Monday, December 31, 2012

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 ;)


Sunday, December 30, 2012

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!


Saturday, December 29, 2012

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.



Friday, December 28, 2012

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.



Thursday, December 27, 2012

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!


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

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!



Tuesday, December 25, 2012

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 :)


Monday, December 24, 2012

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!


Sunday, December 23, 2012

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 :)



Saturday, December 22, 2012

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.



Friday, December 21, 2012

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.



Thursday, December 20, 2012

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

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.


Monday, December 17, 2012

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.


Sunday, December 16, 2012

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!



Saturday, December 15, 2012

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.


Friday, December 14, 2012

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!


Thursday, December 13, 2012

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 :)


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

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!


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

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. 


Monday, December 10, 2012

Saturday, December 8, 2012

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!


Friday, December 7, 2012

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.


Thursday, December 6, 2012

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!



Tuesday, December 4, 2012

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....


Monday, December 3, 2012

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.


Sunday, December 2, 2012

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!


Saturday, December 1, 2012

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!