knight

A Lady Knight and her Fantastic Armor to Print

Many years ago, I met a 3 year old girl who was super into knights. Ever since then, I’ve thought a lot about the importance of lady knight paper dolls. Don’t get me wrong- I will never abandon princesses, but knights are important, too! Two different sets combined here, along with additional armor pieces have been added. The first was Diamond and her Armor from April and the other was this set of armor from May.

I also drew several new pieces to complete this knight paper toy set. Paper toys is my non-gendered way of describing paper dolls, because somehow people don’t look at me so weird when I say I am into paper toys rather than paper dolls.

(I actually have a whole theory about this involving gendered toys, but I’ll spare you all.)

A lovely paper doll knight and her paper wardrobe to color and print.

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I confess that when I design armor I do spend a bit of time on my Pinterest Fantasy Armor board, but I also grant that I am not super knowledgeable about full-plate armor designs/functionality. It’s just not a topic that has ever really been enchanting to me the way historical clothing is. (Sorry historical armor fans.)

So, mostly I try to just design things that look like they could be realistic and not worry too much about actual practicality/functionality.

A paper knight and her paper wardrobe to print and play with. Scree free paper toy for kids of all ages.

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Color schemes for armor are a little challenging. Mostly, I am making things grey or goldish. However, I do like to pick a few accent colors to make things a little more interesting. In the case of this set, I was thinking about winter (which is pretty much here in Alaska) so I chose a soft blue and soft purple. Neon yellow just doesn’t feel knight like to me.

Don’t forget there’s even more paper doll content over on Patreon, starting with extra Friday content. Who doesn’t want a little Friday pick me up?

A link to the exclusive Friday paper doll content on Patreon

A Noble Female Knight & Her Armor

A set of female knight armor with swords for the paper dolls today! Not as heavy duty as full plate, but I had a lot of fun designing it. As always, there's a black and white version too if you want.

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Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll
I draw a lot of warrior paper dolls, because I really enjoy designing both pragmatic practical looking armor (like today’s) and totally absurd insane impractical looking armor (like this one) and I think both have a place. I tend to think of my paper dolls that wear more practical plate style armor as knight paper dolls, even though there’s nothing that really specifies such a thing.

When I am dealing with plate armor there’s always going to be a lot of grey, so I try to find colors to accent it. For some reason, I really like purple with gray and brown, so that’s what I went with here. I also liked that it was a little unexpected.

Also I can’t decide how to describe this. I’ve settled on “female knight armor” which I like slightly more than “lady knight armor” or “woman’s knight armor”, but I’m not smitten with any of those descriptions. It really only matters for SEO reasons, but still… sigh.

Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll
Hmmm… well, armor of course. I just wanted to do a plate armor design that didn’t go over maile (which is my usual default) so I ended up with this.

Specific Source Images: This fantasy armor illustration and this fantasy armor illustration

Learn/See More
On the Blog: More Jewels & Gemstones paper dolls & More Warrior Paper Dolls
Around the Internet: I keep a whole fantasy armor board on Pinterest for inspiration when designing these sorts of things.

Last Thoughts
I know there’s a word for these quilted coats that go under plate armor, but I’ll be darned if I can remember what it is. Maybe someone can help me out in the comments?

One of the blessings/curses of having done so many paper dolls is that I sometimes feel like I am repeating myself. I try not to let that bother me, because when it comes to paper dolls the process is what I really enjoy. I think of it like knitting or sewing. You can buy a shirt or a you can buy a hat, but if you enjoy the process of making one than who cares how many you have made? I do try to seek out variety though- both because it entertains me and because I think I would get really bored if I didn’t.

As always, comments are always appreciated and if you would like to support the blog than consider becoming a patron.

Meet Diamond, a New Asian Paper Doll with Practical Fantasy Armor

An Asian paper doll with practical fantasy armor and weapons for slaying/riding dragons or generally just having a good time. Print her in color or as a coloring page. Great rainy day activity.

Black and White PDF | Color PDF | More Jewels & Gemstones Paper Dolls

Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll
This Diamond, a new Asian paper doll for the Jewels and Gemstones family. I really wanted to draw a paper doll with some practical fantasy armor for slaying/riding dragons or making friends with them I suppose.

I just recently divided the Jewels and Gemstones into two subsections- one for dolls and one for clothing. I figure sometimes people want a doll and sometimes people want clothing (though all the dolls have clothing, so arguably my taxonomy isn’t perfect.)

But then, what is?

Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll
I keep a running list of themes I want to be sure to draw for any new series and “practical fantasy armor” is always on the list. While I love my pulpy fantasy armor (and I always will), I also think it is important to draw armor that might actually protect someone in a fight. Not that I recommend testing it.

Specific Source Images: This illustration and this Illustration, both from Pinterest

Learn/See More
On the Blog: More Jewels & Gemstones paper dolls &  more armor designs in my armor tag
Around the Internet: I collect drawings of Fantasy Armor on my Pinterest board. See also, Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor and Bikini Armor Battle Damage from Tumblr.

Last Thoughts
Not to start a battle over the best armor, but which do you prefer? Practical armor or pulpy armor? I’m evenly divided on the topic. Meanwhile, do you have a favorite source of armor illustration that I missed? I’d love to see it.

Patreon is the best way to show the blog some love and get extra content each week. Join us!

Also, am I the only one who thinks Daimond’s hair here could also stand in for a punk look? I really should draw some punk clothing for the Jewels & Gemstones. I haven’t yet.

A C Pose Knight in Armor (It may or may not be shining)

A set of paper doll knight's armor to print and play with for the male paper dolls from paperthinpersonas.com. Great for kid's birthday parties or just fun to color.

Printable Black & White PDF Printable Color PDF More Paper Dolls & Clothes
Full-plate armor like today’s paper doll outfit is always a bit stressful for me, because I want it to be functional and I know pretty much nothing about how actual armor works. I mean, I get the basic idea- wear metal on your body so you don’t get hurt when swords try to stab you- but I’m not exactly fluent in the nuances.

Still, it doesn’t bother me much when I design things that may or may not be practical (this armor comes to mind), so I guess I shouldn’t worry about it too much.

If you’re interested in seeing how a paper doll outfit kinda “comes together” I did post progress pictures of the “bottom” part of this armor being drawn in my Instagram stories. That was a while ago, but as I’ve said many times. There is a long turn around from idea to finished product.

Literally weeks in most cases. Sometimes even longer.

Part of the reason things take a while to get from sketchbook to blog is that I like to work in batches. Today’s C Pose paper doll outfit is one of six I recently finished. Since I’m posting three times a week and interspersing my C Pose content with outfits for the A & B Pose ladies, it will be a long time before I get all of that material posted.

Frankly, I couldn’t function any other way. I’m constantly impressed by people who can do things once a day for a prolonged period. The only way I survived my recent #100dressproject on Instagram was by drawing two to five dresses at a time. I tried to do the whole “one a day” thing, but that’s just not how I work best. This used to bother me, because you read so many things about how you should just have a “daily art practice”. I do work on my art everyday, but once I feel like I have to do it than somehow my motivation disappears like a ghost at dawn.

Isn’t human motivation odd?

Anyhow, if you like the blog and want to support it consider donating through Patreon. A dollar a month really does help off set my costs.

And if you’d like to give me some non-financial support, comments are always lovely.

Plus, Happy Labor Day to anyone whose celebrating.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s clothing? All the C Pose Dolls & Clothing

Marisole Monday In Some Leather Armor and an Announcement

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Armor and Things

A printable paper doll with brown hair is a braided style. Her armor is chainmail with leather armor over it. She also has leggings and brown leather boots. Her accessories are an axe, a sword and a knife.

Paper doll Dress. Printable paper doll series from paperthinpersonas.com.

Today’s paper doll is Marisole in some leather armor over some chainmail. I wanted her hair to both be lady-like, but also practical. Every paper doll needs some weapons as well.

But there’s bigger news today than this paper doll, I gotta say.

When I set a goal, I tend to reach it. I don’t stop until I meet my deadlines. When I say there will be five posts a week, than by gosh there are going to be five posts a week. This can be a great trait, but it also means sometimes I need a swift kick in the rear to realize that I have to set realistic goals.

As some of you know, I am starting a graduate program in the fall while also working full time. Originally, I planned to create 60 paper doll posts for August, September and October.

Except I couldn’t do it. Every time I picked up my pencil, I felt intense stress. What if I didn’t make enough paper dolls? What if I failed? What if I let people down somehow?

I want to enjoy my hobby and be realistic about what I can or can not get promise my readers. I can’t keep up the current pace of production, work full time, be in grad school, and have any time for anything else.

The big news is this: The blog will be switching to a three day a week schedule- Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

There maybe an extra post here and there when I feel like it, but no promises. I am contemplating different changes as well, such as doing a Marisole Monday post every Monday, again, but truthfullly I haven’t decided quite yet what exactly the future will look like.

For now, I hope you enjoy today’s paper doll warrior. There will be a new addition to the 1920s Poppet series on Wednesday.

As always, I love to hear from you all in the comments.

Need a more outfits for today’s Marisole Monday & Friends Paper Doll? Find More Clothing Here. 

Mini-Maidens are Off to Fight a Dragon!

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Plate Armor Like This and This
Fantasy women's armor for the Mini-Maiden printable paper doll series in black and white for coloring. Free to print from paperthinpersons.com.

The first time I ever tried to draw plate women’s armor, I was so nervous. Now, I find I still like to have reference photos, but I have a much better idea of how the armor goes together. Plus, I don’t actually expect anyone will be looking at my armor designs and being overly critical. Designing armor is something I really enjoy doing. Sometimes, I want to draw totally absurd women’s armor like I did a few weeks ago in this Xena inspired armor set for Marisole Monday & Friends.

Other times, like to day, I want my women’s armor to be a little more practical and realistic. I keep a whole board on Pinterest devoted to fantasy armors. This image and this armor from 1580 were both inspirations for today’s armor. I really did want something that felt like a lady could wear it to go slay a dragon.

Should, you know, there be a dragon out there that needed slaying.

The legging like thing she is wearing under her leg armor is really just there to make it easier for the paper doll to function. Plus, when I draw more armor (assuming I do) then you can mix and match the armor tops with armor bottoms.

Which brings me to this question: More armor? Yay or Nay? Let me know.

Also, today is the first day of Yule. Once, in high school, a friend of mine and I went in search of a Yule Log for her in the woods, because she had read that you shouldn’t buy a Yule Log. That, apparently, was bad luck. Needless to say, it was a cold, wet, rather miserable experience that involved Devils Club, a spiky poisonous plant, and falling into a snow bank. Now, whenever anyone mentions Yule, I think of that afternoon in December in Alaska.

So Happy Yule to anyone who is celebrating. May your search for a Yule Log be much less exciting than ours was.

And, as always, if you like the blog, consider  donating through Patreon.

Need a Mini-Maiden paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Mini-Maiden Paper Doll Here.

Guardian of the Gate: Printable Paper Doll with Armor

warrior-guardian-color-logoThis holiday season I’m visiting family in Arizona. My mom and I went to Tucson to see the miniature museum called The Mini-Time Machine.

It was absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend it to anyone in the area.

Anyway, onto paper dolls… I had a lot of trouble coloring this paper doll set. I didn’t want to do bright colors, but I also didn’t want to do everything grey and gold. I ended up developing a color palette based on mossy green and eggplant purple. I named it Watcher at the Gate. I knew I wanted the armor to feel as much leather as it did metal, so I added grey-browns. You can see all my palettes on ColorLovers, though I confess I only recently started saving them there.

warrior-printable-paper-doll-color

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I have created a lot of different paper dolls over the years, as anyone who spends any time digging around the archives could tell you. My favorites are ones where I get to do something different that I haven’t really done before. I think today’s set falls into the category. I can’t think of another paper doll I’ve drawn for the blog which is quite like this paper doll.

So, on Wednesday, there will be a round up of every historical paper doll I have ever posted on the blog (kinda amazing list, actually) and then on Friday… well, actually, I have no idea what goes up Friday. I need to work on that. 🙂

As always, comments are always appreciated and if you would like to support the blog than consider becoming a patron. There’s fun perks like the Vivian Project and early previews of paper doll sets.

Guardian of the Gate: A Knight Paper Doll Coloring Sheet

Marisole Monday Logo. Mia knight paper doll coloring sheetNow, I think knights (and therefore knight paper dolls) come in several stripes. There’s the noble white knight on the noble white steed doing whatever noble white knights on noble white steeds do, but then there’s also the down and dirty, rough and tumble knight who will bite you if that seems like the best to survive the night. This knight

As you might have guessed, today’s Mia knight paper doll is definitely of the second variety.

You see, this version of Mia grew up in the rough streets of a fantasy city. Her choices were to become a criminal or become a Guard and she went the guard route. She’s a graduate from the school of hard knocks, but she’ll defend the city and take down anyone who doubts her ability to do so.

(I always feel a tiny bit absurd when I write this stuff about my paper dolls.)

A fantasy lady knight paper doll coloring sheet with six pieces of armor, weapons and a shield. Free to print and color from paperthinpersonas.com

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Let’s talk about the design process, shall we?

I knew I wanted to do another warrior Marisole Monday & Friends paper doll. Not just a girl with some weapons, but an actual knight paper doll. That took a little thought, because I’ve done warriors in the past. I’ve got a ninja, a knight in color and black and white. Plus my Silk and Steel warrior whose a little bit absurd in color or black and white as well.

Given that I had already got quite a few warriors, I wanted to do something different. So, I pawed around Pinterest for a while looking for ideas and settled on a city-guard like character. Maybe I’ve ready to many Terry Pratchett novels, but I really liked the idea of a city-guard/policeman type character. That’s how we ended up with this particular paper doll design.

I am particularly pleased with how her chain-mail came out.

Now, I will confess that I had planned to end the year on a modern paper doll, but I asked my patrons on Patreon what I should wrap with and several of them suggested a fantasy set. Anyone is, of course, welcome to join the Patreon to support the blog.

A Printable Knight Paper Doll Named Rebecca Grace

Pixie logo. Rebecca Grace Knight paper doll. A while ago I drove to Atlanta to get on a plane to fly to Seattle to celebrate my Grandmother’s 90th birthday. It was a great trip, but as anyone who has ever had to leave a car at the Atlanta airport knows, it can be really expensive. Fortunately, a good friend of my boyfriend was kind enough to let us leave my car in her driveway while we took two weeks and headed back to my frozen northland home aka Alaska.

While we were waiting for our flight, one of her daughters informed me that she wanted to be a knight. We had a lovely conversation about knights and I decided that clearly she needed a knight paper doll. So, today I am pleased to present a noble knight paper doll for Rebecca Grace.

A printable knight paper doll named Rebecca Grace for coloring. She's got four pieces of armor and plenty of weapons. Free from paperthinpersonas.com
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When I am designing a paper doll and thinking about children (rather than just thinking about what I think is cool) than I try to make the pieces fairly large and easy to manipulate. I also wanted to make the underwear a little more covering, but I didn’t want to make the paper doll unable to wear other clothing from the Pixie paper dolls. After all, someday she might want to be a paper doll astronaut or a paper doll pirate or a paper doll vampire.

A printable knight paper doll named Rebecca Grace in color. She's got four pieces of armor and plenty of weapons. Free to print from paperthinpersonas.com
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The truth is that I had a lot of fun drawing these armor sets and while I still don’t feel like I know a lot about armor, I do feel that every child should be encouraged to play out whatever roles they want. In a world where young girls are encouraged to be princesses and when many dolls and toys offer little more than “fashion” as a reason for existence, a few more knights might not be a bad thing. Knights have a fair bit of agency, but princesses tend to simply get saved.

Marisole Monday & Friends: Noble Knight in Color…

noble-knight-marisole-paper-doll-color{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

So, last week I posted today’s knight paper doll in black and white. Today, we have her in color. I’m going to be frank and say that I’m really not all that pleased with how she came out.

When I was in elementary school there was a girl, who shall remain nameless, with whom I did not get along. This paper doll has very similar coloring and I find myself disliking her for that reason. Is that strange? Perhaps… I have no idea what happened to the girl in question, but I hope she is happy where ever life leads her.

It is funny how things from childhood stick around so many years later.

Anyway… I recently updated to the latest version of WordPress and did it without break the blog, so go me! There’s still a few things that might be a little different as I get the theme updated, but all the links and things seem to be working fine. Please be patient with me as I work out the kinks in the code. I’m not great at CSS, but I can do it with enough time and trial and error. Still, stuff might look a bit strange around here while I get it done and I apologize for that in advance.