strange and I want to draw them, but I need to do more research on the clothing that would have gone with them. More research!
So, if you want to get to vote in my next paper doll content poll, join us on Patreon.
I am super excited today to get to write a little about the latest issue of Paper Doll Review that arrived a few days ago. If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, you can grab it from Paper Doll review or subscribe, which is what I do.
I always look forward to Paper Doll Review when it comes in the mail, though I don’t draw for it that much. I was still recovering from my surgery when the deadline was and I hate recycling old things for the magazine (which I know is silly), so I let this one slide. I sort of regret it, because it is always fun to see my stuff in there along with other artists I super respect.
I am working on an animal paper doll for the next issue and let’s just say- not the easiest thing I’ve worked on!
Renaldo Barnette was the featured artist and his interview was fascinating, plus there were many images of his amazing at. You don’t follow him on Instagram, you should, because there’s always fun stuff to see. His ability to render fabric texture in markers (I think it’s markers?) is awe inspiring.
There was an article about Katy Keene where I learned some things I didn’t know about the history of the comic. A lot of space in the magazine was devoted to the Katy Keen Dress-A-Doll which was fun, but I confess I’m not the biggest Katy Keen fan on the planet. Nothing against her, of course, but there’s a lack of nostalgia for me, because I didn’t grow up with Katy Keen comics I think the same way people twenty years older than me did.
While I was going through the magazine, I noticed that two of my favorite Dress-A-Doll designs by artist Tori Wright had exposed skin. Wright illustrated the doll’s skin tone for those outfits brown, much darker than the Dress-A-Doll figure. It made me wonder what the result of dressing Katy in some of these costumes would have been- a sort of strange paper doll semi-black face? I realized that if I had wanted to dress Katy up in these outfits it felt wrong somehow to do so.
So, I thought, maybe they could have had a second dress-a-doll for those outfits that had brown skin. After that thought, I realized I couldn’t recall ever seeing a Dress-A-Doll in these magazines that wasn’t white. I don’t own enough back issues of Paper Doll Studio (no longer in print) or Paper Doll Review to do a complete survey, but the ones I have this was the case.
If the magazine was going to feature an artist, like Renaldo Barnette, whose rendering of black models is such a feature of his work, surely there could be a black Dress-A-Doll, Katy Keene inspired or otherwise? I’d love to see Barnette’s version of Katy Keene. I bet that would be fantastic.
If you don’t subscribe to Paper Doll Review, I would so highly recommend it! There’s some magical about getting a paper magazine in the mail every few months and I’m always so impressed the articles, layout, and amazing paper doll art featured. I took a few pictures of my favorite pages, but I didn’t want to reveal all the good stuff.
Did you get this latest issue of Paper Doll Review? What did you think of the magazine?
I have a pretty bad tendency to get super tangled up in myself. For the last few years, my Patrons have been requesting two historical time periods in every poll- the 1980s and Italian Renaissance. In my whole costume book collection, I only own one book on Italian Renaissance clothing and it’s a translation of a 1590s text, so not the most useful when trying to do overview research.
What became abundantly clear to me as I did my digging into the topic was that styles in Italy were not standardized across the entire country, as we know it today. At the time, Italy was a collection of city-states (it remained this way until it unified around the 1870s), so every area had its own fashion which makes things super confusing.
Plus, since most of these are taken from portraits of the period and the identify of the sitters isn’t always known, it’s nigh impossible to be certain where the paintings were painted. Is that lady wearing Naples fashions or those from Rome? Who knows?
Anyway, I got myself all wrapped up in my worry about not being “right” that I avoided drawing anything claiming to be Italian Renaissance for two years. Finally, I realized I was being ridiculous. So, I looked through all the paintings I had collected on my Pinterest Board devoted to Italy. I read what I could find and then I set to work. Here’s what I know- These dresses are based on those in two portraits.
Portrait of a Lady by Pier Francesco Foschi, 1530-1535?La Bella by Titian, c. 1536
The dress on the left is based on Portrait of a Lady by Pier Francesco Foschi. Dress on the right is based on La Bella by Titian. Both painting date from the 1530s.
Pier Francesco Foschi (1502–1567) was an Italian painter active in Florence. It’s possible the lady in this painting is also from Florence. There are other examples of this dress style here and here. Since those are also unidentified, it’s impossible to know exactly where this combination was being worn. The fur trimmed sleeves, black trimmed bodices, raised waists, long gridles, and high collared camisoles seem to be the common elements.
Meanwhile, on the right, Titian was a Venetian painter whose work is well regarded. The person in this painting is unknown, so the area this style of dress was worn is also unknown. Titian worked all over Italy, which adds to the confusion. The low neckline seems to be somewhat unusual for this period, as most dresses I saw had something filling in that space. In my rendition, I think I made the waist too high, but that’s neither here nor there.
A few things I noticed generally, unlike Tudor dress which is super stiff, the sleeves and skirts of these gowns fall more softly. I wasn’t able to find any full length portraits of these dresses, so I am guessing they fell to the floor without knowing for sure.
There’s some debate if these dresses were worn over some sort of stays. I have no idea, but I do know the flattened bust of these dresses wouldn’t have been possible without either some sort of support in the bodice of the dresses or underneath them. It does seem like wide open necked shifts were often worn and are referenced in several books I have.
Anyway, shoes were snagged from a few different places like here and my favorite- Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz. Of course, from Stepping Through Time focuses on Netherlands and this is Italian, so… mileage may vary.
All in all, while there’s things I would change for next time, I’m okay with that. I have one more Italian renaissance foray to share and I just got a few books on order about the period from the library so… there may yet be more of this to come. I’m sure after I’ve done more research, I’ll approach it differently, but I didn’t want my own need to “be sure” get too much in the way of finishing some new paper dolls.
And if you’d like to get to vote on future polls about “what I should draw next” join us on Patreon.
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