Evening Gown in Layered Fall Colors

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So I was talking to my husband about what I should do for today’s paperdoll. “You should make a beginning of fall fairy,” he said. “Nah,” I said, “not if I’m going to end up doing fairies for the first week of Halloween costumes.” “You should make a beginning of fall mermaid,” he said. “Nah,” I said, “I just did a mermaid.” “You should make a beginning of fall human,” he said. “What a great idea!” I replied.

That is what it is often like talking to me, I’m afraid. I’m a lousy brainstormer. But anyways, he’s a good one, and that’s why we have this dress today. Remember that, when you are wondering why I have a Mega Man costume up, sometime in the next couple of days.

Congratulations to Catie, who guessed my favorite Prismacolor color: ultramarine! Now, you may be clicking back to the list of Prismacolors thinking “wait, what, that ugly thing?” For some reason, the color on the website is completely different from the actual color the pencil produces, a heavenly rich blue. I actually don’t use it all that often, because it can be a little finicky to blend with the other blues – it has a kind of reddish undertone, and most of the blues really don’t – but when I do it really makes me happy. The 1893 bathing suit’s blue is primarily done in ultramarine, with blue violet lake and cloud blue blended in – and still the scan doesn’t do the original justice.

The poll is still open for set 1 of Halloween costumes!

Mermaid Monday #13: Green Mermaid Tail with White and Gold Top and Bracelet

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I do believe this is Ivy’s first Mermaid Monday… here’s a nice basic mermaid tail to welcome her into the club. Sometime soon I really should do a tail tutorial… It’s really a lot easier than it looks. I spent more time trying to come up with a top I like, honestly.

The Prismacolor sure is elusive, so OK… I’ll give you a hint. Between today and the 24th, I made extensive use of this color in one of the dresses… and you know it’s not green. Now someone should get it, right?

At this rate, the first week of Halloween will be fairies, but Lord of the Rings – or Ghostbusters, if my husband organizes his forces properly – could make a comeback. So vote in the poll, if you haven’t already!

1893 Bathing Suit in White and Blue with Bathing Cap

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I left it until too late, so I wanted to do something simple for today… This is just based off of a fashion plate of an 1893 bathing suit that I thought was extremely cute, even the silly little cap.

Still no one has guessed my favorite Prismacolor…

And also, the voting for the first week of Halloween costumes is still on, so don’t forget to vote! Feel free to suggest topics for the other weeks, too…

Whiskey’s White Gown from Dollhouse, Epitaph One

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So I did a Dollhouse-themed yoga getup earlier this year during Season 1, at which point I was enjoying it well enough to keep going, but maybe a little dubious, and I still liked Firefly better. As the season progressed, though, it kept getting better and better, ending with the unbroadcasted episode Epitaph One, a depressing preview of the Dollverse’s future. Now we’ve seen where the show is going, I’m dreadfully curious to find out just how it’s going to get there; luckily Fox renewed the show – unexpectedly, I should add – and the second season started yesterday, although I’ll be watching on Hulu tonight (yep, I’m one of those coveted new media viewers).

Epitaph One had Whiskey wearing this dress, although I hope it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that the hem really ought to be blood stained and I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it tonight. So far I’ve really liked the costumes for Dollhouse – I bet it’s got to be fun picking out what to wear for all the different assignments. (There’s a sort of meta-costuming aspect to it, too, as we’ve seen a huge costume warehouse in the Dollhouse itself. I would guess that there is some sort of costume director position in the Dollhouse, as I somehow can’t see Boyd picking out those crocheted thigh-highs for Echo…)

So, it’s the 26th, let’s talk Halloween. Like I did last year, I want to do a month’s worth of Halloween costumes. I really like the idea of four “themes,” a new one for each week, and I got a lot of great suggestions, so now I’m putting it up to a vote! This is just for what I’ll do for the first week, so feel free to give me more suggestions for weeks 2-4.

By the way, no one has guessed my favorite Prismacolor yet…

Strapless Fire Gown in Orange and Red

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So some days I’m happy to draw, and I can slave over little picky details for hours and not get bored. Some days I’m not that into it, but after a half hour nothing can make me stop. Then some days I just want to color, and not in a reasonable kind of way but just in a wild way. That’s what led to this dress. I’m kind of so-so about it, but my husband really thought it was pretty. He also said “It’s the kind of dress where, if you took it to a dressmaker and asked to have it made, you’d get punched in the face. But it works as a fantasy dress.” And so I posted it. Paperdoll fans, you don’t know what kind of debt you owe to my husband, because a lot of things I’d draw I’d probably never post if he didn’t look and say “Oh, it’s cute!” I’m very critical of myself, so if he thinks it’s OK, probably it’s OK…

No one has guessed my favorite color of Prismacolor… I’ll give just one hint, it is NOT my favorite color. (You can guess what my favorite color is just by taking a good hard look at this page… *cough*green*cough*)

1885 Black and White Ballgown for Coloring, plus Purple and Green Princess Gown

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I know, I know, AWOL again. I do really well when I get on a roll, and then I get off that roll and start rolling on something else. Yeah, I know… sad, huh.

Well, anyways! This gown is vaguely based on a couple of images of 1885 evening gowns that I have. I really like late 1800s evening gowns, although I’m really a big fan of the gowns of the 1800s in general… Although I don’t think the skirt is draped quite right I do think it turned out cute, and it sure is fussy, so here I put it up for hours of coloring fun, possibly even days if you really bother with every little rose and bit of lace. I really like coloring, and I will admit it is easier sometimes if I already have the outline done like with these – I don’t know how some of my kindred paperdoll blogging spirits can always work in black and white. I just sit here and pile up whatever Prismacolors I’m using, and I always sing to myself if I’m home alone, too.

Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

As for this gown, Melanie Ann who won my guess-the-number-of-colored-pencils contest wanted me to color it in purple and green, so here we have, well, lots of purple and green! (With a little gold, because I just had to have a highlight color…) I hope you like it, Melanie Ann. However, I will say, I don’t think one piece of fabric can actually drape like that skirt does, so please overlook all paperdoll-related warping of reality.

I had fun coloring to someone’s specifications, so I wanted to do another contest. Here it is: Out of all my Prismacolors, which one is my favorite color?

As I have more than 100 different colors, this one might take a while… Here is a list of available colors.. Post your answer in the comments – guessing will be closed at 7:30 AM EST on Monday the 28th, unless no one guesses. Winner gets to tell me how to color that 1885 gown up there :)

1965 Leopard Print Bikini from How To Stuff A Wild Bikini

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Does it look like I’m phoning it in today? Technically I phoned it in earlier this week and then couldn’t upload the finished drawing, got distracted and whoops it’s Thursday already? Sorry about that.

Anyways, How To Stuff A Wild Bikini is one of those 1960s “beach party” movies, and for my money it’s got to be one of the stupidest pieces of entertainment I’ve ever encountered, but since I didn’t pay for it that doesn’t mean much. I watched it on Hulu the other day, for some reason… I think I must have been bored, and the name floated into my mind from when I was on a Buster Keaton kick a while back, because he plays the shaman. Anyways, if you can turn your brain off entirely, it’s reasonably fun and silly, the Bewitched shout-out is hilarious and I liked the costumes (I had no idea until I was reading later that the lead actress was actually pregnant at the time – nice disguising work!) This is the wild bikini of the title – that is to say, it actually spends some time walking around on its own – plus headband. I am not quite sure it would stay on the paperdoll, so good luck with that.

The exact number of colored pencils I ordered was 69, so that makes Melanie Ann’s guess of 72 the closest. Melanie Ann, please post in the comments how you’d like me to color the princess gown and I’ll post it soon!

1922 Pink Dress with Burgundy Trim and Lace Panels Inspired by the Adventures of Sally by P.G. Wodehouse

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I’m afraid my dolls generally aren’t cut out for the straight lines that make 1920s fashion look so good, but I did a 1922 dress anyways because I just finished listening to The Adventures of Sally by P.G. Wodehouse, read by Kara Shallenberg. Romantic comedy isn’t so much my thing, but it was amusing (and I often listen to audiobooks while doing things like washing dishes, so amusing beats edifying in terms of audiobook content). And of course Wodehouse is Wodehouse, so it was a fun little portrait of the character of everyone involved. Sally, who of course is the main character, comes into an inheritance early on, so I imagine she went out and bought a couple new dresses, and because everyone spends the rest of the book falling madly in love with her I suppose that they were properly cute.

I really like the idea of doing four main themes for October costumes – give me suggestions and I’ll put up a poll closer to October. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, do see the entry for September 4th.

As for my colored pencil guessing game, no one has hit on the exact number yet…

Black and White Princess Gown for Coloring

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The black-and-white dresses started as something I could do without running into scanner problems, but it turns out they’re fun and take about a fourth of the time as a regular outfit. So expect to see them more often! Again, if you color one I’d love to see it, so post a link in the comments!

So I ordered a new batch of colored pencils. Guess how many I ordered? Post your answer in the comments. I’ll close the guessing when I post Wednesday’s outfit (7:30 AM EST), and I’ll color this gown as the winner likes, as a little prize.

White Dress with Blue Tunic and Forget-Me-Nots for September

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Finally, another birthday dress! I want to fill in the months I never got around to this year as well, but for now I will start at the current date. September’s birth flower (one of them, at least) is the forget-me-not, and its birth stone (again, one of them) is sapphire, making it easy to pick the dress’ predominant color. Adding the necklace on top of it all was kind of gilding the lily, but oh well.

It is only September 4th, but I’m starting to think about October. Last year I did a month of Halloween costumes, and I had so much fun I’m thinking of doing another theme month. I could do another month of random costumes like I did last year, or I could do something more narrowly focused. For example, Brian suggested a month of famous witch costumes – the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch, Willow, the Grand High Witch, Minerva McGonagall and so on. If anyone else has any other ideas, leave a comment! I’ve got all month to think about it.