Retro Yellow and Black Ms. Pac-Man Dress with Fruit Pattern and Pink Bow

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My beloved husband Brian requested a dress based on Ms. Pac-Man, and because I so often dismiss his ideas for paper doll outfits in a rather cursory fashion (and you would too, if you heard them) I thought it would be nice to indulge him a little.

We used to spend a lot of time at an arcade called Pinball Pete’s, back when we were in college and I lived on that side of Ann Arbor. Brian was pretty good at Ms. Pac-Man, and I liked to watch him escape the little ghosts. He was awfully cute when he wasn’t quite fast enough and got caught! He doesn’t play much anymore, now that we are stolid and serious adults (well, really rather that we live on the other side of town now), but you still can’t bring it up without him mentioning that the pretzel is counted as a fruit in Ms. Pac-Man. So of course, the pretzel duly makes its appearance in my dress.

For some reason I felt a sort of retro, fake-50’s feel would suit the theme, but now that the dress is done and I have no intention whatsoever of starting over, I wonder if perhaps an 80’s theme would have been better? Pretzel-covered leg-warmers? … Yeah, maybe not.

No one has quite won the contest yet… Just be glad I didn’t ask for the year, too!
What day is my wedding anniversary?
Post your guess in the comments! Again, the rules:
1) If you’ve already won this year, please don’t enter.
2) One guess per person per day.
3) If no one gets the exact date by 9:00 PM EST, June 9th, I’ll pick the closest guess.
4) I’ll give one hint each day the contest goes on.
– Yesterday’s hint: It was in the summer.
- Today’s hint: The day is an odd number.

Pink 1860s Ball Gown with White Scroll Pattern

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Well, today’s dress wasn’t quite what I wanted. I was planning on trying to draw lace with the white gel pen, but I ended up doing it all in pencil instead, and then I picked up the wrong pencil while doing the bodice and colored for a while before I realized my mistake. What I have here is totally different from what I wanted, because after my mistake the only thing I could do was to make it as dark as possible and draw something distracting on top of it. I probably wouldn’t quite so annoyed about my bodice mistake if that skirt hadn’t taken so long!

Anyways, I just thought I hadn’t done a hoop skirt for a while, and it would offer a lot of opportunities to practice drawing lace with the gel pen, which I didn’t even do…

… I’m just going to post this and be done with it!

White and Pink 1930s Style Evening Gown with Rhododendrons

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Got started a little late today, so this dress isn’t my favorite, but it’s reasonably cute, I think. It’s supposed to be in the style of 1930s evening gowns, although it’s not based on any one dress. (So as always with the historical costumes that I pretty much make up, take the style, color, etc. with a grain of salt.) The rhododendrons come from some pictures my dad posted on Facebook of wild rhododendrons blooming around my family’s property on Hood Canal. Whenever I go to visit I always seem to miss seeing them bloom, so it’s nice to have pictures at least!

Every day that goes by makes me feel crueler and crueler. Someone, guess the answer soon! A couple people have come really close, but the exact number is still a mystery. But at least you know it’s under 1000 and — OK, above 200. I know, that’s not really much help…

Question: How many Prismacolor pencils do I own as of May 18th?
This includes the ones that I use, all the stubby little pencils that are too short for my current sharpener but I just can’t toss, all the ones I have in reserve and my set of Verithin pencils I hardly ever use.

Just to restate the rules:
1) It’s a new year, so even if you’ve already won one, feel free to guess again.
2) One guess per person per post.
3) If no one gets the exact number by noon EST, May 25th, I’ll pick the closest guess.

Colored Valentine’s Day Gown

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I realize you may be sick of looking at this dress, but I’m still getting back into the paperdolling habit and I needed something easy for today… Have patience with me. (I say that rather needlessly, because if you’re still reading after half a year’s absence that’s one virtue you’re certainly not lacking.)

Halloween Masquerade Costume Series #4: The Cursed Sisters, Part 3

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The song was slow, and Linnetta found it positively mournful. Her partner seemed to be concentrating on the music as well, dancing ever more lightly to make up for her slow pace and dulled movements.

“Do you really believe that your family is cursed, Linnetta?” he asked suddenly.

“What, did you place a bet on my death too?” she replied, her fingers tightening on his shoulder. “How will I die? A sudden relapse perhaps, or does an assassin lurk nearby? Or will I slip and crack my head during the next song?”

“I’m rather of the opinion that you will live for quite a long time.”

“It’s good to know that someone thinks so,” she said.

Off to the side, Linnetta could see a woman in a sickly green gown whispering to the another woman, the previous arrival in spangled black. Those two together made her uneasy. Undoubtedly they were watching her, but then again so was everyone else. She would have felt elated at all the attention, if not for those women.

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I’m sorry about the delay for today, this dress just was impossible! Hopefully tomorrow’s should go easier. Amelia guessed the contest answer, which I’m embarrassed to say was the Spice Girls, yes, no kidding, I know nothing about them except a couple bars of that one song and that flag dress, but apparently one of them had a gold dress I tried to draw at some point back in high school. And, what’s going on, fairies are losing? I thought for sure they had it this week. Well, vote, vote…

Halloween LOTR Costume Series #3: Draped Elf Dress in Pink and Purple

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So I’m not quite sure how I feel about this one. It turned out rather differently than I had wanted it to — I was going for more of a delicate dawn — and I guess my perception of elves is influenced enough by the movies that it seems all wrong. You know, where are the muted earth tones? The fine leaf patterns? The soft, understated fabrics? I can almost imagine an elf mama asking her daughter if she’s quite sure that’s what she wants to wear out to the moon-viewing tonight, and if maybe this nice moss green gown wouldn’t be better? Rebellious elves in magenta, yes, I like that, and even though I played with it some in Photoshop, taking down the saturation and adjusting the colors, in the end I couldn’t do it: I had to present it just as I drew it, brazen coloring and all. If my elf girl doesn’t fit in with the Rivendell crowd, I am sure there is some anime out there she can escape to where she can be happy.

My quiz must have been too easy… The answer was Sunburst Yellow. Unlike Ultramarine, Sunburst Yellow gets used really heavily in almost every yellow or gold thing I draw, and it’s such a cheery, vibrant color that it makes me smile every time I pick it up. So Monica, think about how you want me to color yesterday’s dress and post in the comments please!

Poll is still going… please vote if you haven’t already!

Halloween Costume Series Day 11: Gypsy Girl's White Tunic with Purple Embroidery, Violet-Blue Paisley Sash, and Pink and Purple Belled Full Skirt

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Violeta claims she makes up all her fortunes like everyone else and it’s not her fault there’s so much bad luck in this wicked world, but all the same her family won’t let her talk in the future tense. She can never get past “I will” or “Tomorrow” before one of her sisters tackles her and claps a hand over her mouth, none too gently either. They resent her because as the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter of the legendary gypsy mystic Simza, she was supposed to inherit the family powers, and since they were all brought into the world to facilitate her arrival there should have been some payoff for them. Instead, they switch off days shadowing her, protecting their family, their friends, for all they know the world from this lightning rod of misery, their uncanny and dangerous sister. Violeta floated the idea once of billing herself as a sort of goddess of curses, and her mother would have thought it a terrific joke for another of her daughters, Zora perhaps, to make up theatrical fake curses and fleece all those who sought to bring harm on others. Violeta, however, seemed to be at the mercy of some demon that hijacked her tongue when she foretold the future, and her mother had better sense than to try to profit off of such a thing. Even the fortunes she told that sounded positive brought only wretchedness. (Would that she had never told Carmen about that darkly handsome rich man!)

Forbidden contact with the future and silenced by the tender ministrations of her sisters, she pours her energy into other things, trying her best to walk straight on a twisted road. She paints and repaints intricate and vivid patterns on her family’s wagons, she knows all the names and uses of everything that grows in the forests, and she makes up wild, violent dances, stamping the ground with the intensity of a curse.

New poll, and rather a silly one. I drew from my Halloween pile, but all my paperdolls are potential warriors here, so if you want Calamity Jane’s trusty shotgun I’m not going to stop you.