One of the things I love to do is draw paper doll clothing from fashion catalogs and magazines. Clear pictures are useful, but so it seeing clothing I might not have thought up myself.
This set of paper doll fashions were based on the latest Autumn trends. Sleeve details and ruffles are not super popular. So are blouses, so here we have some blouses with sleeve details. To go with this pair of blouses, there is a pair of skinny jeans tucked into boots. The paper doll also has a matching purse.
I did my first version of Batari back in August, so I am happy to get to post a second version. This version of Batari has lots of shoes (a super important paper doll garment, because they are the least versatile) and a short hair style. Both of the first two Bartari versions had longer hair, so I wanted to do one with short hair.
As I mentioned before, Batari is an Indonesian name that means Goddess. It was voted on by my Patrons. I like to give them the opportunity to choose paper doll names whenever I can.
(Sometimes, I have a name in mind.)
So, some may remember that I was drawing a paper doll for Inktober. My goal was to draw ten paper doll outfits over the course of the month and post them on Instagram. It was a rough month, but I managed to get all ten done. You can see them over at the #ptpinktober2018
If you want to help keep the blog up on the internet and see more behind the scenes stuff, think of becoming a Patron. Also, you get to vote on things there.
Last year, there was a real influx of pastel colors into fall and winter looks. It’s been going on for a while. I’m not sure this is still on trend (my September fashion magazines were pretty slim this year, sadly), but I drew these paper doll cocktail dresses a while ago. I wanted to contrast the black with the pale colors.
I also wanted to play around with shape.
Plus the A Pose Dames don’t have any cocktail dresses and that seemed just criminal. Poor paper dolls. They need something to wear to evening parties, after all.
I thought it would be fun to end the week with a fancy paper doll gown since I posted my paper doll tuxedo last week. So, here’s an evening gown for the B pose ladies based on this evening gown from Marchesa’s Pre-Fall 2016 collection. I loved the shape of the original gown.
In case you are wondering, the low cut neckline of the gown is possible because of the skimpy underwear of the B pose ladies. Without those handy leaves, the neckline on this dress wouldn’t be possible. That’s why I tend to draw such skimpy undergarments for my paper dolls. I don’t want to be limited in my neckline options.
Today’s gown isn’t a perfect reproduction of the Marchesa Pre-Fall 2016 evening gown. To start with, my gown isn’t made from lace and the skirts are a lot fuller. I wanted this to feel like a confection. The sort of light weight floating thing that would move beautifully when you walked if, you know, paper dolls could walk.
Marchesa is one of my favorite designers. I adore the elegant evening wear the line produces even though I don’t think I’m skilled enough to draw most of it. The highly detailed textiles they use are hard to render in ink. I think perhaps I just need more practice.
Secretly, I also like drawing evening gowns, because they tend to be complete unto themselves. I don’t have to think about tops and bottoms. I can just draw the gown and maybe a matching bag. They feel like less work than separates and, unlike cocktail dresses, I don’t feel a strange need to always draw two. One evening gown will do.
So, I guess you could say I also look at evening gowns as a lazy option.
I doubt it would shock anyone to find out I tend to be an organized person. I like having a plan. I like setting goals. I like working towards my goals. These things bring me satisfaction and often allow me to manage huge projects without them becoming completely overwhelming. So, when I worked out my plan for the Dames and Dandies back in December, there was a checklist of things I wanted to draw for each of the poses.
One of those things for the dandies (or gents, as I sometimes think of the C pose) was a tuxedo. I wanted to do a suit (which I did back in July), so next up on my list was tuxedo. Why a tuxedo? Because C Pose guys might need to go to a formal event. And everyone needs a tuxedo.
(This is a lie. Pretty much no one actually needs a tuxedo.)
Well, what do you think? A big fan of the tuxedo? Not sure about the white dinner jacket option? There’s a plain black version on my Patreon page for my Patrons.
This is the second Abigail paper doll. I tend to draw my new dolls in sets of two, so that there’s at least two of them to start with. I want there to be lots of variety on the blog, but also mix and match options. It’s a constant balancing act between my urge for “all the skin-tones” and the reality that there’s literally millions of them out there and I can’t possibly achieve that.
So, I drew Abigail, because I didn’t already have a black paper doll for the A Pose girls. Her skintone was chosen, because both Cameron and Beatrix (my other two black paper dolls) had the same skintone and I wanted some variety.
As always, I try to give my contemporary dolls three shoes and those shoes are ideally versatile enough to go with evening gowns or fantasy dresses, depending.
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.
At work, I dress in slacks, white shirts and cardigans, but at home I am a lover of maxi skirts and boho blouses. I love embroidery, texture and handmade looking details. I know some people manage to have a wardrobe that switches between “work” and “home”, but I’ve never really wanted that and would much rather just have a work wardrobe that I wear to work and a home wardrobe that I wear outside work.
I digress.
The point is I really like hippy/boho clothing and I knew I wanted to draw some for the blog. So, here’s a little paper doll boho mini-wardrobe of eight pieces of paper doll clothing. There’s four tops, two bottoms, a romper and a bag. That means (ignoring the bag), there’s about 9 clothing combinations or 18, if you count the bag.
In the process of doing this, I also really got to thinking about what makes a Mini-Wardrobe and what just makes a paper doll outfit. I think the answers are: At least six pieces and more than one top and/or bottom. So, that’s my criteria going forward. I feel better when I have criteria. It is probably the librarian in me.
A little bit of important housekeeping- As you may know the EU recently passed a law called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is meant to help people with online privacy (a cause I strongly support), so I’ve been working to make the blog GDPR compliant. You will now need to opt into cookies when you come to the site and opt in to retention of your information (email address and name) when you comment. Nothing about how I handle your information has changed. I have updated the site’s Privacy Policy with more details that will hopefully help illuminate how your data is used on this site.
If you have any questions about any of that, you can ask in a comment or through email. I’ll try to answer the best as I know (but I am not an internet privacy expert or a lawyer).
Or you can let me know what you think of today’s post in a comment and to support the blog, think about donating through Patreon.
Since it’s Friday, C Pose Guy Paper Dolls Week is wrapping with this set of casual guy paper doll clothing. I feel like I haven’t done as many contemporary paper doll clothing sets for the Dames and Dandies as usual, but maybe that’s the three day a week updating schedule playing tricks on me. I am really hoping I can return to a daily updating schedule soon. I really do miss it.
Okay, so today’s paper doll set was inspired by the realization that I hadn’t drawn any slacks for the C pose gents. They have jeans and short, but no slacks. So, I felt like a bit of a slacker in that regard. (Sorry, not sorry.)
Anyway, so that’s kinda it. I’d love to be like, “Here’s the deep reason I drew some pants.” But honestly, I felt like drawing pants.
The fact is that guy paper dolls just aren’t as easy for me to work on than lady paper dolls. I tend to have sudden flashes of inspiration for the ladies, but that rarely happens for the guy paper dolls. Maybe I need to read more men’s fashion magazines or something. I mean, men like being fashionable, too.
Plus, there’s a second color scheme for today’s casual set over on my Patreon page for patrons. Join if you want to help keep the blog running and see more content!
Today’s printable paper doll ball gown was inspired by this evening gown I saw on Pinterest. I loved the off the shoulder shape and the fullness in the skirt. I chose to make this version purple, but there’s a red version over on my Patreon page anyone can download to print if they prefer the original color scheme.
To go with the evening gown, there’s a little clutch bag, but I confess the dress is really the fun part of today’s post.
I enjoy drawing evening dresses, but after a while I get tired of the strapless simple gowns. I find I am attracted to evening gowns with interesting shapes or draping. I really want a dress that I think would be fun to draw, as much as anything else. I totally realize that “fun to draw” doesn’t mean “flattering to wear”, but I am completely cool with that.
Paper dolls, as I have often observed, never complain about their clothing.
Friday there will be a circus themed set, which I think is pretty exciting.
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The first version of Bridget was made for St. Patrick’s Day. I knew though that I wanted a second version of Bridget with sandals as I have done for all the other Dames and Dandies paper dolls.
Why sandals? Well, because sandals show off a lot of skin. Skin-tone is the one thing about paper dolls that limits some of the mix and match possibilities. I call this the “shoe problem” and its an issue I’ve never really found a good solution for.
So, until I figure out a better way to solve it, I try as much as possible to make many shoes for my paper dolls. That way, the paper dolls will always have a shoe that matches the outfit.
These are the problems those of us who draw paper dolls really dwell on. I talked at lot about this a few years ago when I wrote this post on Playability. It was part of a series I did on drawing paper dolls, mostly from a theoretical perspective.
Anyway, Bridget has her white sandals and brown sandals for casual wear and her fancy black dress shoes. She also has a pair of sneakers from the St. Patricks day set
Love the paper doll? Not sure about the paper doll? Let me know what you think in a comment! I love to hear from you.
