Black and Blue Medieval Gown with Purple Roses and Silver Underskirt

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I’m sorry I haven’t been drawing lately: I’ve really been in a slump. I’m fine, just busy and anxious: we’re moving from Michigan to Washington State on the 27th. I’m really happy about it, but it’s just really all starting to hit me.

As you see, you do not really miss all that much when I am in a slump, because if my heart’s just not into it, whatever I produce looks lousy. Certainly my intention for this dress was not “Evil Queen’s May Day.” How’d it get to look so gloomy? I could understand it if I had been listening to gloomy music while I was drawing (the kind of music Brian calls “high-school-is-hard-music”) but I wasn’t, I promise…

I can’t really say when I’ll be drawing again. If the desire isn’t there, the results are worthless, as you see. (And you’re not even seeing my first stab at coloring tonight, the 30s black and white dress done in pink — it was hideous.) The desire kind of comes and goes, somehow. I expect that once we’re in Washington State, I’ll be more cheerful, and there’s no need to worry about me because I’m perfectly fine and very lucky to be moving, I’m just being a little temperamental, I guess ^^;; Please forgive me, I’ll be back, and I haven’t forgotten about the other contest winners — I especially don’t want to do a bad job on those, so it’s really better to wait a little while for them!

More Recolored Sequined Gowns in Red, Gold and Purple

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Thanks to everyone for your kind words yesterday. I’m all right — I’m posting more of these recolored gowns today mostly because it’s 10:00 PM already and I’m not even at home yet, and I don’t want you all to worry about me!

Anyways, I had fun playing around with these, as you can probably guess… I got a little carried away, but I thought it would be better to post them than not.

Recolored Sequined Gown in Black, Purple and Green

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I’m sorry for missing the last couple of days with no explanation, and for posting just recolored versions of the last dress today. My grandmother passed away yesterday. She didn’t suffer for very long, and she passed away peacefully.

Anyways, I threatened on Twitter, when I was nearing the end of Monday’s dress and feeling like my thumb was going to fall off, to just Photoshop out the bottom part and call it a day. I didn’t end up doing that, thankfully, but I did get curious as to what it would look like, and then started playing with the colors, and… well, it gives me something to post today! When Grace and Ivy start their girl group (I will have to make up a third paperdoll for them, I guess), now they can tour all over the place and not wear the same thing every night. I will get back to drawing soon, though.

Blue Sequined Mermaid Gown Inspired by the Supremes

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In my recent music contest, Bella’s entry of Diana Ross and the Supremes was the first one picked by the random number generator, so we are starting off the week with an outfit that I like to think they would have looked good performing in. (As this replaces Mermaid Monday, that did inform my color and dress shape choice…)

I didn’t really get into the Supremes until I started using last.fm; vague memories of singing Chapel of Love in middle school choir led to the Dixie Cups, then on to other girl groups until I reached the Supremes. Now I listen to the last.fm The Supremes-tagged radio all the time. I’d say my favorite song by them is I’m Gonna Make You Love Me. If I’m gloomy, singing that with as much power as I can always cheers me up. (There’s something even my husband doesn’t know about me! I don’t think he’s ever heard me really belt that one out. I tend to do it in the car.)

You may find your thumb going numb in solidarity when you look carefully at this dress. I don’t think I’m going to make a habit of sequins. Still, now I’m done, I’m happy with it, and I hope you like it too, Bella (and also Monica, I guess, since she also voted for the Supremes).

Prismacolors used: Black, Aquamarine, Denim Blue, True Blue, Light Cerulean Blue, Peacock Blue, Light Aqua, Peacock Green, Parrot Green, Sky Blue Light, Non-Photo Blue, Light Green, Black (verithin), Indigo Blue (verithin), Souffle white gel pen

Black And White 1930s Evening Gown with Peplum

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For today’s black and white gown, I decided on a 1930s evening gown. For one thing, a simple dress sounded appealing at 9 PM when I started; for another thing, we love our 1930s fashion around these parts, if the response to the white and pink gown is any indication.

Next week, I am going to tackle drawing the winners of my music contest; hopefully I can finish them off in one week. I’ll be skipping Mermaid Monday, but it’ll be back the week after that. (Maybe the Supremes will get a mermaid dress? We’ll see.)

Green Evening Gown with Embroidered White Underskirt and Gold and Emerald Necklace

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There really wasn’t much thought behind this one, so it is accordingly presented without much comment! I just have a feeling next week is not going to be simple, and I didn’t have a lot of time today to make something interesting (or a story that would render this dress interesting), so I wanted to play around with my colors a little bit.

Prismacolors used: French Grey family, Spring Green, Olive Green, Yellow Chartreuse, White, Goldenrod, Dark Umber, Light Umber, Sunburst Yellow, Colorless Blender

Colored Masquerade Gown in Black, White, Purple, Red and Gold

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Sofia won my last contest for guessing that one of my top ten favorite movies is Casablanca. (The other nine: Whisper of the Heart, Vertigo, The Thin Man, Some Like It Hot, Robin Hood (Disney version), Porco Rosso, North by Northwest, Dr. Strangelove and All About Eve.) She wrote: “Casablanca is one of my favorite movies, too, and definitely a film everyone should see. Anyway, I’d like to see the masquerade dress from this post: http://www.joechip.net/liana/2009/10/12/halloween-masquerade-series-1-black-and-white-masquerade-gown-with-bonus-colored-brown-and-red-elf-gown/ in dark colors… maybe a mottled red/black/purple kind of brocade or damask pattern on the skirt, with gold trim.” I hope you like this version, Sofia. I certainly do, although it made my thumb go numb again. I’ve got to start splitting up these pattern-heavy coloring jobs over the course of a couple of days! (Not a complaint, I really like being challenged to do something cool like this.)

Colors used: French Grey family (white cascade, sleeves, etc.), Cool Grey (70% and 90% on the top part), Dark Umber, Light Umber, Goldenrod, Sunburst Yellow, Crimson Lake, Tuscan Red, Moss Green, Limepeel, Imperial Violet, Greyed Lavender, Black Grape, Black, Colorless Blender

January Birthday Dress with Red Arabeque Patterned Tunic and Long-Sleeved Underdress with Snowdrops

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And, for my last post of June, we have… the January birthday dress. Did I ever mention how lucky I am anyone still bothers reading this site? I’m sorry, January birthday people, although you do technically have one January dress for Sylvia. I never liked that one, though. You see the big white band on the red overskirt? There was supposed to be a snowdrop pattern there. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it for some reason. I don’t know if I like this one either, but that’s because the original is so much better than the scan… Oh well. Anyways, all I have to do is April now, and then I can catch up on the rest of the months as they come.

Prismacolors used: French Grey family (dress), Cool Grey family (snowdrops), Black, Kelly Green, Poppy Red, Crimson Red, Crimson Lake, Tuscan Red, Colorless Blender.

Black and White Medieval Gown with Flower Garlands

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I wanted to play with long sleeves a little more, so that’s where this dress came from. You would have to cut the edge of the sleeve for the hand to fit, but I have confidence my readers or their adult paperdoll providers can figure it out.

I said there was a special contest coming up, and here it is! I use last.fm, a site that provides music recommendations, Internet radio and so on, mostly because I always listen to the radio while I’m working, but also partially because I’m a sucker for little graphs based on what I listen to. I was thinking it would be fun to do some paperdolls based on the music I like listening to, but there’s so much I couldn’t decide what to try.

That’s where you come in! To enter, take a look through my last.fm profile, choose any artist I’ve ever listened to, and post it as a comment. On the 28th, I’ll use a random number generator to pick five comments, and then draw something based in some way on those artists. For example, if one of the winners picked Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, I listen to the Scheherazade suite all the time, so perhaps I’d do something based off of the Arabian Nights, something from the ballet, or maybe something from 1888 when it was composed.

Here’s the rules:
1) Even if you’ve won one of my black-and-white contests, you can enter this one.
2) You can only make one guess, and it has to be on this post.
3) Entries will be accepted until 9 PM EST, June 28th.
4) Yes, Brian, even you can enter.
5) I’ll take suggestions, but I reserve the right to make the final decision on what exactly to draw.

Embroidered Robe and White Nightgown from Romeo et Juliette

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Yesterday, I saw an encore presentation of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2007 performance of Roméo et Juliette through the Live in HD series, which they broadcast to participating movie theaters. I love these, and I’ve gone to as many as I can since last year. It would probably be a great experience to go to one live, but as it is, you get an amazing view of the costumes this way!

Shakespeare in a language besides English loses a lot of charm for me, but add singing and it becomes enjoyable. (Aside from the ending, in which Romeo downs the poison, then Juliet wakes up about five seconds later; they have a fair few minutes to express mutual joy in song, and all the while I am thinking that it might not be very romantic to induce vomiting but it would at least be worth trying…) I hated Romeo’s powder-blue tight pants, but Juliet, as it should be, had lovely costumes; this robe and nightgown set was used heavily, particularly the nightgown, which she was wearing under everything after the first party scene. I don’t think my drawing does justice to it at all, but at least now Ivy and Grace have something to lounge in.

By the way, I regret that I can’t see the encore presentation of Carmen late in July, because I will be a little busy after flying cross-country with two whiny, neurotic cats the day before. The rest of you, though, should try to see it, because it’s fantastic! I love Carmen, and I did get to see this performance before so really I have nothing to complain about.