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.)

Evil Queen Wedding Dress with Black and Purple Trim

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You may or may not have seen this, but there’s a line of wedding dresses based on the various Disney princesses. You can probably guess that I’ve got a soft spot for Ariel and the gang, and I’m certainly fond of my pretty princess gowns, but it seems to me like something was left out… The fact is, it’s the villains who deserve the most spectacular wedding dresses! If you really think about it, theirs ought to be even more wonderful than any ever made for your standard issue simpering, vacuously beautiful princess. I mean, wouldn’t that be part of the joy of being a villain? You don’t have to worry about looking modest or maidenly, frugality isn’t even in your vocabulary, and if anyone out there gives you static about your wedding colors or where you have your registry, well, darling, that is simply the kind of situation that pet dragons, leftover poisoned fruit or comic-relief henchmen were created for.

So, let us pretend for a moment that Snow White never quite made it to the little cottage in the woods, and there were no red-hot shoes or other such fates for the Evil Queen. (Did you know that in the Disney version she had a name? I didn’t, but it’s Queen Grimhilde, according to Wikipedia. There’s your trivia for the day.) After her husband’s unfortunate death, she found her own Prince Charming, handsome, lacking in empathy and appropriately weak-willed, and threw herself a wedding good enough for the fairest of them all. I like to think that eight sweet little village seamstresses went blind embroidering the trim on her dress, and that the lace underskirt — which you will note, isn’t even visible, although I assure you it’s fantastic — is stained a kind of rusty red with blood from the fingers of artisans working themselves to the bone to get it done before the big day. (Sure, it could have been washed, but why would she? She likes it better this way.)

Now, I don’t really think you could package this up and sell it to a modern audience. Why? They couldn’t handle all this fierce in one dress, that’s why. For most humans, it’s probably better to stick with an imitation of Cinderella or Belle.

I’m not entirely sure that this is small enough to print on one page – so if you print it and it doesn’t work, let me know and I will fuss with it. (It’s almost 11 PM, so I’m rapidly running out of patience…) Also, I think the collar would be tough to cut out; I think you would have to cut between the doll’s shoulders and neck and her hair, and then you would cut a line straight through the middle of the collar, so the collar would slip behind her neck. Or cut off the collar entirely, I won’t hold it against you. It won’t seem as evil, though – some sacrifices must be made to achieve the proper look, you know.

White Medieval Wedding Gown with Long Sleeves and Gold and Silver Embroidery

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“This may or may not influence what I end up drawing,” I wrote when I put up the wedding dress poll, but then “flowing, fantasy” gowns got over 50% of the vote, and, well, allow me to shamelessly pander for a night. I hope this is the sort of thing that people were envisioning; sorry that the bouquet looks so awkward. I envisioned it as a bouquet of ivy and sweet peas, incidentally, although I got a little tired towards the end.

Hey, let’s do a new contest! This one will be easy, so someone’s bound to guess it soon.
Last week (from the 8th to the 14th), how many different countries did my site visitors come from?
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 19th, I’ll pick the closest guess.
4) I’ll give one hint each day the contest goes on.

Don’t worry, trazy, I will color yours next week, after I’m done with my week of weddings.

Colored Ruqun in Green, Blue and Yellow

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Ophelia won my last contest by guessing that I had 400 colored pencils, which was the closest guess to the actual number of 403. She picked the ruqun and said, “I loved the movie Mulan when i was little, so what about a Mulan inspired dress? Mulan wears a different style of ruqun in the movie, so it won’t be the same, but what about the same colors; light green for the top and dark, almost midnight blue for the skirt, maybe navy or red for the sash.”

I added some detail, because I just can’t help myself, and Ophelia, I hope you don’t mind the little addition of the dragon… my mom wanted a dragon on this one, and it is certainly very hard to say no to my mom! Anyways, I hope you like it.

I like doing contests, because it’s fun to color according to someone else’s wishes every so often… I have to think of other kinds of contests to run. I was thinking I would ask “How many colored pencils did I just order?” (because I’m down to my last colorless blender… time for an infusion) but now I am bored of colored pencil counting. Anyone have any suggestions for me?

Black and White Ruqun

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Despite the fact that I think they’re gorgeous, I know hardly anything about traditional Chinese clothes, so I was glad when I was finally able to put a name to this kind of outfit — a ruqun! I’ve seen it before many times, but never knew what it was called. I don’t think I got the sleeves quite right, but it is a first attempt…

No one has the answer to my question yet. I guess the good part is, the eventual winner now has one more black and white outfit to choose from…

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.

Also, I’m putting up a new poll, just to satisfy my own curiosity…

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.

White and Blue Cherry Blossom Prom Gown

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So it is harder than a person might think, trying to both draw a paperdoll outfit every day and keep studying Japanese at the same time. The thing is, neither one is just about doing the work itself, whether that work is drawing little flowers on a skirt or writing out row after row of kanji. To really do well at either of them, I have to be open to associated experiences. That is, when I’m studying Japanese, it means I listen to Japanese stories on my iPod while washing dishes, I read books about the modernization of Japan, the yakuza, and marriage and alliances in traditional families, I cook rice and miso soup, I even play video games in Japanese (until I get impatient, skim screens and screens of dialogue, then can’t quite tell exactly what’s going on anymore). If I’m paperdolling, I listen to audiobooks instead, I watch more movies and read more books in English, I take more time to notice how things fit together and how colors and textures around me work, I play around with my Prismacolors. Basically, I try to create as many opportunities as I can to link my life to my hobby, thinking “How can this make my Japanese better?” or “How can I can turn this into a paperdoll blog entry?” In short, I get obsessive. I do my best work in the grip of an obsession, but there are disadvantages too, like six-month paperdoll page vacations. Trying to indulge two obsessions at once? It’s kind of like… crossing the streams. Could be bad.

Ah, well, I’m coping (doesn’t hurt that my work schedule’s been light this month) and I’ve been thinking of ways to combine the two. Of course everyone suggested I draw Japanese clothes last time I brought this up, but actually, I don’t know much about Japanese clothes! Now, I draw things I don’t know much about all the time. I don’t mind drawing things like this robe à la polonaise or this 1920s dress on the strength of a couple days’ worth of research and a bunch of reference images, and if the colors are wrong, the hemline a few inches high or the shoes anachronistic, I don’t lose a lot of sleep over it. I’m not a historian, I just like learning new things and drawing something pretty. But I know enough about traditional Japanese clothes and more recent trends to feel like I can’t quite fake it in the same way, because it would seriously annoy me to get the details wrong. I don’t know how to choose an obi to go with a kimono, what impressions various colors and patterns give, and most of the time I’m lucky if I remember that the front folds left over right (because the other way around is how you dress a corpse). Basically, I can kind of make an informed guess about what looks right for a Regency gown, but I’m lost with a kimono. So, of course, the answer is to learn the details; I’m working on that but it’ll take me a while. Incidentally, if anyone can point me to any good online resources (especially ones with lots and lots of pictures) I’d appreciate it! I got a nice new book about kimono, too, so that holds promise…

I’m a little late for cherry blossom season, but getting back into paperdolling reminds me of something some of my Japanese friends mentioned, which is that spring is seen as a time to start new projects and things like that. I never seem to start new projects, though, I just go back to my paperdolls. Well, that’s OK though! Anyways, I don’t know if this is the kind of thing kids are wearing to prom these days (off my lawn, etc.) but that’s kind of how it looked to me when I was done with it.