I kept the basic concept of my book a secret for the longest time because I have not seen a book like it yet. It's a paper doll book that I made of actual photos of real girls. They do have paper doll books that feature women who do exist (Marilyn Monroe, Betty Page, etc.), but they are all illustrations. I used my camera and photoshop to put the dolls and their outfits together. =)
"Living Dolls" has 14 different dolls that have 4 different looks (base outfit being underwear/lingerie/bikini). If you don't know how paper dolls work, you basically cut out the doll and her different outfits. The outfits have tabs on them so you can get them to stay on the doll's body. I also hand drew different cartoon-like backgrounds for each girl.
This book isn't just about showing off hot ladies in their underwear. My main vision was to somehow combine art and fashion. I tried to get a variety girls in my book because I did want to find a way to artistically celebrate the diversity that I see in women and fashion today. Since I actually know the lovely ladies that I used for my book, each background is actually personalized to match what I know of the girls' different lifestyles and personalities.
Living Dolls also features fine poetry. Mother, from inkpenmutations press, hand picked 14 popular street poets to write poems for each girl.
I absolutely adored playing with Barbie paper dolls as a child. I loved how I could easily design my own outfits for Barbie just by tracing over the basic shape of her body. Making this book was actually an extremely enjoyable process. I love how it all came together. I truly believe that this book will appeal to a wide variety of people. I hope that paper doll fanatics, art lovers, collectors of unusual books, poetry enthusiasts, and connoisseurs of beautiful women will enjoy owning this book as much as I've enjoyed creating it.
<The girls featured in Living Dolls. Top Row (from left): Autumn, Casimir, Kalamity J, Ranila... Middle Row: Me, Sunshine, Melissa, Tiffany, Sphynx... Bottom Row: Nikki, Lina, Laura, Vima, Ave Rose
< An actual page from the book. This is my doll. =)The book has been printed and will be available soon at inkpenmutations.com and at the San Diego Comic-Con. If you go to the comic con, we will have a booth, so come check us out. I'll will be having some of my dolls there to sign copies of the book, and other goodies that I will have for sale. I'm so excited about it. =D
