Every year in March during Spring Fashion Week the big fashion magazines bring out their issues on the trends for the next year. It’s one of the few times I buy fashion magazines, because I love getting to see what’s on the runways.
I know there’s lot of websites that do the same thing, but maybe it’s because I stare at a computer screen most of the day (and even more now that I’m working from home!) that I really find myself craving something that isn’t digital to look at. So, I still pick up my fashion magazines and crack them open.
Inspiration
So, I was pouring through the fashion magazines for March and I noticed a lot of these sort of soft tie-dyed stripes. Well, I can’t draw soft tie dye very well in pen and ink, so I decided to do this instead. It’s sort of an soft semi-monochrome stripe.
Also, just fyi, the new Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 I mentioned last week will debut next week. I am super excited about this.
Ask me if you have any questions!
And if you want more Jewels and Gemstones clothing, check out the Patreon page.
I have just a few of these posts to share before I wrap up the Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 and roll out the new Jewels and Gemstones 2.0. I am super excited to share them.
So, this week will be the last week of Jewels and Gemstones 1.0.
I designed this set to be a set of military inspired steampunk clothing. Throughout history, the military uniforms have influenced fashion (as all current events do) and this is particularly obvious during the Regency era when the Napoleonic wars ragged and suddenly everyone was wearing bass buttons on their walking coats.
Also, the Civil War and World War 2, though World War 2 had other interesting influences, because of the fabric restrictions placed on clothing.
I digress.
Inspiration
Steampunk, obviously. Steampunk is an aesthetic which combines the Victorian era fashion with contemporary looks. I think it’s a natural response to the digital age, much as the craftsman movement of the turn of the century was a cultural response to industrialization.
However, I do find the whole genre’s tendency to glamorize an era that was rife with social issues and colonialism problematic. I mean, there’s no perfect era of history, but… the Victorian era was pretty grim.
Want more paper dolls? Head over to Patreon where I share an extra Jewels and Gemstones paper doll outfit every week.
I’m trying to stay away from too much Covid-19 talk. I know it’s happening (everyone else knows its happening), but I think right now all I can really do is let everyone know I am safe and that I hope everyone else stays safe. Now… let’s talk about paper dolls!
Big News 1: New Home For PTP
I’m on a new server with a new hosting company. A few kinks from the site transfer are still being worked out, but Blue Host has been lovely to work with and I have nothing but nice things to say about their support folks.
Moving a site as large as PTP (plus it is basically held together with digital duct tape and string) was never going to be painless.
Big News 2: Jewels and Gemstones 2.0- Smaller, but Just as Cute and Curvy!
Gothic Lolita Paper Doll Set In Progress
As some of you know, I’ve been doing a project for my 5$ and up Patrons where I am sharing a piece of paper doll clothing everyday this year. That project has made me realize something- I miss drawing sets.
So, I am happy to introduce Jewels and Gemstones 2.0- smaller, but just as cute!
In order to turn the series into sets, I’ve had to resize it.
The original Jewels and Gemstones clothing SHOULD fit if resized to 80% (and the new dolls can wear the old clothing at 120%). My plan at the moment is to make sets both of new content and existing content and some will be a mix of both.
I have two sets from Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 to share and then… 2.0 will debut.
It was supposed to debut 2 weeks ago, but server stuff got in the way.
Big News 3: The Doll Du Jour: New Paper Doll Series
New Paper Doll Series in Progress
I am happy to say I am working on a new paper doll series called Doll Du Jour, a big thank you to Sheryl, one of my long time patrons for helping me come up with the series name.
These dolls were inspired by a paper doll I created last year which was in my sketchbook, but that sketchbook got ruined in the move, so I had to redraw her and I’m super happy with how she turned out.
Big News 4: The 100 Day Project
The 100 Day Project Doll, as of yet unnamed.
So, I’m working from home and getting a fair bit done, but I find I really have to take a formal “lunch break” mid-day or I start clawing at the walls. During these lunch breaks, I’ve been working on a 100 Day Project. You can check out my work on Instagram.
Several people have asked if this unnamed paper doll (any suggestions you are welcome to toss into a comment) will show up on the blog or the Etsy Store. Short answer: I have no idea.
Lastly… A Favor to Ask
I have every reason to believe at this point that the site transfer to it’s new home was successful. However, if you find any problems, please please let me know. You can email me anything you find to paperthinpersonas (at) gmail.com.
Patrons will, of course, continue to get content and starting on April 7th, I’ll be posting in #the100daysproject on Instagram. My hashtag will be #100daysofpaperdolls
I don’t suffer from a lot of delusions of grandure. I’m a librarian/archivist who draws paper dolls for her micro-business and also can gut a salmon in six cuts. I’m not qualified to say anything about our current pandemic, except that I’m staying home a lot more and for some reason, there is no flour in town.
Bread, yes. Flour, no. I’m so confused, people.
So, instead of telling you to wash your hands (because I hope you are), I am going to focus on what I do- draw paper dolls and occasionally make weird jokes about the strangeness of 1830s hair styles.
Meanwhile, here’s a fantasy princess paper doll dress. And over on Patreon for everyone there’s two other versions of this dress- a blue version & a yellow version.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper
This dress really doesn’t have a source image. I just kinda was drawing one afternoon and it happened. It wasn’t planned or carefully sourced in anyway. If I go way back to this post Green Princess, you will seem a similar silhouette.
By the way, in my head, this is a special dress that was commissioned by the princess to wear to a chess match. Because nothing calls for a new dress, like a chess match. Maybe, she’s in the chess match? I have no idea. I am super bad at chess.
Okay, I know I spent a lot of this post making fun of the 1830s, but really how can you not? Also, I doubt a decade can really be offended and in honor of poor hair choices, I had a bowl cut for most of the 1990s.
In my defense, I was 10. I also had a rat tail which I asked for. It was a thing.
I just recently realized how long it has been since I’ve done one of these sketchbook posts. I kinda missed them. They’re relatively easy and the results are fun and I like showing off my sketchbooks. These days these sorts of things tend to show up on my social media and that’s hardly logical. No reason I can’t share the there and here.
Penciled Circus set for my 365 Paper Doll Project on Patreon
My 365 (366?) Day paper doll project has really revived my interest in doing paper doll sets. This Circus collection has been a lot of fun and I am sharing it now with my 5 Dollar Patrons.
Penciled sets for the Jewels and Gemstones. Military Steampunk on the left and Modern on the right.
The Jewels and Gemstones get some steampunk and some modern stuff here. I love the patterned pencil skirt.
6 Mix and Match modern pieces inked and in my sketchbook.
And this is some inked things. These are more modern things. This time of year, with Spring Fashion Week, I always find myself wanting to draw contemporary clothing.
Any themes you would like to see? Let me know in a comment!
There’s something fun about designing flower fairies. I think it might be, because the dolls leafy undies always make me think of fairies.
It’s very cold up here in the sub-arctic where I live. There’s still snow and it’s been over 20 below more days than I like to admit. Did you know that when it is -40 is the temperature where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet?
I sort of wish I didn’t know that.
However, nothing for a cold, snow covered March like imagining spring and flowers are a sign of spring.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper
There wasn’t a specific source image for these fairy paper doll clothes. I sort of was inspired by a bunch of images from my Fairies and Fauns Pinterest board.
So, I do enjoy Cicely Mary Barker’s flower fairies, I also confess an affection for older, darker fairy folklore. The book Fairies in Tradition and Literature by Katharine Briggs is a great study of the darker views of fairies and their stories, if you want to read some more grim thoughts on the fairy world.
Also, please everyone stay safe right now. Things are stressful, but we can still be kind to each other. Also, wash your hands.
As always, if you like my paper dolls and want more of them, I do share a paper doll piece every Friday for my patrons along with other fun things. Head over to Patreon to learn more.
In 2019, I decided to do some Jewels and Gemstones with party dresses. This one was Ruby’s contribution to the collection. One of the others was this version of Sapphire.
I really do enjoy drawing party dresses- partly because I think everyone needs a fun party dress. Also, because I think they’re a style of clothing I don’t wear very often, but they still seem critcal to a well rounded wardrobe.
Given that I never wear them, I do wonder why I still seem to think they are critical.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper
I wanted to draw a dress where the gown had an interesting shape. I also wanted to draw something that would make sense to go on the sheet with the doll. I think the complex cutouts of this dress would be a pain to cut out in the real world, where as they work well as part of the dolls skin.
Dresses with cutouts like this seem to be pretty popular right now.
Because I have hazel eyes, I wanted to do a hazel eyed paper doll. It’s a harder color to capture in my style, but I like how it turned out.
Last Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll & Her Party Dress
One of the things I really am happy about this year is having a few favorite Friday patreon pieces to share with you all. Not only does it let me try to convince a few of you to join us over on Patreon, but it also it means I have a little built in black log I can tap as needed.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea that my perception of the blog and the reality of the blog might not always be consistent. My experience of this ongoing art project is very different from other people’s experience. Not sure where I am going with this, but it has been on my mind lately.
I was super excited by the renaissance theme of Paper Doll Studio the Original Paper Doll Artists Guild magazine for Issue 126- Renaissance. On one hand, I liked the ease of drawing a Renaissance faire fantasy sort of thing, but it wasn’t long before I decided I wanted to do something more challenging and research intensive.
(This should surprise no one.)
The renaissance is a very long period of time. You can either date it from 1400 to 1600 or from 1300 to 1600, but either way it’s at least 200 years of fashion history. By the end of the 1400s, there’s very distinct regional styles developing, so I needed to consider geography and time period.
Left to Right: Undergarments from German illuminated manuscripts crica 1440-1490 from Konrad von Ammenhausen Hagenau 1467 f.255r & Kantonsbibliothek VadSlg Ms. 343c f.40r.
All paper dolls need underwear and I knew I didn’t want to do something that would limit me to one time period or one style of dress. So, I settled on these vague shifts from Germany. Illustrations in illuminated manuscripts of undergarments are pretty rare, but both of these illustrations from German manuscripts of the mid-1400s show sleeveless garments with fairly fitted waists. Simple and pretty generic, unlike say a boned bodice of the Tudor court.
First off, I knew I wanted to start with the Burgundian gowns of the 1400s. The styles vary throughout the century, but I liked the wider v-neck of the 1470s. From the end of the fourteenth to the end of the fifteenth century, Burgundian Netherlands included the low countries in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and northern France. It was ruled by a series of very powerful dukes and was a center of cloth production. The wealth, and the cloth production, made the area one of the centers of fashion- hence cometh the name Burgundian gown.
Left to Right: Burgundian gowns from the 15th century, illustrations from Le Livre de la Cité des dames. Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. Fr. 180, f.5v & Bibliothèque nationale de France. Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal. Ms-5089 f.62r
Next up, I decided to draw a style I’ve always loved and never had much chance to explore- the Venetian gowns of the 1400s. These empire gowns are layered, deeply regional and surprisingly revealing for a world where hair was often covered and so was cleavage. Venice had massive wealth from the spice trade, an unusually diverse population, and contact with the Middle East, making it very exotic in the eyes of the rest of Europe. There’s a reason Shakespeare set so many plays there- Venice was a place people thought anything could happen.
Left to Right: Venetian gowns from the turn if the 15th century from Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of S. Lorenzo (section) by Gentile Bellini & Albrecht Durer, Sketch of Venetian Women.
Last, but not least, I wanted to hop across the continent and up to Germany for a foray into Saxon gowns. Often called Cranach gowns, after the painter who depicted them, these fancy dresses were usually accompanied by amazing hats. There’s debate among some folks if these dresses ever even existed, but I tend to err on the side of assuming people in the historical past weren’t trying to somehow mislead people in the present and I haven’t heard a very solid argument against them yet.
Though, in fairness, I’m not an expert on the German renaissance.
Left to Right: Cranach gowns from the Saxony region of Germany from Das Sächsische Stammbuch – Mscr.Dresd.R.3 f. 89v & Judith with the Head of Holophernes (1530), both created by Lucas Cranach the Elder
I hope you’ll pick up this new issue from Paper Doll Studio once it comes out to see all the amazing paper dolls included. If you want to see the actual paper doll, head on over to Etsy where you can download her for 5.00 and print her out full size. She’s two pages of beautiful Renaissance history. Check her out here.
(Yes, she can share with the Mix and Match paper dolls as well.)
I wanted to draw some more contemporary clothing for the Jewels and Gemstones paper dolls. I’ve been thinking a lot more about creating print products and what that might look like. So, the desire to have a robust mix and match set that could be eventually turned into a printed set has been on my mind.
To do that, however, I need more mix and match option for the Jewels and Gemstones- hence the desire for more contemporary clothing for them.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Outfit
My sister wore an outfit like this one when I was visiting her for Thanksgiving this year. Cropped tops with high waisted pants are very much still in style- though I openly confess that it is not a look that I wear very often. My sister is more adventurous when it comes to clothing than I am.
On the Blog: More Jewels & Gemstones paper dolls & more Sweaters for Paper Dolls Around the Internet: Hmmm… I don’t know. Not sure what to link to for cropped sweaters and jeans today.
Last Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll Fashion
I was a child of the late 1990s and early 2000s, so back when I was younger the look was cropped tops and low slung jeans. I do think the high waisted pants with crop tops is a bit more of a forgiving style, as the other is pretty hard to wear unless you have amazing abs.
(I do not have amazing abs.)
If you enjoy my paper dolls and want more paper doll goodness every week, head over to Patreon where I post an extra Friday paper doll outfit and have some other super fun project going including my 365 Day project where I am sharing a paper doll piece every day.
(Okay, almost every day, I’ve missed two days so far, but I’ve caught up. Progress, no perfection.)
