One of the major trends of 2020 is polka-dots (and I did a paper doll celebrating that already) and then my other trend that I have been super interested in is the 1980s and the tendency as corset tops. Plus, I think when it comes to celebrating fashion, paper dolls are pretty much the perfect fashion paper craft. They allow us to not just explore trends, but kids can draw their own paper doll clothing.
Personally, I don’t really remember the 1980s, because I was both very young and living in Alaska. Alaska is not exactly trendy as a other parts of the country. We’re a little behind in fashion. Also, we all wear lots of rainboots, polar-fleece and puffer vests. Puffer vests might have trended last year, but we were wearing them long before they were trendy.
Anyway, the big trends in this paper doll are the 1980s styles, corsets, bra tops, and Bermuda shorts. The bra tops and corset tops seemed like similar ideas to collapse together. The suit jacket works with either the lose trousers or the skirt, but I colored it as though these were separates for more flexibility. You can, of course, color them any way you choose.
Color wise, I wanted to use the Pantone 2020 palette called Snorkle. I’m not a huge fan of pantone’s color of the year– Classic Blue. It’s just kind of… boring? Can I admit that. I’m not against it, but it’s not super exciting to me. I guess given how 2020 has gone people are not super into exciting these days. Anyway, there’s also a trend for the return of some neon colors and the bright green was my nod to that trend.
Among my favorite things about this version of Pearl is her hair. I’m always working to learn to draw hair better and I feel like this hair came out particularly nice. It’s a process, after all.
Are you into fashion trends? I confess I’m pretty boring in my clothing choices, but I do like drawing them for paper dolls. I try to stay at least aware of what’s happening in the world of trendy clothing.
Here we are at the end of July 2020 (how did that happen?) and I feel like it’s time to do a little mid-year assessment of how things are going here in Paper Thin Personas land. It’s a small land, mostly me and several hundred paper people, but none the less.
This has certainly been a year of upheaval thus far (pandemic, anyone?) I think it’s still important to look at goals and see where one is.
One of my new paper doll designs for the Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 Series.
After many years of not creating sets, I returned to sets this year. Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 debuted in April. I thought about saving it for a “logical” time, but really this is my little world and I can decide when I want to change things. I absoultly don’t regret this decision, but I do feel a little bad for folks who printed out a bunch of Jewels and Gemstones 1.0.
Slowly but surely, I’m converting some of my Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 content into the new size and adding more pieces when needed to fill out the sets. So, that’s been a fun project.
Keep your eyes open for some contemporary sets, a regency set and some 1950s sets, too. Also, some fantasy gowns and possibly ninjas.
365 Project for Patrons
Despite one big break which I just recovered from, I am super pleased to day that my 5 dollar patrons are currently somewhere around paper doll item 213. I am quite proud of my progress on that project. So, that’s been super fun.
Print Product
Paper Doll Studio Issue 126
Did I mention the pandemic? Seriously, the idea of dealing with the logistics around this right now have totally put me at a stand-still. I think I’ll get there eventually. It just won’t be soon.
The pandemic has cancelled the convention, so I did not attend. I had bought a plane ticket and I am slightly annoyed that I didn’t get to use it. I was looking forward to meeting Julie Matthews in person and getting to hang out with paper doll people. Plus, since I was going to Chicago for work the week before, I was also going to get to see some good friends in that city. Oh well, hopefully next year.
New Goals for 2020
Mostly, my goals for 2020 remain- just get through this year!
However, as I like goals and they keep me focused I have two to add to my list for 2020.
Create 12 historical paper doll sets for Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 with totally new content. I’m not counting my reformatted sets.
Create at least 12 Dolls Du Jour paper dolls. I have three so far and they need some friends!
I do want to create something as print product. It might not happen, but I am going to try.
Anything my readers would love to see as the year wraps up?
If I had to pick one thing I like drawing the most, I would have a lot of trouble, but it would probably be a tie between historical paper dolls and fantasy paper dolls. Historical because I love doing research and I am big costume history buff. Fantasy because sometimes I really don’t want to do so much research before I draw a paper doll. Of the fantasy things I draw, I think dresses are probably my favorite thing to create. I’m a sucker for a fantasy gown, what can I say?
This is funny, because in the real world, I am very much a jeans and t-shirts kinda girl.
Last year, I started a whole series of princess fantasy gowns I called the Princess and Their Gowns Collection. So far, there are two princesses and today’s paper doll is the third. They can not only share clothing, but the dresses are all in the same color scheme. Many mix and match options, I think.
The Dinner Dress owes a lot to the dresses of the 18th century with the petticoat and the sleeves with ruffles. The “Rococo/Big Skirted Absurdity” section on my Fantasy Pinterest Board has more stuff in this genre. I have a fondness for 18th century inspired paper doll gowns.
I’m really happy with how Lapis’ hair came out and I am glad to have her joining Sapphire and Opal. Between the three of them, there are six dresses which I think is a good beginning. I need to draw more though. I’m thinking maybe a sports outfit, perhaps hiking? And also maybe something for the seaside. I haven’t totally decided yet. Is there a theme for a gown you’d like to see?
In my second Topaz paper doll of the week, here’s some 12th century clothing to go along with the Tudor paper doll from Tuesday. If I had a chose a period of fashion I both really like and know very little about, it would be the 12th century aka 1100s. 12th century clothing in Western Europe is both super interesting to me (I love the sleeves) and very alien.
As much as possible, I try to work from primary sources, ideally illuminated by well written analysis by scholars who know more than me. However, the books I have tend to start in 1200 which is more well documented period and leave 1100s out entirely.
Perfect historical accuracy is impossible, so knowing that I did my best on this paper doll and her 1100s dresses.
Topaz is wearing a shift based one illustrated in Roman de Giron le Courtois on Folio 87v. The manuscript dates from between 1370-1380 even though this is 200 years after the 1100s. Illustrations of women in shifts are just super rare, so you have to use what you can find. I made my version shorter and tighter than the originals, because paper dolls have to layer. Paper doesn’t fold like fabric.
Additionally, Topaz’s shoes all come from Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz, a book on archeological footwear finds. It’s fascinating, but very densely written work. Her hair and headdress are based on illustrations from Women’s Hats, Headdresses and Hairstyles by Georgine de Courtais. Her veil is based on the one seen on the Ushaw Virgin, a brass from the British Museum, as is the dress on the right. The statue, Enthroned Virgin and Child, from The Met, was another source for the dresses. I also used some of the manuscript images from this German site on the Bliaut. All the illustrations are properly cited and that always makes me happy.
The bliaut is the subject of a lot of debate. Statues of the time show a very wrinkled, almost pleated fabric effect (like this), but illustrations by and large don’t. When they do show horizontal wrinkles across the abdomen they tend to be more subtle. I went with the more subtle option and the no wrinkles option. Inevitably, drawing fashions from history requires making editorial decisions, but I try to capture the silhouette of the period.
Books consulted in the creation of this paper doll included Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz, Women’s Hats, Headdresses and Hairstyles by Georgine de Courtais, Medieval Dress and Fashion by Margaret Scott and Fashion in the Middle Ages by Margret Scott, though this last one was not helpful, particularly.
This is an era I’d like to learn more about. So, if anyone has a book recommendation I’ll happy accept it. Most of my books don’t cover this early period very well.
Today’s set was put together from pieces posted here on the blog last year and on Patreon.
Today’s paper doll is my second Tudor clothing paper doll. My amazing patrons voted for Tudor as a historical era to explore, hence the focus on Tudor. Also, I realized I still didn’t know a lot about the clothing of this time period. My first Tudor clothing paper doll from the Jewels and Gemstones was Ruby and today’s paper doll is Topaz.
A little about this Tudor clothing- this portrait of a young woman from 1567 and this portrait of Susan Bertie inspired the dress on the left. The dress on the right is a Henrician gown. This portrait of Mary I and this portrait of Katherine Parr feature this style of dress in lighter colors than you usually see it. These portraits also show off French Hoods, a very popular headdress style. This portrait, often identified as Helena Snakenborg, is where I saw the court bonnet. I should note that the identification as Helena Snakenborg has never been proven.
First rule, I gave myself was that I was not going to make any dresses black. Don’t get me wrong, black fabric was wildly expensive in the 1500s and therefore very popular for portraits and people of wealth. Black is, however, one of my least favorite colors. It obscures line work, so I only used it for her hair and the veil for the French Hood. I didn’t see any French Hood’s that had veils of other colors. Also, I have no idea if French Hood is a proper noun and should be capitalized, but I am anyway.
I wanted to use colors I knew were common/referenced in source materials. According to sumptuary laws of the time only nobles could wear blue and there’s references in The Art of Dress by Jane Ashelford to tawny colored gowns. That’s why I chose to make one gown blue and the other a sort of beige color.
Topaz’s underwear is based on illustrations from the Tudor Tailor by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies. The bodies are based on the famous Pfaltzgrafin Dorothea Sabine von Neuberg’s pair of bodies from around 1598. All of her shoes come from Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz. Her underwear, as I noted on the paper doll, has been simplified to facilitate playing with the paper doll. An actual extant 16th century shift is at the V&A and you can see it here.
Other books I consulted about Tudor clothing were, in no particular order, were Tudor Fashion, The History of Underclothes, In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion, and Tudor Costume and Fashion. And you can see some of my reference image so on my 16th Century Dress Pinterest board.
You can see all my Tudor paper dolls here. Up next on the historical paper doll front will be the 1970s and the 1890s. That was the other winners when I polled my Patrons.
Over the years, I have done many story and fairy tale paper dolls. Several years ago, I did a whole series of Alice in Wonderland inspired pieces and a bunch from classic fairy tales like Little Red Ridinghood and Rapunzel.
Along with my nursery rhymes and fairy tales, there’s the novel Divergent and the Harry Potter world, though I confess I am not particularly impressed with the authors more recent works or her politics, but then Lewis Carroll had his own issues and I have plenty of Alice paper dolls. Many of which you can see in the gallery below.
Story & Fairy Tale Paper Dolls
I also did a whole series of magnetic paper dolls based on fairy tales, though I haven’t included those here- as they are not terribly functional as printable and really are meant to be magnetic. You can see them in the Flock Fairy Tales Series.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy these! Did you have a favorite fairytale when you were a kid? Mine was always the 12 Dancing Princesses (which oddly, I’ve never done a paper doll of, I think the whole 12 part of that title intimidates me). I also loved East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf , and The Wild Swans, all a bit esoteric. Also, I don’t think most of them would translate very well into paper form. Knitting with stinging nettles doesn’t seem like an easy to create paper doll trope, you know?
Do you have a favorite fairy tale? Which one is it? Let me know in a comment. Who knows? Maybe it will become a paper doll someday.
Awesome cosmic power needs amazing dresses, don’t you think?
I love designing sorceress paper dolls. It’s been a while since I’ve done any for the blog, though I regularly share them on Patreon with my Vivian paper doll. My love of designing over the top fantasy dresses is will documented and sorceresses are an excuse to play around with themes like the seasons or the elements or being a dragon.
30 Sorceress Paper Dolls in Color & Black and White
I had a lot of fun with these and it made me realize I haven’t done an evil sorceress in a while. I should work on that for one of the paper doll series. I think maybe Doll Du Jour?
Meanwhile, if you want yet more paper dolls head over to Patreon and consider joining us. Not only does it support the costs of sharing my free content, but there’s several neat projects on going!
Let me start with this disclaimer: I do not watch Anime. As my partner would attest, I know nothing about magical girls, except what I vaguely remember from having friends obsessed with Sailor Moon in the 1990s. I wasn’t super into Sailor Moon, but they sure as heck were.
Magical girls, as I understand it, is a sub-genre of Japanese anime/manga/other stuff that feature girls using magic. (Yeah, you might have guessed that from the title, huh?) The primary feature of Magical Girl anime is the idea of a transformation. Most Magical Girl characters have a magic object (called a compact, I think?) which they use to transform into their magical selves.
Then- they fight evil/crime/playing cards? This genre mystifies me on occasion.
Features of Magical Girl outfits seem to be lots of ribbons, ruffles and asymmetry. Our magical girl, Dawn, has double buns (a nod to Sailor Moon), a compact version of her staff (as seen in both Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura) and several outfits.
So, the primary source for inspiration for her costumes was Cardcapture Sakura. There is also some Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica in there as well. One of the things I liked about Cardcapture Sakura was that it has lots of different outfits. That was a fun thing to look up. I noticed asymmetry in many of the outfits, hence the knee sock and the ankle sock with ruffles and a ribbon.
The baggy shorts were my attempt to draw something not a dress (there’s lots of dresses in the world of Magical Girls), but I openly admit this set is less mix and match then I like. Still, dresses tend not be very mix and match. I can live with that. She can always borrow jeans from this set.
Drawing a genre I know so little about it both fun and a bit scary. I don’t know what I don’t know, but I had fun finding images and adapting them. I hope folks who do know more about this style than I do will let me know how I did in my foray into the land of Magical Girls.
Anyway, if you like what you see around here, consider popping over to Patreon and supporting it. If you’d like to let me know what you think about today’s paper doll, I always love to read comments.
As some of you may recall, I’ve been doing a whole collection of these big skirted fantasy gowns since last year. I knew I wanted to continue the series in 2020, so I have been resizing the dresses for the Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 while also drawing some princesses with amazing hair to get to wear the dresses. I’m calling this the Princess and Their Gowns Collection and this is the second one.
Of course, any of the paper dolls can wear the dresses, as long as they aren’t in historical underwear which will likely show under some of these gowns. Re-posting some of my historical dolls in the new 2.0 format is definitely on the to-do list.
There’s two gowns here- one is a ball gown with a truly impressive skirt. The other is a music dress which could be any type of dress, but comes with a random instrument. The ballgown was originally a Patron design from last year.
The first of these princesses and their gowns was Opal and her princess gowns who I shared back in March. Now, this is the second and I’ve also got a version with Lapis finished. I’ll hopefully share that version soon.
Do you have a favorite of these two gowns? I think I like the music dress, myself. Let me know in a comment! I love to hear from you.
And remember that if you want to get more paper doll clothing, head over to Patreon where I share an extra paper doll or dress on Fridays. There’s other fun projects as well, including my 365 day project where I’m sharing some of the results of my foray into Idea Roulette.
The pollen count in this part of Alaska is worse than Alabama. I am constantly taking allergy medication and sniffling. As if the world isn’t hard enough right now, I also need sinus headaches and itchy eyes. Most of the time, my allergy medication keeps it under control, but I am not enjoying spring.
On the upside, it’s not over 100 degrees outside. So, I guess I need to look at benefits of Alaska.
Meanwhile, let’s talk paper dolls. Today’s creation is an elf paper doll. I will confess my images of elves were probably forever changed because of watching the Lord of the Rings movies a lot in high school and college. My friends and I in college binged those movies on several occasions. Except binge watching wasn’t a term yet, so we called it having a marathon. I digress. The pioinis that when I design an elf paper doll I always end up thinking of those costumes, for better or for worse.
I like to think for better.
Today’s paper doll was also an experiment in how many gowns I can fit in on one set and what the best way to arrange them is. I am pretty happy with this layout, I think. It’s not perfect, but I am still getting back into the grove of drawing sets, not individual pieces.
I decided for Diamond to show off these. Her cheekbones feel elf-like to me. I don’t know, but I think elves probably have great cheekbones.
I’m trying to have each of the Jewels and Gemstones dolls have their own new Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 version. I haven’t gotten all of them yet. Amethyst, Pearl and Lapis still need their sets, I think. Pearl’s set is in progress- it’s some 1980s inspired fashions. Fingers crossed, I will get some drawing done this weekend.
I think the bow is a short bow and I measured the arrows against her arm. I think they are close to the right length, but I’m not 100% sure. Listen- I know very little about archery, except this- Never ask about bow hunting in Alabama around deer season unless you really really want to know. Bow hunters are passionate folks.
When I think elves, I think monstrous creatures that you bribe with milk so they don’t kill your cattle. Wait… that’s fairies. Sorry.
Elves, in a Tolkien sense, are sort of peaceful and wise. (Hopefully, as I don’t have that much milk on hand.) So, I decided to go with what I thought was a really calm color scheme. I somehow can’t imagine fantasy elves in day-glow orange, though as I write that I wonder if I should try to draw one anyway. Just to stretch myself.
What about you? What colors make you think of elves? Also, is it elven? Or Elfen? I have no idea and my computer tells me both are not words. Let me know in a comment if you have an opinion on that one or the color scheme or anything else.
And so I thought it would be fun today to celebrate alien paper dolls! Not just scifi, but specifically aliens. That means lots of blue skin, colorful hair and impractical space suits!
15 Alien Paper Dolls to Print
I haven’t done an alien paper doll in a while, I realized after I put this collection together. Maybe I need a “meteorite” member of the Jewels and Gemstones family. Until then, I hope you enjoy these paper dolls from my archives.
Any themes you’d like to see me gather up? I’d love to know in a comment.
It’s tough to write about paper dolls right now. There’s a lot going on in the world- protests, some violent, a pandemic, economic uncertainty… It’s a lot, but it would be disingenuous of me to just post another paper doll, because to do so would be to suggest that this tiny niche hobby I participate in (I sometimes call it the niche-ist of niche hobbies) is somehow insulated from the structural white supremacy that pervades the rest of the culture of the United States. It is not and that is what I am going to talk about today.
To demonstrate it’s insidious presence even in paper dolls, I am going to discuss something I have never spoken about publicly before. I want to talk about three things I have been told in regards to paper doll skin-tone and how I see these things perpetuating white supremacy.
I have heard all of these more than once, both in conversations, comments and through emails. Let me begin by saying that I am a cis white woman. I know that I do things and think things that perpetuate racism. I try very hard to fight this tendency, but I know it is there. This is not an attempt to suggest my experiences are in anyway comparable to those of a people of color. Benefiting from the system of white supremacy means I am insulated from many harsher realities. Having said that, I hope sharing this will help illustrate how insidious this is.
1. That I should do more white paper dolls, because I have fewer white paper dolls and it should be even.
What this highlights is a tendency of people to lump diversity into a binary- white folks, all other folks. That’s really not accurate. Why should a person who has red-brown skin have to play with a paper doll that has yellow-brown skin? Why does society treat those as the “same”? They aren’t. There are hundreds of skin tones. All deserve to be depicted. Two white dolls, one black doll and one asian doll isn’t equality of depiction. White supremacy teaches that white is the logical default skin tone and other skin tones should be grouped together as one. This in turn creates an normal vs abnormal mentality which reinforces structural racism.
2. That my historical paper dolls aren’t accurate if they aren’t white.
This highlights the tendency of people to perceive the historical past as white. This isn’t true. There have been people of African descent in Europe since Roman times. History is a lot more diverse than school taught most of us. It feels off to many to see a brown paper doll in Regency dress, because structural racism tells people that history was white. Anything which violates the narrative of white skin being the historical default is automatically suspect.
3. That it’s nice that I draw so many brown paper dolls, but maybe I should stop for my own good.
This is usually phrased as a helpful suggestion. “Have you considered how much more popular your site would be if you did more white paper dolls?” Or “It’s great that you value diversity, but have you thought about how much better your work would sell if you made X paper doll white?” The message is- if you want to be popular, make more white paper dolls. White skin is the gateway to gains and benefits.
I do want to note that the vast majority of the feedback I get is from happy people who are over joyed to have found a paper doll that looked like their grandchild/niece/daughter/friend. Those comments are lovely, but today I wanted to speak about these. I doubt anyone who has written to me in the last ten years was intentionally perpetuating white supremacy. That’s what makes it scary and that’s what makes it hard to fight- internally and externally. It’s so insidious.
So, let me close with this, I can do better. I am trying to do better. I believe anyone can learn and do better. Below are some of resources I have found really useful. Maybe some of you will find them useful, too.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo which I haven’t read all of, but what I have read is great. I wish this book had existed when I first was trying to work out these issues in my head, because it is such a useful roadmap. And each chapter is very digestible.
I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood by Tiana Clark is an amazing book of poetry, much of which deals with race. For pleasure, I read a lot of poetry. I decided last year to try to read mostly books published within the last two years written by women of color. This one is my favorite of them, so far.
Am I perfect about all this? Nope, not at all. Am I working on it? I am trying.
And if you want to follow some amazing black illustrators doing wonderful work who deserve attention, I would recommend the following on Instagram (where I get most of my art these days): @renaldo_barnette (he also does paper dolls!) ; @asieybarbie; @melmadedooks; @gdbee and @artofedge.
Lastly, I know these are scary times. I’ll still be creating and sharing my paper dolls and I’ll still be thinking about these topics as I go through my life. I believe society can get better, but the first step is identifying and speaking openly about the problem.
I have neither the skill or mental capacity right now to moderate a discussion on this very complicated topic, so I am closing the comments. Stay safe everyone!
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