Halloween Masquerade Costume Series #4: The Cursed Sisters, Part 3

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The song was slow, and Linnetta found it positively mournful. Her partner seemed to be concentrating on the music as well, dancing ever more lightly to make up for her slow pace and dulled movements.

“Do you really believe that your family is cursed, Linnetta?” he asked suddenly.

“What, did you place a bet on my death too?” she replied, her fingers tightening on his shoulder. “How will I die? A sudden relapse perhaps, or does an assassin lurk nearby? Or will I slip and crack my head during the next song?”

“I’m rather of the opinion that you will live for quite a long time.”

“It’s good to know that someone thinks so,” she said.

Off to the side, Linnetta could see a woman in a sickly green gown whispering to the another woman, the previous arrival in spangled black. Those two together made her uneasy. Undoubtedly they were watching her, but then again so was everyone else. She would have felt elated at all the attention, if not for those women.

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I’m sorry about the delay for today, this dress just was impossible! Hopefully tomorrow’s should go easier. Amelia guessed the contest answer, which I’m embarrassed to say was the Spice Girls, yes, no kidding, I know nothing about them except a couple bars of that one song and that flag dress, but apparently one of them had a gold dress I tried to draw at some point back in high school. And, what’s going on, fairies are losing? I thought for sure they had it this week. Well, vote, vote…

Halloween LOTR Costume Series #3: Draped Elf Dress in Pink and Purple

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So I’m not quite sure how I feel about this one. It turned out rather differently than I had wanted it to — I was going for more of a delicate dawn — and I guess my perception of elves is influenced enough by the movies that it seems all wrong. You know, where are the muted earth tones? The fine leaf patterns? The soft, understated fabrics? I can almost imagine an elf mama asking her daughter if she’s quite sure that’s what she wants to wear out to the moon-viewing tonight, and if maybe this nice moss green gown wouldn’t be better? Rebellious elves in magenta, yes, I like that, and even though I played with it some in Photoshop, taking down the saturation and adjusting the colors, in the end I couldn’t do it: I had to present it just as I drew it, brazen coloring and all. If my elf girl doesn’t fit in with the Rivendell crowd, I am sure there is some anime out there she can escape to where she can be happy.

My quiz must have been too easy… The answer was Sunburst Yellow. Unlike Ultramarine, Sunburst Yellow gets used really heavily in almost every yellow or gold thing I draw, and it’s such a cheery, vibrant color that it makes me smile every time I pick it up. So Monica, think about how you want me to color yesterday’s dress and post in the comments please!

Poll is still going… please vote if you haven’t already!

Halloween Costume Series Day 11: Gypsy Girl’s White Tunic with Purple Embroidery, Violet-Blue Paisley Sash, and Pink and Purple Belled Full Skirt

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Violeta claims she makes up all her fortunes like everyone else and it’s not her fault there’s so much bad luck in this wicked world, but all the same her family won’t let her talk in the future tense. She can never get past “I will” or “Tomorrow” before one of her sisters tackles her and claps a hand over her mouth, none too gently either. They resent her because as the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter of the legendary gypsy mystic Simza, she was supposed to inherit the family powers, and since they were all brought into the world to facilitate her arrival there should have been some payoff for them. Instead, they switch off days shadowing her, protecting their family, their friends, for all they know the world from this lightning rod of misery, their uncanny and dangerous sister. Violeta floated the idea once of billing herself as a sort of goddess of curses, and her mother would have thought it a terrific joke for another of her daughters, Zora perhaps, to make up theatrical fake curses and fleece all those who sought to bring harm on others. Violeta, however, seemed to be at the mercy of some demon that hijacked her tongue when she foretold the future, and her mother had better sense than to try to profit off of such a thing. Even the fortunes she told that sounded positive brought only wretchedness. (Would that she had never told Carmen about that darkly handsome rich man!)

Forbidden contact with the future and silenced by the tender ministrations of her sisters, she pours her energy into other things, trying her best to walk straight on a twisted road. She paints and repaints intricate and vivid patterns on her family’s wagons, she knows all the names and uses of everything that grows in the forests, and she makes up wild, violent dances, stamping the ground with the intensity of a curse.

New poll, and rather a silly one. I drew from my Halloween pile, but all my paperdolls are potential warriors here, so if you want Calamity Jane’s trusty shotgun I’m not going to stop you.