So, it’s nearly spring here and I thought I should post this before it becomes totally inappropriate, because of the weather. I didn’t wear a jacket today, though it was a little chilly for that I still enjoyed having the sun on my face. I don’t have a lot to say about these costumes except that they were fun to draw. I really like ice skating costumes even if I don’t ice skate much.
I do a little, but I wouldn’t call myself skilled… let’s say that I have, in the past, ice skated and leave it at that.
Beyond that, I don’t have anything really intelligent to say tonight. Sometimes, I feel like my posts are afterthoughts and that’s a little bothersome. I should work on it.
So, I’ve gotten a few requests for Marisole in black and white. I will not be posting every Marisole post with a black and white option. Sorry, it’s just too time consuming. However, I will continue to do them erratically. I’ve done one other black and white Marisole paper doll and here we have a second one.
Though two isn’t a huge number, it’s double the number I used to have on the blog. (That sounds so impressive when you don’t think too hard about it. Most things work better if you avoid thinking too much I find.) I hope everyone enjoys the black and white version of yesterday’s Marisole.
Sometimes people make the mistake of asking what my favorite novel. This is a really hard question to answer. Usually, I fall back on Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I read it as a child and return to it every few years. Each time, I am struck by the detail, the care and the complexity. It is a story full of questions of honor, betrayal, revenge and greed. Its villain is compassionate and compelling. Its hero’s are honorable, but hard. It’s a fascinating story. I recommend it to any adult or child who likes adventure tales. Really, I recommend it to anyone ever.
Also, there are pirates. And who doesn’t like pirates? Plus buried treasure and madmen and betrayal and fight scenes.
These paper doll pieces are more fantasy then reality, but that is the fun of paper dolls after all. I mean, it’s not like I actually bothered doing any real research in this case. I just had some fun with the fantasy. I mean, have you seen the Ninja side of this set? It’s not like I’ve even tried to be vaguely historically accurate.
I’ve been thinking about completely re-formating the site a lot lately… but then sanity prevails and I realize I don’t really have time. Still, I think I would like to convert it back to a more basic blog format, but then I’m worried I’d lose some of the features I like of this format… So, thoughts are ongoing. I could hand-code it, but it would take so much time and lots of trial and error. I shall have to think about my options a bit more before I decide, I think.
So, as some of you know I had a drawing last Monday and I said I would select a winner this Monday. In the end, I had 8 entries. So I just rolled an 8 sided dice, left over from other geeky hobbies I do, and came up with the number 3. That makes Monica the winner of my little drawing. Monica, please email me (paperthinpersonas (at) gmail (dot) com) with what sort of paper doll you would like. 🙂
Also, come back tomorrow and there will be something fun. I promise.
I swear I do have some Flora things in progress, but the truth is that life hasn’t gotten less busy over the last few days. I keep meaning to sit down and ink them up, but school work and job applications and everything else has to come first. So, I’m a little behind on this, I will admit. To appease the masses, I’ve taken a page out of Liana’s book and am posting an individual paper doll. Along with my usual filler Doodle.
I have a soft spot for the late 18th century, you know… right before they started cutting off people’s heads. There’s something about the Rococo period that just feels fantasy and over the top and slightly absurd. Have you seen Liana’s wallstreet dress? A fantastic example of what I mean.
I know people aren’t huge fans of filler doodles, but the truth is the other option is not posting anything at all. And I’m not willing to do that. I try very hard not to just disappear on people.
I actually gave some thought to the matter and decided I could do both a ninja and a pirate version of the paper doll. Today is the ninja and then next week, there will be a pirate paper doll for Marisole. I did a pirate paper doll a while ago, but I was never really pleased with how it turned out. So, I decided I should have another go at it.
In paper dolls, unlike in life, there are plenty of second chances.
On a totally unrelated note, I was looking at my poll results and I noticed that Marisole won as the favorite paper doll by a landslide. While I always thought she would win, I didn’t think she’d win by as much as she did. So I am curious, why Marisole won. To help answer this question, I have developed a contest.
The Contest
The question is: Which paper doll series on the blog is your favorite and what makes it your favorite? A one word answer will not count, the “why” is very important to me.
The Rules: 1) One answer per person. 2) Contest will run for this week. 3) At the end of the week, I will put the names of everyone who answered into a hat, draw one randomly, and announce the winner on next Monday with the Marisole post.
The Prize: A custom paper doll for a series of your choice- Curves, Marisole, Pixie & Puck or Flora (though Flora has to stay in the Regency Era).
All right, I look forward to reading people’s answers.
Inspiration for today’s printable paper doll includes the Victorian era, gothic fashion, fantasy gowns, and playing with ruffles. I have been practicing my ruffle drawing skills lately and I think I am improving. Maintaining my gothic inspiration, I gave today’s Marisole paper doll piercings and some red hair to set off that purple. (I don’t know how I feel about the skintone though. I’m not totally keen on giving Marisole fair skin.)
There were a few more pieces of clothing for this printable paper doll then could be easily fit on the page, so I lost the title and just sort of went for it. I intended the white dress to be a slip to be worn underneath the other costumes, but, of course, it could also be a sun dress. I’m not totally pleased with how the ruching turned out on the hem of it, but what can you do?
This Marisole Paper Doll came out of the same doodle session as my Tokyo meets Georgia paper doll, though I finished the Tokyo meets Georgia one sooner. I tend to do a lot of thumbnail doodling and then those doodles become paper dolls, but sometimes not until weeks later. Paper doll creation is actually a very slow, multi-stepped process and I am nearly always working on several things at once. I mention all this, because sometimes I think people assume that it’s a “one set” at a time kinda gig when, in truth, I am usually working on five or seven or nine sets at one time and they get finished when I feel like it.
This is mostly because sometimes I feel like drawing, sometimes I feel like coloring and sometimes I feel like doing layout work. (Okay, I never “feel” like doing layout work, but it has gotta be done.)
Perhaps not a perfect system, but it works for me. 🙂
As I wrote before, I have wonderfully supportive friends who seem to be fairly relaxed when I say things like “Yeah, I’m thinking about buying Instyle so I have some paper doll fodder.” And they nod as though this is a normal thing to say while standing in a drug store at 10 pm on a light night chips run. In fact, sometimes they go through it with me telling me what I should draw though usually their picks are more hilarious than practical.
(I don’t really fancy the idea of drawing nine million sequins. Sorry guys.)
I also did a poll a while ago to see what readers wanted and they said Fantasy by a wide margin. Fantasy dresses are harder then casual contemporary clothing I can just people watch for ideas, but I do want to try to stretch. So, I decided to go a little old school epic fantasy for this set of Curves paper dolls.
I’m running a little Trivia contest, as some of you probably know from Monday’s post.
The question is:
What is my favorite holiday?
The Rules: 1) One guess per person per day (that means each day, not each post). 2) If no one guesses right by Monday, I’ll give a hint or pick the closest. 3) Anyone who knows me well enough to make a very informed guess, doesn’t get to enter. Sorry guys.
The Prize: a custom Marisole paper doll, so you tell me the hair color, skin color, hair style and basic theme and I’ll draw the paper doll.
Now, no one has gotten it yet and I think I need to offer a hint. So, I’ll say this- the holiday in question is coming up in the next two months. I’ll had another hint on Thursday if people haven’t guessed it by then. And you might want to check out the comments on Monday’s post to see what people have guessed already.
Good luck. 🙂
EDIT: Due to a higher level of difficulty then I have originally intended, I’ll offer another hint. The holiday moves on the solar Calendar each year and traditionally cookies are baked, children dress up in costume, a story is told and a lot of liquor is drunk.
First, quick apology thing… if you emailed me in the last week or so… then I probably haven’t replied, because I forward that account to my other email and my other email was putting those emails into my spam folder. I think I’ve fixed the problem.
I did this paper doll originally with tan skin and dark hair, but then I also did a version as a blond. I liked it well both ways, so I decided to post them both. At the top is the dark haired version and then you can click the thumbnail on the left and get the 150 dpi PNG version of the blond paper doll. There’s also a PDF for the blond paper doll. I figured regardless of what skin tone and hair color was desired, there could be a paper doll to fit the bill.
I always associate Valentines Day with paper dolls. My grandmother used to send my and my sister Valentines Day cards when we were kids and they usually had a paper doll in them or some other activity. I still remember being excited at getting the cards and I would open them up and play with whatever had been included. Even all these years later, I remember what many of the cards looked like.
I have been trying to play with pattern, which helps explain this set of paper doll costumes. I also saw that fantasy was the most requested type of paper doll, so I am also trying to draw more fantasy costumes. That’s really all I’ve got to say about these dresses.
One quick announcements, before I forget. One, is that I have been getting some questions about the paper dolls and I thought it was time I added a FAQ. As always, I am reachable by email, but check the new FAQ if you have any questions. Also, if you email me, please understand that I work, I go to class and I don’t always have time to check my email every night. I do get back to people, it just takes me a little while sometimes.
Ever since I read Treasure Island as a child, I have had a love of pirates that I can’t quite explain. Even at their most nasty (and Long John Silver is nasty), I love the ideas of high seas and high adventure. There’s something about swash-buckling that makes me smile. I blame it equally on my Mother and her love of adventure stories and my own natural inclination. Neither of these paper doll costumes has anything to do with history, but when you’re drawing a pirate paper doll, who needs history anyway?
History was fairly dark and full of nasty things like rickets. I prefer my pirates Hollywood style and rickets-free.
One of the things I have started doing is adding tabs to the Curves paper dolls when I draw them rather than later with Photoshop. I don’t think anyone but me can tell the difference and I think it saves time when I actually scan the paper dolls since I don’t have to add tabs as well as re-size, clean up and futz with. It may be the only time that is saved in psychological, but I’m okay with that. Anything to make me more likely to keep up to date with my posting.
Where to start about this paper doll set… Well, it all started with the blue dress which is the strange love child of a kimono, a peacoat and a 1850’s hoop skirt and then sort of evolved from there. Secretly I kinda love it, but publicly I’m a little more unsure. The underwear in yellow and cream came out of the desire to draw absurd underwear (and practice my ruching as I mentioned last week) and then I felt like I needed a second dress to fill in the set, so I drew her odd formal costume with the pleats and underbust corset with the flower. My favorite is the blue dress, though I know I shouldn’t have favorites among my paper dolls.
I think fantasy is all about combining different sources in ways that they were never combined in the real world. So, to take the blue dress as my example, the skirt is based on Japanese stencil dyed fabrics, the coat/jacket is quilted much like 18th century women’s petticoat and has a large portrait collar much like my own winter coat. It is tied with an obi style sash/belt (displayed on that website on a beautiful example of Japanese doll making).
The poll is, of course, on going. I am not at all surprised that fantasy is in the lead. I always rather suspected it would win out in the end, but I wasn’t sure where everything else would fall in between, so it has been education in its own way.
When I was a child, I loved the work of Cicely Mary Barker who did wonderful illustrations of fairies and is now quite the commercial enterprise thanks to Penguin. When I was reading them, of course, they weren’t as big as they are now. She died in 1973. My neighbor had an address book with an illustration for each letter (all 26) and I remember being enchanted by them as a child.
Now, I confess I am well aware that actual fairy folklore is considerably darker then the short of cute little flower fairy which the Victorian’s brought us, but the flower ones are easier to draw. What does a Banshee wear anyway? Well… that might be a question to answer at Halloween.
And have I mentioned there’s a poll?
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