Ginger Rogers’ White Dress from Never Gonna Dance from Swing Time, take two

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So I drew a white dress Ginger Rogers wears at the end of Swing Time some time ago, and I never liked how it came out — I drew it a couple of days after watching the movie without much reference, it wasn’t well done to start with and my scanner washed it out. So it’s one of the dresses I always told myself I’d redraw, and then it got to be the number one image on a Google image search for “ginger rogers swing time” and in the second row for “swing time” and people started e-mailing me about how to reproduce it. How embarrassing! The skirt on the old dress didn’t look like it could hardly move, and it was so pale it was like not even a dress at all. Some nights, if the dress takes more than an hour it just isn’t happening, and this must have been one of those nights… Finally, I redrew it tonight, using this video of Never Gonna Dance. You can still see the old drawing, and I’ve got a link to it at the other blog post too, but I like this one much better. Thanks to a reader recommendation I’ve got another Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movie waiting for me to watch it, Follow the Fleet, so I’m looking forwards to that!

Bella Swan’s Anne of Green Gables Inspired Wedding Gown with White Satin and Rose Lace from Breaking Dawn

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In the final book of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, Bella and Edward get married. Bella, whose parents are divorced, has never really seen marriage as a desirable life goal, doesn’t want people to think she’s pregnant and she worries about branding herself a desperate, vapid girl insistent on getting married right out of high school. Certainly nothing says “commitment” like forsaking humanity and spending eternity with someone, so what’s the point of a wedding? Old-fashioned Edward, however, wants to be married, and Bella comes around to his point of view, starting to consider it natural and happy for two people in love to be married, and to heck with the gossips and disapproval of society and her family. She keeps thinking of Anne of Green Gables, of the simpler time she associates with when Edward would have been young, of the high-necked blouse and long skirt she would wear.

Bella guesses that the inspiration was from 1918 when she sees her dress, Alice replies more or less and Liana tears her hair out. Here I thought we were using an Anne-centric timeline, but only in the miniseries did Anne get married during the First World War — in the books, Anne got married in 1890, according to this page, and WWI was her daughter Rilla’s turn as a heroine. So what does Bella’s dress look like? Victorian-style clothes play a large role in her fantasy of simple romance, and she says, looking at the dress, that it’s just what she imagined. Yet, a dress from 1918 probably wouldn’t have that Victorian high neck, or maybe not even the long skirt. It must also be noted that 1918 is when Edward was transformed into a vampire at the age of 17, so a dress from this age would probably appeal to him more than something his mom would have worn. 1918 would also be about right, if Bella’s mother, who thought the gown looked like something from a Jane Austen novel, was a hundred years off. Then Alice was stage-managing the whole thing, and I have a really hard time seeing her send Bella out in an unfashionable wedding dress. No one does high necks anymore, not even LDS members going for modesty, and long sleeves seem to be relegated to the Éowyn look. So what exactly do we have here? An Anne-style 1890 gown with puffed sleeves? A streamlined, more fashionable but still modest 1918 gown? A modern dress with vintage touches? I’ve been trying to decide for the last week.

So yeah, at this point I think I may have pondered the dress — possibly overthought the dress — more than the author, and it’s been maddening. Maybe it’s like the prom dress: however you see it is right. (Witness the range of Twilight wedding dresses on deviantart.) That means I’m going to stop trying to come up with something perfect and just go with a pseudo-1890s gown, taking Bella at her word that she wanted to dress like Anne and got her wish. But you could just as easily assume that Bella only saw the miniseries, so maybe I’ll draw a 1918 gown too, another day. Trying to combine the two — yeah, I got some pretty funny sketches out of the idea, but I think I’ll pass. In my sketches of this dress, she has her hair down and even though it’s old-fashioned, it’s still romantic and sweet.

Wiki Dress #2: Gold Harvest Gown with Green Peplum and Celtic Patterns

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Now, I happen to know my mom edited this revision of this dress, and therefore it had to be drawn, because my mom’s awesome. I think I ought to ask her to design me dresses more often when I’m feeling unimaginative! She’s also more dangerous with the Prismacolors than I am – she does absolutely gorgeous drawings of flowers and plants on cards, then sends them to people. She jokes that you only get to come to her funeral if you got a drawing from her. Here was her description of the dress:

A sunflower yellow bodice,green peplum with a beyond floor-length skirt done in blended colors of harvest. The hem is heavily decorated with a matching line of Celtic designs in dark blue, with golden accents.

She also has a pair of long dark green gloves that reach halfway up. The back of each hand is embroidered with harvest and Celtic designs. On her feet are soft blue satin slippers.She also has a subtle webbed crystal frill tiara (worn front-to-back)with dripping tiny blue seed pearls. Around her neck is a matching crystal and single pearl necklace.

I guess you have to imagine the satin slippers, and there wasn’t enough space on the glove for a harvest design, but I think this came out really nicely and hopefully close to what Mom was imagining. This is one where I wish I could show you all the original — the harvest colors on the skirt are a lot prettier on the real thing. It made me decidedly twitchy to finish coloring the skirt, then draw patterns all over the hem, but it worked, I think!

Two Wedding Gowns from Liana’s Paperdoll Boutique

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Here’s two more Boutique wedding dresses — I waited until too late to start drawing tonight. I’ll have something more interesting tomorrow, I bet.

If you haven’t seen it yet, RLC just started a paper doll blog, Paper Thin Personas with some great black-and-white outfits. So between this one, Annissa’s blog and 19th Century Paper Dolls that’s a pretty good collection of paper doll blogs, and even if I’m boring they’re not!

Magic Wiki Dress #1: Purple Gown with Black Tulle Skirt and White Shift

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Wikipedia was never as fun as my Magic Wiki Dress, at least for me anyways. I loved watching things shift from dinosaurs to masquerades back to dinosaurs, and so on. Brian was at Recent Changes Camp 09, a conference at wikis, this last week (which is what inspired the post in the first place) and he reported that Ward Cunningham, the inventor of the wiki, said at the “Creation Myths of Wiki” session that for a wiki to really work, “you have to believe that not done is better than done.” A perfectionist like me doesn’t always get that, but I feel like I did while watching the wiki get edited. I could let it go all year and see what people come up with — and I definitely want to draw some of the other outfits it produced. But to make things simple, I gave it a deadline this time, and this was the last outfit that got posted before noon on the 21st. I don’t like how the sheer purple part turned out, I forgot all about the gloves, the silver scrollwork turned into black scrollwork somewhere along the line and I took some artistic license on the shift, but I think it turned out pretty nicely! It was definitely interesting to draw…

Mermaid Monday #11: Mermaid Mystic Apprentice with Light Green Tunic and White Tail

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Sometimes, a mystic will take on an apprentice. It’s tremendously dangerous to be a mystic’s pupil; the discipline is inherently hazardous to one’s health and sanity, and callous mystics often use their apprentices as guinea pigs. In addition to that, the apprentice shaves his or her head, shuns all family and friends, usually makes some form of offering to the mystic and wears a light green tunic to signify the death of his or her old life. This mermaid, with her bald head, light green tunic and white tail, would be a creepy figure to most regular mermaids, but she spends all of her time studying alone anyways, trying to avoid the fate of the apprentice she inherited her tunic from. She gave up the natural color of her tail (a brilliant ultramarine) to study under her master, so she is guaranteed not to skip out and establish her own reputation as a mystic until she has the ability to replace it. (Temporarily changing the color of a tail is not that hard, but permanent color is a tricky proposition.)

Tomorrow starts the Wiki Dress parade. Expect dinosaurs.

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.

Magic Wiki Dress: The Aftermath

Thanks to everyone who added something to the Magic Wiki Dress! I had so much fun watching the dress evolve. Here’s the final version:

A purple bodice with a sweetheart neckline and basque waistline, embroidered
with light purple flowers over a floor length white shift whose neckline, with
a little lace, peeks out from under the bodice.
Over the shift, is a tulle skirt with the hem embroidered with
silver fancy scrollwork. Over that skirt is a
is a sheer purple skirt with train. It matches
the coloration of the purple bodice.

She also has a subtle webbed crystal frill tiara (with detachable
silk veil) with flower patterns and dripping tiny purple seed
pearls. Around her neck is a matching flower pendant made from
crystals. and she has subtle matching dangle earrings

However, I liked a lot of the other dresses that showed up, so I will probably draw a few of them as well next week. After all, I can’t resist tiny helpful pterodactyls, and I feel it is necessary that I prove to someone that blended harvest colors look lovely. So, thanks for doing the work for me for coming up with so many great ideas!

Click here to look at the revision history and get a sneak preview of what I’ll be drawing next week.

Princesses of Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason’s White Gown and Crown from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

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I reread one of my favorite books,The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, the other day. I love it because I always notice something new every time I read it. This time around it was the bells on the Soundkeeper’s dress — I should like to paperdoll her outfit now, but I’m not really in the mood to draw a million little bells tonight. As you see, I was in the mood for something much easier, which is the dress that Rhyme and Reason wear. Since they wear about the same thing, the dress can be for either of them. Make Sylvia Rhyme and Iris Reason, or the other way around, as you please.

Don’t forget, I’m liveblogging (or as Eleanor has it, live-dolling) the Oscars this Sunday. I figure that will consist of drawing red carpet dresses until my fingers drop off. To get everyone in an Oscar mood, let’s have an Oscar poll. Check out the oscar.com Costume Design nomination information if you need a refresher.