Oz’s Female Form From The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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

After the eighteen hour exercise in class consciousness, eternally frustrated romance and parade of death that was North and South (I tease, I tease — actually I really enjoyed it, but it was somewhat hard to take at times), I thought that perhaps I would enjoy something lighter. So I’m now listening to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Of course I’ve seen the movie, but I’ve never read the book before. I wasn’t sure about the paperdolling opportunities — Dorothy is too young, the Good Witch of the book is Munchkin-sized — and thought that I might be doing a Wicked Witch of the West outfit from this one. (And I may yet do so…) But there’s a part where Oz appears to the Scarecrow as a beautiful fairy, and the description says that she “was dressed in green silk gauze and wore upon her flowing green locks a crown of jewels. Growing from her shoulders were wings, gorgeous in color and so light that they fluttered if the slightest breath of air reached them.”

Now, after years of paperdolling, I cannot possibly read a paragraph like that one without thinking “Bingo!”…

So here is my interpretation of Oz’s female representation. I must confess, too, that if this hadn’t shown up I’d be drawing one of the Emerald City court ladies. I haven’t drawn anything green for a while, and it’s my favorite color!

7 thoughts on “Oz’s Female Form From The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

  1. If you read the books that come after The Wizard of Oz, you’ll meet Ozma, the ruler of Oz, and the drawings for all the rest of the books except the first are very Alfonse Mucha-esque. Very lovely.

  2. Hello, other Liana :D Actually, I’ve seen a lot of other Lianas post here on and off… it seems to be a more popular name in Brazil that America. Never met another one in America. (When I signed up for Facebook, the first group I joined was “My Name Is Liana Spelled L I A N A”)

    Sounds like I might have to give those a try then… I listened to the audiobook for this one, but I bet I can find the drawings online, or just go from the descriptions. :)

  3. Ooh I haven’t read the book for The Wizard of Oz at all I’ve only seen the film. Still I am going to be seeing Wicked in may so I bet they’ll be some great outfits in that. I would love to see and Elphaba (wicked witch of the west) outfit though it might be too stereotypical witch outfit I don’t know

  4. Ooh, I’ve never seen Wicked, do tell me how the costumes are… The Wicked Witch of the West didn’t get any description in the book, so I never did do anything for her…

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