Category: Paper Dolls

Judy : Vol. 31, 1882 Plate 3

Another somewhat modest bustle on this Judy Tuesday. I’ll get used to the new size of the dolls hopefully in the next round. Once again, I’m not entirely sure why I thought a Cattleshow costume went with something called the St. Roseline. Although, that weird headcovering on the St. Roseline reminds me of French milkmaids for some reason.

The St. Roseline likely refers to the saint herself, but also the Chateau where she lies in France, where there is a vineyard. As wine and beef go together, I’m just going to pretend that was my justification since it might make more sense than the milkmaid excuse.

These are December costumes, so I’m glad I got them out before we got too far into the new year. At least they are sort of right for the season.

I really need to get some work done on this volume of Judy!  In my distraction to revamp the catwalk dolls, I’ve sadly neglected poor Judy and have now run out of buffer.  I guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend!

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

 

 

Geneviéve: 1971

I think I was the one who suggested this first theme for our collaborative paper doll: “The Year You were Born”. And afterwards I thought: oh, I guess I just dated myself online. But that’s okay. I’ve never minded being the age that I am. 45 is actually pretty great right now.

Yup. I was born in 1971.

All in the Family debuted on CBS, Charles Manson was sentenced to death for the Tate-LaBianca murders (yeah, that didn’t keep), Apollo 14 landed on the moon, and “Stairway to Heaven” had its premiere in concert. I share a birth year with Mark Wahlberg, Snoop Dogg, and Ewan McGregor. Jim Morrison died 43 days before my birthday

When I thought about what I wanted to draw for Geneviéve, I recalled my mother’s sewing magazines when I was a kid (she sewed for my older sisters). I did a Google search for “Simplicity fashions 1971” and the image that I posted below popped up. Amazingly, I not only remember this picture vividly from those magazines, but it was the exact picture I had in mind when I went looking.

Right away, I knew this was exactly what I wanted to draw for Geneviéve. The velvet knee pants, the satin mini, the crazy patterned jackets. It all screams 1970s without being the predictable bell bottoms.

I love Julie’s design for this doll’s body because it’s so easy to make clothes at this scale. I’m accustomed to drawing very small and this was an opportunity to go big and bold.

Making that intricate jacket was pure joy (I love to doodle). It’s not an exact match to the actual pattern, but it is a pattern from 1971 that I found online (and which was easier to see the detail). I did my best with the cats as well–again, it’s not exact, but close enough!

I confess I came very close to actually putting tabs on this doll, but I feared setting a precedence! So, as with all of my dolls, if you want tabs, you’ll have to add them yourself.

For those of you who find this confounding, it has to do with paper doll history and my fetish for 19th century aesthetics. I keep meaning to write an apologia about this. Maybe now’s a good time.

I hope you enjoy coloring and playing with this set as much as I enjoyed drawing it. And now don’t forget: you can find more theme outfits to match this doll at the following fabulous blogs:

This collaborative doll will be posted at the end of each month all throughout 2017 with a new theme each month.  To find all related posts on this blog, just click the “Geneviéve” tag.

[Click on this link or the picture to download the plate!]

 

Judy : Vol. 31, 1882 Plate 2

Judy Tuesday brings you some post-holiday (but still winter-ish) costumes to maybe keep you in the spirit even as we leave the first month of the new year behind.

I just mentioned last week that I was trying to group these thematically. Don’t really have a thematic reason for why the “Cairo” costume goes with the “December” costume, but maybe I was just thinking it looked festive. In other words, my idea of theme may be questionable.

I really love the “December” costume. I had initially planned to separate the hood from the dress as I have done with other attached pieces in the past, but decided against it. Sometimes the goofiness of the style “as-is” is just right.

I can tell already I drew the “Cairo” costume with a rather conservative bustle because I’m still used to squeezing the costumes in for the larger dolls. Hopefully I will calculate better as we go along so that these fanciful creations can really breathe.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

Geneviéve: A Collaborative Paper Doll

One of the best things about the paper doll community is that although it is rather niche, it’s also welcoming. I love to share thoughts and ideas with other paper doll enthusiasts, and two of the best bloggers out there right now are Julie Matthews at Paper Doll School, and Rachel at Paper Thin Personas. We’ve collaborated in the past to create dolls for a variety of occasions. Our last one was a while back: a masquerade paper doll, with costumes from paper doll fans all over the internet.

It was high time we did another, so now we have a monthly doll to share with you across all three blogs. With a body designed by Julie, each site has posted their own version of the doll, and all three will be able to mix and match their wardrobes (some headwear may not be compatible).

I named my doll Geneviéve, after Catherine Deneuve’s sweet naive character in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. I don’t actually imagine the doll as blonde, but with the magic of your own coloring tools, you can make her whatever you want!

Each month there will be a theme for this doll. For January, the theme is “The Year You were Born”. I’ll be posting Geneviéve’s first plate of clothes this coming Friday, the 27th.

[Meanwhile, click on the picture or this link to download the doll!]

 

Judy : Vol. 31, 1882 Plate 1

vol31_01_thumbIt’s Judy Tuesday!  Our first plate of the new era! I used to try to post the costumes in the order they appeared in the serial, but this go-round I’m going to group them in ways that maybe make sense thematically (sometimes). So the dates will likely jump around a lot.

Chasemore really hit a stride starting with this volume. The Judy designs, which previously had taken up a small corner (sometimes maybe no more than about an eighth of the page, were now commanding quarter pages. The fact that they were featured so prominently probably attests to their popularity.

We also begin to see Chasemore building on past designs. With more space to indulge in, previous ideas are recycled with more extravagant detail.

Weirdly, though, some of Chasemore’s offerings are just as lazy and uninspired. Could be the pressure of deadlines or maybe just a lack of motivation. I always the outfits that I felt were sort of “duds”, but far fewer in this volume that in volumes of the past.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

Revised Judy : the London Serio-comic Paper Doll

judy_2017_thumbIt’s Tuesday, so as good a time as any for Judy! Yes, we have two new dolls for the volumes going forward. They are agonizingly similar to the previous dolls. The main difference is that they are more petite (with smaller hands and feet), and have slimmer bodies. They also have much prettier faces, I think.

Much as I didn’t want to completely revise the Judy dolls, I needed to trim them down a bit to allow more room for the costumes as they get increasingly silly (particularly the hats and some of the bustles). I think we’ll be able to stick with these two until the end.

I’ll also try to wrap my head around making a Judy gallery since now we have four iterations of these dolls. It would be nice to keep them in a semblance of order.

Will be posting Judy on Tuesdays (or at least that’s the plan). She remains the easiest thing to produce in my lineup, so I really have no excuses. Well, I’m sure I have many, actually, but none of them are really legitimate.

Didn’t realize the Golden Globes were on until late last night when my sister texted me. I guess I better get my catwalk/runway/red carpet dolls posted! I will start them this weekend, I think. Did I miss any amazing gowns? Guess I’ll have to trawl the pictures to see.

[Meanwhile, click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

Star Wars Paper Dolls: Leia Organa No. 6

leia_01_tfa_color

I drew this December 27th, the day Carrie Fisher died.  It was a place to put my grief that was more constructive than slapping on the Original Trilogy and zoning out for 6+ hours (okay I did that later). But I couldn’t post it then because I didn’t know what to say.

I still don’t know what to say. Star Wars was an immense part of my childhood, my formation. Princess Leia was an indomitable spirit who normalized the strong female hero. Because of her, I grew up never feeling the lack.

It’s a hard thing to be reconnected to that wonder and to now have lost it so irretrievably in some way. I’m almost certain General Leia will live on somehow (she must for the good of the Resistance), but I will miss her deeply and always wonder at how this new trilogy has been impacted by Fisher’s sudden tragic passing. I only hope that Lucasfilm will give her character the happy ending she deserves (she has suffered so much).

leia_01_tfa_bwI don’t have much to say about the doll. These two costumes and alternate heads from The Force Awakens fit the original doll for the series. Leia is a pragmatic woman with military responsibilities and not a fashion horse, though she does put on a dress at the end (as a celebration of their victory? In mourning for Han?). The dress feels almost out of character in some regards. She no longer has a senatorial role in the galaxy; she is a private citizen and the Resistance is not a sanctioned operation.

With her typical good humor, Fisher described the first one as looking like a gas station attendant. She said the second one had the hairstyle of a baboon’s ass.

I would have liked to have seen her in more flattering attire, but perhaps in her final installment (Episode VIII) she will get to look like both the General and the Princess that she is.

I was honestly so surprised and overjoyed to see her reprise her role last December. Now it’s hard to imagine Star Wars without her.

Requiescat en pace, you talented, wonderful, irreverent woman. Along with your beautiful mother.

[Click on each image to download a printable .pdf copy of each plate]

Winter Solstice Beast & Beauty Paper Dolls

beast_beauty_thumb_01 beast_beauty_thumb_02

I never think about doing a Christmas-themed set of plates until it’s too late to actually be planful about it. I need to start in January and then maybe I can actually be ready by the time December rolls around. Even starting late, I thought: oh, no problem!  I’ll do a 12 Days of Christmas thing so that the posting doesn’t have to start until December 25th. So I started mapping out this idea of doing a Beauty & the Beast theme and each day would be a new costume and a new set of gifts, but last week I realized I would never be able to draw, color, and plate them in time–not with all the holiday ruckus going on.

As a consolation, here’s what I started. Decided at the last minute to leave it as a “cut and color” set since that might be more fun with only a single plate. I did color the figures, though (I didn’t scan them before I made the decision). I like Beast. Not so sure about Beauty. She’s okay, I guess. I really didn’t mean to make her blonde, but…oh well. Maybe if I revisit my 12 Days of Christmas idea, I’ll revamp her. I’d like to revisit this.

Beauty & the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, but I’ve never liked that Beast turned into a “handsome prince” at the end of it. He is a handsome prince–just the way he is. And yes, in my mind, I always imagined him more wildebeest-warthoggy than cat or bearlike. With hooves instead of claws. Beastly for his manners more than anything else. In an early version that I read, one of Beauty’s first kindnesses is to feed him at the dinner table. He can’t hold a spoon and is ashamed of sticking his face in the bowl. That always stayed with me.

So be kind this season–especially with all the grumpy frustrated people you meet in the stores and on the streets: they need it the most.

This is my last set of plates for 2016.  Looking forward to lots of new stuff in the coming year! I’m going to make 2017 great and I hope you will too.  I wish you all the happiest of holidays, with much peace and joy and inspiration!

[Click here to download a .pdf of this two-page set]

Empire Paper Dolls: Cookie Lyon’s Closet [Plate 4]

empire_04_cookie_thumbWe finally come to the last of the Cookie plates, just as it was about to get interesting. This is also my last plate to post for the year. Unless I can actually get something for Christmas done in the next day or so (I’m trying!).

The red and the blue dresses on the right side I did back in the fall of last year. I think I hated both of them at the time (and it probably contributed to me putting this aside). The prints were so fussy and despite good references I don’t think either came out well.

The red/black dress and the blouse and the shoes on the left side I painted recently just to finish out a full plate to post. I have to say, I love how the shoes and the blouse came out–and these were the things that really convinced me to tackle the catwalk dolls. The blouse should have given me the horrors, but I dove right in and it’s not a bad approximation of the original garment (as complicated as that pattern was). It’s not perfect, but has the right effect. It also was actually worn with the black leather pants from Plate 3. I was happy to squeeze in at least one mix-and-match.

Click the Cookie tag to see all four plates.

[Click this link or the picture to download a printable .pdf for this doll]

Empire Paper Dolls: Cookie Lyon’s Closet [Plate 3]

empire_03_cookie_thumbI loved the challenge of doing all these animal prints for Cookie (she wore so many in the first season of the show!).  With good references, it wasn’t difficult, but it was, at times, pretty intense (even tedious). All those little spots on that swing coat and dress combo took me forever, if I recollect correctly. Even so it was a lot of fun. I learned how to make convincing “skins” even if they weren’t perfect.

At the time I was looking forward to making a bunch of mix and match pieces, but unfortunately I only have one more plate. I’m sorry I didn’t keep up with this. It’s too hard to go back and try to pick up something you dropped so long ago. Or maybe it’s just me. I guess I’m hoping that my catwalk dolls will fill this gap: a series I can work on regularly without the pressure of a live TV show getting ahead and away from me.

These are the kinds of paper doll pieces I really personally enjoy playing with: complex designs but simple shapes. They’re easy to cut out and look fabulous on the doll itself. And that’s also what I’m hoping to have with the new dolls.

[Click this link or the picture to download a printable .pdf for this doll]