I knew I wanted to draw a 1960s paper doll and I knew I wanted to do a beehive hair. And lest you think that this hair is “unrealistic” than I would refer to the Ronnetts (this photo) and the Supremes (this photo), both inspirations for today’s Abigail paper doll’s hair. As I’ve said before, finding historical references for black vintage hair styles is not an easy task and the copyright law nuances make it much harder.
Now, if Ebony would just digitize their entire archive and put it online for free for me, that would be fantastic… But since I don’t see that happening soon. I went with my usual “find famous people and copy them, technique.”
If there is one thing I will never fully understand, it’s 1960s hair. I mean, I get wanting a little lift in your hair, but seriously, the 1960s took the big hair thing to a whole different level. Unlike the 1980s, 1960s big hair was stiff. One might even use the term shellacked. At least, that’s what I’ve been told by people who lived in that era. I asked a woman once, after looking at her yearbook photo with her, how she’d gotten her hair like that and she replied to me, deadpan, “One hour and hairspray.”
Ask a dumb question…
Anyway, Abigail’s underwear is based on this Mary Quant designed body suit. Her shoes can all be found in the V&A. I did make them different colors, but the styles are here, here and here.
If you want to see all my 1960s inspiration, as we are heading into a week of 1960s content, head over to my 1960s Pinterest Board.
Today, I am sharing a pair of Abigail dolls to dress up. Abigail has a warm brown skin-tone. Just like my other two doll sets, I wanted the two different versions of Abigail to be pretty different.
So, Abigail on the left has a natural hair style and Abigail on the right has pastel purple hair. Personally (in my head) the left paper doll is a modern girl and the right paper doll is maybe from the future where pastel hair is in style?
Unless pastel hair is in style now and no one told me. I mean, I’m not usually on the cutting edge of hair trends. Clothing trends I do keep pretty good track of. Hair is harder.
As always, a big thank you to my Patrons and if you’d like to help out the blog by making a donation, you can do that over on the Patreon page.
When I was working on these double doll sets, I realized I hadn’t done any paper dolls for the Dames and Dandies with glasses yet. That seemed like a serious omission given that I wear contacts and can barely see without them. So, I knew I wanted a doll with glasses. The doll on the left has a hairstyle based on how a student who worked for me wore her hair and the doll on the right has blond highlights. That’s actually her second hair style. I really didn’t like the first one I designed, once I saw it on the doll.
That happens sometimes, because I draw all the hair separately and sometimes once I get it fitted to the dolls head, I’m not sure that I like it as much as I did in theory. Fortunately, it’s not hard to draw another one and through the “Power of Photoshop” there’s a lot of options.
Coloring wise, these versions of Beatrix have, of course, the same skin-tone as the other versions of Beatrix. I did however choose to match the paper doll’s glasses to her toenails, like you do.
Meanwhile, I posted a few progress images over on Patreon if you’d like to see some work in progress and my #100dressesproject continues on Instagram. Almost done! I’m in the 90s.
And, as always, I’d love to hear what you think about today’s paper dolls.
I am super happy to be back! I was traveling and wrapped up in work. I got to go to New Orleans which was so much fun. It was a work trip, but I ate plenty of beinets, gumbo and red beans over rice. I do love a good bowl of gumbo.
As fun as it was to be in the city, it is also so very nice to have returned home to Alabama.
Anyway, today’s paper doll is a new face for the A Pose dames. I think this will be the last new A Pose face for a while. I had a mental goal of getting four faces for each pose (A, B and C) done before I let myself work more on versions and less on faces. There is another version of Abigail already done. It’s a contemporary version with sandals.
I chose the name Abigail for today’s paper doll, because I’ve always liked the name. It’s a Biblical name, for those who aren’t aware, and was the name of King David’s third wife. I’ve known several Abigails in my life and liked them all, so I figured the name was a winner.
Her fantasy dress was inspired by togas and Ancient Greece. Not actual historical Ancient Greece, more like Xena: Warrior Princess. I loved the idea of a loose, graceful, draped garment. Originally, I imagined it would be white (there is a white version over on my Patreon page you can go print), but I thought the white wasn’t as interesting as a color.
Yes, I colored the paper dolls lips to match the dress. Don’t judge me.
Her micro braids were fun. I always feel like they get a bit lost when I color them black (black on black being a thing), I made them purple in the Patreon page version. So, if you think you’d rather have a purple haired version, pop over there and you can download and print that version.
This is Cameron the new member of the C pose Dandies family. He’s a black guy paper doll, as you can see, and I had a lot of fun researching black men’s hairstyles for him. I noticed this very square hairline seems to be the trending thing (as much as I know anything about men’s trends in hair) and I based the look that Cameron is sporting on this picture and this picture. Drawing men’s hair is something I am still working on getting better at, but I won’t get better if I don’t practice.
Along with his hair, Cameron has three pairs of shoes and can wear any of the C Pose outfits.I wanted to have more skin-tones and ethnicities represented in the Dandies, so along with Cameron here, I have a white paper doll named Cyrus who’ll be shared next Monday. Stay tuned for that.
I always feel bad for my paper dolls who end up with only shoes. I mean, I get it. It’s done so they have shoes, but really… give this poor guy some clothing, stat. Personally, I think he’d look great in the sci-fi set or in this warrior outfit.
Meanwhile, it’s after my bedtime and therefore time to sleep. Let me know what you think of the new paper doll in a comment if you like!
The first dress I designed was the lily ball gown, but this dress is what turned that dress from just as “this would be fun to draw” into a “oh, I could make this a series”. So, I really think of today’s Beatrix princess paper doll as the inspiration behind the whole week.
When I was planning the Dames and Dandies series, I new I was going to have a stable set of “faces”, but I wanted those faces to have many versions. So, this is Version 2 of Beatrix– The Bellflower Princess Paper Doll version.
Also, huge shout out to my Mom, who when I was describing the flower I was remembering from the garden as a child, recalled the name of it and spelled it correctly enough for me to goggle it. The formal name for bellflowers is Campanula, by the way, which is what she told me.
I just thought Campanula Princess didn’t roll off the tongue as well as Bellflower Princess, hence the name change.
The original doodles for today’s printable paper doll from my notebook. The doll’s head is on the right and the dress is on the left.
In the order of this princess paper doll design, the dress came first. Once I had it drawn, I wanted a crown and I came up with the idea of the flowers coming out from a pair of buns.
Once I had that idea in my head, I had to figure out how to actually create in a way that would work for someone cutting out the paper doll. So, I drew the hair style and the crown pieces separately.
Than, I used Photoshop to create one version of Beatrix with out the crown and second version with the crown. So, the hair with the crown can be cut out and placed over the hair without the crown.
This also assures that this version of Beatrix can wear a hat without floral crown pieces getting in the way.
I don’t often share my process photos here, because I try to save them for my Patrons. So, if you want to see more images of the raw beginnings of paper doll sets, than donate and join Patreon. I try to post a few “behind the scenes” images every month. I also put them up on Instagram erratically.
Let me know what you think of today’s paper doll in a comment or which paper doll from the floral ball was your favorite? I confess I don’t have one this time and usually I do.
This is Beatrix, a name I knew I wanted to name her the moment I drew her. I have no idea why, but she looked like a Beatrix to me.
She is also the first of the Pose B paper dolls for the Dames and Dandies series. This is version one of Beatrix, which I intentionally made pretty neutral. A doll and some shoes. There will, no doubt be a version 2 and a version 3 eventually.
But we are starting with version one.
My original plan for Beatrix version one was micro-braids, but I seriously screwed them up while I was inking them and I decided to do something different instead. I draw a lot of micro-braids, after all. Instead, I thought I would stretch my wings a little and try a side parted natural hair style.
I think it came out pretty well.
Let me know what you think on a comment about today’s paper doll? I’d love to hear from you.
Every paper doll has a beginning. Sometimes, the beginning is more complicated than other times. Today’s paper doll and cyberpunk dress came about because of the shoes.
But a paper doll set needs more than one rocking pair of shoes, so I tried to image who/where one might wear a pair of strap covered platform shoes. Strap covered platform shoes immediately equate with cyberpunk in my head.
I mean, you sure as shooting aren’t going to wear them hiking.
So, the amazing shoes obviously needed a cyberpunk dress. I designed the dress to try to match the shoes. The narrow straps on the dress mirror the straps on the shoes. The two tone colors on the dress highlight the narrow strapping details. After all, if I am going to draw tiny narrow straps than I darn well want them to be obvious.
Then I realized that I had drawn a fair number of paper doll outfits in the latest batch of Marisole Monday & Friend’s content, but I did not have a lot of dolls. So, I needed hair for Monica. The hair would also need to be to toned, I decided.
Because if you can match your hair to your shoes, why wouldn’t you?
So, for the last year, I’ve been drawing a lot of 1920s children’s clothing. The late 1920s to the early 1930s are perhaps my favorite era in the 20th century. None of the looks would look decent on me, but I adore them.
Along with her shoes, today’s Poppet paper doll to print has a pair of combinations based on several different sets I’ve seen. I drew her so long ago, that I confess I’m not certain about my sources.
So, this may be a 1920s experience in feel, more than a precise act of historical research.
Anyway, I super hope you enjoy her and I really think she’d pretty cute. I’ve got a few more 1920s pieces drawn before I need to work on more. And there will be more.
There are styles I come back to over and over again. This dress is very much like the white dress in this set and this dress, both designs I did years ago.
This is by far the most complex thing I have ever tried to create with the “shiny” look. It’s not perfect and there are problems, but I am not unhappy with how it turned out. Finding latex or vinyl reference images for the full bell skirt was basically impossible.
Also, google image searching the phrase “vinyl full-skirt” sometimes causes interesting results that are probably not kid friendly.
As for her hair, I was thinking of retro 1960s styles. I really wanted something that felt a little retro sci-fi. I
As for the color, I can’t really explain, but somehow once that dress was drawn I just knew it was going to be bright orange.
It’s like someone went clubbing and said, “I know! I want to look like a piece of cartoon fruit.”
And before I forget, I want to wish everyone a Happy Labor Day! In the words of Mother Jones, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here.
