Fashion Friday - Ava

It's fancy dress Friday!  I thought it'd be fun to post some sparkly clothes.  Enjoy the doll & have a great Thanksgiving!

Download Fashion Friday - Ava pdf here

Plenty to be Thankful For

I was reading another paper doll artist's Facebook feed last night and I was really struck by his fan base.  I don't want to specify who, but needless to say, he creates beautiful work and has quite a following.  Anyway, a woman commented on his site to thank him.  I'm not quoting directly or anything, but she wanted to express how grateful she was that he had so many free dolls to download.  Her family is on a tight budget and his dolls allow her to indulge her two little girls with a new toy that they might not otherwise have.  Not only did it bring a tear to my eye, but it makes me happy & grateful to do what I do.

Sure, I'm trying to launch a paper doll business, but I'm also part of a community of awesome artists and fantastic collectors, and, ultimately, that's what matters.  Do what you love & try to make a living from it, but remember who got you there.  I've been writing this blog for a little less than 6 months and the amount of people reading it has skyrocketed beyond my expectations.  I will ALWAYS have free downloads, as well as dolls to purchase.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving this month (in the US at least), I want to say thank you to those who read the blog, visit my deviantArt page, look at my portfolio, as well as those who download and/or buy my dolls.  It means a lot to me.

AND... here's a Thanksgiving doll.  It's one of the PaperJanes.  If you want the complete set (can be customized!), visit the Etsy store. Edit November 2015:  The Etsy project didn't work out. I may try again at some point....! Enjoy the doll anyway :)

Download the Give Thanks Jane PDF here

Introduction to Illustrator

I know it's been a little chaotic over here lately!  Finally, back to normal with a lesson.  I'll do two more lessons this year.  The month of December is very hectic for me, so I have a low-maintenance, super fun idea for the whole month.  Look for it December 1st.

So today's lesson is an introduction to Adobe Illustrator.  I use Illustrator CS4 but most of what I go over should work with most or all versions.  I know that there are several other vector programs available that are similar to Illustrator.  Maybe next year I'll venture into product trials & reviews, but at this point, I'm all in with Illustrator.

Briefly, Illustrator is a vector based program.  So instead of having images made up of billions of little square pixels, the image is produced by a series of complex mathematical calculations.  Lucky for us, that has no impact on creating in Illustrator!  What does matter, however, is that vector images are infinitely scalable.  When you have an image in Photoshop (a jpg, gif, png, etc...) these have a set resolution (300dpi, 600dpi, etc) and really should only be scaled down, not up.  A vector can go any which way.  The Fashion Friday dolls, for instance, were originally created for a 5 x 7in booklet.  After printing a sample, I realized they were too detailed for that size.  So I scaled everything up to 8.5 by 11 with no problems.

This is the way I have my work area setup.  I believe it's more or less the default setting, so when you open Illustrator it will look something like this.  Every version of Illustrator is slightly different, so remember this is CS4.  On the left, the toolbar.  It can be set up as a single column (shown here) or as a double column (next image).  On the right, the default swatches panel and the layers panel.  All the way to the right there is a second toolbar with more advanced tools, such as the gradient palette and appearance panel.  We won't go over all of these tools today.  I've been working with Illustrator for about 4 years and I learn something new with every project.

These are the tools I mentioned above.  We will use the selection tool (black arrow), direct select tool (white arrow), the pen tool (looks like a pen nib), the shapes tool (shows up as a rectangle here), and the color swatches at the bottom.  They look similar to the swatches in Photoshop, but here they show the fill and stroke color.  Some of these tools have hidden options indicated by a small black triangle in the lower right corner.  You can also pull some of these tools out completely from the toolbar (next image).

Here, I've pulled out the direct select arrow and the pen tool.  These are the tools I use the most.  The pen tool is my weapon of choice for creating in Illustrator. The pen tool has four states total: the pen tool itself, the add point, remove point, and convert anchor. We'll actually trace a doll out in Illustrator in the next lesson.  Today I just want to show you how the various tools work.  In the image above, I've drawn a line with three points using the pen tool.

In this image, I used the convert anchor tool (looks like an upside down V) to create a curve.  Select the covert anchor tool, click on a point, and pull.  You get a neat little curve.  The blue lines sticking out are what you use to adjust the curve.  Click and drag with the direct select tool and the whole curve changes.  Click and drag on the end of the blue line with the convert anchor tool and you affect just that arm.

On the top, a line that was altered slightly with the direct select tool.  On the bottom, I clicked and dragged one of the blue lines with the convert anchor tool.  I know this all sounds a lot more complex than it really is.  It'll make a lot more sense next time.  To close a shape, click on the first point again.  An O shape will show up next to the pen to indicate that the shape is closed.

This is an image of another doll I'm working on.  On the left is what the doll looks like, on the right is an image with all the lines visible.  Most of that was done with the pen tool.  Some of it, like the earring and the iris/pupil on the eyes was done using the shape tool.  That one is pretty self-explanatory so I'm not going to get into it.

I think this is a good place to stop. Play around with the pen tool.  When I was learning, my teacher suggested that we trace a coloring book page with the pen tool.  It was a really great way to get a sense of how to use it.  There are numerous sites online that have Illustrator tutorials available (and do a much better job than I do of explaining things!) This one, for instance, is a nice overview.  Do a search for illustrator pen tutorials and you'll get lots.  And if you aren't familiar with it, deviantArt is a wonderful resource too.   Practice with the pen tool & we'll start using it next week!

Fashion Friday - Paige

Back to normal... I think!!

The PaperJanes project is off the ground.  I feel like I've been working on it forever and it's really only been about a month.  I'm hoping to add to it today (maybe this weekend..).

Today's doll is fall inspired.  I feel like fall (autumn...whatever) is too short.  Summer lasts almost til Halloween and Christmas starts October 30th.  Winter is crazy for me -- we have two birthday, Christmas, and a whole lot of family to try to see in a very short block of time.  I always look forward to January!

Anyway, enjoy the doll.  Monday's lesson is going to be an intro to Adobe Illustrator, so get that mouse & scanner ready.

 Download Fashion Friday - Paige pdf here

Shameless Self Promotion Monday

Update, November 2015:

I stopped working on this project a while ago.  There was very little interest and I've set it aside.  I've thought about re-opening an Etsy shop but haven't completed anything yet.

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I realized yesterday that I missed the Fashion Friday upload.  I blame it on the storm :) Hopefully today's post will make up for it.

Why is it Shameless Self Promotion Monday?  Well, because I just opened an Etsy shop.  I have a new line of dolls called PaperJanes.  They can be customized and personalized.  At the moment, they are available in 3 skin tones, 4 hair colors, and 4 eye colors.  More will be available soon.

PaperJanes on Etsy

So here's what happens: you go to the Etsy shop, select the wardrobe you want, choose the hair & eye colors you want.  Then, you purchase the doll & start a conversation with me by clicking on the Contact the Shop Owner link.  In the conversation, you tell me what skin tone you want and what name you'd like on your doll.  I then send you a pdf to download and play with.  You can print this file over & over again (for personal use, of course).  And the best part is that all dolls and outfits are interchangeable!

I'm hoping to have lots of themes available.  The next set will be a winter wardrobe and a holiday wardrobe, and then princesses, historical costumes, etc.  I'm really hoping to make this a massive, on-going project.

As a preview, I have three sample dolls available for download (for free of course) here. I have one of each skin tone, and these all coordinate with the rest of the PaperJanes line as well.

Download this doll here

Download this doll here

Download this doll here

Each wardrobe will also be available in a black & white coloring set as well.  Each doll includes outfits to color on the Instructions page.

I'm thrilled with the way this turned out.  Since this blog is about technique, let me tell you that this doll was made in Adobe Illustrator.  Which dovetails nicely into the next lesson.

I know I've been a little haphazard about lessons & fashion doll downloads.  My intention is to get back on track for next week.  We'll have an intro to Illustrator on Monday.

Til then, enjoy these downloads.  And tell everyone you know about PaperJanes!

Stormageddon 2012

For anyone who doesn't know this, I live in the Merrimack Valley/North Shore region of Massachusetts.  And for anyone who hasn't heard, that means I'm right on the edge of a monster storm!  Having said that, most of my time has been said preparing the house & kids for Stormageddon 2012 and less time on paper dolls lessons.  So there's no lesson today.  However, there is a Halloween doll to print out.  For anyone who has been to my portfolio site, it might look familiar.  This was drawn out on paper, outlines and coloring (including patterns) were done in Illustrator, with the final doll laid out in Photoshop.  They're here as jpgs.  If pdfs would be better just let me know & I'll post that as well.

Have a happy & safe Halloween.  And for all of you on the Eastern seaboard, stay inside today!

Fashion Friday - Cole

And now for something completely different....

I decided to make a guy doll. I'll admit, this is more of a modified version of my groom doll than anything else, but it was fun nonetheless.

Still working furiously on a new doll project.  I was shooting for November 1st to launch, but it'll probably be more like the following Monday.  It's going to be a customizable/personalized doll.  Again, more on that to come.

Til now, help find Cole a date :)

Download Fashion Friday - Cole pdf here