Year: 2011

Green and Red Elf Gown

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Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

So this dude named Brian won my Academy Awards contest, and he wrote:

In an alternate version of “The Lord of The Rings”, the Council of Elrond determines that the only way to get the One Ring safely to Mordor is to deliver it using an iconic promotional vehicle from 20th century American culture. Please color the black and white elf gown (with circlet) to suit an fair elfin maiden as she pilots the following vehicle to Mordor: http://bit.ly/bmJLcf

This guy is obviously bad news, but he won, so I guess I’d better humor him…

Nah, just kidding. He’s my beloved husband, which usually disqualifies him from my contests, but since I was open to having multiple winners for that particular contest I thought I might as well give him a chance for once. I rather ended up regretting it; somehow, when faced with such a description, my normal creativity deserted me entirely.

“I won it fair and square,” he says. “Not saying ya didn’t,” I reply. “But I’m excluded from the future ones, right?” “Well, I usually reset it every year…” “I’m excluded for bad behavior.” “Yeah, I think so.”

Anyways, I’ve put it off for all this time, but I thought I had better just get it done and hopefully never think of it again. So here we have the ketchup-swirled tunic with mustard yellow borders over a gown patterned with an abstract relish-and-white onion design; a mustard yellow circlet completes the ensemble. Oh well. This is why I do the paperdolls and he writes snarky things on Twitter.

Help me get the taste of this one out of my mouth (rimshot) – let’s do a new contest! Thanks to Brian for suggesting the question for me, as penance. Winner, as always, gets to tell me how to color a black-and-white dress (and please please choose pretty colors).

What (present-day) US state was my great-grandfather born in? At the time, my great-great-grandparents owned a hardware store in a boom town.

Update: Nikki guessed it! He was born in Skagway, Alaska.

Green Regency Gown with Ivy Pattern

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Ana won my last contest for guessing that my favorite flower is the morning glory, and she wrote:

I’d like this dress https://lianaspaperdolls.com/2010/06/12/black-and-white-regency-gown-with-flower-lace/ coloured please.

The main part of the dress I’d like an English Ivy pattern, with vines looking like they are growing up from the bottom of the skirt. I’d like the background of the dress to be a vibrant shade of green like lush grass in summer and the piping and lace to be an earth tone pink.

You know how if you put fabric or paper out in the sun it fades, and you can create patterns but placing objects on it? And then the background is faded version of the pattern? Well if you were to reverse that process so that the main part of the fabric was covered (i.e not faded) and the pattern was faded that is how I imagine the ivy pattern on the dress to look like. similar to the pattern in the gold on this dress https://lianaspaperdolls.com/2010/06/23/colored-1700s-gown-in-gold-white-and-pink/ but more pronounced.

I kinda hope that makes sense, but if not I’m sorry and I did my best.

It made sense, but I don’t know if I quite captured your vision, Ana, so I hope you like it!

I hate to disappoint people, especially my mom, but I won’t be drawing the royal wedding gown: the biggest reason is that I avoid drawing sheer fabrics because the dolls have different skin colors. It’s been suggested that I do two versions, but when the create-a-doll page is up — which I have been working on, albeit off and on — there will be around seven skin colors, so I’m not going to spend that much time on a dress that would be limited to the two dolls that are currently available.

Beyond that, I didn’t really pay attention to the wedding preparations or ceremony, I admired a dozen pictures of the dress and assorted hats, and now it’s out of my mind, which is essentially where it should be. Although I do draw a lot of pretty princess gowns, my affection for them stems from my deep love for fancy dresses and fairy tales; it has nothing to do with real royalty, which just strikes me as sad, stifling and generally illogical. If not for the lace part there’s a good chance I would have drawn the wedding gown, as it’s an iconic dress and a beautiful one, but I don’t care enough to spend the time on a substitute just for the sake of commemorating the fact that the House of Windsor is propagating itself. (I may yet make an exception for Princess Beatrice’s hat.)

If you all are so keen on royalty, I’ll put some time into a series of posts about the Japanese imperial family weddings I’ve been batting around in my mind for a while; my opinion of the Japanese institution isn’t particularly different from my opinion of the English one (if anything it is more critical), but the clothes and history interest me more. And maybe another paperdoll blogger will pick up my slack and draw the dress? Send me a link if you do, I’ll post it here.

Let’s do another contest… Here’s a good one. I’m in this picture. Which one of these kids is me?
Winner gets to choose a black and white drawing for me to color as they direct, as usual!
Update: Shannon guessed it! I’m the girl with short hair at the top right, underneath the outstretched arm of the boy on the chair.

White Ruffled Party Dress with Rainbow Trim

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It’s not a new drawing, I’m afraid, but all day today while I was working I had the original of this dress sitting on top of my scanner next to my computer, and so all day I thought “I bet I would have such fun coloring that one.” By the time I was off work, I didn’t want to do anything else! And indeed it was fun, although this version is quite simple.