Behind the Scenes: Paper Doll Book Process

I didn't want January to end without at least one more post! I'm still working through a bit of art block/ennui/whatever. I'm not depressed, really, just more like unmotivated. Life happens. I'm working through it. 

I'm also working on one of several new books for Paperdoll Review. I'm not ready to share the titles or themes or any details, but I did want to share a bit of my process.

 

The book I'm working on will have two dolls but I'll walk through the process with just one. It's basically the same for both.  Drawing the dolls is the hardest part for me! Sometimes it just works (like the Timeless Teens book. That one just effortlessly worked!) Here, I found a pose I mostly liked and ran with it. The sketch on the right is from my physical sketchbook - I drew a body and a larger head, then smooshed them together in Photoshop. It's a VERY rough sketch.

Sometimes I'll manipulate the sketch a little with warping tools, sometimes I don't. Next up, I'll refine the sketch.

 

Drawing on my large screen can be a little clunky. Generally, I'll transfer my sketch to my iPad and play with it in Procreate. Could I do all of this in Photoshop? Probably. Could I do all of this on my iPad? Again, probably. However, my XP-Pen screen is more than double the size of my iPad and I like looking at my flaws and errors as large as possible!! 

At this point, I was frustrated and annoyed so I traced the reference.

WHAT?! TRACING?! Yes. I traced it because I just could not make sense of the pose. In fact, tracing is a tool that I will explore soon on the ol' blog. Stay tuned. 

 

The trace versus the reference. Doing this really helps me understand the pose. The tracing does not end up in my final art, ever. Tracing helped me simplify the reference image and understand the pose a bit better.

I kept refining the sketch, checking proportions, angles, etc. I'm still in the process of refining! I've found that it's best if I draw and walk away, as many times as it takes. I've been working on this on & off for about two weeks. I'm still thinking about it! The second doll (on the left) may or may not have a second arm! I STILL can't decide! If you have thoughts on how the dolls are coming along, feel free to share. As I continue to sort this out, I'll share more.

Also, I've been way less active on social media. I'm going to try to revive the blog & see what happens.
 

2025 Wrap-Up and Goals

Happy New Year to you all! We had a festive holiday with friends & family. December has always been hectic (we have two December birthdays along with all of the Christmas chaos) and this year was no different. We spent New Year's with friend, like always, and had a festive D&D one-shot campaign. Not my normal jam, but it was fun! 

Should I create some loose goals for 2026 even though I totally failed at hitting my goals for 2025? Maybe. First, let's look at last year... 

At the end of 2024, we had two medical emergencies in my house. Both people are doing just fine. But while I was chatting with an older & wiser (and more fabulous!) friend, she told me that although I think I'm ok, it'll probably hit me later. And really, I think that's how 2025 started - overwhelmed. I wanted to do SO MANY things in 2025 but I felt paralyzed by creative block and overwhelmed with the state of the world and the impact of 2024's chaos. I was equal parts bored and stressed. Not a great combination.

It was a weird year.

And so I took on a job. Wait, what?! Yup. I happened to land a very part-time job in a commercial photography studio/frame shop. It's fun! I'm getting out of the house, learning new skills, and interacting with a lot of creative folks. I'm not giving up the blog or any of the things I do in the greater paper doll community. I just needed a small change. This is all a long way of saying that I'm trying to sort out what my posting schedule will look like but I WILL be posting!  

Let's look at what I did in 2025.

Magazine

I'm lucky enough to work on loads of things for Paperdoll Review Magazine. It's an absolute dream-come-true working with Jenny and all of the folks involved in the magazine. Not only do I contribute art, but sometimes I get the chance to write articles, and I also am involved in the graphic design/editing aspect. 

For the magazine, I created a ballet page, a quirky Martian, and re-worked Emma McKay. I also wrote an article all about tabs that you get get in Issue 94. 

Blog

I only posted six paper dolls on the blog last year, but two were part of a small series: Bold Florals and Frightening Frocks with Rachel Cohen. 

I created two other Animal Crossing fanart paper dolls for friends of my kids, but didn't share them here. 

Books and More

That creative block I mentioned earlier hit HARD this year and I only released two books: a re-working of my Emma McKay calendar and an expansion of my Halloween flapper. I was also asked to create a souvenir for the Morgantown Think Pink party and a centerfold for Doll Castle News.

Other Projects

I really wanted to branch out into other projects this year but I just couldn't get the motivation. I tried out Bloomtober and completed 10 of the 11 prompts.

These were all created in a small, grey-toned sketchbook with Crayola colored pencils. Why Crayola? Because I had them! 

As for my goals, I didn't hit all of them. 

1) Try Something New. Um, not quite. I did tinker with Krita, which I highly recommend. And I grabbed Affinity when it became free but I haven't opened it yet. I did some hand-lettering, which was fun and different.

2) Use It Up. I did a bit of this. I'm reading books I already own. I'm using art supplies I already have. I'm dipping into my stash of cross stitch supplies and scrapbooking supplies and whatever else I have on hand. 

3) Spend Mindfully. This is the one I hit! I was much more aware of the art store dopamine hit this year and really, really avoided it. At one point my husband asked me if I was ok because our spending was significantly down. I just got cranky about the cycle of capitalism I guess!!

4) Pay It Forward. I mean, I guess? I wrote an article about tabs. I joined a Round Robin paper doll group. I had some lovely paper doll friends visit my home. And I posted several free paper dolls on the blog.

5) Create More. NOPE! I had a slow and small nervous breakdown instead. And that's ok.

I have several book ideas and the brain space to start tackling them. Ironically, I think getting a job has cleared my head a bit. It's fun, low commitment, active, and breaks up my week some while helping me feel like a contributing part of society. 

I think for 2026 I'll keep my goals as-is and see what happens. I know this was a long one but it was nice to see everything from 2025 in one place! 

Let me know if you made any goals for the new year and if you hit your goals for last year! 
 

 

Happy Holidays!

Did I mean to skip the whole month of November? No, I did not!! Things got a bit hectic and I just lost track of time. I've had a bit of artist's block, too, I guess. I don't know what else to call it.  

I also accidentally got a job. Long story short, I'm working a couple days a week in a commercial photography/picture framing studio. It isn't a huge time commitment but it gets me out of the house. I spent WAY too much of 2025 in my own head and this little job has been good for my mental health. 

 

Right-click to download and save this at full resolution

My plan right now is to put together my annual wrap-up in January and then see if I can create a little structure in my life! I grabbed three new mini sketchbooks, a couple of fashion illustration books, and several apps/programs that I'd like to experiment with for the blog. I'm also looking into an anti-AI glazing effect for my art. Maybe I won't feel so annoying about posting online if I add that to my images! 

Anyway...that's all a rant for another time! For now, enjoy the little snowy paper doll and whatever it is you might celebrate, I hope it's filled with delicious foods and excellent company! 
 

 

Frightful Frocks: Ghosts

 Two things conspired against me for today's theme: time and inspiration. I had no motivation or inspiration to make a ghost themed outfit. And I was rushing to do it! I really wanted to wrap this up for Halloween. 

I poked around Pinterest for inspiration and there were a lot of Victorian style ghosts. YAWN. Kinda bored with that idea. And then I saw some costumes that were sort of rags and chains. I wasn't crazy about that either. I liked the idea of like a handkerchief skirt so I started there.

 Right-click to download and save at full resolution

What I ended up with was a totally 80s ghost! It's almost like a monochrome Cyndi Lauper! It's definitely a rushed set but it's ok. I haven't seen Rachel's ghost yet - that'll be a fun reveal! Things have been so hectic around here that I've had a quick look at she's working on and that's about it. I'll likely download her whole project and look at it sometime next week. 

You can grab my whole set here. If there are any problems with the link, please let me know. And thanks to Rachel for coming up with a fun project and asking me to join in!   

 

Frightful Frocks: Pumpkins

 Today is the penultimate post for our Frightful Frocks! That is an excellent word - penultimate. It means "next to last" and the only reason I remember that word at all is because my family is completely obsessed with Taskmaster, a British comedy competition show on YouTube. It's fantastic and mostly family friendly. A little language, a little suggestiveness... but for teens like ours, it's hysterical! 

Anyway, that's my fun new word at the moment.

We have a pumpkin page for today. One more to go for tomorrow and I am trying my absolute best to get it out on time! 

 Right-click to download the full resolution image

 I wasn't quite sure where to go with this one. I made a couple of fantastic pumpkin dresses for my Flapper Halloween book and I didn't want to repeat those ideas. Instead, I went in a sort of 19th century direction. I saw a few costume enthusiasts who designed some pumpkin themed dresses and I sort of riffed on those. The hat, however, was VERY inspired this specific hat: 

I think hers is far better than my orange-on-orange rendering. It's lovely! Her blog and social media seems to be inactive but still worth a look. 

Take a look at Rachel's totally different take on the theme! It's neat seeing how differently we tackle these ideas. 

So tomorrow (fingers crossed) I'll post the last costume. 

ALSO, for anyone looking for digital art software, Affinity just announced today that is free for all. Might be time to finally commit to learning it...
 

Frightful Frocks: Fortune Teller

 When Rachel was work shopping her theme ideas for this project, I knew I definitely wanted to tackle the fortune teller! There were so many ways this could go. 

 I wanted a vintage vibe and a Romani feel. When I came across this pattern cover, it seemed perfect!

Right-click to download and save at full resolution

 For the skirt, I swapped out playing cards for Tarot cards and created the color scheme around that. I like the bold primaries for this. The skirt was almost took big for my page! 

Hopefully you're all enjoying these pages from me & Rachel. She has a really sweet poem with each theme and I think that's just a delightful little bonus! Check back the rest of this week - I'm trying my hardest to get the last two outfits drawn up! 

Frightful Frocks: Bats

Fun fact: this week it's Bat Appreciation Week! I'm not sure what that entails but I'm ok with it. Bats are terrific. Today's bat outfits were inspired by a couple of things I found on Pinterest. I'm a long time user of Pinterest and I know it's a bit problematic, especially with AI and pushing "sponsored" pins, but I still find it a reasonably good resource.

 Although the way things are going, I'm half tempted to get offline all together... Ugh.

 Right-click to download and save at full resolution

I really like a full page. When I was drawing this, the orange outfit came together easily but it would have left a lot of empty space. Instead of just rolling with it, I drew a second outfit. 

I loved the idea of a bat pattern AND a bat corset, so I went with both! If you like my bat pattern and you want to try it out for yourself, grab my bat Procreate brush here.

And go check out what Rachel has been up to! Her little poems are an adorable addition to her costumes!