December Doll Download - Outfit 30

Oddly enough, New Year's Eve ended up being a party dress!  Hopefully you all have a safe & happy last day of the year.  We'll be doing what we usually do - having friends over, staying home with the kids, and having a little (too much I'm sure) to drink & eat.  See you all next year ;)

December Doll Download - Outfit 29

For those of you keeping score, there should only be one outfit after today.  But you're wrong! I made 31 outfits AND one doll for a total of 32.  So there's one for New Year's day, too.

And I totally want this outfit and hair.  Maybe that will be my (early) New Year's resolution!

December Doll Download - Outfit 28

Much like outfit 5, this one has a '70s/'90s urban feel to it.  The hair is a little crazy, and I'm not totally happy about it, but overall it's a fun little outfit.

December Doll Download - Outfit 27

For this dress, I needed a convincing way to connect the arm to the body, since I went with a single-shoulder strap.  Sure, the strap could have gone on the other side, but I think the chunky necklace & bracelet are more fun.

December Doll Download - Outfit 26

So this outfit is meant to be a jean jacket & skirt.  Maybe I'll call this whole collection "Retro in Boots" since all the clothes have a heavy retro influence & they all seem to have knee-high boots!

December Doll Download - Outfit 25

Outfit 25 has a '60s stewardess feel to it.  Looking back on these outfits, I now realize most of them fall into some variety of historical influence!

December Doll Download - Outfit 24

Merry Christmas!  It's my youngest son's first Christmas so lots and lots of things planned for the day.

For anyone downloading today's outfit, it's got a '60s Bond girl vibe to it.  The top is supposed to have a macrame/woven part at the top.  And I picture it with white go-go boots :)

December Doll Download - Outfit 23

I wanted an old Hollywood feel here.  That's the deal with the sunglasses.

And everyone - Have a safe, happy Christmas Eve!

December Doll Download - Outfit 22

Another sort of retro inspired outfit.  It has kind of a French feeling to it.  Or Audrey Hepburn.  Or both :)

December Doll Download - Outfit 21

Outfit 21.  Not much of a story here, really.  At the time, I had been looking at the sketches for the Chloe doll.  There's an outfit a lot like this in there.

December Doll Download - Outfit 20

Here's outfit 20.  There was this very bizarre young woman I worked with briefly, but her clothing was always very interesting.  This is based loosely on an Asian influence top she once wore to work.

December Doll Download - Outfit 19

Outfit 19 is based loosely on a sheer top I own, and a ridiculous hat I wore in high school!

A New Suite of Programs

Here's a little project I plan on working on in '13: learning some new programs.  I have a couple of programs I've wanted to learn for a while, but the suite of programs I'm really intrigued by comes from Serif.  There's a Google offer (good til Dec 31st) that was simply too good to pass up.  $19 for 5 programs.  One is a vector program that I plan on teaching myself & testing out with the dolls.  It's called DrawPlus and there's a free version on their site as well.


Grab the cheap or free versions and join me on an adventure :)

December Doll Download - Outfit 18

This is supposed to be a striped blouse with knee-high stockings and Mary Jane shoes.  The stripes didn't work quite as well as I had hoped they would.

December Doll Download - Outfit 16

Outfit 16 is another bulky sweater and long necklace combination.  It's supposed to be a v-neck sweater but I think that gets a little lost in the necklace.

December Doll Download - Outift 15

I don't have much to say about outfit 15 except that I love the hair.  The rest of it is kind of dull, but that hair came out great!

December Doll Download - Outfit 14

Outfit 14 has just a hint of steampunk/Victorian influence.  That's supposed to be a dangling pocket watch at the waist.

December Doll Download - Outfit 13

This is another one of those outfits I clearly remember drawing.  It was Barack Obama's inauguration.  I loved Michelle Obama's dress, and the amazing hat Aretha Franklin wore.  Can't wait to see what's in store for the next inauguration!

December Doll Download - Outfit 12

So outfit 12 is a bit of a mash-up.  The dress & necklace are a little '60s, but slouch boots always make me think of the '80s.  Which brings me to a rant - I remember the '80s.  Everything was neon and horrible.  I mean horrible!  So why am I seeing it in stores today?! This must be how my parents felt during the '70s revival when I was in high school in the '90s :)

December Doll Download - Outfit 11

Outfit 11.  Another sort of '70s inspired outfit.  I picture this is red & tan, but you don't have to!

Merry Christmas Jane!

Here's a Christmas PaperJane doll.  Feel free to print this one out to play with.  This is the light skin variation. Merry Christmas!

December Doll Download - Outfit 10

Here's outfit 10.  My husband loves anime, and I was going for a school girl kind of thing here. 

December Doll Download - Outfit 9

Outfit 9 is another bouncy little skirt.  I imagine that skirt is satin or sparkly or something fun.

December Doll Download - Outfit 8

Outfit 8 is something spring inspired.  I love the tiered ruffles.

December Doll Download - Outfit 7

Outfit 7.   Another one based on my wardrobe.  I have this damask single-button jacket that I used to wear to work.  I love it, but I don't get to wear it much anymore.  Doesn't fit my mom-of-two-sons life at the moment!

December Doll Download - Outfit 6

The sixth installment.  I distinctly remember not having a good idea for a dress on this day, so I defaulted to a ballgown.  Incidentally, I try to have a fairly even number of dresses & pants with this doll.

December Doll Download - Outfit 5

Outfit 5.  I was going for something sort of '70s urban.  Or maybe '90s J-Lo.  They're practically the same thing!

December Doll Download - Outfit 4

Outfit number 4.  I wanted something sort of retro/Mad Men styled.

December Doll Download - Outfit 3

The third installment of the December doll.  No real story here.  I guess I have a thing for knee-high boots though! They keep popping up....

December Doll Download - Outfit 2

The second outfit in the series.  I love heavy sweaters & wool skirts, so that's the inspiration for this one.

December Doll Download - Outfit 1

Here's the first outfit for December.  It's based loosely on an outfit I bought a million years ago and H&M!

December Doll Download

So I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm doing something different for December.  This is the first installment.

Just a bit of background:  I write a lesson for this blog - complete with visuals - every week.  Sometimes the lesson goes quickly and I can get it done in about an hour.  Sometimes....not so much and it takes me most of the week to write it!  December is a super busy month for me.  My oldest son is turning 3 this month, and my husband's birthday is two days before Christmas, and then the annual family shuffle, and maybe - just maybe - we can see some friends and their kids.  Phew.  Makes me tired just thinking about it!  I can't possibly write three or four lessons this month.  I initially thought about just taking the month off, but that didn't seem right.  So I decided to post a black and white doll every day.  But isn't that more work?!  Not really.  I've had this doll for a while & I haven't had time to do much with it.

This doll is about four years old.  It started as a scribble on a post-it note during a lunch hour at my last job.  I used an oversized post-it pad (I think it was 2.5 inches by 4 inches.  Still small!!) and traced this doll out on individual sheets.  At the time, I was commuting over an hour each way, I was trying to get pregnant and worrying about becoming a stay-at-home mom, while taking an evening certificate course in graphic design, and my art was suffering badly.  I came up with a challenge for myself - draw a mini doll every day.  This is the result.

To make the doll a manageable size, I scanned it at a high resolution, then auto-traced it in Illustrator, brought it into Photoshop to clean it up.  Auto-trace can be messy and complicated when dealing with tiny, hand-drawn images, but it's also one of the best ways to enlarge a doll, in my opinion.  The doll is a little rough.  I may work with it again in the future and didn't want to put a ton of time in now.

Enough chatter, here's the doll.  The idea is to print & color (or digitally color) the doll and clothes.  I'd love to see how it turns out :) I'll post an outfit for this every day in December, with a PDF of everything at the end.  We'll go back to the regular schedule in January.  Enjoy!