fantasy

Queen of the Dusk Paper doll in Color

logo-queen-of-the-dusk-full-colorWell… 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.


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{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.

Geta’s Steampunk/Neo-Victorian Printable Paper Doll Trousseau… The First Part

greta-trousseau-set-1-imageThis is the first part of a multi-part paper doll project to create a neo-victorian or steampunk paper doll bride with a trousseau of outfits for every occasion. I feel like I’ve written before about my love of the idea of a trousseau. I remember as a child I was fascinated with the idea of having different dresses to do different activities. I wanted to tea dress and an afternoon dress and a morning dress. This all seemed very exciting to me. I’ve never given up my love of trousseaux or layettes or wardrobes and each time I do a paper doll, particularly a mix and match paper doll, I think about how each of the pieces can go or can’t go with each of the other pieces.

Several months ago, I hatched the idea of doing a steampunk paper doll with a trousseau, playing with the Victorian obsession with an “outfit for every activity”. I poured over old reports of trousseaux from major marriages of the guilded age, including Princess Beatrice whose style seems remarkably crisp and straight forward for such a frilly period. In the Ladies Book of Etiquette and Manuel of Politeness the following information about a proper bridal outfit, or trousseau, is offered, “In preparing a bridal outfit, it is best to furnish the wardrobe for at least two years, in under-clothes, and one year in dresses, though the bonnet and cloak, suitable for the coming season, are all that are necessary, as the fashions in these articles change so rapidly. If you are going to travel, have a neat dress and cloak of some plain color, and a close bonnet and veil.”

Clearly, this is going to be a larger project than just this post. This is the first of what I suspect will be several pages of trousseau for Greta. We’re starting with her wedding dress, with a jacket, a dinner dress and a house dress.


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The wedding dress could become a ballgown quite easily and that wasn’t an uncommon practice, because wedding dresses were often simply a women’s best dress. The dinner dress is more of a semi-formal dress, a step below a ballgown and right around the world of an opera toilette (don’t worry, she’ll get one of those two). Her house dress is, of course, the least formal with a book to read while she spends time at home. Ever stylish paper dolls need to relax sometimes.

All of Greta’s Trousseau posts are gathered together under the tag “Greta’s Trousseau.”

Queen of Dusk: Paper Doll Coloring Sheet

logo-queen-of-the-duskI 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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Flashback… Meet Riven… A Paper Doll I drew in 1999

I drew paper dolls when I was a child.

And after my apartment flooded, I found myself going through a lot of my childhood drawings checking for mold and water damage. Quite a few things were destroyed, but most of them were safely tucked away in plastic bins, protected from the water. I thought it might be fun to share some of them on the blog, since I often get emails from young people asking how to become better artists.

All I can say to that is practice. Practice. Practice. Also, take art classes when you’re in high school and have the time. Now that I’m out of high school, I regret not taking the figure drawing or the advanced water color courses that were offered.

Anyway, this is Riven. (I think I wanted to name her Raven, but there was a girl in school who was really mean to me named Raven, so I named her Riven instead.)

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So, Tom Tierney was my favorite paper doll artist when I was a child and I admired his figures. This was my attempt at copying that style. She’s holding a brush, rather awkwardly, and brushing out her hair to cover her breasts modestly.

She has a streak of silver in her hair, but I don’t think it scanned that well. My first ever Tom Tierney paper doll was Christopher Columbus, bought for me by my sister when I was eight or nine, I think. She suggested that I not cut it out and I never have. It’s still sitting in my collection somewhere. I remember it had historical information about Columbus in it. I read all of that and then pestered by teacher about why we celebrated Columbus Day when Christopher Columbus was such a jerk.

I still have serious issues with Columbus Day, but that’s a whole different story.

Marisole Monday: Mia as a Garden Fairy In Color

logo-paper-doll-flower-fairy-mia-2013-colorIt’s raining so hard tonight that I find I don’t want to do anything, but curl up on my couch in my sweats and listen to it. Winter has come to Alabama and with it a lot of rain.

So, Marisole has gotten to be green and blue, but Mia never has, so I thought it was high time she got the chance to show a little more variety in her colors.

I’ve been watching the show Cranford from Hulu and have been enjoying it very much. The show is awfully fun and full of beautiful historical costumes. I think it’s supposed to be set in the 1840s, though it’s hard to tell. Some of the dresses have distinctly 1840s silhouettes and other’s are older. Though the town is small and in the country, so it would be a little behind the times. I confess that the 1830s and 1840s are not one of my favorite time periods for ladies dress.

The show often shows beautiful English gardens and I wanted to capture those colors in today’s printable paper doll.


A fairy inspired by English country gardens with blue hair and an extensive wardrobe. 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}{Here is this Paper Doll in Black and White to be Colored}

Marisole Monday & Friends: Mia as a Fairy in the Garden

logo-paper-doll-flower-fairy-mia-2013-bwFirst things first… I forgot to write on the wings that they’re meant to be pasted to the back of the doll. My bad… Sorry.

Secondly, Happy Veteran’s Day. One of these days, I will remember this holiday far enough in advance to do something thematic. Still, I think Veteran’s day is one of the more important US holidays, so I want to thank any of members or former members of our armed services today.

Meanwhile, I’ve had several requests for fairies over the years. I’ve never done one, except for a Halloween set where I did a fairy costume, but other than that I haven’t done many fairy paper dolls.

It’s a rather out of season. I seem to think of flowers and gardens in the summer when they bloom, but I live in Alabama now where the flowers cling on long after the normal times that flowers are supposed to bloom.

(Pansies in January are freakish. That’s all I have to say on that subject.)

Oh, there are some pixie paper dolls which fairy themes, now that I think of it. I did Fleur, Belladonna and Flora. Of course, I suppose having done 3.5 of them is not a bad statistic over the years.


A paper doll coloring page featuring a fairy and her extensive wardrobe. From paperthinpersonas.com

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Anyway, feel free to comment on the printable paper doll if you wish. I’m pretty pleased at how she came out.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon… Flock Fairy Tales Magnetic Paper Doll

This magnetic paper doll set has the honor of being the least well known, I suspect, of the fairy tales I wanted to do, but it also happens to be my favorite fairytale, or at least one of my favorites.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon is a Norwegian tale which I like because the protagonist is not a princess and she largely saves her prince, rather than the other way around. I love the idea of the mythical castle that lies, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” and when I was a child, I owned a lavishly illustrated edition. This posted ended up really long, so I put a break into it.

east-west-samplesThe story goes something like this:

One day, a white bear who offers the poor farmer a huge dowry for his lovely daughter. The daughter is reluctant, but eventually agrees. The bear takes her off to a fancy castle where she lives with him. At night, he takes off his bear form in order to come to her bed as a man, but she never sees him.

After a while, she gets homesick and the bear says she can go home as long as she agrees that she won’t speak with her mother alone. Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story if she didn’t speak with her mother alone. Her mother, worried the Bear is really a troll, gives her daughter a candle so she can see what he looks like at night.

The daughter lights the candle, finds out he’s a hot prince, but spills three drops of the melted tallow on him. Waking up, he tells her that he has been cursed and now must go marry a hideous troll who lives in a castle East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

In the morning, the castle has vanished and the daughter sets out to get her man back.

More Here

Xenia, the Fantasy Maiden Paper Doll

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{Click Here for a PDF in Color} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Color} {Click Here for More Pixie & Puck Paper Dolls}

Today’s printable paper doll is named for Saint Xenia, a Russian Orthodox Saint. I liked the name, because it sounded neat and the paper doll’s color scheme was partly inspired by the beautiful gilt icons I remember from growing up in Alaska.

It’s been a while since I did a redheaded Pixie, so I thought I should do one as I have some weird love of redhair that surely comes from reading Anne of Green Gables at an impressionable age.

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{Click Here for a PDF of Black and White} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Black and White} {Click Here for More Pixie & Puck Paper Dolls}

 

I tried a new technique with the patterns on Xenia’s dresses. I drew the motif, used photoshop to turn it into a repeating pattern and then used photoshop to warp that pattern, so it would look more natural against the curve of the figure. I’m not totally pleased with how it came out, but I’m not displeased either. I’m going to keep playing with it as an option for more patterned paper doll creations.

It feels absurdly good to be back close to a normal week of updating. I have no idea what next week will bring, but this week feels good. Small steps. Now… if I could just finish putting my books back on shelves.

Four Paper Doll Princess Coloring Pages to Print

So, things have been a little busy for me lately, which should be obvious from my neglectful activities towards the blog. Anyway… to beg forgiveness today, I’ve got some paper doll princess coloring pages to print and play with. I never really know how to describe black and white paper dolls. Anyway, these are meant to be colored, so I think they are coloring pages as much as they are paper dolls. They’re all fairy tale/princess themed which I think is kinda fun, since they can all share clothing.

The first one of is a Fairytale Maiden. Back when I posted her in color, I imagined she was a fairy tale princess in that stage of the story where she’s sent off to live with a kindly fairies and avoid spinning wheels OR before she meets the Prince while he’s out hunting. Her skirts are all meant to mix and match with her tops.
A Fairy Tale maiden black and white princess coloring page to print and dress up. She's a hand-drawn paper doll from paperthinpersonas.com

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

Here’s this paper doll in full color, if you don’t want to color her. It’s fascinating to see how my art has changed since I created her back in 2010.

Yellow Princess is maybe the most traditional of these paper doll princesses, I created her earlier this year. I wanted to draw princess dresses that were ruffled and fluffy and decorated with ribbons and lace which is totally what I think of when I think “princess.” Of all the paper dolls I’ve created, I think Yellow Princess is one of the most over the top. I kinda love her. Like any good princess, she has a crown and some awesome accessories.


A black and white princess coloring page to print and dress up with two ballgowns, shoes and a crown. She's a hand-drawn paper doll from paperthinpersonas.com

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

And here is this paper doll in color, very yellow and ruffled. I think she’d be fun to color… I sort of wish I’d done her in purple rather than yellow the first time. Perhaps now is my chance.

Our Book Loving Princess has a lot to do with my inability to come up with names for paper doll sets. (Embarassing, but true!) She’s got three dresses, books and book accessories like an ink pot. Her princess gowns are based on renaissance dresses. But only really vaguely, I mean… not trying to be accurate here in anyway.


A black princess coloring page to print and dress up. Three dress, box braids and fun accessories. She's a hand-drawn paper doll from paperthinpersonas.com

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

This princess paper doll in color is very red and yellow. She is awfully cute in color, I gotta say.

My Elven Princess is one of my favorite sets. I love her gowns and shoes. The simple dress is supposed to be a nightgown for this paper doll, but I get that most people didn’t notice that when I first posted her.


An elf princess coloring page to print and dress up. She's got two gowns, a night gown, shoes and some pointy ears. Free printable paper doll from paperthinpersonas.com.

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

Here she is in color. Did I mention how much I love her trained skirts and her platform shoes? Cause I totally do.

I hope these paper doll coloring pages make up a little for my absence these last two weeks.

Dionisia: Printable Fantasy Paper Doll

So, I used to think that cockroaches were the most annoying pest ever known to man, but recently fleas have taken over as my least favorite pest. I have been working on eradicating them from my apartment over the last few days. The Flea Eradication Effort (FEE) is progressing well, I think, though now everytime I enter my apartment I start itching (fleas or not..). Ugh….

Anyway… Let’s talk about paper dolls.

As far as paper dolls go, Pixie is pretty versatile. So, is Marisole, but perhaps because Pixie sets take fewer pieces (the average number of pieces on a Pixie paper doll set is 8 vs 11 for a Marisole Monday paper doll set), I tend to find them less intimidating. I also think the pose is easier to draw for.

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{Click Here for a PDF in Color} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Color} {Click Here for More Pixie & Puck Paper Dolls}

Anyway, I was inspired to do this paper doll set by the episode The Outsider (specifically Belle’s outfit here) from Once Upon a Time. I openly confess I haven’t gotten up the energy to watch the second half of the second season of that show. I enjoyed the first season, but the second season just got a little two soap opera complicated. Trying to follow three different plot-lines each episode was confusing and I found myself feeling like I just didn’t care enough about any of the people involved. I might not finish the season.

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{Click Here for a PDF of Black and White} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Black and White} {Click Here for More Pixie & Puck Paper Dolls}

Despite my apathy towards the series as a whole, here’s a paper doll inspired by it, vaguely. I don’t dislike today’s paper doll, but her eyes are kinda huge and a little to faun like. Anyhow, enjoy the paper dolls and let me know if it is worth it to finish Season 2 of Once Upon a Time. 🙂

Lord of the North in Color: Fantasy Paper Doll to Print

lord-of-the-north-marcus-color{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

The Spirit of the North paper doll is sort of the same world as this one, I think, sort of the female counterpoint to this male paper doll.

Now that Julie pointed out to me that his head is out of proportion in comparison to Marisole, it’s been bothering me… but since he was in color I wanted to post him anyway. His head might be getting some surgery.

I spent a chunk of my weekend looking for a dress to wear to a wedding and trying to treat a flea problem which my apartment is currently suffering from. I used to hate cockroaches, but I have decided that fleas suck more.

Snow-White and Rose-Red: Magnetic Paper Dolls

Snow-White and Rose-Red (Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brother’s Grimm. It’s not the same as Snow White (Schneewittchen), though a lot of comics and stories do connect the two, like Fables (which is wonderful, by the way, if you like comics).

I know Snow White and Rose Red is not the most well known story, but basically it’s your standard girls meet bear, girls meet evil dwarf, girls cut off evil dwarf’s beard, bear kills dwarf, bear becomes prince sort of affair.

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The moral of the story probably has something to do with being nice to bears and/or dwarfs, but that all seems rather unimportant.

I decided to draw a new Flock doll to go along with Dove for this story, so everyone can meet Swan. Swan, here with blond hair in ringlet curls, is the latest member of the Flock family and the second Asian doll (or at least my attempt at it). I was going to do a fairytale from the Asian continent, but I don’t know much about Asian fairy tales (and even sticking and entire continent’s culture into one block is totally painful to me, but I digress).

Before someone suggests Mulan, I should say that Mulan is not, technically, a fairy tale, but rather it is a legend. Fairy tales, generally, are defined by folklorists as containing magic, mystical creatures and generally not being perceived by the tellers as being true. In other words, no one ever through Rose-Red and Snow-White actually happened.

Legends, generally, at some point in their history, were perceived to be true. King Arthur and the Holy Grail is a legend.

Anyway, enjoy Snow White and Rose Red. I certainly had fun drawing them.

 

Fairytale Flock: Dove & Swan as Rose Red & Snow White Set PDF Downloads
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Swan as Snow White PDF Download Dove as Rose Red PDF Download Snow White & Rose Red Clothing PDF Download