gowns

Valentine’s Day…

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So, it’s Valentine’s Day again.

I have a history of fairly unpleasant Valentine’s Days, but being that as it is, I still enjoy the holiday as an excuse to eat those weird message hearts that taste like chalk. Personally, I almost wish we’d consider returning Valentine’s Day to it’s roots.

By which I mean the feast of Lupercalia which the Roman’s celebrated from the 13th to the 15th of Feburary. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain all while drunk and naked. How’s that for a good time?

Apparently, the women thought (well everyone thought) that being slapped by a bloody hide of a dead animal would make them fertile.

Anyway, short of getting slapped with straps of wet animal skin, I’ve decided to draw and post a paper doll. Slightly less messy, I suspect, though also, perhaps, less fun. The Chinese New Year paper doll poll got lots of votes for friends to go with the New Year paper doll, so she can share clothing if you want snakes to go with the hearts.

Goats and dogs, you’ll have to draw yourself.

By the way, I have a history of Valentine’s Day paper dolls. I did two in 2011 Marisole Monday and Pixie named Valentina . I didn’t do one last year, so I thought I better do one this year.

I was feeling abstract when I drew these paper dolls….

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So, true story:

There was this girl in one of my classes last semester who had the most amazing hair. Every class she’d come in with it styled in a different way- sometimes it was in a huge afro and sometimes it was in tons of little braids and sometimes it was straightened and sometimes…. you get the idea.

So, one day she came in with all the small braids coiled up into these huge pair of buns on either side of her head. The way the braids were wrapped around each other made it look like they were woven- almost like baskets. It was utterly beautiful.

I wanted to try to draw that hair style for this paper doll.

I don’t think I really captured it.

Seriously though, I always wondered: How long did it take her in the morning to get ready? I’m lucky if I get my hair brushed and my clothing on.

Marisole Monday: On the Boardwalk in Black and White

Somehow, this Marisole paper doll reminded me of trips to the seashore. When I was a child, I remember my family went to Atlantic city for a few weeks one summer. My father’s family is from the East Coast, so the whole group met there. While I remember only vague things from the trip, I recall distinctly walking down the boardwalk with my father and eating black cherry frozen custard which my father would buy for me from a stand on the boardwalk. I still remember how the purple custard was rolled in rainbow sprinkles until they covered it completely.

Every time I eat frozen custard, I think of my father.

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And now, for a question:

Ana asked “how many drafts of any one finished doll do you go through?”

The short answer is that it depends the doll. Dolls are drawn off templates which have seven to twelve drafts. Clothing is lightly penciled and than inked. I don’t usually draft the clothing full-size unless I am having trouble with something and then I do.

There’s also a more detailed long answer. If you want to read it, continue below.

Okay, so here is the detailed version:

I draw paper dolls in stages. The first stage is a doll template. Doll templates evolve over many drafts. Those drafts begin as very very rough and eventually become fairly smooth and detailed. When I was working on the Dictionary Girls, I posted a post where I showed bad scans of the stages of there development.

So, once I have a template, I trace the template and lightly draw it. Than I do a detailed pencil version over than a light penciled version and than I ink that. I took some photos of this a while ago with a set of dresses and you can see them here.

If I screw up a doll, and I often do, it’s in the inking stage usually. So I am always careful not to draw any clothing or anything else until I’ve inked the doll. I draw from templates, so that if I end up hating the doll, I can draw her over again without needed to redraw the body which is the hardest part for me. Plus I can fix things through the power of Photoshop.

I hope that answers the question. 🙂

Marisole Monday: Fantasy gowns in…vibrant colors

Today’s printable paper doll is so bright, you might find yourself thinking “Good god, it’s radioactive” and you wouldn’t be wrong. She’s extremely a little eye-watering, I confess, but I had a lot of fun. Like Kandi, I wanted to play with the contrast of bright color to dark skin. Also, once I colored all the clothing and I looked at my Marisole skin tone color palette, I realized that most of them clashed with that obnoxious delightful green color.

Seriously, if there was ever a good post to do in black and white and in color… this was it. I doubt I would have had the gumption to go this bright if I wasn’t going to also post her in black and white.

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And now to answer a question….

So, B asked: Are you going to make another set of Flock dolls? It’d be pretty cool to see fairy tales, or maybe cyberpunk!

The short answer is: Yes.

The longer answer is that the next set of Flock paper dolls will be modern and will consist of the six dolls and a over a hundred pieces of clothing. After that I want to do smaller sets, because seriously the whole “hundred” pieces of clothing was a bit much. I have a “noir punk” set in process and a sort of futuristic set as well. Neither is close to being done though and the casual set is very close. As in, I hoping sometime this week or next, close.

I have to say I love the idea of doing something fairy tale inspired… sort of a bad ass Red Ridinghood and Cinderella set… I shall have to think about that more.

Speaking of the Questions, Tuesday is the last day to enter my drawing. I know I said yesterday that I would draw a name on Tuesday, but I realized for it to be open for two weeks it was going to have to go until Tuesday until midnight. I’ll announce the winner Wednesday. Hopefully along with a Dictionary Girls update, but since I don’t have one yet… well… we’ll see.

I’ve been thinking about doing a series of posts about things I wish I knew about paper doll blogging back when I started paper doll blogging… is that something people would be interested in? I mean, it’s not terribly paper doll related.

I draw paper dolls… (Plus here’s a chick with some fantasy dresses)

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So… here’s the thing… I said to the apartment people..I need a second bedroom, because I want a work space and a guest space…

What I didn’t say is this:

I draw paper dolls.

I don’t know why.

It’s not because I have an artistic vision or something… I just like them.

It’s a little nostalgia, a little amusement. It’s my hobby.

Why do some people knit or crochet or make pottery?

I don’t know.

I don’t even really know why I draw paper dolls.

Except this…

Every paper doll is a potential story. What humans wear are physical manifestations of social and cultural forces. We dress ourselves so we can become what we want to be. We dress ourselves as what we think we should be.

Every paper doll is a potential character. What that paper doll wears is about what that paper doll can become. Every time I draw a paper doll, I can create a world.

Also, I like pretty dresses.

This is my hobby.

I don’t knit. I don’t crochet.

I draw paper dolls.

Plus… well… I do need some guest space.

Sophia… Medieval Fantasy Paper Doll to Dress

One of the things I think a lot about is “playability” which is a term I’m not sure is actually a real word, but what the heck, I use it anyway. What I mean when I say “playability” is how much a single paper doll sheet (one Pixie, One Puck, One Marisole) can be played with. Does the printable paper doll have options? Can she (or he) be dressed up in different styles? Are there choices?

The problem with this, of course, it that pretty soon you run into wondering if printable paper dolls like Sophia are a good idea. There’s no real way to fit more than two full dresses onto one page and with one or two pairs of shoes that really only renders up two to four outfit options.

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On the other hand, I really like both of her dresses and I think, particularly the one with the leaves on the sleeves, are really beautiful. I don’t want to stop drawing such things even though perhaps Sophia isn’t as versatile a paper doll as say Kandi (who has 18 outfit options). So instead I just assume Sophia will raid the closets of Gianna, Grace and Masquerade. She’ll have a nice set of dresses once she’s done.

I just realized, linking to all those other Pixies, that I haven’t done enough fantasy maiden Pixie paper dolls. Clearly this is a problem I shall have to fix. Though perhaps not immediately, I have next weeks Pixie printable paper doll already finished. And she’s a cutie.

By the way, I have a drawing for a custom paper doll going on. Enter if you haven’t.

Baroque Maiden: Fantasy Printable Paper Doll

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Today’s Marisole was supposed to go up last week, but somehow it didn’t happen. I feel like I start every post apologizing these days which I am trying to stop doing. I have mixed feelings about how she turned out. I really like the colors, but the style seems like I do a lot. I have mixed feelings about it. When I think of the baroque era of art, I think of rich dark colors with golds and reds and purples and black which was the inspiration for this color scheme. I gave her blond hair to contrast with the dark colors of her dresses.

A friend of my send me the link to these wonderful paper dolls from the Museum of Childhood in London. You can download them and print them out. Beautiful full color historic dolls. It’s so nice having friends who support my odd hobbies. So a big shout out to my friends.

Pixies Printable Paper Dolls in Black and White

Since my primary concern for the next few weeks is class work, thesis writing and job searching, I thought I would just post some Pixie paper dolls I have already posted in color, but post them in black and white. I felt a little guilty doing it as just one, so there are two this week- Blossom and Masquerade– both are paper dolls which I think would be fun to color as they have some pattern in their clothing and bows.. a lot of bows…

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Plus I have been getting requests for paper dolls in black and white, so I guess I could pretend I was listening to people rather than just doing what I knew I could get done and posted without having to spend too much time on it. Despite the practical concerns of getting something up to, as I like to say, “feed the blog”, I know people like to color and I think its important to give people the chance to do that.

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These are also both paper dolls which I really liked the full color versions of (which you can see here and here), so I hope people also like the black and white versions.

Shadow and Light 12: Paper Doll to Print

So, I’ve been a little lazy lately with getting things posted. Rather than going home to Alaska, I went to Arizona over the holidays. It’s a very dry place, Arizona. Full of cactus and other desert plants, but the landscape has a desolate arid sort of beauty to it and I’ve been enjoying watching rabbits (also known as mobile coyote food) hop around the backyard. Still, a part of me missed the cold wet forest of my homeland. But I am back in Illinois, land of the corn now, and since I don’t go back to work for a few days, I have devoted myself to working on the blog and paper dolls.

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I’m always looking for paper dollsPrintables 4 Kids is a pretty ad heavy site. I’m not a huge fan of most of these sloppily made ad heady websties aimed at children. I think they usually teach bad lessons about internet veracity (and there are plenty of good kids sites out there). But I’m a sucker for an interesting paper doll and this site has two I’ve found. First there is Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 Printable Paper Doll Activity which allows you to print and dress up a Chihuahua, which always seemed a little mean to the Chihuahua to me. Princess Kate Printable Paper Doll is also available, though I think you have to go to the Disney site to find it.

What and where are other people’s well loved paper dolls?

African Inspired Elf: Paper Doll Coloring Page

So, this is a pretty darn old paper doll. Originally inspired when I did my Marisole Inspired by Africa paper doll, I just recently got around to finishing up cleaning her up and getting her posted.

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I’ve been having some requests for more black and white paper dolls lately. This paper doll was inspired by African Fashion Week along with the idea of doing a set of elves based on something other than the traditional Western Europe approach.

Of course, I never got around to drawing any of the other ones, so we’ve got one elf here. She might be a trifle lonely, but if you print out several of her and color each of them a little different she can have friends… or clones. Clones are like friends.

One of my goals in posting this paper was to respond to those people who’ve requested more black and white paper dolls to color. So here is one- print her, color her and have fun.