Tuesday, December 1, 2015

December Paper Doll -- Santa Claus and Mrs Claus Paper Dolls

Today's the day!  I gotta say, this is the most excited I've ever been about the December paper doll project.  This one is awesome!

Last summer, I spent some time sketching at playgrounds while my sons played.  I like to draw during the summer and process those drawings in the fall & winter. I took these sketches & turned them into vectors for an entirely different project.  I liked them so much I thought, why not make a paper doll?!


Once the vectors were complete, I sketched out 15 different themed outfit sets for Santa and Mrs Claus.  These are super rough sketches.  I just needed enough to work with in Illustrator. This is a sketch of the bodies and rough outline of the themes.  I tend to write notes to myself -- it can be years between sketch & final project!  I already had the heads from the previous project.  That's one of the great advantages to working in vectors: infinite scale.  I can make these billboard sized or postage stamp sized without any loss of resolution.


I'll share some of the rough sketches each day with the outfit posts.  I originally thought of this as an international Santa project but it expanded beyond that.  None of these are really specific to a culture or country, but more of an homage to different cultures.

So each day this month, I'll share either Santa or Mrs Claus.  At the end, I'll post a pdf so you can grab the whole set.  You can right-click and download each doll/outfit every day.



Here they are!  I totally, absolutely LOVE how these came out.  They print nice & large, too, and shouldn't be too difficult to cut out, even for younger paper doll fans.  Come back tomorrow for the first outfit of the series!

4 comments:

  1. these are awesome! and yes, i love the size and simplicity of the shape! as i get older, i find myself working larger ~ it's just easier all around.

    looking forward to a whole month of Santa and Mrs. Claus!

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    1. Thanks! I like the size & simplicity a lot, especially after watching my nieces with the toddler paper dolls. Those are a bit small & fussy for little kids. The fashion dolls are, too.

      I think a lot of artists follow that same pattern: small and fussy at the beginning, bigger and simpler later on. Picasso and Matisse did that, and to a certain extent Salvador Dali did. It may be an oversimplication on my part, but I'm ok with that :) (Just a note: if you're ever in Florida, go to the Salvador Dali museum. It's AMAZING and the huge canvases he created near the end of his life are astounding.)

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  2. I love the simple shapes. I can imagine a small child being able to play with these. That's one of the things I think about as well- how actually possible is it for someone to use the paper dolls I create.

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    1. II know you think about paper dolls as both art AND toys, and that's one of many things I love about your dolls. With this series, I wanted something accessible to a broad age range without sacrificing on the artistry. I'm hoping that idea sticks through the whole series. Some outfits are definitely fussier than others.

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