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.
Sometimes. I forget paper dolls are for children. I know that seems like a “duh” statement. Of course, you might say, paper dolls are for children. But sometimes, despite myself, I still forget. So when people post about how much their children love the paper dolls, it always makes me smile a little. I don’t draw specifically for children. I don’t think of children much, but when I discover some child has been made happy by my paper dolls, it sort of makes me happy.
Obviously, today’s Curves is based on my current sort of sleepy, mildly out of it state which seems to be rather par for the course lately. Somehow when I was applying for grad-school people failed to mention that balancing work, school and everything else might be rather hard while also looking for employment. Of course, I love my job (really, I have the best job on earth), I love my classes (mostly) and I don’t have much of a social life (seriously), but it’s all a little overwhelming at times.
So, to provide some distraction, at the moment I have a contest of sorts going on. It’s more like a drawing really.
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).
Of course, if you already answered, your name has been added to my word file from which I will extract the winner via a complicated method of dice rolling or name from hat drawing.
Over the course of the blog, I’ve done a few different Curves in space sort of paper dolls. There was the original Curves In Space and then another Alien paper dolls with Curves Out of This World, of them all I really like this one a lot, though I suspect that’s more symptomatic of the fact that it is the latest one I’ve done.
Also, it was kinda fun to draw a crazy alien chick.
When I was a kid, I used to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Secretly, I still watch it) and I loved all the different Alien.
Hmmm… paper doll with a Star Trek uniform might work… though it might also be very 1990. Hard to say…
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.
Hmmm… I just realized I misdated this paper doll… opps. I’ll fix it later. 🙂
I love how the hoop set looks under her skirt, I think they look like bones. Originally I was going to draw the costume on the left for Marisole and I spent a lot of time sketching it and re-sketching it and it never looked right. I’m glad I eventually decided to make it for Curves. I think it looks much better.
There’s something about the heavily shadowed paper dolls that I draw that seems to lend itself to gothic styling. I think it’s the contrast. I first started drawing paper dolls in this heavy shadowed style because I liked the idea of paper dolls in black and white which didn’t need to be colored. I wanted them to stand alone as graphic works without needing the injection of color. I think sometimes they work well and sometimes they don’t.
Also, if I’d done this set for Marisole, it would have been another mostly black set of clothing for her and sometimes I just get sick of that. So, I’m glad Curves got it in the end for a couple of reasons.
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.
There was a time in my life when I thought I wanted to be a psychologist. I seem to recall even taking a course in the topic or two in college and writing a paper on toys and child development (I know I wrote the paper. I might have written it in a different class). My second- cousin once removed (I think) was a Freudian psycho-analyst long sense retired who took a real interest in my possible choice of career and suggested I read the works of Freud. After about ten pages into them, I decided I didn’t really want to be a psychologist that badly. Never the less, I took away from Freud a certain respect for the discipline and the knowledge of the Super-Ego and the Id. Usually portrayed as an angel and a devil in cartoons, the Id and Superego are both definitely alive and well in pop culture today.
I don’t think anyone has drawn them as a paper doll though.
Truth be told, I’m not entirely satisfied with this paper doll anyway. The halo and the horns, I don’t know how they would stay on the paper dolls head after she is printed and that kinda bothers me. I try to make sure the paper dolls are actually playable and I know this particular paper doll isn’t. I’m trying to not let it bother me and I’m only mostly succeeding.
Also, I dislike her hair.
But not paper doll is perfect and at least this Curves paper doll is on time.
And there’s a poll. It’s not just about my random curiosity, I can almost promise that the results will be used in deciding what I draw more of… unless I get bored which has been known to happen.
I’ve always been interested in and concerned with proportion of printed fabric. I blame it on years of making real life doll clothing. I always am concerned my prints are too big to fit my paper dolls properly. Of course, the size of the dolls and the thinness of my pens limit how detailed I can really be (thank goodness), so I am always somewhat limited.
Recently, I was pawing through fashion shows on style.com (a wonderful source for contemporary designer fashion) and thinking about what I wanted to draw when I cam across Christian Dior’s spring 2009 collection. They were designed by John Galliano, with 17th century Dutch painters serving as the major inspiration. Some of his formal dresses were some of my favorites.
I fell in love with the huge prints on the dresses. The distorted proportions were fascinating and while I don’t think I want to wear a dress covered in tulips the size of my head, I loved that one existed. So, I decided to draw some dresses with giant floral patterns for Curves. After all, why should the skinny models on the runways get to have all the fun?
Among the other things I did for this paper doll was redesign her underwear. While Curves has an illustrious history of wearing her strapless bra and panties (selected mostly because they can easily layered over), I do love undergarments of all eras and I wanted to draw something which might look like it really could support this absurdity of these skirts. Enjoy.
The trouble with fantasy dresses is knowing what to call the posts since I usually sort of doodle them when I am bored in class. I doodle a lot in class which shouldn’t surprise anyone. I was inspired partly by regency costumes and partly by the topic of “Relational Diagramming of Databases” which was the class in which I doodled these.
I don’t think these are the costumes of a princess, but rather of a lady of the court. Someone who is wealthy, but not expected to dress to a certain code. Royal costumes were often symbolic or influenced by ritual attire and needs, so I tend to avoid them unless I can decide what the “rules” were. One of my favorite thing about the costumes of Queen Amidala in the new Stars Wars films (actually, her costumes are the only redeeming feature of those movies) is that they feel like the attire of a queen- ritual and restrictive.
And while I intended this paper doll to symbolize a “Royal Court”, it is totally possible she is actually going to criminal court for having done something like poisoning her husband, or not, depending on how nice you want your paper doll to be.
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