On the Art and Science of Color

I've been working on increasing my drawing skill, as well as learning about fabric design. It's doll related, because I would like to design both my own doll clothes, and fabric to suit. It's a huge undertaking, and will probably take me ages to get there, if I ever get there, but I'm working on it! Partially, this post is for Xanadu as well, since she likes to talk about the color wheel and color tones and shades in relation to dressing your dolls, as well as setting up rooms and backdrops for them. I had these books on my Amazon wishlist, saw them recommended somewhere, and Mr. BTEG and the Dancer bought them for my birthday last week.

The first book is called Palette Perfect - Color Combinations Inspired by Fashion, Art & Style. It talks at the beginning about the color wheel and how to use colors to create attractive looks. It then has pages and pages and pages of color groupings, with both their CMYK and RGB color graph numbers given, to help you get the correct shade you're looking for. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by this book!

I also received The Fabric Design Book - Understanding and creating patterns using texture, shape, and color.

I think this book will help me increase my "feel" for good fabric design. As I said above, this whole process is a bit overwhelming right now, because I'm such a beginner at design, as well as using design software. I feel that I owe it to myself, though, to at least try to get better at these things that I want to learn.

I know several of you who have skills that you use in service to your doll collection. Has anyone learned or tried to learn something purely for making things for your dolls? I know MC and RagingMoon1987 have talked about learning sewing to make doll clothes, which I totally support!

Romantic Alice Pullip

Alice was a birthday gift from my husband back in July, and I finally freed enough space on my worktable to get some pictures of her. Alice in Wonderland is a popular theme in Japan, and Groove, who makes Pullip dolls, has made several takes on Alice, with Pullip's friends filling in occasionally for other characters in the stories. For example, Groove has also made Romantic Alice in pink and monochromatic versions. And my Pullip Alice du Jardin is yet another "take" on Alice in Wonderland. Alice du Jardin is really stretching the Alice in Wonderland idea. Romantic Alice at least has a blue dress, apron and striped socks, even if the clothes are rather Lolita-esque. I took these pictures at different times of day with different lighting, so don't mind if the color in the pictures is all over the place.

Here is Alice, mostly complete. For some reason, Romantic Alice also came with a lace cape. It's pretty, even if you can't see it from the front very well, as it's not very full. However, Alice can't wear hers, because not only is the neck fastening super tight, but instead of a hook and eye, this cape has a hook and... hook. Luckily, it is an easy enough repair if you can hand-sew.

Alice's dress and apron have net, lace and tucks galore. She wears a chain with three charms: a teacup, a key, and a crown. Her necklace was "Made with Love."

Like other Pullips, Alice has an eye mechanism that lets her eyes look left, right and center. Rachael pointed out that with Pullip Alice du Jardin, her eyes seemed to go farther to her left than to her right. Romantic Alice's eyes seem to go a bit further.

A note about the brown hairbow: it's a pain. It came on the top of her head, with the lace ties wrapped around and around her neck. If you want to see her necklace, or put on her cape, or redress her, or whatever, the hairbow has to be tied at the bottom of her head at the back. Tying a top-heavy bow on a huge doll head that has lots of hair, was not fun. Maybe I'll put elastic on instead.

Even under the net overskirt on Alice's dress, there are tucks and lace, that you can't really see because of the overskirt. And I think this color is the closest to the color of the dress in real life.

A last couple shots of Alice, with and without her apron.

I think it's funny that the first doll I debut in my new roombox is really too tall for it. I will probably add more on top of the wood paneling, but I haven't decided what yet. Most of what I will be sharing pictures of in my next posts will be better sizes, although I do have another new Pullip in the queue. I should be able to improve my lighting for those, as well.