Things You'll Need:
- Art supplies such as: plain white paper, Strathmore 300 paper, Berol Prismacolors, watercolors, brushes, computer with design/brush capabilities.
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Step 1
HOW TO CREATE and MARKET PAPER DOLLS At Your Computer
For all of my life, I knew I was an artist...never had that wondering of "Who am I? and What am I going to be?" I also knew that I was fascinated with LIFE and PEOPLE and their place in the WORLD, and how it all worked. Part of that curious Artist's Mind, I think. So art and emotional/spiritual work seems a perfect fit for me.
More technically speaking, up until recently, I did all my artwork the way that most professional artists did: by HAND, using, pencils, papers, light boxes, colored pencils and paints. I never thought I'd be painting on the computer, and yet I find myself loving the freedom and variety of experimentation that a computer can give. Now, perhaps 10-15% of my art is by hand, the rest on computer...but seems to give away some of my creative input. Not so! I STILL draw, but it's with a mouse instead of a brush.
One, Two, Three - Making a Paper Doll
One- Draw the outlines of the doll using a pencil, then finishing outlines with either a black pen or Berol Prismacolor pencils. I may even add a hint of shading with the Prismacolors, via thick and thin lines on edges to indicate light and shadow direction.
Then - Draw the clothes for the doll, by laying the doll drawing on my light-table, with a plain paper over that. It can be any paper that gives a clear, clean line now, as it's going to be digitally finished. I have a good eye, so I don't pre-draw, I just go right to the plain paper, looking through to the doll beneath, to draw the clothes. I also may add some shading to the clothes at this point, the same as for the doll. -
Step 2
Scan the doll and clothes at 300 dpi (dots per inch) and save as jpeg. Scanning at a large resolution allows more manipulation of the images. If you only worked at 150 dpi, when you turned them, they would look “digital” or like stair-steps on the edges. Send them to design program. 98% of the time I use Adobe Photo Deluxe Home Edition 4.0. 2% of the time I may send it to Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for some fancy brushes or design fill effects I cannot get with Photo Deluxe. I know there are tons of things that 7.0 does, but I have not taken the time to learn them. You will need a computer with some good working memory capacity to move several layers at high resolutions. My old computer was- move an image…..read a magazine. Not very handy.
Add Color: Paint the dolls and clothes using "fills" - which is dumping color into enclosed spaces. I have several skin tones depending on ethnicity. This is when it's fun to try different colors and color combinations on the clothes. When areas have been filled with colors I like, I add layers. There's a menu that shows all the layers in tiny pictures, and you can name each layer to help clarify which one you are on at any time: "skin shading" "jacket shading" "hair shading" etc. These layers can be set at any opacity from 100% solid coverage to 10% very pale and see-through. I may have one to 3 varied depths and tones of shading on any given piece, depending on the complexity. And there are tools to play with textures on these layers too, giving perhaps a woven look, or stippled like tweed. You can even make the entire figure look more "painted" or like it's on canvas. The possibilities are endless. Mostly I do straight painting (color fills) and shading with layers. I will “merge” (see below for more on merging) the tonal layers on each individual costume and on the doll…still saving each finished component for continued design work. -
Step 3
Fitting: I then float the finished clothes over the doll to check for fitting perfection. I can erase or add a little to places that aren't just right. When everything fits, then I go to-
Layout: This is another reason computer design is so super! I take each component- the doll(s), the clothes and can move them around to a pleasing arrangement. Underneath these figures, I can do any number of things with the background (other layers). It can be a solid color, a wee pattern; it can have borders, or trims such as geometrics or flowers, etc. This adds a great deal to the overall design of the finished page. -
Step 4
Lettering or “Copy”: With the thousands of potential fonts, lettering is a large part of the design too. It’s fun to select one with a theme that matches the time period and style of the paper doll, such as Art Deco, or Victorian, or Circus, or Western, or any infinite number of possibilities. The copy/lettering can be adjusted to any size and location on the art layout. Be sure always to give yourself credit for the art and anyone else’s credit as well, if you have gotten your designs from a magazine, catalogue, other designer, and so on.
Merge: If you were making a collage with paper and glue, you would do all your moving about of the components until it was the way you liked, then you would paste everything down. This is what “merge” does. For my own printing purposes, I merge everything, but only AFTER I save it in LAYERS. If I ever need to go back and change something like a background I can do so. These are the layers I would retain: Background, Border, Doll and Clothes, and Lettering/copy. Any painting and shading would have been saved and merged during step number four. I save these un-merged images on a disk, as it takes a lot of memory room on the computer. I save the finished merged designs on my computer for ease of retrieving them for printing. -
Step 5
SAVE. Actually SAVE is important for numbers 1 through 8. Remember to save your work many times while working on it…in case of a computer shut down for any number of reasons. For reprinting purposes you will want to save it thusly: For reproduction in a commercial magazine or for a publisher, save full size at 300 dpi (dots per inch.) For some publishers, they may require even larger dpi. Some prefer measuring in pixels. Your design program will offer either way to measure your sizes. Always check with the publisher for their specifications before your begin a project. For your own printing on a bubble jet or laser printer, saving and printing at 150 dpi is just fine. Format: Some publishers will want you to save in CMYK, that means each color layer is saved. That’s pretty technical, and Photoshop 7.0 can save that way, but not Photo Deluxe. For most purposes, jpeg or tiff is the correct format in which to save your images.
Promote. If you want to sell your work, you need to promote it. Make a small-sized image, change it to black and white, and email it to all the paper doll newsletters for Showcase or product review. To show on a website, you’ll want to make a smaller finished size and lower resolution to 72 dpi. You may want to send it to magazines or publishers for possible publication. You’d never send a complete high resolution image for a proposal, just a small format image to give them an idea of the project you have in mind. This is an essential part of the “business of paper dolls”, but would take another whole article to go into self-promotion.
Most of all, HAVE FUN!
Love, Judy
Copyright 20089
Judy M Johnson
PO Box 216
Skandia MI 49885 USA
www.papergoodies.com
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Comments
judymjohnson said
on 3/19/2009 Thank you for reading my article on creating and marketing paper dolls. Perhaps it will inspire you to try some yourself. Blessings, Judy M Johnson
Lilfix said
on 3/17/2009 I remember playing with paper dolls when I was a little girl...What a fun article and lots of details...Thanks for sharing! RRCR5*
consignmentchic said
on 3/17/2009 Judy, thanks for this clever idea! I wish more kids played with these types of toys! 5*** Recommended you!