Maybe because I saw Ever After at a young age, but I have a deep affection for Italian Renaissance inspired gowns and these are a few of them. Fantasy paper dolls rival historical paper dolls as some of my favorites to draw. This set of printable fantasy paper dolls is from my Dolls Du Jour series, lovingly known as DDJ. Named by a Patron (thank you!) these paper dolls are part of my goal to make some more curvy paper doll ladies. Each doll is named after a time or day, so this is Twilight.
It’s the end of year and I am happy to wrap up with this little cute ninja warrior. You might be wondering- why a ninja paper doll? There’s nothing winter thematic about a ninja?
And you are right! There isn’t.
However, I have a new logo which I love (see top of the site) and I want to start putting it on all of my printables and that means some reformatting. So, rather than try to make something wintery to end out 2020, I decided to use my last finished piece and then have a clean slate for 2021.
Hence the ninja paper doll, who has been sitting quietly in my “to be posted” folder for longer than I like to admit. Poor Diamond deserves better than that, but these things happen.
I originally planned to do this a very traditional ninja set with lots and lots of black, but in the end, I concluded that it was sort of boring. So, I guess my ninja is just really into the color blue. I don’t see why ninjas have to wear just black. The origins of which I think have to do with Noh theater, but I’m not 100% positive. If you know, feel free to correct me in the comments.
As 2020 comes to an end (and thanks goodness for that), I am so pleased to say I will be taking a few days off to rest and recoup. Patreon will be on pause during January (no content, but no one is being charged either, a feature I love of Patreon), but feel free to join us to check out the wrap up for the 365 Day Project!
Okay, it was 366 days, because when I named it I forgot that 2020 was a leap year.
Also, it will be available as one huge download on Etsy once I get it all combined. It’s um… pretty large.
My big new project for 2021 is an email newsletter. I am so excited! Sign up here if you’d like to or read more about it, if you’d like. There will be a paper doll coloring page in every issue and links to neat stuff and ramblings from me.
I’m not super into scary Halloween stuff. I like the occasional well written ghost story and will watch horror movies if my best friend watches them first, provides me a summary, and warns me if I can handle it. Then I watch them at noon with the lights on and quickly watch something like the Great British Baking Show afterwards to keep myself from feeling to scared.
So, to do with the Ghost and Frankenstein’s monster of last week I wanted to end October with another set of Halloween inspired paper dolls. Sometimes, when I draw Halloween paper dolls they are clearly a person with costumes and other times they are meant to be the actual creatures.
This set I think falls somewhere in the middle. Ruby could be fairy or she could be a person in a wig with an ear prosthetic. Sapphire is probably not a bee (clearly), but she could be somehow. I’ll need to think more on that one. I paid the bee with the fair, because I knew I could draw one set of wings for them to share.
For this set, I stuck with a pretty narrow color scheme, as I wanted the wings and other pieces to be somewhat interchangeable between the two dolls. I’ve always felt like paper dolls are best when they have more options.
I hope everyone has an amazing Halloween, but, most of all a safe one.
If you want even more paper dolls with costumes, I just finished doing a bunch of Masquerade dresses for my 5 dollar patrons. Join us over on Patreon to see those and get more paper dolls each week.
Occasionally, I create a paper doll outfit and I know I want to continue for another outfit in another style. For this paper doll set, I wanted to take this Viking Woman Warrior inspired outfit from last January and create a whole Viking fantasy paper doll collection around it. The original design was inspired by this drawing, but I didn’t look at it until I was finished with these new designs.
Today’s paper doll outfits were based on Viking clothing, such as apron-dresses, but I also just had fun with the motifs on the first tunic inspiring motifs on the other pieces.
The paper doll’s hair was pretty much inspired by stereotypes of Viking hair. I wanted it to feel fantasy, but not be overly elaborate. Actual Vikings were very into personal grooming and took care of their appearance. We know this from the number of combs, tweezers and other tools found in the graves of Vikings. This is Viking fantasy, but I object to the whole idea that they were scruffy.
I did a lot of research on Vikings a few years ago back in 2015 and wrote up a quick over view if you want to read about actual Viking dress. I really enjoyed learning when I did that research. Though I openly confess that I don’t really go with historical Vikings very often. I know enough to know I don’t know enough.
But since I love playing around with different historical periods and creating fantasy paper dolls based on them, I don’t feel too worried about the historical accuracy here.
Meanwhile, if you’re a fan of the blog, than consider joining us over on Patreon. There’s ever more paper doll content. And who doesn’t want more paper dolls?
I didn’t really love mermaids as a child. I was never really a mermaid person, so to speak. The Little Mermaid movie scared me. However, I really have found there’s a lot of fun to be had drawing mermaid tails and that’s where today’s mermaid doll came from.
She’s made up from some of the different mermaids I drew last year and this year. Along with her tails, I thought one dress for land based adventures would be useful and a trident for defense. After all, there are predators in the ocean. I chose Amethyst to show off these tails.
One of the wild things about tropical fish is that even though I think of them as being blue, they are actually super not blue. Anyway, I had a lot of fun looking at tropical fish photos and then picking out colors for the mermaid doll’s tails. This is certainly a tropical mermaid.
I had so much fun with these mermaid tails. I think mermaids are always fun, don’t you? I’ve done a few other mermaids like these.
Remember, if you enjoy the blog and would like to get even more paper dolls, check out Patreon. I’ve got fun things from 2 dollars and up including two other paper doll collections and more Jewels and Gemstones content.
Okay, so way back in May of last year, I created this version of Lapis. I knew I wanted to expand that set into something more robust, so I drew a few more dresses. This fantasy paper doll with dresses was a fun foray into medieval styles without having to worry about actual history.
When designing this set, I wanted to think about fantasy clothing that maybe wasn’t too fancy. Don’t get me wrong, I will always love my over the top gowns with huge skirts, but for these I wanted to draw something more simple. I inspired by kirtles from the 1300s, but mostly just by what I remember from reading too many fantasy novels in my life. The long underdress sleeves shoved up around the wrists are a nod to the style of the Anglo-Saxons and the girdles are a nod to the 12th century Norman dress.
A few things I decided early on were that I really didn’t want to use cream as a neutral as I often do in these sort of medieval sets. Instead I challenged myself to focus on the soft blue as the primary neutral color. I wanted the colors to feel like they could have come from natural dyes, but also be vivid. Natural dyes can be super bright and fun!
Her shoes were inspired from actual 13th and 14th century footwear.
Personally, I think my favorite is her bright yellow dress, but that’s just me.
Normally, I would link to other paper dolls I’ve made with similar style to mix and match with this set. These dresses would fit in with my 12th Century and 13th Century sets though they are not historical. However, if you want fantasy things like this, you’ll need to wait a few more months as I get those done.
If I had to pick one thing I like drawing the most, I would have a lot of trouble, but it would probably be a tie between historical paper dolls and fantasy paper dolls. Historical because I love doing research and I am big costume history buff. Fantasy because sometimes I really don’t want to do so much research before I draw a paper doll. Of the fantasy things I draw, I think dresses are probably my favorite thing to create. I’m a sucker for a fantasy gown, what can I say?
This is funny, because in the real world, I am very much a jeans and t-shirts kinda girl.
Last year, I started a whole series of princess fantasy gowns I called the Princess and Their Gowns Collection. So far, there are two princesses and today’s paper doll is the third. They can not only share clothing, but the dresses are all in the same color scheme. Many mix and match options, I think.
The Dinner Dress owes a lot to the dresses of the 18th century with the petticoat and the sleeves with ruffles. The “Rococo/Big Skirted Absurdity” section on my Fantasy Pinterest Board has more stuff in this genre. I have a fondness for 18th century inspired paper doll gowns.
I’m really happy with how Lapis’ hair came out and I am glad to have her joining Sapphire and Opal. Between the three of them, there are six dresses which I think is a good beginning. I need to draw more though. I’m thinking maybe a sports outfit, perhaps hiking? And also maybe something for the seaside. I haven’t totally decided yet. Is there a theme for a gown you’d like to see?
As some of you may recall, I’ve been doing a whole collection of these big skirted fantasy gowns since last year. I knew I wanted to continue the series in 2020, so I have been resizing the dresses for the Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 while also drawing some princesses with amazing hair to get to wear the dresses. I’m calling this the Princess and Their Gowns Collection and this is the second one.
Of course, any of the paper dolls can wear the dresses, as long as they aren’t in historical underwear which will likely show under some of these gowns. Re-posting some of my historical dolls in the new 2.0 format is definitely on the to-do list.
There’s two gowns here- one is a ball gown with a truly impressive skirt. The other is a music dress which could be any type of dress, but comes with a random instrument. The ballgown was originally a Patron design from last year.
The first of these princesses and their gowns was Opal and her princess gowns who I shared back in March. Now, this is the second and I’ve also got a version with Lapis finished. I’ll hopefully share that version soon.
Do you have a favorite of these two gowns? I think I like the music dress, myself. Let me know in a comment! I love to hear from you.
And remember that if you want to get more paper doll clothing, head over to Patreon where I share an extra paper doll or dress on Fridays. There’s other fun projects as well, including my 365 day project where I’m sharing some of the results of my foray into Idea Roulette.
In my head, not always a logical space, I tend to organize princess paper dolls and dresses into categories. There are the medieval looks, the renaissance looks and then these- big skirted looks. If anything, I suppose a nod to the 1860s and 1700s, but really… not much when you come down to it. I have a whole Pinterest Board I keep devoted to these big skirted dresses.
There are two dresses here today- a Spring dress and a Winter dress. Clearly, I’ve been influenced by the current weather in Alaska, which is finally spring! It’s so beautiful. Most of the snow is gone and there’s grass. It’s not green, yet, but it will be.
Also, there’s a lot of birch pollen and my allergies are going nuts. I digress. Let’s get back to paper dolls and dresses.
To keep all these gowns feeling consistent, I kept the same color scheme. That makes all the gowns feel like they go together and come from the same sort of universe. A universe where people don’t have to go through doorways often.
Eventually, I will resize the rest Jewels and Gemstones 1.0 Princess Trousseau and pair those with their own princess with absurd hair. After that, there can be a whole collection of paper dolls and dresses with big skirts and fancy hair. All of them will qualify as impractical self-isolation costumes, let me tell you.
A few final thoughts- the current landscape up here inspired the colors of the Spring Dress- yellows and oranges with just a few hints of early spring green. The accessories here are books, because… well, everyone likes books don’t they? And I do tend to draw a lot of books for paper dolls.
I’m a librarian. What can you expect?
I hope everyone is staying safe and sane at the moment. Let me know what you think of today’s paper doll gowns in the comments. I love hearing from you all.
I don’t suffer from a lot of delusions of grandure. I’m a librarian/archivist who draws paper dolls for her micro-business and also can gut a salmon in six cuts. I’m not qualified to say anything about our current pandemic, except that I’m staying home a lot more and for some reason, there is no flour in town.
Bread, yes. Flour, no. I’m so confused, people.
So, instead of telling you to wash your hands (because I hope you are), I am going to focus on what I do- draw paper dolls and occasionally make weird jokes about the strangeness of 1830s hair styles.
Meanwhile, here’s a fantasy princess paper doll dress. And over on Patreon for everyone there’s two other versions of this dress- a blue version & a yellow version.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper
This dress really doesn’t have a source image. I just kinda was drawing one afternoon and it happened. It wasn’t planned or carefully sourced in anyway. If I go way back to this post Green Princess, you will seem a similar silhouette.
By the way, in my head, this is a special dress that was commissioned by the princess to wear to a chess match. Because nothing calls for a new dress, like a chess match. Maybe, she’s in the chess match? I have no idea. I am super bad at chess.
Okay, I know I spent a lot of this post making fun of the 1830s, but really how can you not? Also, I doubt a decade can really be offended and in honor of poor hair choices, I had a bowl cut for most of the 1990s.
In my defense, I was 10. I also had a rat tail which I asked for. It was a thing.
There’s something fun about designing flower fairies. I think it might be, because the dolls leafy undies always make me think of fairies.
It’s very cold up here in the sub-arctic where I live. There’s still snow and it’s been over 20 below more days than I like to admit. Did you know that when it is -40 is the temperature where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet?
I sort of wish I didn’t know that.
However, nothing for a cold, snow covered March like imagining spring and flowers are a sign of spring.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper
There wasn’t a specific source image for these fairy paper doll clothes. I sort of was inspired by a bunch of images from my Fairies and Fauns Pinterest board.
So, I do enjoy Cicely Mary Barker’s flower fairies, I also confess an affection for older, darker fairy folklore. The book Fairies in Tradition and Literature by Katharine Briggs is a great study of the darker views of fairies and their stories, if you want to read some more grim thoughts on the fairy world.
Also, please everyone stay safe right now. Things are stressful, but we can still be kind to each other. Also, wash your hands.
As always, if you like my paper dolls and want more of them, I do share a paper doll piece every Friday for my patrons along with other fun things. Head over to Patreon to learn more.
The last mermaid thing I did for the blog was this Mermaid Costume which was very much intended to be a costume, not an actual mermaid. If that makes sense. I mean, arguably everything I draw is a costume of sorts.
Anyway, on Patreon I have posted two other mermaids. I’m like 99% sure. I just couldn’t seem to find the second one. Patreon’s searching ability for posts- really not great.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper
Fun fact: Mermaid tails are one of the few things I draw that I always draft on a separate sheet of paper before I sketch them in my sketchbook. Getting tails to curve is hard! And I want to make sure I cover the whole paper doll’s lower body with the design.
While I wasn’t thinking of goldfish when I designed this paper doll by the time I was coloring it, I really didn’t want to do blues or greens. So, that was when I started looking at fish and I learned- there are a lot of tropical fish out there and a lot of them are orange.
But then, when I was actually writing this post, I couldn’t help but think how much this felt goldfish inspired. I mean, there’s something about it that makes me think goldfish.
There used to be paper doll birthday cards. And one I loved was Melinda the Mermaid and I was super excited to see that paper doll on Teri Pettit’s paper doll site. She’s got lots of lovely paper doll scans you can look at and print.
And yes, I have been waiting to post this paper doll mermaid so I could link to the birthday card.
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