19th Century Paper Dolls

(Click to view at full size)

I uploaded the painted dolls to a photo album in the sidebar (at the right) under the heading "Paper Dolls" (obvious enough?). But I don't really like the way the album displays them: so tiny! And they are spaced apart so far as well. Weird.

Anyway, since I have been fussing with doing that, I haven't accomplished much else in the limited time I allotted myself to work on these dolls this evening. The good news is: the dolls are there and you can download them and print them and they should be at a decent enough resolution to print well. Meanwhile, I am still painting their clothes (almost finished), and I will be posting those during the week (I'm a bit behind, alas ~ but what's new, right?). I also posted the dolls here, since I figure they deserved their own post for all the trouble they've caused me this evening.   I will try to find a better way to put all the dolls in one place since I'm not satisfied with the album thingy. In the meantime, at least they are here.

I think, now that I am almost done with one set of dolls, the dolls to come will be a lot easier (fingers crossed).

I re-uploaded the dolls to include the original commentary that went with them (just so that they would be complete. Also, because I included the commentary on their clothing and thought it would be strange that the dolls came without any. These dolls are printable and their clothes (which I will post tomorrow) will be scaled to fit them properly. If you had already downloaded the previous dolls, the scale should be the same.

It's been a long journey, but I think we're finally off and running!

Thank you for hanging in there with me!

I worked on dolls this weekend, though did not get as much done as I would have liked. Nevertheless, I decided (once again ~ I know, I know), to make some changes in what I'm doing. While the success of the digital versions gave me some great ideas about making dolls alongside the story, the story style has gone back to an line-art style (rather than digital), and so I think the dolls have to match.

It's so much easier making dolls on the computer as opposed to real paper, but I am determined to overcome my willies about coloring and the only way to do it is to continue to work in the physical mediums. This plan is going well for the story ~ I'm feeling so much less precious about each page. But the story is really painted in sepia, mostly (with only the hintiest hints of spot colors), so the narrowness (or lack thereof altogether) of a "palette" gives me a certain level of confidence.

To bolster a similar feeling with the dolls, I've decided to work in a slightly smaller format than I was previously. Dolls were roughly 7 1/2 inches, which is a lot of space to color if you're doing a skirt, for example. Now the dolls are about an inch shorter, which makes a big difference. I also created these two without removeable heads. I may get more complex about the main characters later on, but for now the attached heads seemed okay here ~ Katie is only a minor character and neither post obstructs the clothing in any way.

I also dramatically changed Katie's pose to reflect a more solemn demeanor. Despite her defiance in the story, she's clearly an cruelly abused girl and her ghost is definitely doleful. As for Lewis, I gave him a somewhat perplexed look. I think he spent most of his childhood being frustrated and uncertain and I wanted this particular doll to reflect his boyhood trepidation.

I'll try to paint these (and their clothes, which I have also redrawn), and have them in a downloadable/printable form by next Sunday.

I can't believe I forgot to post the clothing for the dolls I created at the end of last month (has it been two weeks already???). It's amazing how the time flies when you are distracted and busy. I was just thinking last night that I have so much stuff I could be posting here and yet there are these long lags between posts! I am trying to improve, I promise.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I received my copy of the OPDAG Paper Doll Studio yesterday and was very pleased to see my Henry Fleming doll in color!  That's pretty fabulous and I am very excited that people are finding their way to my blog through that venue (all the more reason to keep this blog current!). The theme for the issue was literary characters, so there's more I'd like to share on the great art in the issue (post forthcoming!).

Also, much as I had fun making these digital dolls (and much as I haven't abandoned the idea of making dolls alongside the story as previously mentioned ~ not by a long shot!), I think I do prefer more traditional media. If I haven't already shown that I am crazy when it comes to remaking things and changing horse midstream, let me assure you that I am. The good news for you, however, is that means I am committed to redoing these dolls this coming weekend. Let's see how I step up to the challenge!

In the meantime, this will remain the template for the finished dolls. You'll just have to wait another week for the printable versions. Sorry!  Once they are done, however, I promise they will be worth it!

As promised, I have been working on making some new paper dolls. And even though I sat at my painting desk and considered the dolls already in progress, I've decided to make dolls that will match the Reconstruction website. This gives me the dual advantage of actually making dolls alongside the story so that readers can see what the clothing looks like in color (the webcomic is mostly in sepia tones). Likewise, it's a great excuse to make dolls of supporting characters (like Katie Kirkwood here). As we progress through the story, I can supplement the dolls with new clothing, accessories, etc.

I am also going to tag the dolls by name so that you can find all of their pieces easily using the links on the side. The image I am posting here isn't a high-resolution version (you can click to make it larger, but it's not very large). I will be posting a downloadable .pdf version that you can print and cut ~ just as soon as I get done with their clothes.  Fortunately, digital painting is a lot quickly and less stress-inducing than "real" media, so I won't have any excuses for getting this done quickly. I'm working on the clothes a little bit today, but have other things I need to do, so I might not finish until next week.