medieval inspired

Marisole Monday: Practical Princess

From a kingdom high in the mountains, Marisole has come. It’s a harsh, rocky landscape and its princess is a practical oriented woman with a love of sword fighting and literatre. Her mother insists she still practice her stitching for when she is married, but would rather be out riding her horse. Someday, she will marry and rule this hard beautiful land, but until then she must study and wait.

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I don’t usually think about characters when I’m drawing Marisole, but after the Yellow Princess set, I wanted to do a more practical princess and I began to wonder what sort of world would spawn such a logical and down to earth member of the royalty. I choose cool calm colors for her clothing and decided to rely on gray rather then brown as my neutral. My favorite of her costumes is her grey leather jumper over her purple skirt. I imagine this is a fencing outfit to go with her sword and her practical boots.

I have done quite a few “princesses” over the years, often based on color. Princess In Pink was one of my first with a very pink and blue based color scheme. I love her hair style, but the color is redder then I think it should be. Before her, there was Green Princess who had a unique crown and only two dresses, because I forgot to draw a left sleeve onto the other dress and didn’t notice until I’d scanned and colored it. Opps… And then in June of last year, there was the Elven Princess who had pointy ears, purple eyes and one of my favorite sets of clothing. Lastly, there was the Yellow Princess who went up just a few weeks ago.

So, Marisole has been a princess quite a few times, though this is the first Marisole with Asian features to be a princess. I wanted her to resemble Filipino coloring, but I’m not sure I liked how her skin tone turned out. I think she looks a little sickly.

Curves: Fairy Tale Princess

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On Saturday, I went to a nearby town, had dinner and then went to the drive in movie. It’s one of the few drive-in’s left in operation. We saw the new X-men movie which was quite uninspired and rather awful (though the actor who played Magneto was really quite stellar, tragically the rest of the cast was not).

Besides which, and this is going to sound nit-picky, but the film is supposed to be set in the sixties. While the men’s clothing was perfectly fine, most of the women were costumed in stuff whose only relation to the fashions of the 1963 was the fact that some had miniskirts (which didn’t really get going until 1966) , with the exception of Emma Frost, who looked a bit like the similarly named Emma Peel. Being a big fan of Emma Peel, I was not about to object.

I’m all for miniskirts, but really…

Of course, I say this while posting a paper doll which has absolutely no relation to any real historical costume what-so-ever. She’s a fairy tale princess. Does she need to be at all historical? I think not. I suppose the same argument could be made for superheros…

Be that as it may, I’m still annoyed by the mini-skirts.

However, I am now thinking about the idea of an Avengers paper doll. Jumpsuits, cut outs… could be an awful lot of fun.

Pixie & Puck: Grace

Several weeks ago, I did a poll asking what people wanted to see more of and fantasy won. So, today I offer some traditional fantasy dresses. I’ve been fairly ill the last week, so I have been watching Disney movies and drinking lots of tea. Disney movies always make me feel better and I watch them when I’m tired or ill.

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I enjoy several other paper doll blogs, but rarely comment. I don’t read the text often which leaves me wondering if anyone reads my text. Since paper doll blogs are really all about the images, it seems to me they share a great deal of similarity with web comics. People come to see the pretty pictures, not to hear me blather on about them.

I find my favorite posts are comments about content and process. I love learning how other paper doll people do their work. I’m fascinated by the process it takes to make a paper doll. I’d like to do more process based stuff here, maybe post pictures of work in progress or something… I’ll have to give it some thought.

Curves: Princess of the North

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.)

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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.

Marisole Monday: Knights and Ladies

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I threw this together on Saturday when I realized I didn’t have a Marisole for Monday. It’s not my best work, but I do love the sleeves on the red dress. I’m working on my ruching (sp?) since I got some books on drawing fashion from the library. So, you can expect to see more of it as I practice. I’m also practicing shiny fabric. Neither has come easily as I thought it would.

I’m trying to stretch myself.

Part of that means trying to draw an actual male who looks like a male rather then like a rather unconvincing woman in drag. The upside is there might be a male paper doll someday. The downside is that that male paper doll might look like a woman in drag. We shall see.

Edit 3/28/2016: There is now a black and white version of this paper doll. Find it here.

Medieval Maiden: Paper Doll to Print

Normally, I try to be historical accurate as much as I can be. I think it’s important to research and think about things and try to cite my sources. (I am in library school, after all…) For this post though, I just wanted to draw some vaguely Medieval looking grab for Marisole after watching one to many episodes of the BBC show Cadfeal, which I confess I certain love of. So, these are research free costumes which I think is okay.

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 Liana apparently dedicates the whole of October to research free costumes. I kinda like the idea, but I don’t think I could stick too it. I like my research,

So, speaking of research, I am doing my own little survey on what I should to for my Fashion Doll Fridays for the next year or so. More information about the poll to create a new Fashion Doll for Fridays can be found on the last Florence post I did. The poll will be open until November 1st. I’ll have the polls on the posts for the rest of the week and then it’ll live in the sidebar for anyone who hasn’t voted.

Fantasy Printable Paper Doll: Lady of the Manor Part 2

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I don’t usually think about what sort of stories surround my paper dolls. I rarely draw a paper doll and then think… Hmm… she’s a nice girl with a love of beets who has a long lost sister whose actually a hired gun for the mafia. These just aren’t really the way I work. I know people who do think this way about their work, but I am not one of them.

Except some paper dolls seem like they should have back stories, and the lady is one of them. She is not a princess. She is the lady of the manor. What are her days full of? Is she happy? Is she sad? Is she scheming to poison her husband and run off with a knight? I kinda want a soap opera complex back-story where people have multiple personalities and long lost time traveling children.

Hmmm… I think if there was a paper doll with time traveling children and amnesia and evil twin sisters, I would read it religiously.

Of course, I read most paper doll blogs religiously even if I am bad about commenting, so I guess I’m easy to please.

Princess In Pink: Printable Paper Doll

Today’s Marisole has her being a fantasy maiden, possibly a Princess, once more. I do love my princess fantasy gowns.

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I know people have expressed some interest in seeing the process I go through to draw a paper doll. I never know how to show people what I do, but I scanned the dress on the far left with the blue in it during some of it’s stages of creation.

First of all, the dress was a simple pencil outline. And then I drew a detailed pencil version which had some pattern and folds and other things added. The version you see above is after it’s been inked and colored. As you might notice, the inked version is a little different then the final penciled version. Sometimes, I mess up while inking and just sort of go with it.

So, there’s a little look into some of the stages the paper dolls I draw go through.

Edit 3/28/2016: There is now a black and white version of this paper doll. Find it here.

Green Princess: African-American Printable Paper Doll

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So, funny story about this paper doll. I actually drew three dresses for her originally. I inked them, scanned them, colored them and even added my tabs. Then I noticed at one of the dresses seemed to be missing a sleeve. I thought- Nah, I can’t have forgotten to draw a sleeve for Marisole’s left arm, because not even I am that much of a space cadet.

Then I tried the dress on the doll and… well, apparently I am that much of a space cadet.

Needless to say, it was not easily fixable through the power of Photoshop, though I did try, so the princess paper doll version of Marisole only gets two dresses.

Moral of the story: Check for sleeves before inking paper doll costumes.

On an unrelated note, I’m pleased how Marisole’s hair turned out.

Princess Fantasies: Curvy Printable Paper Doll Dresses

It’s very chilly and windy out today. It has been for the last few days. The snow is that dusty hard ice crystal kind that almost stings when it touches faces or skin. I don’t mind such weather, but I think it was meant to be spent huddled inside where the heat is up and the body is wrapped in thick warm blanket.

A set of fantasy gowns for my curvy paper doll series. Black and white for coloring.

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On that note, I am going to make some hot chocolate and go to bed.

In case, people are wondering why I talk about sleep so much in these posts, it’s because I get them up before midnight the day before usually and by that time I’m pretty exhausted.

Also, I really like sleep.