Livedolling the 81st Academy Awards! Penelope Cruz's Vintage White Lace Gown, Kate Winslet's Blue and Black Lace Gown, Angelina Jolie's Strapless Black Gown

Click for larger version (Penelope Cruz); Click for larger version (Kate Winslet); Click for larger version (Angelina Jolie); click for the list of dolls.

11:56: And that’s it for this year’s Oscars: thanks to everyone who kept me company! I enjoyed this a lot, I think I’ll do it again next year too.

11:38: I think I’m going to do something really easy tomorrow. Like a mermaid wearing a paper bag.

11:33: Yay for Kate! Wow, I had no idea how the back of that dress worked. Glad my drawing doesn’t contradict it.

11:19: Ohhh, Reese. Talk about a seatbelt strap dress. I really like the shade of blue though

11:17 OK — now I’m exhausted. That’s it for my drawing tonight!

11:07: Just finished Angelina’s black gown, scanning and processing. I think that will be it for the night, I’m tired now. Glad I don’t work tomorrow!

10:57: Oh, excellent, a Bollywood number. Wonder how Wall-E will fit in?

10:27: Yawn. How much longer do we have to go? Ten more categories. I wonder if I can do Angelina Jolie’s dress in that time? Black is easy enough…

10:25: Scanner made a hash out of this one, but oh well. I might have it in me for one more, but it has to be super simple.

10:12: Finished with Kate Winslet’s dress — not perfect but not awful. Scanning and processing.

9:37: I’m not so sure I can pull off Kate, but I’m going to give it a shot…

9:26: Is the sparkly vampire contractually obliged to keep his head down and glower at all times?

9:23: Funny that Tilda Swinton is the one bucking the nude lip trend. I think she looks fantastic!

9:21: Score another one for lavish period pieces!

9:20: Here’s our favorite category, costume design…

9:16: AAGH. Now I finish and post the thing, I find a better picture. I was close but it’s not quite right.

9:13: Here it is, Penelope Cruz’s white lace gown. I can’t promise this is precisely how the skirt works, but I think it’s pretty close. I’m thinking Kate Winslet next, but I need to take a second and look at the new pictures. Oh yeah, yay Wall-E!

9:00: Done with the dress — scanning and processing, up soon. Feel free to suggest my next subject in the comments. I want something with color now!

8:47: EXCELLENT. If I’m drawing the Oscar winner’s gown, I’ll get more traffic. *grin*

8:31: Ohhh, such love for the jazzy Lawrence of Arabia theme. Had to restart Penelope Cruz’s dress but it’s fun. Expect it to be done by 9, 9:15.

8:07 Angelina Jolie went too subtle, I think, but I guess that’s better than ending up on Go Fug Yourself tomorrow…

7:52: OK, I’ve got my first paperdoll subject of the night.

7:47: Well, Kate Winslet is doing the one shoulder strap thing too, but I think it works for her dress…

7:43: Now that is quite a mermaid skirt on Melissa George. I think the fetish-style corset lace-up is jarring, but I like it from the front well enough.

7:41: Sarah Jessica Parker’s dress is growing on me — I think the belt makes it not so much a prom dress, even with that poofy skirt.

7:29: justin.tv is failing me. It’s superfluous considering I have the Getty Images pictures, but it just doesn’t seem the same without the inane chatter in the background…

7:20: Wow, Marisa Tomei also has the seatbelt strap that Eleanor and I don’t like. Just saw a bit of it — looks like there’s something interesting going on with her skirt. Hurry up, Getty Images…

7:09: Great picture of Viola Davis and Taraji Henson — I think both of their dresses are really nicely done. Still haven’t decided who to draw first though.

7:06: Yeah, I’m not a fan of her neckline or one sleeve, but love the rest of her dress.

6:50: Hate the E! football-esque highlight pen — love that color blue on Frieda Pinto.

6:19: Ah — this is how her dress works. It’s a little more than most of them are going to be, I bet, and it reminds me a little of a pinecone, but I like it — I’d just take off the bauble on the belt. And wow, what a train.

6:09: I’m watching at justin.tv now. Did I see a Cinderella-style overskirt gather on Miley? I just got a glimpse…

6:00 PM EST: Welcome to Livedolling the Oscars with Liana. I’ll be your host, once I stop frantically looking for a live feed of the red carpet coverage. I’ll also be using images from Getty Images’ Oscar coverage as reference. I’m not the only one liveblogging the Oscars, but I bet I’m the only one armed with colored pencils and not snark. There are some cute dresses showing up on the red carpet already, but so far they’re all “TV personalities.”

1780s White Chemise à la Reine with Blue Silk Sash and Flower Ornament

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Well, now, it looks like the readers of this blog have what you could call a slight preference for The Duchess’ costumes (a lovely gallery of which can be found at the Costumer’s Guide to Movie Costumes); as I write this it’s garnered 66% of the vote, with the other four neatly splitting the remainder. Not much of a surprise, we do like our fancy gowns around this joint after all. The possible list of leaked Oscar winners would be against us, preferring Benjamin Button instead, but that has all the authenticity of, well, a random list on the Internet.

I didn’t see The Duchess, or, sadly, any of the other Best Costume nominees, but I wanted to draw something inspired by its main character, Georgiana Cavendish, not the least because I recently discovered the The Duchess of Devonshire’s Gossip Guide to the 18th Century (and its counterpart concerned with Marie Antoinette) and since I’ve never been much into 1700s fashion before (I love the 1800s, everything before that I’m real vague on) I’ve been enjoying it. Well, lo and behold there is a style of dress that Marie Antoinette started and Georgiana introduced to England, so that seemed to be the right thing to draw tonight. It’s called the chemise à la reine, and it was quite scandalous when it was introduced in the mid-1780s because it was essentially like wearing one’s underwear out in public, not what one expects from one’s queen. A very simple garment, it was really the precursor of the Regency gowns as the waistline inched upwards.

Don’t forget — livedolling the Oscars here, tomorrow! Stick around the comments section and help me decide what to draw. I’ll be looking frantically for streaming video of the red carpet show (more interesting than reloading Getty Images all the time), let me know if you know where to find it.

Halloween Costume Series Day 17: Dorcas Snodgrass' 1910s Light Blue Nurse Outfit with Full White Apron and Cap

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“Nurse,” of course, is one of the more popular women’s Halloween costumes but I think they’re often of the “sexy” variety; I suppose the connotation is “hot yet nurturing” but it always makes me think of things like getting blood drawn, which isn’t really the intended effect. Thinking about nurse costumes did remind me of this Metafilter article about a nurse named Dorcas Snodgrass who died under mysterious circumstances in 1912. The article links to this picture of her in the Library of Congress photostream, under which there’s a great comment that brings together some New York Times articles about her disappearance and death, officially ruled a suicide. (The Metafilter thread itself is mostly just good for theories and chatting about the name Snodgrass.) So there — not much of an elaborate costume, but a genuinely creepy nurse story for Halloween.

Sarah Palin's Pink Jacket and Grey Pencil Skirt from the Katie Couric interview

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There has been a good deal of interest in Sarah Palin paper dolls of late; I don’t intend on doing any more, but they do exist elsewhere. Here’s a reasonably respectful Flash game with her, and here’s a more critical take, done as a traditional doll.
And the last in my four-day series of 2008 American presidential election figures, Sarah Palin. This is the outfit she wore for her interview with Katie Couric.

I’ve got some people searching for Palin’s pink jacket, so here’s the image that I used as reference: Sarah Palin Meets With Foreign Leaders During UN General Assembly. There’s more from the same set, which can be found by going to Getty Images and searching for Sarah Palin, date range 9/24/2008 to 9/24/2008. This is also how I found my pictures of the other three, if anyone needs reference for them.

I expected her to do a little better in the poll, considering the splash she’s made in American news for her “sexy librarian” look, but she’s just barely holding her own over Hillary and the pantsuits as I post this! Well, one more day to vote…

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to do a month of Halloween costumes; politicans have been well and amply covered, but please feel free to post other suggestions!

Hillary Clinton's Orange Pantsuit from the 2008 Democratic National Convention

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For someone like me who is enamored of skirts and frills, Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits are alien, but I suppose if I was a tenth as busy as she must be and people were following me around hoping for a picture of me looking unkept, I would probably switch to the pantsuit as well. Also, after looking at dozens of pictures of her in pantsuits, this picture of her jackets being checked against stage lighting completely cracked me up. It’s not like there’s anything inherently funny in it, but just the fact that the jackets are all the same except for the color made for an amusing tableau. It feels like online shopping for clothes, where you select a different color on a skirt or something and the color switches but the picture stays the same. You can almost see the intern fussing around with Photoshop sliders. (I tried changing this image that way, but had mixed results.)

Anyways, this is a rendition of the pantsuit that she wore on the second day of the Democratic National Convention. Not quite right, as usual — the doll’s body is too long, which is a lot more forgiving to work with for skirts than for pants!

And don’t forget to vote…

Cindy McCain's Yellow Shirtdress from the 2008 Republican National Convention

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I started this dress over three times and still got the collar so very wrong. Really a shame, since that’s the thing everyone remembers about the dress (or at least, any Daily Show fans) but I don’t really want to redraw it. Anyways, this is the outfit that Cindy McCain wore on one of the days of the Republican National Convention, the one that Vanity Fair said was supposedly $300,000 — that is, $3,000 for the dress plus Vanity Fair’s estimation of how much the accessories cost, which also assumes they’re right about the diamonds. This dress took a while to grow on me, being as how I thought it looked like a raincoat with an unfortunate collar at first, but now I rather like it. Too many accessories, though, with the diamond earrings and all those pearls and three military-themed pins and one big watch. (Although, if I owned those pearls, I’d probably wear them 24/7, so…)

By the way, my October project — I can’t keep a secret — is to try to draw one Halloween costume each day of October. So, start thinking about what you’d like to see, because I will be considering requests over the month!

And don’t forget to vote…

Michelle Obama's Turquoise Blue Dress from the 2008 Democratic Convention

  Click for larger version; click for the list of dolls.

I’m sorry I’ve been such a slacker for the last few months! My essential nature, or the problem with my essential nature if you will, is that I can do just about anything for two weeks, and then it’s on to my next all-consuming interest. I do my best work in the depths of an obsession. So, I’ve worn out about two months worth of other projects, and now I’m back to paper dolls. I have a project for October, so I want to start again now… a warm-up, if you will.

Since the U.S. presidential race is much on my mind as of late, I thought outfits from the current political scene would be a fun way of burning up the days between now and October 1. I’ll do one from Michelle Obama’s wardrobe, one of Cindy McCain’s dresses, a Sarah Palin outfit and of course a Hillary Clinton pantsuit. Please note that this is not an invitation to debate politics or insult any of these women on the comments here! (Well, paperdoll fans are a civilized lot, and I probably lost all of my readers in my two-month vacation anyways, so I should be safe.)

I personally like Michelle Obama’s dress here that she wore when she spoke at the 2008 Democratic Convention. Can’t find any good pictures of the little center ornament, though — and the color of the dress changes from picture to picture, it seems!

Calamity Jane in Fringed Leather Jacket and Buckskin Breeches

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I’m listening to Deadwood Dick’s Doom, or, Calamity Jane’s Last Adventure, a dime novel western by Edward Wheeler. At three hours long I will probably be done with it by tomorrow, but if you like westerns or Deadwood, which I do, it’s an enjoyable three hours. The reading is a mite uneven, as with a lot of LibriVox books read by many readers, but overall it’s great, and some of the readers really put some life into it. I mean, how can you not love this line:
“Yes, I am Deadwood Dick, the celebrated cuss from Custer clime– the diabolical devil-may-care devotee of road-agency, from Deadwood the hunted hurricane, Harris, just as you see me. And according to a recent act of Congress, if you or any other two-legged individual attempts to harm yonder girl, whoever she may be, I’ll agree to furnish him with a free pass over Jordan by the most direct ethereal line. I mean business, so let some pilgrim of enterprising disposition open the market.”

Bullock couldn’t pull that off, but just imagine Swearengen chewing on it, preferably while waving around a pistol, even if the chivalrous sentiment isn’t quite his department…

Anyways, this is a drawing of Calamity Jane’s outfit, based off of this picture of her scan courtesy of this Calamity Jane site, Calamity Jane gets to show off in this book, putting a bullet through the neck of a bottle midair, but at the moment she’s in mortal peril. I’m not worried, though, Deadwood Dick has a 3 for 3 record of protecting helpless women, so far, and I predict that tomorrow she’ll be out of her predicament and back with him.

Jill's Flowered Easter Dress and White and Green Flowered Easter Hat

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So when Jill saw my rendition of one of Min’s hats, she asked for me to do her Easter hat, a gorgeous confection (that Brian termed an “ultra-hat” — sorry) that she made to match her dress. That request has since been percolating in the back of my mind until I was reading her blog earlier and saw that she got robbed at a “Mad Hatter” contest.

Paperdolls always make a great consolation prize. In my world, anyways, where they also make good hobbies, gifts and eye candy.

If one was cutting this out, the hat would be cut underneath the brim, right underneath the broad green ribbon; on the large version I put a dotted line there. Krysti will have to tell us if it works anything like how I hope it does!

Bai Ling's Green Satin Corset and Plaid Balloon Skirt via Go Fug Yourself

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Now, I don’t read People or any of that, beyond what I can’t help skimming at the checkout line or if I’m reeeally bored at the dentist’s office. I don’t mean to be snobby about it — I’ve certainly got enough nerdy, timewasting obsessions to make up for the lack of this particular one — but the whole celebrity gossip thing just never has been quite my thing. Except… for the blog Go Fug Yourself. It’s shallow, catty and downright hilarious. I think the appeal, for me, is something like, “Here is this gorgeous woman, and she has looks and money and access and stylists, and she’s at some amazing event where she knows there will be pictures taken of her and… she is wearing… what? why?” I haven’t a particle of style and I don’t really follow fashion, but even I’ve got better sense than to wear a dress like this.

And now they’re doing their Fug Madness, and I was Team Peldon, but then she got spanked by Sharon Stone. So I switched my allegiance to Team Bai for the final rounds. (That would be Bai Ling. “She was in Star Wars, right?” says Brian. Among the followers of Go Fug Yourself, that isn’t precisely what she’s known for.) She and Posh are squaring off on Monday, and I have total confidence in my girl Bai… Posh just doesn’t have the crazy I associate with quality fug.

So this is an outfit that Bai wore sometime in 2007 and, the more I look at it the fonder I am of it, actually. I mean, that skirt.