Checking in on my 2022 Goals

1. 100 Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 Paper Dolls

Technically, last week I posted my 99th Jewels and Gemstones post, but it wasn’t actually my 99th set, because there are round up posts and other J&G related posts in the that category. So, I think if I am counting right, there’s more like 98 at this point. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’ll meet this goal by the end odd 2022, one way or another and that makes me happy.

2. 10 Historical Paper Dolls

So, we started the year with this fantastic 1960s set and there have been nine so far. Other then a short dip into the Italian Renaissance, almost everything has been 20th century. While the last time I asked my patrons, 1910 won my poll, I think I’d like to do something else not 20th century, so I need to decide on a period. Regency stuff is very popular these days, or maybe something 18th century? I haven’t done that in a while… I do have a big 1950s set in progress, but I confess I’m a little stalled on it.

3. Send Things to OPDAG for Paper Doll Review

Achieved! I mailed off my plaid contribution this month and I sent out animals already. The next theme is World Adventures, but I am not 100% sure what that means, so I may give that one a pass. We’ll see how I feel when I get closer to the December deadline.

4. Finish Another Book/Print Project

So, this one is on pause. I’m very proud of the book I created on Lulu, but I have had mixed feelings about the quality of the prints that I have gotten from Lulu. I may need to come up with another option for this. I have ideas. But it may not look like I had planned it to look.

5. Continue with the Newsletter for 2022

So far so good! I do enjoy making my little newsletter. Sign up here, if you haven’t. It’s a project that while I enjoy it, I am not 100% I’ll keep going in 2023. I guess I’ll decide how I feel when I get there.

6. 10 Dolls Du Jour This Year

All right, well, there’s 7 so far. I think we’ll hit 10. I have faith. I’ve got one whose going up later this week and then I need to draw some more, but I am full of confidence that this one is going to work out just fine.

So, I think, in terms of my goals for 2022, I am feeling pretty good.

For my Patrons, Here’s Vivian’s Visiting Dress

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Sapphire is a Fairy in Blue

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The Vivian Dolls Collection 1

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And Now… Paper Dolls Who Are Feeling Blue!

I know that blue mostly shows up in medieval manuscripts because lapis was a popular coloring agent for ink, but I still will always think of it as a medieval color. There’s something super magical about the color blue to me! It can be masculine or very feminine and thanks to indigo dye it has been around for a long long time. Woad, which is a yellow flowering plant, actually makes a bright blue die and it was used extensively before indigo came to Europe.

It also one of my favorite colors to make skin tones- I’ve done a fair number of blue skinned paper dolls over the years from fairies to aliens.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to show off some blue paper dolls as we ease into September.

25 Paper Dolls In Blue

As I selected which blue paper dolls to feature here, I really wanted to show blue as a historical color- like this 1920s dress and this medieval one- and blue as a preppy color like this modern paper doll. In my wardrobe, mostly blue shows up in my jeans, but my paper dolls have more fun than that.

Paper dolls always get more fun with their clothing than I do.

Tanya has a Formal Evening

Printable paper doll coloring pages with a black paper doll and her five evening gowns and three pairs of shoes. The dolls has an afro-puff.
Printable black paper doll with her five evening gowns and three pairs of shoes. The dolls has an afro-puff.

Download the 2 Page Black and White PDF | Download the 2 Page Color PDF | More Talia Tuesday & Friends Dolls

Today, we have Tanya with some evening gowns. This set has actually been sitting on my computer for way longer than I like to admit. However, it’s done now, so that’s okay.

Tanya’s last collection was very fantasy themed, so I thought she should get some more modern things, but I confess now I feel like the poor girl needs some pants. I’m not 100% in love with how her afro-puff came out, but I can live with that. I think that angle is wrong…

I digress.

All right, so yeah, paper doll! I know for like Search Engine Optimization I should really try to write between 300 and 500 words per post, but I haven’t got that much to say here. It’s a cute printable black paper doll. That’s kinda all I got today.

Vivian: The Original Project

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WIP Week: 1950s Fashion Work In Progress

So, I’ve been working on a big collection of 1950s dresses for the Jewels and Gemstones paper dolls. Right now, there’s 5 dolls and a lot of pages of clothing. I have no idea if I’ll put all of it on the blog, save some for Etsy, use some for Patreon. Who knows at this point!

My major resources for this project were the Catalogs & Wishbooks Site which appears to be someone’s passion project and contains over 200 fully digitized catalogs from the 1940s to the 2000s. It’s an amazing piece of work which, as someone who manages digitization projects for a living, I am in awe of. These digitized catalogs have made researching 20th century fashion so much easier.

Other resources have included the Vintage Pattern Wiki and museums of course, but there’s something about the raw amount of content from the Catalogs & Wishbooks Site.

Underwear, Swimsuits, and Shoes

I didn’t really have a clear plan how I was going to structure these sets when I drew them, so everything is a little scattershot in terms of year and style.

Early 1950s dresses and late 1950s purses

I didn’t do anything that was evening gown level in this set. I tend to find evening clothing less interesting to me then things people wore day to day. One of the reasons I love drawing from catalogs, is because it means that the item was actually available to people to purchase, unlike fashion illustrations which are often very high end designer fashion. Nothing wrong with that, but it interests me less then what most people had access too. Catalog aren’t aspirational, usually.

More Early 1950s stuff with hats! Hats!

One thing that struck me while working on this was how many pages in these catalogs were devoted to hats. Hats are something women do not normally wear anymore, but they were super popular in the 1950s and didn’t really fall out of fashion until the 1970s.

I digress.

The next step is to scan these and clean them up and then layout and color!

WIP Week: Doodles in my Notebook

Sometimes, I just don’t have any finished paper dolls, my friends.

Creativity, for me, is something that comes in bursts. I truly believe that creation breeds creation. The more you work then the more you will keep working, but I also generally try to have more than one project in different stages at one time- that way if I am not feeling like penciling or inking, I can work on the computer.

Maybe it’s just that I’ve been busy, or maybe it’s that this last year has been A LOT, but I’ve gotten out of rhythm and I am struggling to keep the stages of the pipeline in-synch. Right now, I have a lot I want to draw, but very little have actually gotten into the sketchbook and less I’ve gotten inked or scanned.

But that’s okay. I’ll catch up.

In the meantime, I thought I’d give a little look into my little notebook, the one I carry with me 90% of the time. I have a bit sketchbook and this isn’t it.

Everything from to do lists to various doodles hang out in this little notebook. When it’s full, I replace it with another one, because I use a travelers notebook style cover. Easy, peasey, and low commitment.

Let’s look inside…

First up, a set of things I doodled after a round of ideal roulette (more about that over here).

My feelings about this round of this game were pretty mixed. I wasn’t super happy with anything I ended up with, except my regency fantasy armor looks. I do actually really want to draw, but I’m not sure for which paper doll. I’ve also got this cute gothic fairy idea which I might use for Halloween, except Julie of Paper Doll School and I have been talking about witches for Halloween.

So…. maybe need to wait on my cute little gothic fairy idea.

Past the idea roulette, we have four Vivian ideas. Vivian is my Patreon paper doll, named for a childhood paper doll with the same name. I am starting to think it’s time for a Vivian 2.0 reboot, since I’ve been drawing her since 2015, but in the meantime, there’s some steampunk dress designs I’ve doodled here.

And after Vivian, we have an assortment of other things.

On the left, there’s a redraw I’ve been wanting to do of an old Marisole Set and a Curves set, along with a “outdoorsy” set for Talia Tuesday and some fantasy Regency dresses to go along with the armor I came up with. And on the right, there’s an autumn addition to the Big Princess Dresses Jewels and Gemstones thing, but I’m not super happy with those designs, so they may not happen. We’ll see how I feel when I start penciling them.

The primary reason I don’t show these off very often is there’s a pretty high chance that some of these will never make it from “idea in my head” to actual paper doll content. These are about as raw as my ideas get. Some of this, if not most of it, will never be finished.

My other big project is a 1950s set for the Jewels and Gemstones. More on that later this week.

The Vivian Doll Herself

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