More about me and this site& some pixeldolling history
Name: Eva "Mira" Bolinder (hence the wordplay on "Miraculous) ;)
Age: Born in 1981
Location: Sweden, northern parts.
Occupation: Student, Library & Information Science program @ Umeå University
Interests: The visual media, sciences of various kinds, comics and games.
My Other Pages: Miraculous ElfQuest Pages (I know, really needs to be properly CSS-ified, when I have time...)
My Gallery Pages: ElfWood Gallery, DeviantArt Gallery, EQfanart Gallery
Contact Info: miraculousm [at] gmail [dot] com
Why I Began Pixeldolling: I honestly can't remember the exact incident that lead me to discover the world of pixeldolling now.. but I've always liked the visual media, drawing and sketching using the traditional pencil and paper. At times creating illustrations that old fashion way can be highly annoying though, as there is no way of saving a drawing in different stages, nor easily undo changes. This is why working with pixel dolls is so much smoother, with saving and undo options, not to mention the overall challenge of working and stretching the boundries of digital imagery. It's also a lot of fun and inspiring to browse the creations of other pixeldollers.
Short History of Pixeldolling: According to wikipedia, the history of pixel dolls (or as some might also call them pixel dollz and cartoon dolls) date back to around 1995/1997. That's when people started creating avatars (fancier name for user icons/images) for a website called The Palace. Pixel dolls can basically be said to be virtual paper dolls, where so called bases serve as the virtual paper doll itself and the person who uses a base adds clothing and accessories to it to create a new pixel doll. The image format used for these creations is "GIF". Ever since, dolling has expanded beyond personal use of avatars and icons, into an own web community with sites, forums and chats etc devoted to them. There's even pixeldollers who sell their dolls as prints on clothes or items. And now my pixel dolls page is one of the many sites on the web dedicated to pixeldolling!
Basic Pixel Doll Netiquette: As with all other art creations, basic rules apply to ensure that what a pixeldoller has created is not copied or plagerised in any way. Firstly, never use a base / doll without the creator's permission. Secondly, whenever using someone's base ie virtual paperdoll that one wants to "dress up" or whenever one adopts a doll, one credits the base / doll creator with a link. Thirdly, so called frankendolling, where a person copies and steals body parts from pixel dolls others have made to create dolls they claim to have created themselves, is something that is highly offensive and looked down upon...
Extended Pixel Doll Netiquette: Anyhow, when using a base or adopting a doll, it is a nice touch to leave a note to that person, saying one has used their base or adopted their doll.. and increase ones chances of ending up on that person's links page. And in turn, increase the chances of having more visitors to ones site.. and people that might use the bases or adopt any of the dolls you have made (using others' bases). Another way of spreading the word of one's site, is to join a forum or chat dedicated to pixeldolling, where one can exchange ideas and show off dolls. As with all things one create it is nice to be told one has good job, or to receive constructive criticism on the things that are not so good :)
History of This Site: The first version of this site started
on the 19th of February 2004. I wish I could and can update more often,
but as a student it's not easy keeping up with hobbies. When it comes to
the design of pixeldoll pages, they are often rich on graphics, but for
the latest and current version of this page I wanted to try a more cleancut
approach and also try out a tabbed menu layout. Using a cleancut design
now does make me able to later add more design details. I tend to get caught
up in details when it comes to design.. The screencapture to the left
shows what version 1 of this page looked like. Click it for a bigger
image. That was a design Telepelwen created and gave me as a present when
she first started hosting pages for me, but now I have designed the page all by myself.
Purpose of This Site:In short, I want this page to function as an outlet and virtual platform for my pixel doll creations. By including some pixeldolling history above, I have not aimed this page only to those well-versed in the world of pixeldolling and I hope those all new to pixeldolling that visit this page will understand the phenomenon better. Perhaps even be inspired to create own pixel dolls now that they know that there is pixeldolling netiquette to consider. Using English when making pages nowdays is also to ones advantage of course, as it surely is the most common language used in the virtual world. Yet even when copyright has been made crystal-clear in English, there can still be sneaky people lurking behind a virtual corner, ready to grab material that they later claim they have created. So should you find my bases or dolls frankendolled, please let me know!
I hope you will enjoy this site, feel free to leave comments on my Tagboard, especially if you do use my bases or adopt any of my dolls :)