princess

Marisole Monday: Empire Fantasy

It is entirely possible that my least favorite part of posting paper dolls is coming up with the title. (Adding tabs is a close second on the list of least favorite activities, I should just draw them rather then using Photoshop. I don’t know why I insist on Photoshop. It just makes things more annoying.) I think I might just start numbering the things. Or using some strange code…. Seriously….

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So it’s very late and it’s been over 90 here for the last week. I am hot. I am sweaty. I am dying from a combination of humidity and heat. We had a thunderstorm this morning which woke me up and dropped the temp, so that it was only 90 degrees today. How nice.

It’s times like this when I miss the cold damp climes of my Alaskan home.

Anyway, enough about the weather. There are paper dolls. They are wearing stylish fantasy dresses. These dresses were inspired by the Renaissance in the same way Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame was actually inspired by the novel, which is to say only in the smallest and slightest way. Truly, I don’t know what Disney was thinking turning a book in which all of the main characters die into a children’s film, though I recommend the novel to anyone who has a really long plane ride and doesn’t mind being depressed during it. Does it show that I’m not a huge Victor Hugo fan? In the novel’s defense I should say the language is beautiful, but the plot is rather depressing. I can’t fault Hugo’s skill as a novelist, but I’d rather read Dumas.

Hmmm… I think that’s enough literary criticism for one blog post. Enjoy the paper dolls. (You can decide if she should die in a mass grave while clutching the dead body of her love. I won’t judge.)

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.

Curves: Garden Fantasy

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I have been trying to play with pattern, which helps explain this set of paper doll costumes. I also saw that fantasy was the most requested type of paper doll, so I am also trying to draw more fantasy costumes. That’s really all I’ve got to say about these dresses.

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.

Curves: Goes to Court

The trouble with fantasy dresses is knowing what to call the posts since I usually sort of doodle them when I am bored in class. I doodle a lot in class which shouldn’t surprise anyone. I was inspired partly by regency costumes and partly by the topic of “Relational Diagramming of Databases” which was the class in which I doodled these.

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I don’t think these are the costumes of a princess, but rather of a lady of the court. Someone who is wealthy, but not expected to dress to a certain code. Royal costumes were often symbolic or influenced by ritual attire and needs, so I tend to avoid them unless I can decide what the “rules” were. One of my favorite thing about the costumes of Queen Amidala in the new Stars Wars films (actually, her costumes are the only redeeming feature of those movies) is that they feel like the attire of a queen- ritual and restrictive.

And while I intended this paper doll to symbolize a “Royal Court”, it is totally possible she is actually going to criminal court for having done something like poisoning her husband, or not, depending on how nice you want your paper doll to be.

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.

Marisole Monday: An Elven Princess

So, a paper doll set! Yay!

I must confess that I didn’t think I would ever get these paper dolls done. The coloring of the clothing was hugely time consuming and I kept disliking how the schemes turned out. I’m still not totally pleased with the gold and red ballgown, but it’s much better then the blue and green version. (Trust me on this one.)

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The original goal was to draw things with trains (because I need practice) and this evolved into a set of clothing a fantasy princess (in this case Elven cause of the ears) would wear over the course of the day. Working left to right, the purple gown with the corset and white blouse is her day dress. The red and gold dress with the cream under dress is her formal dinner gown or ball gown which she wears in the evening. Her short bed jacket is next held closed with a golden pin and that she wears over her long nightgown which is on the far right along with two pairs of shoes. The purple shoe to match her purple day dress and the red shoes to go with her formal ball-gown. She also has two necklaces, one to go with each gown though the gold one can be worn with either dress.

Considering the time it took to get all these paper doll clothes to fit on one image, I am glad I don’t draw dresses with trains so often. I do think I need to start thinking about color schemes when I’m designing rather then at ten pm on Sunday night when I realize “Huh… this paper doll dress has like five layers. Maybe I should’ve thought this out better…”

Planning never was my strong suit, but I like to think that I make up for it with a can-do attitude and a certain amount of gumption.

Edit 8/10/2013: There is now a a black and white version of this paper doll for coloring.

Lady of the Manor Part 4

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I almost didn’t post this paper doll dress for the Lady of the Manor. I felt like I had left her alone for so long that I wasn’t sure it was worth finishing her, but then I felt like I had this last dress and it was scanned, so I might as well post it anyway.

I might have more to write about it in the morning, but I am very tired tonight, so I think I’ll crawl into bed. Enjoy the ballgown.