Okay, so it’s no more personal than last time, but I was trying to be dramatic.
Whenever a friend of my comments to me in the real world about my blog updates, I am sort of shocked. I forget that people you know.. read this and they also, you know, know me and they might actually have opinions.
Not that I expect them to. Most of my friends are male and most of my male friends are probably just don’t really care about paper dolls to begin with, though they are supportive of my hobby and for that I am grateful.
So, I am running a contest to name the new paper doll series. You can enter until Friday when I’ll choose my favorite as a winner and the winner gets a custom paper doll, so that should be useful incentive. Plus you’ll receive highly limited fame amongst a small, but dedicated audience.
So, the black and white version of today’s paper dolls went up last week and I, being a space cadet, sorta forgot to post the color version, though I finished it on Sunday. I hope a little belated paper doll posting will be forgiven.
Our first page of this set is just the dolls and the second page is more clothing for them. I chose a soft blue, green color scheme with red accents. Of all the eras of men’s clothing, I confess a soft side for the 18th century.
Have I mentioned this week has been INSANE? Because it has been, and classes get into full swing next week, so things are not looking to be much more peaceful. Despite that, I’m enjoying it. As I know I’ve said before, I would far rather be busy then bored. I also seem to have a lot of stuff inked, but I’m having trouble getting it onto the blog, so I am going to put some more effort into getting it scanned this weekend, so that it can go up.
I’m a little ashamed of how long it took me to get this paper doll up and I have absolutely no excuse since the paper doll was colored weeks ago, but with family visits and a nasty cold, it took longer than it should have to be done. If you’ve forgotten, the black and white version contained a rant about how complicated the floral pattern was. I’d like to say it was easier to color than it was to draw, but that would be a lie.
Coloring that floral pattern was a pain in the neck.
Still, I’m quite pleased with how it came in and, while I am in a bit of a cold medication induced haze, I think the whole paper doll is fairly charming. I sort of regret not making her blond so that her hair net things would be more obvious, but that’s my only complaint.
By the way, lately Marisole’s face has been reminding me a little to much of an insect. If I redrew her head, would people be horridly upset? I’d make sure her clothing still fit. Let me know in comments.
This printable paper doll set began as a chance to experiment and practice drawing pattern. It ended as an experience best summed up as… “Why did I ever decide I wanted to draw that stupid scrawling floral pattern and it’s a total pain to ink and it’s a total pain to color and I hate my life…”
Not shockingly, this set took me longer to finish than it should have. The full-color version goes up next week and you can all decide if it was worth the agony of the floral pattern from the pits of Hell.
Seriously, my hatred for that floral pattern is still fresh and warm.
Moving rapidly along, the paper doll that was supposed to go up with week was going to be Halloween themed, but since she didn’t get finished, we have a back up fantasy paper doll set instead.
Also, can I add, that from this paper doll’s accessories she leads a really surreal life- a sword for fighting, a letter for writing, a book for reading, yarn for knitting and a pitcher for… I don’t know… recreational water pouring? There’s no glass so I guess… she drinks from the pitcher? Hmm…
Clearly someone (and that means me) didn’t think this through. She wasn’t going to have a sword, but I had an extra from Silk and Steel and I figured that she could share the love.
By the way, if you have an opinion on the fate of the Dictionary Girls let me know.
So, back when I drew this paper doll, I was like “I’ll get her up for Speak like a Pirate Day” and now I’m like… “Clearly, that didn’t happen.” I didn’t even have her inked until last week which is a pretty fast turn around for me. I have been playing around with the Pixies lately, so here is the first two page one. I think I will do this again, I enjoyed building a larger pirate wardrobe than I usually can on a Pixie page.
Also, I finished inking a few Pucks yesterday and just got them scanned in, so people can expect some Pucks to be posted this month. I have been thinking it would be nice to do some Pucks aimed at boys just like the Dover Paper Action Figures, but I have no idea what little boys might want in a paper doll.
Anyone with a son want to help me out on this one?
Also, I get so giddy and excited when someone I don’t know at all links my site. NZ Ecochick posted pictures of her set of magnetic Marisole’s and it filled me with an unhealthy amount of glee. Paper dolls are so much fun to share and I love it when people do so.
Relatedly, one of the search terms that came up for the blog last month was “purple paper doll” and I am going to be honest. I have NO IDEA what that even means… we live in a strange strange internet, my friends.
Color schemes are always challenging. I wanted to keep the colors simple, since so much of it was going to be “silver grey”. As I see it, the “leather” can either be brown or black, but I think it looks off when there is a mix. After some debate, I settled on black and then decided to use white as a contrast color, rather than the more traditional dark shade. The rich red color has a lot of blue into it which keeps it from feeling too “blood red” and softens it against the black and the white.
Dreamed asked: If you could travel to any time era, in any part of the world, when and where would you go? Why?
Wow… hard question. I have no idea… not very helpful is it?
I guess if I had to go somewhere and visit a period of history, I would want to visit Mainz in Germany when Gutenberg was printing his bible in the mid-1400’s, just so that I could see the press. A little odd, but as a rare books person, I just really want to see it.
I would not want to have to wear the clothing of the early 1400s… that just does nothing for me.
On an utterly unrelated note, I found this beautiful Valentine paper doll on Flickr. I love the way water color looks when it’s well done. Makes me almost want to try traditional media… almost.
It’s late on a Saturday and I have really nothing intelligent to say about this. I sort of dropped off the face of the Earth for a week, which I try not to do on the blog. It’s just been a busy week with house sitting some animals and classes. So, I guess I’ll keep it short and sweet.
Enjoy the paper doll, she looks a bit like a Xena Warrior Princess reject and I hope to be back to a regular posting schedule this next week with Marisole and some actual clothing for Curves 2.0 (I know, hard to imagine) and some new Shadow and Light paper dolls too. And maybe, if I get them finished, some new magnetic paper dolls as well.
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.
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.
So, I’ve gotten a few requests for Marisole in black and white. I will not be posting every Marisole post with a black and white option. Sorry, it’s just too time consuming. However, I will continue to do them erratically. I’ve done one other black and white Marisole paper doll and here we have a second one.
Though two isn’t a huge number, it’s double the number I used to have on the blog. (That sounds so impressive when you don’t think too hard about it. Most things work better if you avoid thinking too much I find.) I hope everyone enjoys the black and white version of yesterday’s Marisole.
Sometimes people make the mistake of asking what my favorite novel. This is a really hard question to answer. Usually, I fall back on Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I read it as a child and return to it every few years. Each time, I am struck by the detail, the care and the complexity. It is a story full of questions of honor, betrayal, revenge and greed. Its villain is compassionate and compelling. Its hero’s are honorable, but hard. It’s a fascinating story. I recommend it to any adult or child who likes adventure tales. Really, I recommend it to anyone ever.
Also, there are pirates. And who doesn’t like pirates? Plus buried treasure and madmen and betrayal and fight scenes.
These paper doll pieces are more fantasy then reality, but that is the fun of paper dolls after all. I mean, it’s not like I actually bothered doing any real research in this case. I just had some fun with the fantasy. I mean, have you seen the Ninja side of this set? It’s not like I’ve even tried to be vaguely historically accurate.
I’ve been thinking about completely re-formating the site a lot lately… but then sanity prevails and I realize I don’t really have time. Still, I think I would like to convert it back to a more basic blog format, but then I’m worried I’d lose some of the features I like of this format… So, thoughts are ongoing. I could hand-code it, but it would take so much time and lots of trial and error. I shall have to think about my options a bit more before I decide, I think.
So, as some of you know I had a drawing last Monday and I said I would select a winner this Monday. In the end, I had 8 entries. So I just rolled an 8 sided dice, left over from other geeky hobbies I do, and came up with the number 3. That makes Monica the winner of my little drawing. Monica, please email me (paperthinpersonas (at) gmail (dot) com) with what sort of paper doll you would like. 🙂
Also, come back tomorrow and there will be something fun. I promise.
