Cordelia Vorkosigan Paper Dolls

[melannen]

I collect historical coloring and paperdoll books, and I recently got one for "First Ladies of the United States", and it was one of those books that had such a firm worldview that it kind of sucked you in.

So then I decided there needed to exist the Barrayaran equivalent. Obviously. So here is one of the dolls from the "Barrayaran Imperial Hostesses: the Time of Isolation to the Great Constitution¹: Color-Your-Own Flimsy Dolls" book that I picked up in the Vorhartung Castle gift shop.

The coloring book pages online. (with text descriptions)
Online (javascript) paperdoll play area. (should work on all browsers, but probably not very accessible for non-mouse-users, because making it accessible would require me to learn actual javascript.)

All the pieces as a layered .xcf file for offline play/alteration/remix. (2.2 mb file for GIMP)
All the pieces as a layered .psd file for offline play/alteration/remix. (9.6 mb file for Adobe Photoshop)

The coloring pages as print-resolution .pngs (3.1 mb .zip archive) Note: some of these may not work well as-is as actual paper dolls (they were designed for Barrayaran flimsy pages, obvs); and you will have to come up with your own tabs/fasteners. (I recommend magnets.) However, the coloring-book part should work fine.
The coloring pages in a .cbz file for comic-book readers (3.1 mb .zip archive)

In case I need to say it, the authorial viewpoint for these pages is meant to be a take-off of the one in the First Ladies book and/or in the voice of someone writing the book for a conventional Barrayaran audience, and is not, in most cases, congruent with my own. :p

¹ The other dolls in the book are Empress Magda Vorrutyer Vorbarra (first wife of Emperor Dorca), Imperial Consort Lyuda Vorlightly Vorbarra (second wife of Emperor Dorca), Princess Judy M'calister Vorbarra (Wife of Prince Xav), Empress Xenia Vorbarra Vorbarra (Wife of Emperor Ezar), Princess Kareen Vortala Vorbarra (Wife of Prince Heir Serg), Lady Alys Vorbohn Vorpatril (wife of Imperial Cousin Padma Vorpatril), Cordelia (Cordelia), Countess Ekaterin Vorvayne Vorsoisson Vorkosigan (Wife of Lord Auditor Count Miles Vorkosigan), Empress Laisa Toscane Vorbarra (Wife of Emperor Gregor), and Lord Clement Byerly Vorrutyer (Son of Count Dono Vorrutyer & Companion of the Prince Heir.) I will probably never get around to drawing any of them.

Edited to add, 12/11: A Charity Case by miss_lanyon tells the story of the Vorhartung Castle Gift Shop, should anyone wish to know more.

Comments

[beatrice_otter]

Awesome! Can I post this to the Bujold mailing list? I think a lot of people there, LMB included, would get a kick out of it.

[melannen]

My policy is that anything I post publicly can get linked anywhere, so, um, sure.


*hides the contraband*

[nlbarber]

Wonderful! I'd also like to link these to the Bujold list FAQ (we have a "more Bujold stuff on the Web" section) whenever I do another update.

Love the paper dolls. These are a nice match to the Lord Peter Wimsey ones Jane Langton made, with all the Barrayar/LPW cross connections.

[melannen]

As above, you can link wherever.

And I'd never heard about the Lord Peter ones, but they're lovely! And as a result I've found a blog that's nothing but scans of old paper dolls, whatever shall I do?

[nlbarber]

I put the Sayers ones up too, though I never managed to get permission from Langton's agent or the publisher to make it legal. As this page will go away in less than a year when Apple quits hosting web pages, guess it won't hurt to put the URL out: http://homepage.mac.com/nlbarber/sayers-dolls/dolls.html