Fashion Friday - Jack

I'll admit - today's doll isn't terribly inspired. It's the beginning of my busy season, and my brain is a bit fried! I host Thanksgiving at my house, then my oldest son has an early December birthday, my husband's birthday is near Christmas, then there's Christmas and the various family activities involved with that. Honestly, I enjoy being busy. I like hosting family and friends. I like the long drives to visit distant family.  And Christmas has become a true joy with my sons. I find, though, that "busy" and "creative" don't always fit together well.

So today we've got Jack in a holiday sweater and jeans.  I wanted to make a guy this week.  It's been a while! And, although the outfit isn't very exciting, the pattern is! I've been trying to figure out how to make a vector sweater pattern for ages and this is the result. I really should share a full tutorial on how I made this.  It wasn't super complicated, but it did take a little patience and a lot of alignment.  You'll see more sweater patterns in the future now that I've go the hang of it!

Also, here's a bit of a shout-out. Cory Jensen makes amazing paper dolls and he shared his Kristin Chenoweth paper doll on Twitter. She loved it! You can see for yourself on his Facebook or Twitter. Congrats on the brush with celebrity, Cory.  You deserve the attention!

Download Fashion Friday - Jack pdf here

Fashion Friday - Katrin

One of my on-going tasks is to create a series of digital stock art and sell it online. It's a fairly common practice among digital artists and designers.  I often create random icons and patterns for my paper dolls. (Not always, and I try to note when a pattern isn't mine...) And after several years, I'vce developed quite a little collection of these digital bits & pieces!

This doll is an example of this. I've been very interested in Eastern European folk costumes and folk art, specifically floral motifs.  I've been developing some vector images based on these floral motifs and created this paper doll around those images. And her wardrobe is inspired by folk costumes but in no way a faithful reproduction of anything specific. Also, if you're looking for a few more mix-and-match options, this set would work well with Anastasia.

I'm also working on a set of holiday dolls that I'll post towards the end of November.  Hopefully I can schedule some posts for December and do some housecleaning on this blog.  It's time.  When I search for something on my own site and can't find it, that's a bit of a problem!

So here's Katrin, sporting a wardrobe I am super jealous of and would totally wear!

Download Fashion Friday - Katrin pdf here

Fashion Friday - Renee

Back to normal! I had a lot of fun working on the Halloween paper dolls and I hope all of you enjoyed them, too. I have to admit, I needed a bit of a break from the Friday fashion doll templates. I like these dolls but I'm also eager for new challenges!
 
Today's doll is partly inspired by Rachel's fantastic Boho set and partly inspired by a recent trip to the mall with my sister.  Southwestern inspired fashion seems to be everywhere.  Maybe it isn't - I tend to be a bit behind on trends! I heard that '90s fashion was making a comeback, which is great since I never really did give up my flannels & jeans!

Anyway, I wanted something sort of autumn-ish and southwestern-ish.  I found a terrific sweater pattern and adapted to my uses. I'm also experimenting with more hand-drawn elements in Illustrator.  That's what my new Surface really excels and I'm working to embrace it.  The hair on this doll was all hand-drawn with a stylus directly in Illustrator.

I'm working on several Fashion Friday dolls AND a short series for December.  Stay tuned!

Download Fashion Friday - Renee pdf here