viking inspired

Marcus as a Warrior: A Paper Doll for Coloring

logo-marcus-warrior-bwStarting off 2015 with a Marcus 2.0 paper doll as my first Marisole Monday & Friends set. I wanted to do a Marisole doll for 2015, but I didn’t have done finished and this was finished, so up it goes. In total, there were 23 new Marisole Monday & Friends designs posted last year which I think is fairly close to a personal best. I haven’t checked my previous years to find out.

Today, we have Marcus 2.0 as a warrior. I wanted to do something fairly generic fantasy which would set Marcus up for when he might need to slay dragons or something. It’s not real armor, but closer in style to my Lord of the North set for Marcus 1.0 or he could be a companion for my Spirit of the North (though he won’t have blue skin) or my Anglo-Saxon paper doll, though there’s nothing historical about him. I’m sure there are other fantasy paper doll sets he would fit in with.

He does have a statement necklace and some useful swords.

marcus-warrior-paper-doll-bw
{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}
I’m pleased with how he came out. I really like the boots and the two pairs of leggings give him more outfit options for a total of six. Not bad for a six piece set. He’ll be up in full color next week. After that, I hope to have my Majorette paper doll done which I promised someone. Before moving to the South, I didn’t actually know that anyone did baton twirling anymore. You learn new things everyday, I suppose.

Right now, there’s a little drawing/contest so enter that if you wanna.

Faye’s Runic Adventures: A Printable Paper Doll

logo-faye-runicNothing exists in a vacuum. This means that anything which is created inevitably is developed from previously existing content. This doesn’t bother me. I love combining diffrent parts to get a unique whole.

Today’s paper doll was primarily inspired by this drawing I found on Pinterest which is originally from what appears to be a live action role playing game in England called Empire from the fictional country of Wintermark’s costumes.

Who knew?

This image was not my only inspiration. I was also influenced by traditional Japanese hairstyles and vikings. Everything is better with vikings or pirates or pirate vikings….


faye-runic-paper-doll

{Download a PDF to Print} {View a 150 dpi PNG}{Check out some More Mini-Maiden Printable Paper Dolls}

Seriously, I should do a set of pirate vikings. I can picture it now… horned helmets and jolly roger flags.

On second thought… maybe I shouldn’t do that.

Moving on… Faye’s world is a harsh one. Her people are known for their skill in leather and silver work. Of a fairly high status, she wears her hair in an elaborate style decorated with a metal ornament. The society travels long distances, mostly by river, and are known for their belief in astrology and careful tracking of the movements of the stars. Their calendars are prized throughout the world for their accuracy. They exist in small townships and a few larger groups. They do not have a centralized government, as we would call it, and form alliances through trade agreements and marriage. They are a largely matriarchal society.

I do have a lot of fun inventing this stuff. 🙂

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

Lord of the North in Color: Fantasy Paper Doll to Print

lord-of-the-north-marcus-color{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for the rest of this series}

The Spirit of the North paper doll is sort of the same world as this one, I think, sort of the female counterpoint to this male paper doll.

Now that Julie pointed out to me that his head is out of proportion in comparison to Marisole, it’s been bothering me… but since he was in color I wanted to post him anyway. His head might be getting some surgery.

I spent a chunk of my weekend looking for a dress to wear to a wedding and trying to treat a flea problem which my apartment is currently suffering from. I used to hate cockroaches, but I have decided that fleas suck more.

Astrid- Printable Paper Doll

When I was in middle school, I played a character named Astrid in a school play… but that is neither here nor there.

Personally, I really like her axe. That’s probably my favorite part of the paper doll… is that weird?

astrid-pixie-9-13-12

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG to Print} {Click Here for The Rest of this Series}

So, Boots asked: since you do a lot of coloring, etc. on the computer, what (if anything) do you do with the original art? Also: have you ever considered attending a paper doll convention?

Well, I draw in sketchbooks. So, my paper dolls end up in sketchbooks and the sketchbooks get labeled with the date and the year that they were done and get stuck in a bookcase. I don’t really “do” anything with the original art, except save it, because someday I might need it for something…. I keep a xerox of every common base paper doll (Marisole, Pixie & Puck, Dictionary and Shadow and Light) in a binder, so that I can have something draw off of without damaging the original art. I live in terror of losing the original art, since I tend to beat up my copies.

As for going to a paper doll convention, I totally want too. I’ve wanted to go to one for forever, but they’ve never been in locations or at times that were convenient for me. Living in Alaska was a huge hurdle and then school was a huge hurdle, but I’m hoping next year or something, I might get to go to one.

Mostly, I just think it would be cool to meet people who get as excited as I do about these paper people I love to draw so much. 🙂

Speaking of paper people, I was pawing around the internet and I found this beautiful horoscope paper doll on a dutch (I think…) language website. She’s really lovely and I adore her “theme costumes”.

Spirit of the North: Black and White Printable Paper Doll

spirit_north_black_white_paperdoll

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

So, I have good news, bad news and slightly indifferent news. The good news is- Hey, look it’s a paper doll post. The bad news is that it will probably be the only one for the whole week. The indifferent news is that the paper doll is in black and white. I chose to post Spirit of the North in black and white since the dolls dresses have a lot of pattern to them and I thought it would be more interesting to color than some of my other paper dolls.

I think it might be cheating to recycle content like this… But so far people have been nice about it. 🙂

Spirit of the North: Printable Paper Doll

We still haven’t had much snow here, but I don’t mind. I’m able to walk home from work which is just about a mile and a half and it’s a nice walk to do when the weather isn’t too cold. I’m dreading when it gets colder and I’ll have to decide between wait ten minutes for the bus or walking 25 minutes in the cold. It’s a hard call and depending on how horrid it is, I usually decide right after work.

marisole-paper-doll-spirit-of-the-north

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Paper Dolls in this Series}

I’ve been playing around with color pallets a lot lately. I realized, I’d never done a sort of Norse/Anglo-Saxon/Medieval fantasy paper doll in a pale color scheme. Somehow that lead to this and then the idea of giving the paper doll blue skin came to me last minute. Once the paper doll was fully colored, I knew she had to be some sort of other worldly winter fairy or something. She might be smiling, but I get the feeling she might be very dangerous. Not someone you’d want to cross.

And, in case I haven’t mentioned it or you haven’t noticed, there’s a poll. Feel free to vote or tell me what you think in a comment.

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.)

curves-princess-north-paper-doll-150

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here For the Rest of the Series}

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.