Friday, April 28, 2017

Paper Doll Collaboration 2017 - Favorite Novels

I read a lot. I average about a book a week and most of those are fantasy & sci-fi.  History and art figure in there regularly, too.  Reading is something I've always found time for and just love, so this month's theme was something I was eager to complete!

Today I have two costumes for the collaboration paper doll based on the character of Claire in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.  These books have everything I could want: a modern, amazing woman, a gorgeous Scottish setting, time travel, and a compelling story.  Honestly, I hope she writes these books forever!



Also, the television adaptation has been amazing! I highly recommend it. (Can't quite say the same of The Magicians adaptation -- great books, great tv show, VERY little in common beyond the first few episodes of the first season...)

So for my Claire, I have her World War II field nurse's uniform and an 18th century daily wear sort of gown.  Her unruly curly hair goes with both.  I based both of these on the designs of Terry Dresbach, a wonderful costume designer who's having a bit of controversy at the moment.

Make sure you visit Paper Thin Personas, Pop Culture and Paper Dolls, and Miss Missy's paper dolls for more collaboration goodness :)

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The Eclectic Wardrobe of Josephine - Page 12

Back to normal this week.  My son had last week off for April vacation & we kept busy! I have a membership to a local zoo and one for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, so we used those last week.  As a parent, memberships are my favorite things! I basically pre-pay for my fun and we can just go when we want.  The boys love it. I love it. Everyone wins. (If you happen to be near Boston, go see the Matisse exhibit.  It's great! Botticelli was nice, too, but seeing the objects Matisse actually owned & painting was wonderful!)

Today I have some mix & match gowns for Josephine.  I'd like to say I had some inspiration to create elaborate gowns. I didn't.  I bought some glitter & shiny textures and wanted to use them. That was pretty much the only inspiration!

Right click to download and print

These are designed so that the tops go over the skirt and look like a one-piece gown when they're layered. I can't say I really chose any specific reference images -- just random fancy dresses.  I love how shiny it is!!

Friday we'll have the April collaboration, so look for that!

Friday, April 21, 2017

Tween Fashion Friday - Maia

My oldest son has been home on his April vacation this week.  It's nice to hang out with both of my boys and we've done a ton of fun stuff this week including a trip to the zoo & the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  It's been a busy week!!

Today's doll isn't terribly elaborate, simply because I've been so busy this week.


In order to meet my own deadline, I used a pattern from my collection of graphics.  I customized the colors with a bright spring palette.  All of the trees around here are budding & blooming and I just HAD to use some spring colors!

There should be a Josephine on Tuesday, so look for that!

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The Eclectic Wardrobe of Josephine - Page 11

....And we're back to Josephine this week! I loved created the beach paper doll -- and the awesome folks at ArtRage were nice enough to comment on it. How cool is that?!  I also found more outfits for the beach doll that I forgot I drew.  Might try making a mini book out of that set.

Did everyone enjoy Miss Bunny? You can grab the pdf from the link in the Outfit 4 post. This is another set I'd like to expand.  Maybe more animal paper dolls? Miss Bunny needs some friends.

Right-click to download and print


Today's Josephine is totally random! I found a Renaissance inspired fantasy gown and that inspired the set on the left.  My skirt is more narrow than the example I found.  Once I got the colors blocked in, I thought it looked kind of Moroccan or vaguely Arabian in a totally non-historical way.  I've never drawn harem pants before and decided to go for it on the second set.  And I decided the second top was pretty cool, so I made an alternate patterned version of it! Also, I'm really happy with both hairstyles.  They were both challenging in different ways & they came out exactly the way I wanted!

Josephine's wardrobe is definitely varied! Not sure what's on the table for next week but it should be interesting!

Friday, April 14, 2017

Miss Bunny's Spring Wardrobe - Outfit 4

Miss Bunny has been a fun little project this week - I hope you're all enjoying it, too.  Sometimes I need to break the mold and try something a little different.

Today Miss Bunny gets her Easter dress.  Now, we aren't a religious family in the slightest and we really celebrate a secular Easter.  It's a nice day to get all of the kids together & spend time as a family.

Right-click to download and print

I'm not entirely sure if the flower wreath will actually work. I haven't cut this out yet. I'm not entirely sure how to.  Sometimes I make something pretty for the sake of being pretty. Let's just call it that!

You can download the whole mini series in one handy pdf right here! Maybe I'll cut this out with the kiddos this weekend.  I hope all of you who are celebrating Easter have a lovely holiday, and to the rest of you, happy spring!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Miss Bunny's Spring Wardrobe - Outfit 3

My nieces have always had the most adorable wardrobes! One thing I always liked were their little raincoats.  They've gotten older & cooler, so I'm not sure if they still have cute raincoats.  But they did when they were little. Boys raincoats are much less exciting....


Right-click to download and print

I have to admit, I struggled with my color choices here.  It was tough having a background color and I didn't want something predominantly yellow because I did that with the first outfit.  I settled on pink & orange.  It's not perfect but it's not bad either.

Tomorrow is the last day of Miss Bunny's Spring Wardrobe and I'll have the pdf ready to go, too!

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Miss Bunny's Spring Wardrobe - Outfit 2

Today's Miss Bunny is a bit different than yesterday's.  Instead of a frilly dress, Miss Bunny is getting her hands (paws?) dirty.

Right-click to download and print

For Christmas, my husband got me some gardening projects.  I've never really tried growing veggies, but I will this year! I started all of my little plants from seed last week....so it won't be too long before I look like Miss Bunny here. Wish me luck!

Check in again tomorrow for another outfit for Miss Bunny and a pdf on Friday!

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Miss Bunny's Spring Wardrobe - Outfit 1

Do you just love Miss Bunny?! I know I do! I worked on this last week while my kids were dealing with a bout of conjunctivitis. Honestly, as sick days go, pink eye isn't so bad.  No fevers, no stomach aches, and generally pretty good moods. And the medicine was a course of eye drops, so I didn't have to listen to them complain about yucky drinks and/or shots.

Anyway...Miss Bunny gets a little dress today.

Right-click to download and print

I found hats were a bit of a challenge with this set.  I'm pretty sure this one will work, especially if you tuck the side tabs under the face. I may have to test these out on my nieces on Easter Sunday.

Tomorrow, Miss Bunny gets another little outfit and I'll have a pdf on Friday!

Monday, April 10, 2017

Miss Bunny's Spring Wardrobe

If April showers bring May flowers, we're going to be absolutely covered in blooms! Seriously, I think it's been raining for a year.  I guess that's part of the reason why I have a bright & flowery paper doll for today!

This week, I decided to do an Easter mini series.  I wanted to make something cute with an Easter theme.  Initially, I wanted to draw it in Illustrator and add paper textures to it in Photoshop so it looked like a cut paper project.  That didn't work out so well.  My computer chugged and groaned and didn't do what I wanted.  Instead, this is a straight-up Illustrator paper doll.

Right-click to download and print

I wanted to make a bunny paper doll. I've never made an animal paper doll & this seemed like a good opportunity.  This looks like a stuffed toy bunny to me more than an actual bunny. And I needed a floral explosion! The colors are based on the Pantone color trends for fall 2011.  Why? Because I saw the palette on Pinterest and really liked it!

I'll be posting Miss Bunny all this week with a PDF on Friday.  Let me know what you think of this little expiriment!

Friday, April 7, 2017

At the Beach - An ArtRage Expiriment Page 2

On Tuesday, I shared a the first page of the beach paper doll in color.  I decided to round out this week with the second page because I want to focus on an Easter set next week.

After finishing both pages in ArtRage, I've got a few pros and cons about the program.  First, it's super easy to just pick up and use.  The tools are all pretty intuitive and self-explanatory, especially the fact that it's gesture based.  I can interact with my computer screen the way I use my smart phone.  Secondly, I love the way the program mimics natural media.  I used the felt tipped pen for most of the base coloring. It was fun smearing marker and blending layers of markers! I also liked that there were a lot of functional features, such as selection tools and blending modes.

Right-click to download and print

Now on to the cons.  There aren't a lot, really.  Importing patterns and textures is a little more cumbersome than in Photoshop but totally possible.  I had some problems with palm rejection but I'm not sure if it was the program or my computer so I really don't want to blame the program.  ArtRage 4 doesn't have the ability to add type, but ArtRage 5 does so I can't really complain about that either.

ArtRage 4 DOES have a type tool, as the awesome folks over there were kind enough to tell me!
 
 The biggest gripe I have is my own fault. I used the metallic paint option and forgot to turn it off. I ended up losing about an hour of work and having to do it over, partly because I didn't notice it was still metallic. And the reason I didn't notice is because it really only showed up as metallic when I exported the file.  ArtRage doesn't render metallic media well and that might - again - be the version I'm using.

Overall, I recommend ArtRage as a natural media program.  It's inexpensive and it's fun (and no, no one paid me to say that! I just personally love the program).

I'll probably play around with it more.  If you also test it out, let me know - I'd love to see it!

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

At the Beach - an ArtRage Expiriment

So the bad news is, there isn't a Josephine today.

The good news is, there's something different.

Much as I love the Josephine series, I wanted a brief break.  I've been thinking about ArtRage lately - they just released a new version - and I've been thinking about upgrading.  Thing is, I don't use it much so I can't really justify upgrading.

And I thought, why not use ArtRage 4 and see where things go.

Right-click to download and print

This is the beach paper doll from ages ago! I didn't realize it had been almost exactly a year since I posted the outlines of this set. It seemed like a good set to experiment with because I already had the line art and it wasn't a huge set.  That proved very helpful because this one sheet took me the better part of three days to color.  I'm terrible at estimated the time I spent, but if I'd say it was between 6 and 8 hours for this sheet.  And there's a second sheet for this doll, coming as soon as it's finished . (Don't hold your breath for the rest of the beach kiddos.  It might happen. It might not.)

Briefly, I used the felt maker tool in ArtRage for most of this with the pencil tool, too. The metallic paint option is awesome and I used that for the belt buckle and a few other things.  The background and bases are images that I combined & blended in ArtRage using blending modes - which have slightly different result than in Photoshop.  ArtRage 4 doesn't have a type option so I added the title in Photoshop.  The export-to-Photoshop option is fantastic and proved very handy!

The outlines and tabs were Photoshop, as well as the text.  Aside from that, everything else was ArtRage 4.  It really simulates natural media.  There are strokes and brush marks and everything! Lots of fun and I highly recommend it.  Maybe I'll color more black & white sets this way.....

(And I haven't given up on Josephine. I promise!!)