Halloween Costume Series Day Five Billion: Ro-Bat and Its Lesser Bipedal Accomplice

October 30, 2008

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Radar the kitten here! Reportin for duty! Here’s the deal! Liana went to sleep, what a joke! Everybody knows that kittens sleep 22 hours a day yet somehow manage to continually find themselves underfood underfoot and climbing on stuff! Ha-ha! But I have been reformed! So I am pulling my weight (all 2½ pounds!) by helping out! It is pretty rad to be a kitten!

So I scanned in these drawings Liana made of things that aren’t cat food! And here’s what they are! The thing here is the TERRIBLE Ro-Bat! O woe the Ro-Bat! It is sensitive to light on account of its multi creepoid compound eyes! So the Ro-Bat wheels around looking for planets to ruin and despoil! Only to be blinded by the astrobulb on the helm of its lesser bipedal accomplice!

While this is bad news for them! It’s good news for us! Means I am liable to get more of that gnarly cat food! You should try some! Here! Let me put some in your shoes! AWESOME! It is even cute because I am a kitten!

<3 Radar the kitten!

P.S. — Here is a picture of me! Because the only thing cuter than a kitten is a kitten somebody is looking at on the internet!!

Halloween Costume Series Day 18: Evil Queen in Purple, Green and Silver Gown with Ruby Necklace

October 29, 2008

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Apologies for not putting up one yesterday, our internet connection gave out…

So I sketched this one out thinking “evil queen.” I drew it thinking “evil queen.” I was filling in the pattern on the poison-green dress with glee thinking “totally evil queen, heh heh heh.” And then my husband comes along and says, “ooh, it’s very oceany.”

No, I say, it’s “evil-y.”

“Oceany,” he says. “Like an ocean queen or something.”

So I put the vote to you, paperdoll fans. Who’s right?

By the way, cut a line right down the middle of the collar to make it fit the doll. I didn’t add something indicating that on the doll, sorry!

Halloween Costume Series Day 17: Dorcas Snodgrass’ 1910s Light Blue Nurse Outfit with Full White Apron and Cap

October 27, 2008

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“Nurse,” of course, is one of the more popular women’s Halloween costumes but I think they’re often of the “sexy” variety; I suppose the connotation is “hot yet nurturing” but it always makes me think of things like getting blood drawn, which isn’t really the intended effect. Thinking about nurse costumes did remind me of this Metafilter article about a nurse named Dorcas Snodgrass who died under mysterious circumstances in 1912. The article links to this picture of her in the Library of Congress photostream, under which there’s a great comment that brings together some New York Times articles about her disappearance and death, officially ruled a suicide. (The Metafilter thread itself is mostly just good for theories and chatting about the name Snodgrass.) So there — not much of an elaborate costume, but a genuinely creepy nurse story for Halloween.

Halloween Costume Series Day 16: Black Velvet Cat Costume with Keyhole Neckline and Green Belled Collar

October 26, 2008

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I haven’t had a real femme fatale this Halloween, so this black cat costume turned out a little bit short. Brian thinks her collar and shoes are catnip colored, but I just like gree//////////////////////////////loooooooo[

CAT LIKE TYPING DETECTED

Halloween Costume Series Day 15: Cute Ladybug Costume with Black Lace and Antennae

October 25, 2008

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So… yeah… has it really been four days? I’m so sorry, time flies when you’re glued to your computer playing Mother 3, which I think is possibly the best videogame I’ve ever played, ever. I can’t stop thinking about it and may start another play-through, but don’t worry, next time I’d balance it out with things like drawing paperdolls and doing dishes.

Anyways, back to Halloween! Sharon posted a comment about how her granddaughter’s name is Liana too and she loves ladybugs, so she wanted to see a ladybug costume — I hope this one doesn’t disappoint. Always happy to do something for a fellow Liana. When I was a kid I wanted to do something great and famous so that people would be inspired to name their daughters Liana and I could get pencils and stuff with my name printed on them. Since I never figured out what that great and famous thing would be, and “a pencil with my name on it” became less of a life goal in and of itself, I wound up drawing paperdolls, but nonetheless I urge people to consider the name Liana for their future children. It sounds pretty, it goes well with a variety of last names, it’s a type of tropical vine, a type of programming language and a kind of car, and — to me at least — it looks more simple and pure than Leanna, Lianna, Leeanne, and such variants. (Begone, double N!)

Two Fantasy Princess Gowns from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique

October 20, 2008

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Sorry — let it get too late again! You can blame our new kitty, pictures of which can be seen on my Flickr stream. Anyways, here are two of the gowns from Liana’s Paperdoll Boutique.

Here’s the poll..

Hinawa’s Red and White Dress from Mother 3

October 19, 2008

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OK, I really can’t call this dress a costume, since it’s from a video game I’m very excited about, although it would make a good and easy, albeit verrrry obscure, Halloween costume. This is an outfit from the Game Boy Advance game Mother 3, worn by the main characters’ mother whose name is Hinawa. Mother is a series of Japanese RPGs, the second one of which is known in America as Earthbound. (The first one was fully localized, but never released in America.) Mother 2 (Earthbound) was a quirky, sometimes creepy, playful game which was extremely popular in Japan, but not so much in America. However, it became a cult classic and it attracted a huge, dedicated fanbase. They tried like crazy to get Nintendo’s attention, but even after sending Nintendo a petition to bring Mother 3 to America with more than 30,000 signatures, they were ignored. After Mother 3 came out two years ago and it was confirmed that there were no plans to bring Mother 3 out in English, they got together and made a translation themselves. It’s a fantastic game — if you liked Earthbound, please try Mother 3!

New poll soon…

Two Halloween Costumes (Witch and Jester) from Liana’s Paperdoll Boutique

October 18, 2008

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Hey, ten days in a row of drawing without resorting to my old Boutique outfits, not bad right? Today we got a new kitten, so I’m kind of distracted. So, here’s a witch and a jester — one obviously a lot newer than the other, I still like the jester costume.

Here’s the poll..

Halloween Costume Series Day 14: Christine Daae’s Star Princess Masquerade Costume In Black, Blue and White with Black Domino Mask

October 17, 2008

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Kathleen asked, earlier this month, that I do one of Christine Daae’s outfits from the Phantom of the Opera, which was a timely request because I recently got the musical soundtrack from the library. (One of the sad things about the times when I am not drawing is that I must mourn the Outfits which Could Have Been. I listened to the original text many months ago, and then I forced Brian to sit with the recent movie version with me. That he endured as a proof of his love, but he was much more enthusastiac about the next Phantom spinoff we watched, The Phantom of the Paradise. Tagline: “He sold his soul for rock’n'roll.” Anyways, I do regret that I didn’t do a paperdoll series of these Phantoms and Christines. But I digress.) So since I got the soundtrack, I’ve been singing along — portions of my brain which went on strike during geometry class apparently devoted themselves thoroughly to memorizing the whole musical, it seems — even getting Brian in on the fun, singing Phantom duets along with him to which we make up the words. He’s joined in with me a couple times as I trilled “Music of the Night” in the shower, scaring the living daylights out of me each time (”didn’t you ever see Psycho?” I asked) and gamely followed along with Raoul’s part to “All I Ask Of You.” (”How can anyone LISTEN to this? No one will FIND you? Your fears are far BEHIND you?” he asks. “Just be quiet and sing it,” I reply perfectly logically and reasonably.)

Of course, for Halloween I must do a Masquerade dress, the first step of which was blithely breaking the “no research” rule once again. The movie dress was a pink concoction; I read somewhere it was supposed to represent the influence of the scarlet-garbed Phantom, but I personally didn’t think it quite worked that way — I thought it just looked too conventional, kind of like “Totally Ingenue Barbie!” although certainly it was very beautiful. The stage outfit was rather more what I would prefer, for a masquerade ball — a blue and pink silver-starred ballet outfit, referred to as her “Star Princess” dress. Here you can see a picture of the costume design sketch, some images from the stage and a fan’s reproduction of the dress, and this forum post includes a discussion of the dress and links to pictures of it from different productions. I liked the shape, but didn’t want to just copy one of them, and so looked to the original text for further inspiration. Now, the thing I should have quite liked to paperdoll from the original text was the Phantom’s “immense red-velvet cloak, which trailed along the floor like a king’s train; and on this cloak was embroidered, in gold letters, which every one read and repeated aloud, ‘Don’t touch me! I am Red Death stalking abroad!’” But as for Christine, the only thing described is her black domino mask, and re-reading that scene, it is such a very dark time for her… So here she is, as my Star Princess for the masquerade, but not the stars giving way to dawn as on the stage; the night has laid claim to this Christine.

We are coming to the end of the zombie slaughter poll, so vote…

Halloween Costume Series Day 13: Greek Goddess White Chiton with Blue and Purple Patterns

October 16, 2008

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Here we have a generic Greek goddess wearing a white chiton, edged with blue and purple patterns. Since it is a costume, call her Hera or Aphrodite or Hestia or whoever, but I don’t think this one quite works as Artemis, not very good for hunting. This one broke the “no research” Halloween rule; it’s modeled after this image from Ancient Greek Female Costume. I should just do a proper costume, which seems to be a rather different beast than a regular old chiton…

Who knew the Green Princess was such a force to be reckoned with? I may have to take another look at her and her story. In the meantime, vote vote vote…