crown Archives • Paper Thin Personas

Cameron: The Elven Prince Paper Doll Version

October 1, 2018

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Today’s paper doll is the first C Pose Dandies to get a what I think of as a “Themed” set. It’s Cameron and he’s an elven prince with his crown and everything.

I knew from the beginning of the Dames and Dandies series that having a consistent guy paper doll series was important. First off, I get a lot of requests for guy paper dolls from parents and I also know that I’m not the best artist, so I don’t like trying to draw poses to scale of each other if I haven’t started with that goal.

Figure drawing and I… Well, I won’t say we’re enemies, but we are not friends.

But guy paper dolls were never my favorites as a kid. I struggle even today to sort out what to draw for them, because my ideas tend default to ladies. This is nothing against guy paper dolls, but I’ve been drawing lady paper dolls since I was… like ten?

And I’ve been drawing guy paper dolls for… four years? Maybe?

Moral of the story, I just like drawing girls more.

Anyway, I wanted to do an elven prince and I thought it wold be fun to feature Cameron. There was going to be a Viking version of Cyrus and… I had plans.

But the Viking hair/wig I created for Cyrus totally didn’t fit (oops) and so there’s no Viking to go with our elf. So, this won’t be the “week of C Pose” that I had originally planned it to be.

But this is the first day of October and that means Inktober has begun! For those of you who are Patrons, this is old news. For those of you who aren’t, Inktober is a project where people (mostly on Instagram) draw pen and ink drawings for the month of October and post them. Some folks do one a day. Some folks do one a week. My goal is ten over the course of October. Follow me on Instagram if you want to see the drawings.

And, of course, I always love to hear from you, so leave me a comment and let me know what you think of Cameron, elven prince.

Need a clothing for today’s paper doll? All the C Pose Dolls & Clothing

The Bellflower Princess Paper Doll & Her Ball Gown

February 9, 2018

Printable Black & White PDF Printable Color PDF More Paper Dolls & ClothesThe 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 with the dress on the left and the doll's head on the upper right. — 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.

In case you missed any of this week’s floral ball. The first dress was Monday’s lily ball gown, the second was Wednesday’s fiddlehead fern suit and then today, we have the bellflower princess.

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.

Need a clothing for today’s Doll? All the B Pose Dolls & Clothing

A Fiddlehead Fern Inspired Suit for a Paper Doll Prince

February 7, 2018

Printable Black & White PDF Printable Color PDF More Paper Dolls & ClothesI grew up in Alaska. And if there is one thing that is true about Southeast Alaska, it is a super green place. There’s so many trees and foliage and moss. It’s as though the whole forest is shades of green.

Among all these mounds of different green things, there were many ferns. I grew up referring to most of the ferns as fiddlehead ferns, only to learn recently that there are several species that have that common name.

The “fiddlehead” of the fern is the coiled part that develops as the fern is growing.

I wanted to design a men’s suit to go with all the floral theme, but I couldn’t think of a masculine flower. So, instead I found myself reminded that the top a fiddlehead fern looks a bit like the top of a cane.

Once that occurred to me, today’s 18th century inspired men’s suit for a paper doll prince was born. It’ll fit the C Pose paper dolls, FYI.

Yeah, I confess my brain works in strange ways sometimes.

The fiddlhead ferns trim his cutway coat, decorate the cane and his crown. Full blooming ferns decorate the sleeves. The shapes on the edges of fern leaves echo the trim on the vest. The colors of ferns inspired the green color scheme.

I mean, I could hardly make a “fiddlehead fern suit” and then turn it bright red.

Also, I should add, that fiddleheads are edible and are quite tasty sautéd with butter and garlic. On the other hand, what isn’t tasty sautéd with butter and garlic? I think I would eat shoe leather if it was covered in enough butter and garlic.

I digress.

This suit was designed, of course, for the C Pose dandies and goes with yesterday’s lily ball gown. I don’t draw a lot of prince paper doll clothing, so I had fun designing this suit and crown for a paper doll prince, or king, I suppose.

Need a a Doll to wear today’s clothing? All the C Pose Dolls & Clothing

Greta’s Ancient Greek Fantasy Gown

June 12, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Ancient greek fashion

Today’s paper doll is a black and white Ancient Greek inspired Mini-Maiden doll. I chose Greta to be the model for today’s Ancient Greek fantasy gown, though of course it will fit any of the Mini-Maiden dolls.

Her hair was also inspired by Ancient Greek styles, but her shoes were totally not.

I worry about strange things on the blog sometimes, like making sure every paper doll series has equal attention.

There are 52 weeks in a year. There are six paper doll series. That means there are about 8.6 dolls going to be posted per series. Since I don’t know what a .6 doll would look like anyhow, I have to round that to 8 for some series and up to 9 for others.

The truth is though, since I have done at least one all doll week (started on May 8th) I don’t really think my careful planning is going to create evenly balanced numbers of annual dolls per series.

Though I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t created a chart at the beginning of the year in a vague attempt to do this.

What can I say? I am a librarian through and through.

In my head, I categorize the fantasy dresses I draw based on their basic inspiration. There are medieval inspired gowns (like this one), renaissance inspired gowns (like this one), and Ancient Greek inspired gowns, like today’s Greta doll’s gown.

Further evidence of my tendency to categorize things.

And now that I successfully demonstrated what a strangely obsessive human being I am, I’d love to know what you think about today’s Ancient Greek fantasy gown. Leave me a comment if you’d like to share your thoughts.

Need a more outfits for today’s Mini-Maiden Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here.

Ms Mannequin’s Get an Evil Sorceress Gown & Crown

May 28, 2020December 16, 2016

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: This Evil Sorceress Paper Doll Set from 2010

Inspired by a Curves paper doll set from many years ago, today the Ms. Mannequinn paper dolls are getting distinctly magical. I have to confess, I had a lot of fun visiting the evil sorceress gown designing game. I make need to make more of these. They are so unlike the sort of sweet gowns I tend to draw.

You see, I think if you’re going to be an evil sorceress, you can’t just wear anything. I mean, who would take you seriously in pale pink? Therefore, if you’re going to practice black magic, you need some fancy get up to do it. This lovely paper doll evil sorceress gown is black and purple trimmed in bright green and has a black and white striped corset top. The high stand collar frames the face. So, if you’re going to be evil and you’re going to do magic, I figure the least you can do is look darn sexy while you’re at it.

Also, I gave her a crown, because every paper doll evil sorceress needs one.

Confession- I did not test the collar, so I am a little skittish about how it will work on an actual Ms. Mannequin paper doll. I think it should work, but I thought I should mention it in case I was wrong.

So, you tell me, want to see more evil sorceress gowns in the coming year? I had way more fun designing this then I probably should admit.

Also, if you love the blog, then think about making a donation and become a patron to help it keep going. Plus, there’s a behind the scene blog, previews and extra content.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick out a Ms. Mannequin Paper Doll Here

Rose Princess Ballgowns: Printable Paper Doll in Color

May 22, 2016October 19, 2015

I had a lot of different ideas about how to colors last week’s paper doll. I thought about a traditional princess scheme which would, of course, involve a great deal of pink. I also thought about something in pale blues and teals.

In the end though, I wanted to try to color these dresses as more of a “dark princess” look for the printable paper doll. Therefore I went with black and lavender, traditional mourning colors, so she’s a bit gothic. I accented the dresses with a set of white roses and a set of red roses. Most of my color schemes are a bit more diverse in their color selection. For this one, I stuck with a narrow selection of shades intended to keep things fairly simple.

I confess that coloring these gowns was quite fast thanks to the large swatches of one color.

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}I gave our princess black finger nails and black toenails to emphasis the slightly “gothic” feel of the princesses gowns. The gothic elements are also apparent in her bleached hair. This is not my typical princess, at least not the typical princess I keep in my head.

Julie, of Paper Doll School, and I are hosting a paper doll round robin with a beautiful base doll Julie created. Read more about it and join us, if you like. The deadline is Saturday the 24th at 12pm EST. 🙂

Hope everyone has a lovely Monday!

Lady in a Castle: A Printable Paper Doll

May 22, 2020February 9, 2015

One of my pet peeves is that fantasy movies always default to the assumption that the characters involved are white-skinned. I just saw Into the Woods which I recommend highly- I am a huge Sondheim fan- and I noticed they had some brown-skinned extras which is great, but all of the main characters were white skinned.

I know one of the common arguments against skin-tone diversity in classic fantasy or fairy tales is that they are often European in origin and it wouldn’t be accurate to have brown skinned characters; however, I’m not sure the argument for “accuracy” really holds up. First of all, there was a lot more diversity in Europe a lot earlier than most people realize. Secondly, if there are going to be giants and magic, can’t we accept the idea that some of the characters might be darker skinned? Does that really deeply violate suspension of disbelief? We are talking about a genre of story with singing harps, talking animals, and pumpkin coaches.

This is all a really complicated way of saying that I try to give my fantasy paper dolls a variety of skin tones, including weird ones like green, more green and orange. Um… Is it bad I just noticed I have two green skinned paper dolls? I could have sworn one of those had blue skin. I should keep better track of these things.

A fantasy paper doll with brown skin and four gowns. She also has two pairs of shoes. Free to print from paperthinpersonas.com

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}Moving on from her skin tone, I stuck with the pale scheme I had planned and tried to focus on greens, blues and purples while using yellow and pink as accent colors. I think it came out pretty well, though coloring those detailed patterns took forever. Every time I add a bunch of pattern, I promise myself that it is the “last time” and then I do it again- because I really do like pattern.

Changing topic a bit, one of the most common questions I get is “Why don’t you sell your paper dolls?” I decided to answer this question for Abby of While She Naps. Abby took my thoughts about hobby and business, combined them with those of some other very talented crafters, and created a really great post about business, craft, and why we do what we do. I recommend going and reading it post-haste.

Meanwhile, Vikings are winning my “What historical period should B&B visit” poll which means, I suppose, I should go learn something about Viking dress. If you have not voted, please do. It is highly likely that I will not totally ignore the outcome. It is also highly likely it will take forever for me to get it done, because I am me.

Poppets Go Roccoco: Princess Paper Doll Dress

May 19, 2020April 10, 2014

One of the big myths of costume history is that children were dressed like adults, but in miniature. While this is sort of true, I have yet to see a decade where there is not some, however slight, difference between children’s and adults clothing. The differences are often subtle and children were considered adults at a much younger age than we consider children adults today.

This is all by way of saying that I really wanted to make sure this fluffy dress (which has NO historical accuracy about it at all) felt like a child’s dress and not an adult’s dress. I think of the Poppets as between 8 and 10 years of age and I really hate it when I see child dolls dressed like adults, especially in historical outfits or psuedo-historical outfits.

So, to maintain the principle, I’ve shortened the skirts of her fluffy dress. See.. I have some principles (not a lot of them… but I digress.)

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Actually, I’ve been thinking about principle’s lately. If you read Liana’s interview from Friday (and if you haven’t than you really should), she talks a lot about the problems of paper doll poses and the complications of paper doll design. I think about these things when I design a paper doll as well, but I also find I think a lot about the principle of correctness. I made this principle up by the way, but for me I think it’s about the correct outfit for the correct paper doll at the correct time.

By my nature, I am scattershot personality. I tend to work on something in the grip of interest, give it up when I get bored, and then move onto something else. Paper doll designs, projects, work endevaors, whatever, all become mixed about in the messy world I exist in. If I’m reading up on women’s publishing, than somehow this filters into everything else I do. I am very envious of people who can have firm divisions in their heads between project A and project B, but I’ve never been wired that way. This means my paper dolls tend to be schizophrenic. Astronauts to mermaids all have happened over the years. I think this is sometimes the charm of PTP, but I also fear it’s a bad thing. I find I envy people like Boots who commit to a theme and then stick to it.

I can not imagine trying to limit myself like that.

Latanya, the 1st Printable Paper Doll of 2014

May 22, 2020January 15, 2014

I am excited to introduce everyone to Latanya, the first Pixie paper doll of the New Year. I drew her last year, technically, but that’s not really so uncommon for me. It can take months (years…) for a paper doll to move from my sketchbook onto my blog. I’ve had a request to do a full paper doll tutorial which is a lovely idea, but considering how slow I am at getting things done… it might be a year before its finished.

So, I wanted to do a fantasy paper doll with a autmunal color scheme. So we have Latanya rocking some darn lovely fantasy gowns and a little bit of armor. She’s apparently both a lover and a fighter.

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Her colors remind me of autumn leaves and crisp fall days. I am really adoring her curls and the pattern on her dress which I am very proud of. I am trying to draw more patterns. I say that every year… And every year, I usually end up chickening out because patterns take time and I am lazy.

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My Drawing/Contest closes tonight at midnight. So, if you haven’t entered and would like too, please do so today. I’ll contact/announce the winner tomorrow. 🙂 By the way, I haven’t responded to any of the answers, because I didn’t want to skew the results. I have read them all and I appreciate everyone’s honesty. Winner will be decided using a random number generator.

Queen of the Dusk Paper doll in Color

December 6, 2020December 30, 2013

Well… this is the last paper doll of 2013.

I’m pretty pleased with the year as it has turned out. I’ve been more consistent with my posting and I think the blog has grown in positive ways. I do have changes I would like to make in the future and some of them are the same changes I’ve been wanting to make for a while.

2014 will be here in a few days and I will return to work in a few days. I’m excited and nervous and looking forward to the New Year. The next post on this blog will be in 2014. YAY!

Meanwhile, I am totally pleased to show off the Queen of the Dusk fully colored. (By the way, I keep typing Queen of the Duck, which would be a totally different paper doll set, I think.) I started with a more traditional color scheme for me, which means I found a set of colors which I liked and was going to use on each paper doll dress, but after I used them I decided I really didn’t like them and instead went with each paper doll dress being monochromatically one color. I think this causes some problems for the shoes, but I rather like how the dresses came out.

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}

Any thoughts or comments on what you’d like to see the blog become or the blog should be, drop me a comment.

Queen of Dusk: Paper Doll Coloring Sheet

May 21, 2020December 23, 2013

I confess I named this paper doll after I decided on the color scheme, so it doesn’t make as much sense in black and white as it does when the doll is fully colored. I thought about making her another princess, but then I decided that Queens have power. Power seems like a good thing. So, she’s a Queen not a Princess. (Unless you want her to be a Princess, in which case, go for it, I say.)

Having recently watched the first Hobbit film with my Mother to get ready to go see the sequel, I feel that I can say these costumes feel far more Elf like than Hobbit or Dwarf. Also the new first of the Hobbit movies felt very manic.

I like the layers on the dresses, but I’m not totally pleased with the shoes. Still… Not everything has to be perfect, I suppose.

Someone requested the lute. That’s why she has a lute. I am not going to go down in history as the worlds best lute artist. Still, it was fun to draw my slightly deformed insturement. I wish I could recall who asked for a lute… If it was you, drop me a comment. It’s bugging me now.

Anyway… Um… Here’s a paper doll.

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The Princes in Color… Paper Dolls to Print

May 21, 2020January 24, 2013

So, the black and white version of today’s paper dolls went up last week and I, being a space cadet, sorta forgot to post the color version, though I finished it on Sunday. I hope a little belated paper doll posting will be forgiven.

{Click Here for a PDF of Page One} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG of Page One}

Our first page of this set is just the dolls and the second page is more clothing for them. I chose a soft blue, green color scheme with red accents. Of all the eras of men’s clothing, I confess a soft side for the 18th century.

{Click Here for a PDF of Page Two} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG of Page Two} {Click Here for The Rest of this Series}

Have I mentioned this week has been INSANE? Because it has been, and classes get into full swing next week, so things are not looking to be much more peaceful. Despite that, I’m enjoying it. As I know I’ve said before, I would far rather be busy then bored. I also seem to have a lot of stuff inked, but I’m having trouble getting it onto the blog, so I am going to put some more effort into getting it scanned this weekend, so that it can go up.