I don’t know why this paper doll looks Russian to me. I have no explanation for that one, but something about the hair just screamed “slavic fairytale” to me. Once I decided that, than she needed to be blond, because if I was going to go slavic fairy tale, I might as well lean into all the stereotypes.
For some reason, and I don’t know why, I’ve found that working digitally means I am less drawn to doing fantasy as I was in pencil. Again, I’m not sure why. I suppose I’ll figure it out.
Actually, I’ve been frightfully unproductive over the last few weeks/months. I mean, I’ve been very productive, but not paper doll related. I’ve been working on a million other things. I have some work to get done for the convention and so that’ll get me motivated I hope.
Meanwhile I do have lots of thing “in-progress”, but I am struggling quite a lot to get those things over the finish line. We’ll see where it all ends up, I suppose.
Today’s fantasy printable dress-up doll has a pair of medieval inspired gowns with girdles, swords and books, of course. Because all paper dolls are happier with books.
When I’m in the mood for some “basic fantasy,” I tend to go back to medieval stuff. Not the actual medieval period, but rather what the Victorians thought the medieval period was. It’s all big castles, princesses in fancy dresses, dragons, and noble knights. In a nod to actual medieval gowns which were worn over kirtles or underdresses, I like to add the layers. You can see more of this sort of thing on my fantasy medieval Pinterest board if you’re curious.
I confess though that these aren’t the most unusual or inspired pieces for me, but I feel like I am stretching myself enough with the digital art thing without trying something totally new.
I chose the colors for these dresses from classic Norwegian design and old-fashioned children’s book illustrations. I used yellows, blues, and soft ocher shades to make them feel cozy and cheerful, like a sunny day or a calm, clear sky. These colors remind me of curling up by a fire with a big picture book.
And since I was thinking of books, I drew some books to be accessories along with swords. I like drawing books. It’s the librarian in me.
This is the first sort of fantasy set for the Ensemble Eclectica series. My hope is always that this fantasy printable dress-up doll will inspire imaginative play and storytelling. That’s the best part of playing with paper dolls, isn’t it? While I’ll admit that I have been on more of a modern clothing kick as of late, don’t worry. Eventually, I’ll come back to fantasy, sci-fi and other elements. I always do.
So, occasionally, I have a reason to dig into my own archives, which is always a kind of weird experience. Seeing art I made like 10 years ago feels… strange. Anyway, I was looking for something else and I came across Knights and Ladies for Marisole Monday from 2011. It was a paper doll printable that I made way back in the early days of site which, at the time, was only 2 years old.
Man, I was back in Library School then. Wow, it’s weird to think about that era of my life.
The Original Knights and Ladies Paper Doll
Anyhow, this was a paper doll I have very distinct memories of. I drew her in the library while I was in grad school and I was stuck between classes and I didn’t want to leave campus. I based the sleeves on some 19th century fashion drawings I’d been skimming through.
I saw it and I thought, man… I could do so much better now.
There’s things about the original Knights and Ladies that I found super compelling. I liked the hair and I was interested in the belts.
So, I decided to would draw the paper doll printable design once more for the Jewels and Gemstones series. This time I tried to think about how the belts would actually “function” if they were made of leather. I added some new details to the dresses and I fixed the skirts- before they clung way to much to the doll’s legs and I wanted more pooling. Though I debated recoloring the dresses, I decided against it. I thought I’d stick with my original color scheme.
I did go with a lighter hair color, because I wanted to keep the doll’s hair brown and I wanted a nice contrast with the skin-tone. I also was pretty sure that the original crown wouldn’t work very well on the doll, so I redesigned it to have the doll’s hair integrated.
All in all, I am very happy with how the new version of the Knights and Ladies came out. I don’t know how often I’ll do this, but it was a fun diversion.
What do you think of this paper doll? Let me know in a comment. I love hearing from y’all.
Last week was a lot of “housekeeping” sorts of posts- announcing changes to Patreon, letting people know about the new 1960s paper doll set– and I don’t mind those posts. They have to happen. Plus, I am proud of what I put on Etsy and I like getting to share it with you all.
But my Etsy products are always a a little higher stakes for me. Does everything fit? Do all the instruction make sense? Will someone who doesn’t know me really love the printable paper dolls as much as I hope they will?
I figure you are all my fans and will likely forgive me a foible for two.
So, I’m excited to return to a week of just sharing some printable paper dolls. It’s nice to get back to basic. Starting off with this fantasy set for Talia Tuesday feels right to me. Sometimes I do fantasy paper doll sets and I 100% know the narrative, but it’s not very common. It’s much more common for me to chose an element (in this case the scalloped sleeve detail) and think- how do I apply this across several things. You’ll see it in the sleeves of the gowns, but also repeated in the tunic trims.
I drew this paper doll at the same time as I drew my Tanya Elegant Empress paper doll. My original plan was to do a set that was all gowns and a set that was all pants. However, once I got down to the nitty-gritty of layout, I had too many gowns and not enough pants. Oops. I decided to call this printable paper doll “Having Adventures,” because the combination of nice gowns and more casual tunics made sense for someone who goes out and has an adventure. So, there’s a bow and arrows, but also an elegant gown. At least, that’s my justification after the fact.
Don’t forget to cut between the doll’s shoulders and her hair for best results when trying to dress her up.
I’m still sort of playing around with getting used to drawing for the Talia Tuesday and Friends dolls. I enjoy the pose and I like playing around with the motion, though I am still not 100% confident with it. It’s a fairly new pose to me and so it’s a bigger stretch than drawing for poses I’m used to drawing for. Since I’m not formally trained as an artist, and I don’t really enjoy drawing figures, it’s always a little scary working with a new pose for me.
So, anyway, this is Tanya. Tanya is the Russian diminutive of Tatiana. I named the paper doll Tanya, because I already have a Talia and a Tashi. I felt like the name Tanya fit in with the other names neatly. So, nothing too fancy there- I picked it because I liked how it sounded.
Tanya here has my first fantasy foray for the Talia Tuesday and Friends dolls, but I do love drawing princess paper dolls. Her crowns are designed to fold around the head, so you have some flexibility, if you want to use them on another doll with different hair.
If the pose is a stretch for me, this style is like cooking a recipe you’ve made a million times and know will probably come out okay. I both like drawing medieval fantasy gowns and am super comfortable drawing these fantasy princess looks. The color scheme was a bit different from many I tend to be attracted too. It feels more autumnal than I intended when I started, but I am super happy how it turned out.
As usual, a big thank you to my patrons who got to see the first proto Talia last year and helped me name Tashi, though I picked out Tanya’s name on my own. You all are the best!
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.
Sideless surcoats look strange to me. They will probably always strike me as odd. Sometimes, I look a specific eras of fashion and I feel like- Well, isn’t that peculiar.
My personal favorite on the peculiar scale being the whole of the 1830s. I mean…. the giant sleeves, the strange Apollo-knot hair, the odd shoulder coverings/off the shoulder thing. It’s just so bananas to me. This 1830s fashion plate proves what I mean.
Wasn’t it Oscar Wilde who said that fashion was a form of ugliness so abhorrent that it had to be changed every six months? I could look that up, but that’s just more work than I feel like putting into it tonight.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll As I was amusing myself doing research into medieval surcoats for my 12th-14th century paper dolls, I kept doodling surcoats. I confess these very narrow surcoats seem odd to me, but they were the inspiration for today’s paper doll and did exist. Well, not like this, but there are real ones out there, or at least illustrations of something that could be one.
By the way, I do realize most people don’t paw around medieval manuscripts looking for surcoat illustrations for fun, but that’s their loss.
Last Thoughts As far as I can tell surcoats and surcotes are the same thing, just one with more pretentious spelling. However, I am open to being proved wrong if someone would like to enlighten me.
Since it’s nearly Thanksgiving here in the US, I wanted to take a moment to say how grateful I am to my Patrons and my readers. You all keep me going and I deeply appreciate you.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll Last time we saw Lapis, she was being all Cybergoth and so I thought it would be nice if she had an option that didn’t involve amazing locks and fishnet tights. Not that I don’t love both cyberlocks and fishnet tights. This is, if you’re counting, the 16th Jewels and Gemstones doll.
I really enjoy drawing these medieval inspired fantasy gowns (as anyone whose been following the blog for a while knows), for this medieval fantasy dress I really wanted to create something simple. Sometimes, I love draw super complicated medieval inspired things with ruffles and roses and draped skirts (like this one or this one) but I also like drawing simpler fantasy things as well.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Well, this is obviously a medieval fantasy dress. Specifically, the long underdress sleeves shoved up around the wrists are a nod to the style of the Anglo-Saxons and the double wrapped girdle is a nod to the 12th century Norman dress.
Last Thoughts I’ve got a poll going on over on Patreon about what time periods I should draw some paper dolls from. Feel free to go vote.
Additionally, if you aren’t following along, I am doing a 100 days project on Instagram where I am drawing #100daysofpaperdolls. It’s been super fun. I missed a few days, but I am caught up now! At the moment, my theme is mermaids, but that will probably change soon.
Lastly, I always love hearing from you all, so feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think of today’s paper doll.
Reminder, there’s always an extra paper doll outfit on Fridays over on Patreon for my 2 dollar and up patrons.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll I am really bad at coming up with names for these paper doll outfits. I really had no idea what to call this one. I think sometimes I shouldn’t name them at all, but I missed giving them names when I was not naming things. Now I am naming things and that’s giving me fits.
What’s the old saying? The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Anyway, I digress.
I suppose I could have called this- Vaguely Medieval Fantasy Creation, but that doesn’t really roll off the tongue, does it?
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll I wanted to draw a medieval feeling gown without having to be historically accurate in anyway. So, I created this.
Last Thoughts If you are a patron hop over to Patreon where there is a second pink and green color scheme for today’s paper doll dress. It was super fun to color. If you’re not a patron, consider joining.
I’m traveling a bit this week (last trip for a few weeks, thank goodness!) So, I maybe a little slow on responding to comments/approving them. I need to get my spam filtering stuff set back up. That’s a goal for May.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll The first paper doll outfits I drew for the Jewels and Gemstones were fantasy gowns. This was one of them. The other, I’ll be sharing on Friday for my Patrons.
I tend to return to these sorts of medieval inspired fantasy gowns when I don’t know what to draw. I don’t know why, exactly, but it’s a style I like and a style that doesn’t take a lot of thought for me. I think?
I’m not sure.
There are things like these sorts of gowns (another example, and another, and another) that are simple and I can draw without having to look at lots of source images or worry about historical accuracy.
The paper doll equivalent of that recipe you make over and over again, because you know it will come out. Maybe not super innovative, but comforting. The pumpkin bread of paper doll clothing.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Today’s paper doll gown lacks a real specific inspiration. Medieval clothing, I suppose, but only in a fantasy universe sort of way.
Specific Source Images: I haven’t got any this time.
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