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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I get a fair number of questions about my process and one thing I really wanted to do is show people how I create what I create. I admit sometimes I feel like a slacker, because very little about this process has changed dramatically in the decide the blog has run. I’m sort of in awe of people who really dramatically switch up their methods on the regular.

I’m trying to learn to use Photoshop on ipad, so I can occasionally draw something directly on the screen and it’s already stressing me out. But I am getting better at it. Maybe sometime I’ll share a few of my attempts.

I pencil everything first. So, on the left is the “rough” sketch over which I will be inking. There’s usually few more tweaks that happen, like adding details to the “ray-gun” and fixing the shape of the skirt which I clearly wasn’t super happy with this stage, but that’s the basic idea. The themes are ballgowns and retro space alien, in case you’re wondering what ray-guns and ballgowns have in common.

So, for October themes include – a witch (I’ve been practicing witch’s hats for a project that may or may not happen) and a October themed clothing set sort of like my March themed clothing set. I need to think about winter stuff and if I am going to try to do a paper doll for Thanksgiving. I never have before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. How hard can it to be draw a Turkey?

None of this is specific for a month or anything, but the clothing on the left was a sort of regency-core inspired set of clothing and the gown on the right was me playing with fantasy dresses. I like having sets that aren’t based on a specific holiday, because it allows me to calculate where to put them in the order of the newsletters.

To give further context, there’s about 19 weeks left in 2022. Since the Newsletter comes out very two weeks, that means I need ten more paper dolls to get me through the end of the year. Friday’s paper doll was number 14, so in September there will be 15, 16, and 17. Then October will have 18 and 19 and then… well, you get the idea.

Anyway, the goal here was create enough content to get me through September, October and a little bit into November before I decide what to do next. Hence why I haven’t drawn a turkey… yet.

Want to see these paper dolls when they’re all finished? Be sure to sign up for the Newsletter here.