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Mermaid Monday #5: Blue Seafoam Gown with Silver and Seaglass Girdle

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I’m back, and hopefully can get back to doing a dress a day. I was doing so well, too…

All my mermaid-y things are bound to have elements of Puget Sound for a while, since I went to visit my parents in Seattle and we spent a week at the beach. This gown is inspired by the way the waves break at high tide — the shawl and lace are meant to look like seafoam. Also, the silver girdle is set with pieces of seaglass. I count this as Mermaid Monday, because I figure they have to leave sometimes. (Brian thought this looked like the sort of thing one might wear to a wedding on the land.)

I haven’t done one since Cloud, so it’s not the best, but I’ll get back in the swing of things soon enough, I’m sure! (Cloud is turning out to be unexpectedly popular… I think I may have to redo his skirt, it’s too flat and bugs me to no end.)

Three 1800s regency gowns from Liana’s Paperdoll Boutique

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Thank you everyone for the kind thoughts about our dear Maggie. It was a horrible time for all of us and all your thoughtful comments really made me feel better about her. The apartment seems so much different without her trotting around… Harume seems as placid as ever (we don’t call her Goldfish Brain for nothing) but she’s become more vocal, always meowing over and over. She doesn’t seem sad, though, but just chatty, so I guess she’s all right.

I’ve had a half-finished dress for a while now, so I decided to restart the process with some Boutique gowns… These are from the 1800s (though when I drew them I didn’t make any finer distinctions of time, so I forget exactly when they are supposed to be from). I put them up in honor of the kind link from Jane Austen Today, and also because I just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and regency gowns are on my mind. I actually remember exactly where I was when I was drawing the gowns in this set: working in the computer lab at Tri-C back in high school, a job which entailed fixing jammed printers, cleaning up and signing people in and out. So I could sit at the desk by the door and have some downtime to draw, and I just thought I had it made!

Cloud Strife’s Purple Dress from Final Fantasy VII

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This demure-seeming dress is actually not as innocent as one might think. It belongs to a videogame character named Cloud Strife; with each successive post-Final Fantasy VII appearance he makes, he becomes cooler and cooler. It’s as if to help us all forget that in FF7, rather shortly after you first meet him, you had to dress him up like a girl to gain access to the red light district. (The first time I played that part, I had my mom watching. Awkward.) Your female co-conspirators Tifa and Aeris have plunging necklines and bared arms in their chosen dresses, but with Cloud we are spared that vision…

FF7 has been on my mind recently on account of Brian starting to play it again, but our PS2 is now quite thoroughly kaput, and I don’t think he’ll have the heart to start it up again just to have it crash once more.

Pink and White Princess Gown (based off of Janel’s Pink Birthday Dress)

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This is based off of a dress that Janel made for her daughter’s birthday. After yesterday’s Calamity Jane, I needed to draw something extremely cute!

In my imagination, this version of the dress belongs to a young princess who loves pretty things, but isn’t prissy or as high-maintenance as a lot of princesses are these days. She loves being outdoors and she especially loves gardening. She’s growing tomatoes and wildflowers now, and she feels like she works hard to make her little garden grow, although that’s kind of a pleasant fiction created by the indulgent head gardener. I like her and would write more about her, but I didn’t finish this dress until it was late, and I’m tired, so she will have to wait for another dress…

If you remember a different shade of pink for this dress, it’s not just your imagination: when I first posted it, I posted the first version, which scanned very poorly (the color changed, I lost a lot of detail on the white parts, and so on). This version is closer to my original drawing.