Paper Doll Collaboration 2018 - Colonial Patriot

Repeat after me: this blog is not dead yet....

I had a commission that I just finished (yay!!) and I'll share that soon.  It's part of a presentation and I'd like the presentation to take place before I share the project.  It's a good one!

I am ALSO working on another project, a bit bigger in scope, and I'll let you all know when that one is ready.  I'm like 3/4 of the way finished with that and then I'll go back to the monthly project.  I'll probably end up posting most of July and August in the month of August.  Oh well.

Did anyone attend the paper doll convention in Seattle? I heard it was a good time and I was lucky enough to be included in the souvenir packets. David Wolfe has his summary of the convention here (and there's a little sneak peek of one of my contributions at the end!)  Sounds like it was a  good time.  Maybe next year!

Ok, ok, on to the project.

Grab the doll here

This month's theme was patriotic/colonial.  I chose to create two colonial costumes.  One is a sort of everyday outfit with a subtle star pattern and stripes on the skirt.  The second is based on a riding habit and has a tricorn hat.  I also included a quote from Abigail Adams that is just as relevant today as it was then.

For more in the series, pop over to Miss Missy's Paper Dolls and Paper Thin Personas!

July Paper Doll - Set 1

I finally got started on July! Don't expect daily posts like this - I got lucky this weekend.  My husband took over pretty much all of my tasks on Sunday which allowed me 4 uninterrupted hours of drawing! I should say, too, that each of these sheets takes me about 8 hours to pull together between the drawing, inking, coloring, and composition!!

First up, the themes for this month.

I'm working from the July prompts from @ellolovey ( Instagram and Facebook).  This is the whole list if you'd like to follow along.



I try to read through the whole list before I select colors.  For this month, I knew I wanted red, white, and blue for the 4th of July here in the US. I also needed green for watermelon and yellow for lemonade.  So I settled on two blues, a green, a yellow, and a red, along with black & white.

I'm not entirely happy with how the text looks but I can live with it.  Overall, though, I'm happy with this set! First up is "desert scene" on a maxi skirt.  Next, "hot dog".  And then "watermelon" is a fun dress with red shoes.  "Fireworks" is supposed to be a sparkly dress but I'm not sure if it reads.  "Splash" is a vintage bathing suit and sun hat.  And "chocolate" is a graphic t with smores on it.  Finally, "firefly" is another long skirt.  And then a pair of jeans for mixing.

I'm hoping to get another post up this week since I'm finally a tiny bit ahead!!

June Paper Doll - Set 5

Look, I realize it's the second week of July and I'm JUST now finishing the June paper doll series!! Ah! I refuse to give up and have an incomplete month.  I WILL be posting July pretty much ASAP.

For now, though, let's wrap up July.

The themes for this set were: mermaid, lemon, roar, cool, succulent, and tropical.  The mermaid one is dull in black and white but very vibrant in color! Lemon is straightforward.  For "roar" I used a lion graphic and a fun font.  Succulent is another obvious one - I used the same pattern from one of the January sets.  Cool was difficult and I went a bit boring - those are linen capris to mix & match.  Tropical is a bright leafy patterned dress.  And I threw in a mix & match skirt.

I'm moving along on July.  Hoping to actually get ahead in July since we have an awesome vacation scheduled in August!

June Paper Doll - Set 4

Quick post today! I have a TON of stuff to do!! I know it's July but I am determined to finish this ENTIRE project up so no skipping around.  Today is the fourth sheet in the June set. One more then on to July.

The themes are: yoga, sunglasses, summer, bee, pink, and window.  The romper is one of my favorites - I tried to make some interesting shoes for once!

One more June set to go.... Gotta get to that! I'll take the 4th off and a happy 4th of July to all of those celebrating!