Fan Art Paper Doll

For this last day of January, I have a fan art paper doll to share! I don't create a lot of fan art. Part of that is because I enjoy making my own things. That's not a judgement thing - make whatever resonates with you - but it's just not for me. Second, I'm not a huge pop culture person. I'm just not. I'd be perfectly fine never turning on a TV or attending a movie ever again. My musical taste stalled out around 1998 and very little has been added since then. If not for my kids & husband, I would have no clue about current culture. 

I do, however, like video games.

I'm more of a cozy/exploring and retro kind of gamer. I resisted Minecraft for a long time but my boys dragged me into it. And it's so fun! I often play in peaceful mode because I like exploring, gathering, and building without having a creeper blow me up in a deep dark mine. I have young parents so we had a couple of Atari systems growing up. Also, I've been a Nintendo fan since I first tried it in the late 80s. Super Mario 3 is easily my favorite game ever. I like fun games, not "slaughter monsters" kind of games. All of the men in my house enjoy those and that's fine. Just not for me.

My current cozy go-to game is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Now before you all come here and tell me that I'm a little late to the party, I know. 2020 was a BIG year for Animal Crossing. My 2020 was a bit busy and I posted literally nothing here in 2021. Life happens. 

Anyway...I asked for a Nintendo Switch Lite for my birthday last year. I was tired of sharing with the kids and I wanted to spend less time on my phone. Sometimes I get stuck in the mud of the internet. It's a problem. In keeping with my goal of being a bit more 1995 and a little less 2025, I've been playing my Nintendo a lot. Like A LOT. Most of it in Animal Crossing.

 That's me! That's my character! AND those are all clothing items from my in-game wardrobe. It's fan art so feel free to print it and play with it but it's for personal use only. If you want to see other fan art from over the years, I have Mabel from Gravity Falls here and here as well as Fiona from Adventure Time. 

Because transparency is really important to me, I want to share how I made this paper doll. I tried drawing this one free-hand but I just could not get it. The sketch is so truly bad that I just cannot share it. It's so far outside of my style that I just couldn't crack it. This was meant to be a fun personal project, not a stressful experience. So I traced parts of this and improvised other parts. I learned so much about how these characters are constructed that I would not have learned without tracing it. Tracing is a tool for learning so that's what I did. I learned. AND I had fun. Honestly, I think I might make it a point to trace other things that are way outside of my style so that I can learn different approaches. 

And that's ok. 

One of my favorite social media personalities right now is Scott Christian Sava. If you aren't familiar with him, go to his YouTube. I also follow him on Instagram. Everything about him is an inspiration but what I love most is that he shares his deepest thoughts about art and the art making process. He's shared videos about how he traces to learn even after decades of making amazing art. Check him out because he's excellent!

Let me know what you think of my fan art Animal Crossing gal! I have loads of fun in-game outfits that would make an excellent second page at some point. And if YOU happen to play Animal Crossing, let's connect! I still need cherries and oranges for my island. My current goal is to get all of the fruits.

  

Summer Vacation

 My family and I are on our summer vacation at the moment. I'll give you all one guess to figure out where we are....

I LOVE Mabel and Gravity Falls is a family favorite so I dug out the ol' file and updated it. Feel free to download it for yourself. Personal use only fanart... you all know the drill!

Convention 2019 Drawings

Although I haven't settled on a proper project for the blog yet, I AM actively working on stuff! One of my projects at the moment is a convention souvenir.

That's a screen shot of the sketch I've been working on.  I asked my boys to pose for me - one kiddo loved it and the other....well, he wasn't thrilled. I promised him I wouldn't share the photo.  He's 9 and a bit self-conscious. I decided with this project to try colored lines instead of black and it worked out rather well.  Made inking it MUCH easier!

I recently got a tripod and remote so I'm experimenting with video.  That's an 11 minute video of me drawing on my Surface.  Admittedly, I have a lot to learn about video creation! I'm planning on creating a video that show my drawing process at some point but I'm not there yet. 

Gravity Falls - Mabel Paper Doll

Today is a surprise fan art kind of day!

We watch a lot of cartoons in my house.  A lot.  We've all come to love Gravity Falls on Disney XD and the series finale is tonight.  For anyone who isn't familiar, Gravity Falls is about a set of twins -- Dipper and Mabel -- who spend the summer with their great uncle ("Grunkle") Stan and help out in his roadside attraction/kitsch shop.  Strange and paranormal things happen in Gravity Falls. There are series-long mysteries, jokes, and codes to crack.  It's really an amazing cartoon.

I would love to create a paper doll for every character on the show.  Since I had about 3 days to create this from inception to completion, that didn't happen.  I stuck with Mabel because I love Mabel!

I started with a sketch of Mabel.  She is a nearly 12 year old girl who loves "girly" things but she's also smart, fearless, selfless, and has a grappling hook.  She's a great role model for kids: she's a good friend, a good sister, and true to herself. And she has a best friend, a pig named Waddles.

One thing I love about modern cartoons is the flexibility that computers have given animators.  Mabel is able to have a different sweater in every episode -- something that would be much more challenging in traditional animation.  For the sake of time, I didn't create every sweater or costume for the series.  Mabel has something like 70 wardrobe changes in the series!!

The first sketch is for the stock sweater & skirt wardrobe set.  The middle is a formal dress from a party episode and the outfit on the right is a Summerween costume.  I'd like to create all of these at some point in the future.

Right-click to save and print this image.

Feel free to print & play with this doll.  It's fan art so personal use only, etc, etc.... My cut out Mable will be watching the series finale tonight.  #TakeBackTheFalls!

Fanart Paper Dolls

My husband & my oldest son love Phineas & Ferb on Disney.  A while back, I made a paper doll based on the show.  I've never really made fanart before -- I have too many ideas of my own to keep up with as it is! But this was just too cute to pass up.  The first doll is Phineas & Ferb's older sister Candace.  I posted it on my deviantART page, where it generated a tiny bit (and I do mean tiny!!) of buzz.  So I made another doll based on the show, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, the show's antagonist.  I decided to post the dolls here as well as deviantART.  These are fanart, so I don't own the copyright to the characters.  They're here for personal use only.

Since this site is about the process of making dolls, here's an outline of how they were created.  I took stills from the show (using Netflix on my computer) as a reference.  I drew the doll and outfits in pencil, inked them with an archival pen, scanned them, and, finally, outlined & colored them in Adobe Illustrator.

Candace, in three pages:

Dr. Doofenshmirtz, in four pages:

There may be more outfits to come for both dolls as the show continues.  Enjoy!