victorian inspired

Vivid Victoriana Steampunk Printable Paper Doll

logo-vivid-victoriana-marisole-monday-steampunk-paper-doll-bwWell… I can say what this isn’t pretty quickly. This isn’t a Halloween printable paper doll. I wanted it to be, but sometimes life doesn’t cooperate.

Instead of a Halloween printable paper doll and her clothes, we’ve got a steampunk inspired neo-victorian Margot paper doll and her clothes. I think the paper doll is just as nice as something more themeatic, but it always seems to me like I should try to follow the seasons on the blog, even though I rarely succeed.

This year nothing really Halloween oriented has happened on the blog. I do hope to get a vampire Pixie paper doll I drew an embarrassingly long time ago finally finished and posted, but the truth is that September was such an insane month for me (wedding & flooded apartment) that I didn’t get any of my Halloween plans finished.

However, if you want a Halloween Marisole Monday & Friends paper doll, I have done several.. I did a vampire one year, a Gothic Mia paper doll, and then a Marisole with costumes. Last year, I teamed up with Liana, Toria and Boots and we created a collaborative paper doll and clothes.

That paper doll collaboration was so much fun that I keep telling myself I’ll get up the energy to organize another one. I just haven’t seemed to have the time. Hmm… this post got a bit more whiny than it started. I do apologize.

Still… part of me is kicking myself for not finishing the flower fairy paper doll I was working on. I’ve had a lot of requests for that and I wanted to have it done for Halloween.


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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}

And you might have noticed a new format with this post. It’s something I’m trying out, because I was feeling like the posts on the first page of the blog were all getting a little bit too long. I’m not sure I am going to stick with it. As always, I’d love to hear what you think. Speaking of what people think… there’s a new poll in the sidebar.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon… Flock Fairy Tales Magnetic Paper Doll

This magnetic paper doll set has the honor of being the least well known, I suspect, of the fairy tales I wanted to do, but it also happens to be my favorite fairytale, or at least one of my favorites.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon is a Norwegian tale which I like because the protagonist is not a princess and she largely saves her prince, rather than the other way around. I love the idea of the mythical castle that lies, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” and when I was a child, I owned a lavishly illustrated edition. This posted ended up really long, so I put a break into it.

east-west-samplesThe story goes something like this:

One day, a white bear who offers the poor farmer a huge dowry for his lovely daughter. The daughter is reluctant, but eventually agrees. The bear takes her off to a fancy castle where she lives with him. At night, he takes off his bear form in order to come to her bed as a man, but she never sees him.

After a while, she gets homesick and the bear says she can go home as long as she agrees that she won’t speak with her mother alone. Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story if she didn’t speak with her mother alone. Her mother, worried the Bear is really a troll, gives her daughter a candle so she can see what he looks like at night.

The daughter lights the candle, finds out he’s a hot prince, but spills three drops of the melted tallow on him. Waking up, he tells her that he has been cursed and now must go marry a hideous troll who lives in a castle East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

In the morning, the castle has vanished and the daughter sets out to get her man back.

More Here

Four Paper Doll Princess Coloring Pages to Print

So, things have been a little busy for me lately, which should be obvious from my neglectful activities towards the blog. Anyway… to beg forgiveness today, I’ve got some paper doll princess coloring pages to print and play with. I never really know how to describe black and white paper dolls. Anyway, these are meant to be colored, so I think they are coloring pages as much as they are paper dolls. They’re all fairy tale/princess themed which I think is kinda fun, since they can all share clothing.

The first one of is a Fairytale Maiden. Back when I posted her in color, I imagined she was a fairy tale princess in that stage of the story where she’s sent off to live with a kindly fairies and avoid spinning wheels OR before she meets the Prince while he’s out hunting. Her skirts are all meant to mix and match with her tops.
A Fairy Tale maiden black and white princess coloring page to print and dress up. She's a free paper doll from paperthinpersonas.com

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

Here’s this paper doll in full color, if you don’t want to color her. It’s fascinating to see how my art has changed since I created her back in 2010.

Yellow Princess is maybe the most traditional of these paper doll princesses, I created her earlier this year. I wanted to draw princess dresses that were ruffled and fluffy and decorated with ribbons and lace which is totally what I think of when I think “princess.” Of all the paper dolls I’ve created, I think Yellow Princess is one of the most over the top. I kinda love her. Like any good princess, she has a crown and some awesome accessories.


A black and white princess coloring page to print and dress up with two ballgowns, shoes and a crown. She's a free paper doll from paperthinpersonas.com

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

And here is this paper doll in color, very yellow and ruffled. I think she’d be fun to color… I sort of wish I’d done her in purple rather than yellow the first time. Perhaps now is my chance.

Our Book Loving Princess has a lot to do with my inability to come up with names for paper doll sets. (Embarassing, but true!) She’s got three dresses, books and book accessories like an ink pot. Her princess gowns are based on renaissance dresses. But only really vaguely, I mean… not trying to be accurate here in anyway.


A black princess coloring page to print and dress up. Three dress, box braids and fun accessories. She's a free paper doll from paperthinpersonas.com

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

This princess paper doll in color is very red and yellow. She is awfully cute in color, I gotta say.

My Elven Princess is one of my favorite sets. I love her gowns and shoes. The simple dress is supposed to be a nightgown for this paper doll, but I get that most people didn’t notice that when I first posted her.


An elf princess coloring page to print and dress up. She's got two gowns, a night gown, shoes and some pointy ears. Free printable paper doll from paperthinpersonas.com.

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

Here she is in color. Did I mention how much I love her trained skirts and her platform shoes? Cause I totally do.

I hope these paper doll coloring pages make up a little for my absence these last two weeks.

Snow-White and Rose-Red: Magnetic Paper Dolls

Snow-White and Rose-Red (Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brother’s Grimm. It’s not the same as Snow White (Schneewittchen), though a lot of comics and stories do connect the two, like Fables (which is wonderful, by the way, if you like comics).

I know Snow White and Rose Red is not the most well known story, but basically it’s your standard girls meet bear, girls meet evil dwarf, girls cut off evil dwarf’s beard, bear kills dwarf, bear becomes prince sort of affair.

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The moral of the story probably has something to do with being nice to bears and/or dwarfs, but that all seems rather unimportant.

I decided to draw a new Flock doll to go along with Dove for this story, so everyone can meet Swan. Swan, here with blond hair in ringlet curls, is the latest member of the Flock family and the second Asian doll (or at least my attempt at it). I was going to do a fairytale from the Asian continent, but I don’t know much about Asian fairy tales (and even sticking and entire continent’s culture into one block is totally painful to me, but I digress).

Before someone suggests Mulan, I should say that Mulan is not, technically, a fairy tale, but rather it is a legend. Fairy tales, generally, are defined by folklorists as containing magic, mystical creatures and generally not being perceived by the tellers as being true. In other words, no one ever through Rose-Red and Snow-White actually happened.

Legends, generally, at some point in their history, were perceived to be true. King Arthur and the Holy Grail is a legend.

Anyway, enjoy Snow White and Rose Red. I certainly had fun drawing them.

 

Fairytale Flock: Dove & Swan as Rose Red & Snow White Set PDF Downloads
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Swan as Snow White PDF Download Dove as Rose Red PDF Download Snow White & Rose Red Clothing PDF Download

 

Marisole Monday & Friends: Mia Goes to the Bathing Place… and gets some colors…

So, as I mentioned last time, I always liked the idea of multiple costumes for various activities that was such a part of the Victorian way of dressing. Personally, I think it would be rather fun to have a special outfit I wore while visiting or yachting, but jeans and a t-shirt seem to see me through nearly all of my social engagements. I suppose that says something, perhaps not flattering, about the nature of my social engagements.

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The outfits today, are, as I mentioned last week, a grey and teal skirt which can be paired with either the corset, jacket, and top hat to make a traveling or promenade suit or can be worn with the bodice trimmed in pleats for a dinner toilette. The yellow and white yachting costume is sort of practical (barely) and the bathing dress (a swimsuit to most of us) has matching slippers. All things considered I think Mia would do quite well for herself with this set on vacation. Of course, she can share her dresses with Marisole and Margot.

Personally, I just got back from gallivanting around Alabama for work and then finishing up my taxes (I hate doing taxes) and now I can consider all of my obligations for filled for the moment. As always, enjoy the paper doll and, as always, feel free to let me know what you think. Next week, there will be elves.

Little Wren Riding Hood…

So, I was asked where the name Flock came from. Basically, I wanted a name that would allow for each of the paper dolls to have a unique name, but wouldn’t force me into a specific culture or letter of the alphabet. The idea was that since so many girl’s names were based on birds like Robin or Raven or Oriel, than it wasn’t a far reach to suggest names like Dove or Swan. In many ways, the names of the Flock are intended to be place holders, so that someone could name the dolls anything they wanted and they give me a way of talking about them and keeping tack of them in my head.

Today, Wren is being Little Red Riding Hood (and I am not apologizing for the pun) and she’s pretty cute. The color palette is not the same as Rapunzel, but it’s the same family of colors, so the two dolls can share some pieces of clothing I think that’s important, since the fun of paper dolls is dressing them up. There are two other Fairy Tale sets in the works, one for Rose Red and Snow White and the other for East of the Sun, West of the Moon. I don’t know which one will be done first. I’d like to also do Morgiana from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, but I haven’t even got it drawn yet, so I recommend people don’t hold their breaths on that one.

Despite my small set of examples, there are actually 136 outfit combinations here, I just didn’t have time to play as much as I wanted. Sometimes life is like that… Oh well… Enjoy Little Wren Riding Hood.

 

Fairytale Flock: Wren as Little Red Riding Hood Set PDF Downloads
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Wren Doll PDF Download Little Red Riding Hood
Clothing PDF Download

 

Marisole Monday & Friends: Mia at the Bathing Place…

Let me be clear: When it comes to Victorians, the coolest thing to me is the idea of changing your clothing for several times a day. Also, getting to put together a trousseau before you get married. Is it wrong that I love the idea of not having to think too hard about what I would wear for a year?

Anyway, today’s paper doll is a riff on that whole concept. I love reading through old fashion magazines to find out what was proper to wear for a carriage ride or afternoon tea. As a child, I loved the idea of having special outfits for riding or hiking or going for a walk. It felt exotic and fancy.

A jaunty collection of neo-victorian fashions for Mia. her mix and match wardrobe includes 18 pieces for a lady-like day at the seaside,. Free to print and color.

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My original idea was to do a bride and her trousseau inspired by the Victorian inspired styled I love so much. I always think of this as a chance to draw Victorian inspired fantasy clothing with no guilt about lack of historical authenticity. I realized, after I started that I wasn’t sure I wanted to draw that many items, so instead focused on a smaller set of “bathing place” costumes for Mia. Basically, Mia’s off to the coast for a vacation and she’s gotta be dressed appropriately.

So, there’s a yachting costume, a traveling suit with an alternate dinner bodice and a swim suit with slippers to match. All in all, she can handle a weekend in on the coast rather well, I think.

Jacqueline: A Paper Doll In Four Different Color Schemes

Clearly, I got bored last weekend and decided that what I needed to do was color a paper doll set in three different color schemes, because I couldn’t make up my mind.

Actually, there was a fourth color scheme, but it looked bad and didn’t get as far as being posted.

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{Click Here for a PDF of Jacqueline: Black and White} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG of Jacqueline: Black and White} {Click Here for a PDF of Jacqueline: Spring Time} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG of Jacqueline: Spring Time}

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{Click Here for a PDF of Jacqueline: Winter’s Day} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG of Jacqueline: Winter’s Day} {Click Here for a PDF of Jacqueline: Brights} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG of Jacqueline: Brights}

I think I might have a problem. I can’t keep doing this with Pixie paper dolls, because it’s darn time consuming and yet… I wonder what she’s look like in a red and blue color scheme? See… this is why I have a problem.

So, I put up a Terms of Use statement recently. The truth is that I probably should have done it a while ago, but sometimes I forget that I’m not talking to myself when I write on this blog. So, none of the terms on it are really different than they ever have been, but I think it clarifies a few things. As always, if you have any questions about anything, feel free to email me. I check my email every most days. I’m working on recoding the FAQ page as well.

Rapunzel… The First of the Flock Fairytale Magnetic Series

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Today I am totally pleased to present the first of the Flock Fairytale series which is Rapunzel. Rapunzel is one of those fairy tales that sorta freaks me out.

Somehow Disney turned it into a rather cute movie, but I just can’t get over the gruesomeness of original story what with the people getting blinded and all. Plus Rapunzel means like “salad greens” or something in German (according to a German friend in Grad School) and isn’t that a little weird? Naming your child after salad greens is, I suppose, a small oddity, after you’ve locked them in a tower for 18 years.

In the Grimm version, Rapunzel is a blond, but I don’t see why blonds should get all the fun. (Plus, I don’t really have a blond Flock doll…), so Phoebe gets to rock the Rapunzel look.

As I mentioned, this fairytale is weird, so I wasn’t going to do a Rapunzel, but when I was researching steampunk/neo-victorian (can someone explain the difference between those two things to me someday? I feel like neo-victorian is just steampunk without the gears and goggles…) fairy tales for inspiration I came across this drawing and I knew I had to do a Rapunzel.

Oddly, she’s the first one I’ve finished though I drew Red Ridinghood before her. I’ll get Red Ridinghood done in a few more weeks, I think.

By the way, there are 102 outfit combinations possible from this Flock set which is pretty wacky… though that high number relies on the large number of pairs of shoes (six) accompanying the nine main outfit pieces.

People supported my last foray into wacky ideas with my Noir Punk set, so I hope people like this one too.

Fairytale Flock: Phoebe as Rapunzel Set PDF Downloads
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Phoebe Doll PDF Download Rapunzel Clothing PDF Download

Mariana… A Steampunk Paper Doll

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First Pixie paper doll of the new year. That deserves some excitement, I think.

Maybe not for anyone but me.

She’s rocking a steampunk/neo-victorian paper doll theme. I think she hangs out with Jian, my steam punk male paper doll and probably makes trouble. Since I’ve had such a positive response to doing Marisole in black and white and in color, I decided to do this paper doll the same way and I might start doing this for all the Pixie and Pucks, we’ll see.

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{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

Also, the poll is up until the end of the month and people should vote. I do actually pay attention to the poll.

I also pay attention to repeated requests (eventually) and I have had two ideas which more than one person has suggested. One is a cowgirl paper doll which has been stalled lately because I wanted to draw a horse and, frankly, drawing animals is not my thing. But last night I managed to sketch out a decent looking horse, so… a cowgirl may yet appear. The second thing I’ve been working on, and I expect this to make some peeps happy, is a male paper doll properly proportioned to hang out with Marisole.

So, depending on what wins the poll this time will depend on what I work on next year.

My point is this, if you want to see one of these things, vote for it, or if you want to see something else, drop me a comment.

Shadow & Light… Steampunk Paper Doll

Here we are at nearly the end of December and here is another Shadow and Light paper dolls. Today’s paper doll is a bit steampunk-ish (though lacks the gears and goggles that seem to be required), still I hope no one will hold that against her. Truth be told, I can’t draw a gear to save my life, though I have tried on occasion to mixed success.

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I forgot, living in Alabama, how pretty the snow is, but I also forgot how annoying it is to sweep off your car in the morning in the cold wearing black ankle boots. Toes freezing and fingers freezing and snow sticking to eyelashes under a grey sky with lights from the buildings flickering through, there’s nothing like winter in Southeast Alaska.

It’s a beautiful place up here.

Oh and by the way, there’s a poll on the sidebar. Please fill it out. I do actually pay attention to what people vote for and I use it to decide what I will do in the coming year. If there’s something you’d like to see and it’s not on the list, please comment.

Dead Roses: Gothic Paper Doll

I feel a little weird saying this is in color when the color is mostly black…

Not the most cheerful color scheme ever developed for a paper doll. I almost made it all black, but that seemed a bit much, even for Gothic Marisole. If you look closely, you’ll see one of my usual tricks for keeping things from looking totally “flat” is to use shades of the same color. So while everything is “black” there is still some definition between the various parts of the garments. I actually did this Marisole in four shades of very very dark grey which look black, but still allow the line work to be seen.

It’s all an illusion.

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So, Meredith asked: I think a ballerina paper doll would be cool or mabey a pool / summer themed doll also for some ting tiffrent you could do dolls theamed ot colors of the rainbow

how long have you been drawing paper dolls for?
could you do a cow girl paper doll that would be cool and diffrent

To answer the easiest question, I have been drawing paper dolls for as long as I can really remember. It began when my mother would draw me a doll as a bribe for cleaning my room or other activity and then I had to draw the clothing. Eventually, that evolved into drawing my own paper dolls, though I still prefer clothing to the dolls.

As for your requests, I have added them to my list of ideas. I usually keep a running list of ideas, but since most paper dolls are drawn weeks (sometimes months) before they eventually get posted, I can’t promise anything as far as doing any of those ideas. And I probably won’t to the ballerina, because tutu’s scare me.

To answer a related question, Tawny asked: What is your favorite sort of paper doll to draw? I mean… I think eeery thing you do is great, but what do you like to do the most?

I like drawing everything. I do find I tend to return to certain themes a lot. I like things that are a little alt-fashion inspired and a little fantasy inspired. I often draw from fashion magazines, because it makes deciding what to draw simpler. I always fear that I will fall into a rut and draw the same thing over and over again. I try to keep things interesting using reference images and other materials.

Got a question you want me to answer on the blog?Ask me here.