Akinyi and Friends Paper Doll Book

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Masquerade paper doll project.  It came out great and I would LOVE to do another collaboration!

On Halloween, I got a treat of my own -- my proof copy of Akinyi and Friends: A Mix and Match Paper Doll Book.   I learned my lesson with the last paper doll book debacle and ordered a proof copy immediately after creating the book! 

Here are the front and back covers.  I really liked the watercolor background and wanted to include it here.  The dolls are slightly smaller than the ones I posted on the blog.  They needed to fit better on an 8.5 by 11 page.

 

I also included a preview on the title page.  I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner...!  The preview includes some of the new wardrobe I developed specifically for the book.

For this book edition, I included  4 new full-color wardrobe pages and 3 coloring pages.  The book came out great!  Here are a couple of pictures of my copy.

I'm really excited with the way this book came out.  I may revisit these dolls in another book at some point. Creating a mix and match wardrobe with a limited color palette was a challenge and I'm really glad I did it.

You can grab your copy here and it'll will be on Amazon.com soon, too.  So will the Fairy Tale and Ghoulish Girls books.

For the month of November, I'll be posting black & white toddler dolls to color.  And I need to get started on the December doll....! Check back Friday for the toddlers!!

 

Mix and Match Wardrobe Sheet 2

We've been busy around here lately!  This week, my oldest son met his kindergarten teacher.  The time has FLOWN by.... I can't believe what little people my kids have become.  I'm a bit emotional about him leaving for school.  I've been home with him pretty much every day of his life.  But he's super excited and I'm hoping he loves school as much as I did.

Anyway.... I'm wondering if I'll have more time or less to devote to paper dolls with just one kiddo in the house all day.  My youngest is pretty creative, so maybe we'll draw together!

I also took the time to cut out my mix and match paper doll.  Honestly, I don't do this often enough.  Sure, it all looks like it's going to fit when I draw it all out, but sometimes it doesn't.  Which I discovered while cutting.  Not that the fit is bad, mind you, but some of the pants have tabs that don't quite work.  I just cut them off and continued on.  Also, wigs.  I love creating alternate hairstyles for my paper dolls but they never fit right.  I'll have to experiment with some different techniques.

But how great is this picture?!  Paper dolls, cut out and in the wild! A while back, I saw that people were sending pictures of minifigs in the wild to Lego.  I'd love to see some of my dolls out in the wild! If you've cut out my paper dolls, send me a picture & I'll share it! 

Ok, ok, enough chatter.  Here's the wardrobe sheet.

Right-click to download and print

This is the complete collection.  Each doll now has two hairstyles and a zillion piece wardrobe.  I have a few more drawings completed and I'll color them soon, using a different color palette. 

 

Enjoy this set.  It was a lot of fun to color!  And remember, send in your paper dolls out in the world!

Mix and Match Paper Doll Wardrobe Sheet 1

Now that all four of the mix and match paper dolls are finished, I've been working on an extended wardrobe for the dolls.  Rachel had suggested adding a new set of patterns with the same color palette to the wardrobe -- something I had actually been working on! The floral pattern I used with the four dolls was just one of several in the set of patterns I was using.

You can right-click to download and print the image.

This wardrobe set has a new pattern as well as one new color -- grey.  I chose to make this wardrobe a little more dressy.  There are no jeans, just skirts, blouses, and a pair of pants.  There's also a new hairstyle for each of the previous dolls.

Paper dolls for this wardrobe can be found here:

Just right-click on any of these to download.  They're all jpg images.  Have fun mixing and matching!

Danja - A Mix and Match Paper Doll

Today, I have the last of my four mix and match paper dolls.  For those of you keeping track, we have Akinyi, Bian, and Ciarra.  Joining those three I have Danja, a fair skinned blonde with a Swedish/Danish/Hebrew name.

I didn't plan on having two fair skinned dolls.  I wanted these dolls to be a broad spectrum of ethnicities.  I'm currently missing a midtone and I want to add one doll (or more) to this mix.  I will say, however, that I wanted each name to represent really diverse cultures as well and I'm thrilled that I came across one that represented not just northern Europe but also Jewish history.  For more about the name, I found its meaning here.

To download, right-click and save image.  This is a jpg image and should print just fine!

 

This is not my favorite set of clothing for these dolls.  I think that the four pages combined mix well, and that was much more challenging than I had expected,  From here, I want to make a couple of wardrobe pages that coordinate with these sets as well.

 

Grab all four dolls and let the mixing and matching begin! Enjoy! 

Ciarra - A Mix and Match Paper Doll

This is the third week of the mix & match paper doll series!  The first two -- Akinyi and Bian -- came together almost effortlessly.  Really, I love these two dolls and could have stopped with just those two.  But I wanted to keep going, so we have at least two more dolls to look at.

Today it's Ciarra with more pieces to mix and match.

To download, right-click and save image.  This is a jpg image and should print just fine!

 

I am a little less enthusiastic about this one.  Her wardrobe is less coherent.  As much as I love the idea of a tulle skirt, I'm not totally sure about the final execution.  The sparkles are great and I really should have just made EVERYTHING sparkly! I do think, however, that this set combines nicely with the previous two.

 

One more for next week, and then more wardrobe sheets to follow! 

Bian - A Mix and Match Paper Doll

For this mix and match set of paper dolls, I decided on a limited palette of colors and patterns.  I want these sets to coordinate across all four planned sets, not just each individual page.  I also wanted to represent several cultures.  Akinyi has an African background of some sort, reflected in both the name and appearance of that paper doll.  Actually, the names for all of the dolls in this series have been a challenge!  Initially, each doll was labelled as Doll A, B, C, etc, and I wanted to continue that in the actual name while also reflecting different cultures.

To download, right-click and save image.  This is a jpg image and should print just fine!

 

And that's how I named Bian, today's mix and match doll.  I needed a name with Asian origins that started with a B.  Bian is a Vietnamese name and I liked the look & sound of it.

 

This wardrobe coordinates nicely with Akinyi's.  I'm not sure exactly how many combinations there are, but maybe I'll put together a wardrobe sample sheet at some point.  Anyway, have fun mixing & matching!  

Akinyi, A Mix and Match Paper Doll

I've mentioned before that I've been working in Photoshop lately.  There's a style that I started working with way back with my Karl Urban paper doll and I've been refining it on & off ever since.  When I colored the Karl Urban doll, I used a Wacom tablet.  It's great, but wasn't quite what I wanted.  Since then, I've upgraded (with some challenges) to a Microsoft Surface Pro 3.  It provides a much more natural drawing/painting feel since I'm drawing directly on the screen.

Last summer, I pulled a tiny sketch out of one of my sketchbooks.  It was an older scribble, not great but interesting.  So I started playing around with it.  Eventually, I created 4 paper dolls that I thought might become my December paper doll.  They didn't, for a number of reasons.

Here's one of those sketches, complete with notes.  I write a lot of notes on my initial sketches -- sometimes it takes me years to come back to a project!

I liked the winter outfit sketches for these dolls, but it still just wasn't something I was interested in pursuing.  I needed a reason to work on these dolls.  I found this summer (so about a year later...) that a great reason would be to practice my ever-evolving Photoshop coloring technique and perfecting the use of my Surface.

To download, right-click and save image.  This is a jpg image and should print just fine!

I still wanted a mix and match doll.  I wanted to represent a broad swath of skin tones and ethnicities.  I also wanted to work with some patterns & textures that I recently acquired for a totally different project.  This is the first paper doll in the set.

I'm posting it as just the jpg but I may have a pdf at some point.  The four dolls in this set with have mix and match wardrobes on each sheet, as well as mixing with each other.  I may release wardrobe-only sheets after the initial four doll set is complete.

The coloring on these came out exactly the way I wanted!  The lines and anatomy....well, I have a lot more to say about that.  Maybe on Monday.

One last thing -- if there's any demand for this as a black & white sheet for coloring, I can do that.  Just let me know!

I promise, there will be more toddler paper dolls in the future.  I just needed a bit of a break!