Halloween Masquerade Series #1: Black and White Masquerade Gown (with bonus colored brown and red elf gown)

Click for larger version (black and white masquerade gown) (PNG), click for larger version (brown and red elf dress) (PNG); click for PDF version (black and white masquerade gown), click for PDF version (brown and red elf dress).Click here for the list of dolls.

Sorry for missing yesterday – the time went past a lot quicker than it’s supposed to. There is a chance I won’t post tomorrow, but that is because I want my masquerade series to be great and I don’t want to rush it… We’ll see, wish me luck. If I don’t post tomorrow, you have this black and white masquerade gown to keep you company…

The elf dress coloring was suggested by Monica, who guessed my favorite warm color to be Sunburst Yellow (it’s in there, actually, in the gold part). Hope you like it! As before, I’ll color the masquerade dress to the order of whoever guesses this week’s question, and it’s kind of a strange one…
I learned my technique for coloring gold (fabric, metal) a while back, when I tried copying a costume from a specific singer or musical group. Which singer / musical group was it?
Not giving you any more clues than that… One guess per person please!

Leaving the poll on the LOTR costumes up a little longer…

Halloween LOTR Costume Series #7: Galadriel’s White Layered Gown with Silver Circlet

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

I didn’t really intend to return to elves for the last day of this series… I wanted to do an Entwife with an orange blossom theme, but I got started too late and my patience with making a dress out of leaves and bark just ran out. You can always tell when I just want to get done for the day, because the dress will be white. No matter how crazy and detailed it ends up, if it’s white, it usually means I started out in a grumpy mood.

Galadriel doesn’t get a lot of description besides “white,” making her good to paperdoll on a grumpy day. I really rather like how this gown turned out, although if I was to redo it I would probably cut off the gauzy middle layer of material on the sleeves.

That makes my seventh costume for Halloween: a whole week of Lord of the Rings, all finished. Uh, those of you who have followed me for a while (like, for more than a week) may have figured this out already, but it’s slightly rare for me to finish up a project so well and consistently: it’s usually one or the other. (See also my poor dancing princesses…) I’m rather proud of myself. Since I don’t think masquerade gowns are likely to be upset at this late hour, I’m putting up a new poll just to satisfy my own curiosity… It’s rather unfair to pit the black and white elf dress against the others, because I think it’ll be lovely when it’s colored, but oh well.

Halloween LOTR Costume Series #5: Grey Wizard (”Gwendolf”)

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

For tonight, here is my version of a female wizard. (My husband called her “Gwendolf” and the name stuck. My apologies.) None appear anywhere in the series, but it is for Halloween and I thought it would be fun… And it was fun, even if I used up a year’s worth of French Grey pencils, even if the end result is a little boring.

My husband heard me complaining and warns me “You should watch out. You don’t call wizards boring. They’ll transform you into a little toad!” I should not like to be transformed, into a toad or otherwise, and so I added cute little hem designs and dialed down the criticism of the grey. If I was sticking to canon I could have given her a blue hat, but the more I look at it, the more I think, well, she looks kind of cool in her desaturated glory… Actually, playing around with hue/saturation in Photoshop, I can make “Gwendolf the Off-White,” “Gwendolf the Lime Green” oh and you don’t want to see “Gwendolf the Electric Blue,” trust me…

I’m afraid this one is going up a little late tonight, but it’s still the 8th where I am. So far I think I’m doing better than last year in terms of paperdoll consistency.

There’s not much reason to put up the poll today too, but I might as well. Don’t worry, fairy fans, I would place money on them taking the third week, if I was a betting sort of gal…

Halloween LOTR Costume Series #4: Hobbit Outfit with Green Skirts and Embroidered Vest

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

So, as I’ve discussed here before, my mom and I would doubtless be hobbits if we were in this world. I did start reading the Fellowship of the Ring again, and I’ve just finished all the Shire stuff; aside from all the stuff about who was whose third cousin twice removed, which I am quite sure I would forget entirely, it sounds like my kind of place. We might admire the elves from a distance, but at the end of the day I’ll take the hobbit-hole and frequent presents…

Now, my paperdoll is built a little more like an elf or human, and you will have to draw the hair on the tops of her feet yourself, but she still gets a hobbit dress because hobbits are fun. And they like green! Yes, I’m so there.

Poll is still going… fairies could still take it all, but I hope not because I would love to do a week of lavish masquerade gowns… is it bad of me to influence the voting?

Halloween LOTR Costume Series #2: Black and White Elf Gown with Circlet and Embroidered Edging

Click for larger version (black and white elf dress) (PNG), click for larger version (blue and gold ball gown) (PNG); click for PDF version (black and white elf dress), click for PDF version (blue and gold ball gown).Click here for the list of dolls.

Today’s costume is intended to be a dress for an elf, just something to lounge around and do elfish things in, whatever elves do with their time. (Nope, I haven’t yet started reading the trilogy again, can you tell?) I’m not quite sure how I like this one, but I think with the right coloring it could be really pretty… Well, hopefully whoever guesses this round’s quiz answer has good taste!

I really like Arwen’s dresses, but it seems like my three favorites – the red and blue one, the blue-grey one and the green coronation gown – are so close in construction to each other that if I did a similar style it would feel so much like I was just plain ripping it off. Yeah, the style is pretty enough, and basic enough, that maybe I will rip it off just a little anyways… just once…

As for the 1885 ball gown, Catie asked me to color it in light and dark blue, gold and red for the flowers… I like the way it turned out, I hope you like it Catie! For this week… sorry, I’m not feeling too creative…
What’s my favorite warm Prismacolor?
“Warm” being defined here as red, orange, yellow or pink… so there’s a big clue already, right? Please post your guess in the comments, first to guess it can tell me how to color today’s gown!

The poll for next week’s theme is still open, please vote if you haven’t yet!

Halloween Lord of the Rings Costume Series #1: Eowyn’s Blue Dress with Silver Ties and Embroidered Edging

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

So! Today officially starts day one of my Halloween costume month extravaganza. I foresee a lot of elves in my future, but I like Eowyn and couldn’t help but start with something she might wear. The dress isn’t intended to represent any specific costume from the movie – as much as I like the movie costumes, I won’t just be reproducing them all week because that would be boring – but it is vaguely based on this white gown that I loved.

I will try to re-read as much as I can of the Lord of the Rings trilogy this week, but keep in mind I’m not a LOTR geek in the same way that I am, say, a Final Fantasy geek. My mom tried to get me to read The Hobbit when I was younger, and it didn’t hold my interest until I was older for some reason. Although I have read the LOTR trilogy too, of course, it really has been quite some time. So if I draw an elf dress in some specific shade of purple that the Silmarillion says is reserved for mourning a nephew or something please do forgive me.

Here’s the poll for week 2 of Halloween costume possibilities. I dropped the bottom three results from last week, added the suggestions from yesterday’s post and added one of my own… Please vote!

1965 Leopard Print Bikini from How To Stuff A Wild Bikini

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

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!

Spring Green Top and Split Skirt Embroidered with Daisies and Yellow Ribbons over Cream Shift with Daisy Garland inspired by Prince Caspian: The Chronicles of Narnia

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

I’ve had the second Narnia movie recommended to me a couple times because of the costumes, and finally Brian and I got it from the library and watched it. I sort of made Brian watch it with me, mostly because he’s so funny when his picky English major nature is all riled up.

He says “You didn’t make me watch it with you. I volunteered. It’s true that people often volunteer to make bad decisions, but I volunteered. I enjoyed it, except for those times where characters were talking, or moving, or engaging in eight-hour long bloodless swordfights. I also enjoyed watching Susan throw arrows into the hearts of warriors.”

So there you have it, the Brian review. I liked it better than he did (I like just about everything better than he does) but I too am not thrilled by the creepily sanitary fight scenes. Not that I want to see bleeding battle elks and warriors or anything, just that in the books the fights seemed to me important and unavoidable, but also not so glorified. I like the books where the fights aren’t the focus, like the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I’d add A Horse and His Boy which is my favorite, but I fear when they get around to that one about half of the time will be spent on the fight scene at the end. It reminds me of the Watchmen comics’ ambivalence about violence and the movie’s celebration of the same.

I did enjoy the costumes, of course! I’ve always envisioned the clothes of Narnia as being comfy and practical as well as beautifully made and graceful, and I can’t quote chapter and verse but I’m quite sure that there’s more than one part in the Chronicles where Lewis rails against stuffy, confining clothing, often preferring rather pagan garb. (There’s just enough costume description and scope for imagination in the books that I’ve often thought of doing a Narnia paperdoll series…) I especially liked the split skirts over flowing pants that Lucy and Susan wore, so I borrowed the idea for today, although it looks more like a plain old overskirt and underskirt combo if you didn’t know what it was supposed to be.

In other paperdoll news, I’ve figured out what colors to use so that I can take one hair style and change it in Photoshop to make a bunch of different hair colors. It’s not as easy as it sounds, unless you like really tacky yellow instead of blonde. So far I have ten realistic hair colors and eleven rainbow colors (those are, of course, easier to do!). Do me a favor and look at the hair colors and tell me what you think of them. If you have any suggestions as to what other colors I should try to do, I’d love to hear them (and if you have any reference pictures, that’d be great too). I think I’ve got more than enough blond colors and I need more shades of brunette.

Granmammare’s Blue Gown from Ponyo

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

Brian and I went to see Ponyo the other day. It was gorgeous and lushly animated, and for someone like me who loves the sea, the first sequence was just a delight, with the jellyfish and spider crabs and all. Just in terms of the setting and visuals, it’s easily my favorite Ghibli movie, and I’d love to see it again just for how pretty and filled with life everything was. I enjoyed the story, too: Ponyo and Sōsuke really seemed like actual kids and they were so much fun to watch, and if none of the characters were really tremendously deep, they were sympathetic and sweet. All the little details really made the movie special: the octopus trying to figure out a sliding glass door, the sprinkler system Fujimoto used on land, the way Lisa presented the ramen to the kids. The story is a loose adaptation of the Little Mermaid, and if you’re the kind of person who likes this paperdoll blog I bet you’ll enjoy the movie too, so go see it! For an actual review, try Ebert’s review of it or the Star Crossed Anime Blog review.

It reminded me most of Spirited Away, but somehow not as coherent: things that seemed to have a lot of significance were too casually introduced and dropped. Granmammare and Fujimoto were humans, then gods and protectors of the seas, and somehow produced thousands of magic goldfish children, the moon itself drops out of orbit and pulls all the water towards it, and a five-year old’s pledge of love is enough to set the world back right, despite the fact that the environmental changes must have caused horrendous damages and losses of life. (If the moon was essentially making the highest high tide ever, I couldn’t help but wonder what the low tide elsewhere was looking like…) These things felt to me like they were trying to cram some depth and mythology in; things like boys who are also both rivers and dragons worked in Spirited Away both because it was established as a whole different world and because it had a more mature feel to it, but Ponyo seemed to bounce between being light-hearted and solemn. It also seems to me that Ponyo herself is on track to becoming one of those tedious anime females who attaches herself like a millstone to the neck of the male lead character, happy to be entirely without her own goals or thoughts as long as he’s around. Ugh, about the only one of those I’ve ever liked is Misa from Death Note. Well, I like to think that it doesn’t happen quite that way and that she finds joy as a human in addition to Sōsuke’s existence… These are all really just minor quibbles, though — things that weren’t addressed in the movie that bugged me. I still loved it anyways!

This dress is an adaptation of Granmammare’s blue gown – it’s just flat blue in the movie, but of course that’s not quite so much fun for me. Anyways, it changes shape a few times in the movie, so I like to think it can be pretty much whatever she pleases.

I like all of the Ghibli movies, but in general I prefer the ones that skew a little bit older – Only Yesterday and Princess Mononoke over Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro, for example. I can’t choose between Porco Rosso and and Whisper of the Heart, so they will both be my favorites.

Doris Day’s White Evening Gown from Pillow Talk

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

I got an e-mail from one of my readers, Kim, a while back, talking about the designs of Irene Lentz, a costume designer who worked on some Doris Day movies that she recommended to me, one of which was Pillow Talk. I have to do further viewing before I can be familiar with her work, though — it looks like Pillow Talk was costumed by Jean Louis (who, credited for “gowns,” probably designed this costume) and Bill Thomas. Anyways, whoever designed them, I love Doris Day’s outfits in the movie. Her character is an interior designer, and she always looks fabulous: the movie was released in 1959, and her clothes are right there between smart 1950s femininity and 1960s clean style. The movie itself was something I had to kind of turn off the overly serious and feminist parts of my brain to enjoy: I know it’s supposed to be a light-hearted sex comedy, and the way the guy manipulated the girl (and her revenge) was really quite amusing. Still, when viewers are supposed to take the baby at the end as proof that our hero and heroine achieved ‘happily ever after’, it signified to me “she’s got three, four years tops before he gets bored of her.” Yeah, call me a cynic but I can’t watch a movie like that without scripting out a few months worth of premarital counseling for the dysfunctional couple in my head. Doesn’t mean I don’t have the other Day/Hudson movies on reserve at the library…