black paper dolls

Marisole Monday: Inspired by Africa

Way back in June, I did a paper doll set roughly based on some Asian costumes and mostly based on what I draw when I’m bored in class. Lindsey asked if I would consider doing an African inspired set in the same style. Now, I wasn’t against the idea, but I didn’t know anything about African dress. After several months of looking at pictures, many books borrowed from the library and a fair bit of internet searching, I can now say I know a little bit about African dress.

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To give credit where it is due, the dress with the blue sash on the cream is based on a dress in the South African Fashion Week show of Amanda Laird Cherry. You can see a picture of the original garment here. The trousers are based on this design by the African designer Janice Morrison. I used a considerably more subdued color pallet for my paper doll based on the colors of mud cloth and traditional bead work.

The black dress with the gold is based on a dresses worn in Tunisia, usually over white blouses and loose trousers. I have included a white dress to wear under it. The two poncho like robes (the cream one and the blue one) are based on robes worn by men in Nigeria made up of strips of cloth. Mine are much shorter and slightly more fitted. As I said, it was a fantasy interpretation of African costume. The book I adapted these costumes from is called African Costumes and Textiles: From the Berbers to the Zulus. It’s a wonderful look at original garments. This paper doll set is an utterly inauthentic collection of fantasy garments. Enjoy. 🙂

Edit: It has come to my attention that some sites are linking this post as actual African traditional dress. It is NOT. Please don’t pro-port that it is. 

Nautical Girl: Fashion Paper Doll to Print

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There’s something very 4th of July about today’s paper doll. That wasn’t my intention for this paper doll, though I think she does have a red white and blue scheme thing going. I remember reading over the summer that nautical was in style, though I have to confess my interest in fashion extends as far looking for things to turn into paper dolls, much to the amusement of my friends who often make fun of me buying fashion magazines and then just looking at the pictures.

On a totally unrelated note, there is a new poll up- basically I’m curious to know if people like the comic press format or think I should convert back to a traditional blog format. I’m not promising to follow the results (since the level of technical difficulty to convert will be a factor in my final decision and I haven’t looked into that), but I am curious what other people think.

Update 8/11/2014: This paper doll is now available in black and white for coloring. You can find her here.

Space Babe: Sci-Fi Paper Doll to Print

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And here we are- Marisole in SPACE!. If you are going to say “in space” I think the ! is necessary. I don’t normally like ! points, but they are sometimes useful.

I had a lot of fun with the colors of this paper doll. I wanted to give Marisole dark skin and then be able to use absurdly bright colors in her costumes. These are the kinds of colors I like, but as a pale skinned person could never wear. (Seriously, me in lime green is among the most disturbing sights ever.)

Fairytale Maiden: Printable Paper Doll

They appear in many fairytales. A beautiful maiden, often daughter of a poor wood cutter, living in a cottage in the woods. She’s always sweet, kind, good and has the common sense of a brain damaged kitten.

I always did like fairy tales.

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So, I am sorry for disappearing like I did. I got busy and then I got lazy and then my computer died and I had to buy a new one. Then I left town for Thanksgiving. As you might imagine, life was nothing short of insane. Now things have settled down a bit and I hope to be back.

Plus, my Grandmother doesn’t have internet, so I spent my Thanksgiving time drawing a lot of paper dolls. It was fun and I’m excited to share the fruits of my labors. Of course, life might get in the way. It does tend to do that.

Edit 8/10/2013: There is now a a black and white version of this paper doll for coloring.

Little Bit Geeky: Blue Haired Printable Paper Doll

I’ve been having some trouble with corruption of my PDF files when I save them. It’s not something I can easily test for, but I am working on a fix. Until I get it done, I’ll be correcting the problems with the paper doll files as I notice them. So, keep eyes open for answers. In the short run, there is a new PDF of the Curves paper doll post,Curves: Cute and Sassy for people to download if they want it.

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I almost didn’t get this up tonight. It’s actually like 15 minutes past midnight and I was about ready to say forget it, but if I keep letting myself not post than I start to feel guilty about not posting and then I just get more behind. It’s a cycle. Here’s to breaking it. I often wonder how other paper doll bloggers keep themselves from totally losing it over the amount of work involved in producing paper doll stuff every day.

Also, this is my first Marisole paper doll with glasses. So that’s kinda cool.

Ancient Chic: Goddess Printable Paper Doll

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I loved Greek mythology since I was a child. Ancient Greek costume is interesting as well. I should state as a very clear disclaimer that today’s paper doll has about as much in common with Ancient Greek costume as the average Chinese take out place has with actual Chinese food. However, there are some excellent Ancient Greek costume sources available on the web. The interest in all things Ancient in the Renaissance gave rise to a whole series of pottery and sculpture studies, many of which are available online for free since they fall before the 1923 US copyright cut off date.

The Ancient Greek Costume Bibliography was my primary source. Though her start date of 1784 cuts out a lot of very early works, many of the sources are available online. I like Greek dress from 1908 and Rehberg’s Drawings faithfully copied from nature at Naples and with permission dedicated to the Right Honourable Sir William Hamilton which is a book with an insane title, but is a collection of reproductions of Roman and Greek statuary. So, those are a couple good sources to start with. I should say Rehberg’s has been reproduced a few times under different titles, so make what you will of that.

Edit 4/6/2014: This set is now available here in black and white for coloring. Yay!

White, Black & Red All Over: Fashion Paper Doll Printable

So, I don’t usually play with my paper dolls. I mean, I spend so much time drawing them and coloring them that I don’t often actually play with them. But I have this thing for the red boots in this printable paper doll. I saw them at a shoe store last winter and I wanted them. Of course, I have no idea what I would do with thigh high red patent leather boots except stare at them in awe and then put on my simple pumps. I wanted them anyway. So when I drew them for Marisole, I knew I wanted to see them on the paper doll and then… well…. things just sort of spiraled from there. It was kinda fun though.

Fashionable young black woman in paper doll form with a mix and match red and black wardrobe of 12 mix and match pieces. Free from paperthinpersonas.com

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And of course, I had to share my hard work…
marisole-mini-red-blackMarisole’s hair style comes from my own salon experience. I went to get my own hair cut and spent a while pouring through hair style magazines. I sort of love these hard, sharp spiky bobs that I could never wear in my own hair, but think look really cool.

On a totally unrelated note, I collect links to other paper doll blogs, always with the best of intentions. I tell myself I’m going to write a post about them and then I forget or get busy or have to go grocery shopping or stab myself in the arm with my pen and it never happens. I feel bad about this. Life is full of good intentions, I suppose. It’s just that when I find a new paper doll blog I want to do more then just add it to my links page. I want to actually say something about it. So, I’m going to cover a few paper doll centered blogs over this week.

A.R.T. Taylor’s Paper Doll Blog is a neat, fairly young blog. The paper dolls are very stylized and full color and is worth checking out when a few spare moments can be stolen from the chaos of life. On that pretentious statement, I think I’ll call it a night.

Wings and Petals: A Printable Paper Doll with Curls

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I try to think about how the paper doll would be played with while I’m coloring in Marisole’s clothing. I know it seems sort of strange, but it seems important that the doll be playable even if I don’t cut her out. The nice thing about these sets of the paper dolls is that they can be layered. It’s important that tops can go over bottoms, though it’s not something I double check with everything even though I should.

I ran a bunch of errands today and it took longer then it should have. I get lost a lot here in Illinois, though I am getting better at finding my way around. I used to hit soybean or corn fields whenever I was truly lost and then I knew I need to go back the other way. I swear that pretty much sums of my entire driving life. Somehow living somewhere flat “on a gird” is way more confusing to me than living in a place with hills and wacky streets. Never the less, it is home for the next few years- than onto something new.

Regency Romance: A Historical Paper Doll

Technically, I realize this is late, but here’s the thing. It is still Monday on the West coast which is kinda like it being Monday in the Mid-west. I’m sure there’s a hole in my argument, but I am ignoring it and distracting with a pretty pretty printable paper doll.

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Actually with quite a few printable paper dolls, I had set up a whole series of posts to post while I was in class this last week, except none of them actually did post. This made me sad and I was too busy to spend time fixing it, so over the next few days things will be popping up from the last week which should have gone up previously. Just keep your eyes open for them.

I haven’t been paying as much attention to the blog as I should, but I will start doing so over the next few days. There shall be lovely paper dolls and strange ramblings by me about life, the universe and paper dolls. Paper dolls being the most important factor.

Retro Style: Curvy Black and White Paper Doll

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Her hair is my favorite part inspired by the thirties and twenties when women wore their hair in finger waves tight to the skull like Josephine Baker who was an entertainer, exotic dancer, movie star, French Resistance fighter and all around amazing woman. Seriously, cool lady.

And I do regret that my fashions for her aren’t quite as fantastic as a paper doll inspired by the remarkable Josephine Baker deserves, still I had fun with them and I wanted to do something a little retro, but not an actual vintage piece. So… there you go then.

Red Carpet Elegance: A Pretty Paper Doll with Fancy Dresses

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I really have very little to say about this paper doll and her clothing except that I am trying to do more skin tones with Marisole and I draw formal gowns when I can’t think of what else to draw. I have nothing witty nor intelligent to say about the paper doll beyond that. Enjoy her.

Marisole Monday: An Elven Princess

So, a paper doll set! Yay!

I must confess that I didn’t think I would ever get these paper dolls done. The coloring of the clothing was hugely time consuming and I kept disliking how the schemes turned out. I’m still not totally pleased with the gold and red ballgown, but it’s much better then the blue and green version. (Trust me on this one.)

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The original goal was to draw things with trains (because I need practice) and this evolved into a set of clothing a fantasy princess (in this case Elven cause of the ears) would wear over the course of the day. Working left to right, the purple gown with the corset and white blouse is her day dress. The red and gold dress with the cream under dress is her formal dinner gown or ball gown which she wears in the evening. Her short bed jacket is next held closed with a golden pin and that she wears over her long nightgown which is on the far right along with two pairs of shoes. The purple shoe to match her purple day dress and the red shoes to go with her formal ball-gown. She also has two necklaces, one to go with each gown though the gold one can be worn with either dress.

Considering the time it took to get all these paper doll clothes to fit on one image, I am glad I don’t draw dresses with trains so often. I do think I need to start thinking about color schemes when I’m designing rather then at ten pm on Sunday night when I realize “Huh… this paper doll dress has like five layers. Maybe I should’ve thought this out better…”

Planning never was my strong suit, but I like to think that I make up for it with a can-do attitude and a certain amount of gumption.

Edit 8/10/2013: There is now a a black and white version of this paper doll for coloring.