'Dolling'

'Dolling' is the art of making pixel pictures of cartoon people on a computer, using a program such as MS paint or PaintShop Pro. Unlike most drawings, these dolls are done on a pixel level meaning you 'zoom in' on them so you can colour each pixel, the squares of colour that make up a picture, individually. Pixel dolls are dressed up in many styles of clothing, anything from casual to gothic and futuristic to historical, and everything in between, all hand drawn by the artists. Other accessories can also be added, from weapons and props to wings and mermaid tails. Dolling has become a popular hobby with many people online.

Most people starting out will use resources provided by other, more experienced 'dollers'. Many dollers will create bases, which are the naked bodies on which people draw clothes. These bases vary greatly, with some being very small and others requiring you to scroll the page to view it all. They also vary in style from a stereotypical 'candybar' style, now becoming disliked by many veteran dollers, through to totally new and original bases with their own notable differences. These bases are done with the shading already completed, to help new dollers and old dollers alike to figure out where the shading should go on the clothing itself. Another item often used by new dollers are colour palettes. These are sets of colours, often 5 plus an outline colour. These are used to colour clothing and shade it well, without a large and strange difference in shades from the shadow and main colours. Both these helpful graphics are usually free to use from most websites, though doll bases need a link back to their artists.

Once a person has a base, the next step is to draw the outline of the first piece of clothing with the darkest colour on the palette. It is almost always one pixel wide at any one place in the line. This is then fully filled with the middle colour. The two darker and two lighter shades are used to gradually shade where the light would and wouldn’t shine, to make the clothes look more realistic and three-dimensional. Shading is often done by hand, and the entire piece of clothing done with the 5 colours, though some people using more advanced programs choose to use tools to do these automatically. There is debate within the dolling community as to whether this is fair and should be considered in competition. It seems to be widely accepted, be it grudgingly, by most members of the dolling community.

After the clothes are completed, the hair can be drawn. This is rather difficult and there are many ways to go about it. Some people shade the hair to give it body, others draw different coloured strands, and others only use two colours. After this the face can be added (if it wasn’t already included on the base) and accessories drawn in.

A lot can be done with these dolls. Many of the most well known dollers hold competitions regularly on their websites. Anyone can enter these. The rules will vary depending on each competition and organiser. Also some people make enough outfits for their dolls that they make 'dollmakers', where you drag and drop the images of the clothes over the images of the doll bases to 'dress' them. Dolling was a popular phenomenon in the late 90s, started by one teenager on a graphic chat, and have carried on in small groups for a long time.

Dolling, while taking a lot of practice, is an enjoyable and easy hobby for even the most computer illiterate of people. With many tutorials, and such, online to help you out, I would recommend anyone give it a go.