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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.
i have seen prince caspian and i really liked it! i think the reason that there wasn’t much blood is because the movies are aimed towards kids.
anyways, i love all the dresses you’ve been doing lately, great work!
The idea that a kid movie is an adult movie with no blood is exactly what I dislike, really. It seems to me a far cry from the books, where Lucy and Susan were given weapons that they weren’t to use in war because of how terrible war is. Now we might read that as a little sexist, but still it shows to me the difference between war-as-necessity and war-as-entertainment. Still, I did enjoy it, and I have high hopes for the next one! Thanks for the compliment on the dresses, too, I’ve been having lots of fun with the new series :)
I love the Chronicicals of Narnia!! I have seen both movies, and enjoyed them very much!! I love the dresses too!
But I dont understand the hair… Are we supposed to print it? How does it go on the doll?
I love the dress also! you did great on the colors!!
Sorry to be confusing about the hair! It doesn’t go on the doll yet, I’m afraid. The intention is for people to be able to make their own paperdolls in the future – that is, choose the skin color, hair style and color, eyes and so on, and come up with a paperdoll they can print out. Of course, I’m still working on it. Being able to do the hair colors in Photoshop was a big step – now I don’t have to draw one hair style ten times!
I think the idea of a “create a paper doll” program is very cool. I wish you the best of luck with it. I really like all the new paper doll dresses, but the pattern on this one around the edges is especially nice.
I like the colors- but what about a curly-haired style? And one darker brown?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to print out the dolls or clothes? Any time I do i get the scaled down version and then I get alternating sizes depending on how long the dress is.
I haven’t drawn much alternate hairstyles yet, Toni (I have to wait for my big order of Prismacolors to come in… I’m almost out of dark umber) so eventually there’ll be some more curly ones. Darker brown is a good idea too, if I can pull it off without having it be too dark…
Mollie, have you tried printing out the PDFs that come with the new doll and her clothes? Those should be consistent no matter what. With the older dresses that don’t have the PDFs, I’m not really sure… That’s why I started doing PDFs, because there’s probably so much variation :/
Ok, thanks I’ll try that.
For the dress; I love those colors, just amazing! For the hair; I was thinking since I just got my hair dyed, about highlights. Like a dark aburn with light blond steaks ( yeah, that’s what I did, and I think it tuned out very nice). Bye:)!
I love the red hair!!!
i love the one with red hear i think next time u make a doll it should have red hear (it reminds me of my hear)
the “really tacky yellow” is not dat bad
i absolutly love the narnia movies, but the second movie gets way to off track from the book for me, they made peter appear to be a complete jerk, when in the book he isnt. ok i am done my ramble, the next one (VoDT is coming out in a year and its got a diffrent director and fox is doing it instead of disney so hopefully it will be better!
i would love a narnia costume series! thats a great idea!
Exactly the dress I would love to wear. Simple, elegant, and easy to move in. Plus, it reminds me of my favorite time of year – spring!!
The moment I saw this dress, it reminded me of Narnia. :) I love this!! There are a good many dresses here that I would love to use as examples of what the characters in my Narnia fanfiction wear. I would greatly appreciate it if I could use them.
-Elisabeth