Livedolling the 2014 Oscars

Dresses for Penelope Cruz and Ellen DeGeneres. Peneleope's dress is pink and sleeveless with an empire waist. A length of pink fabric starts at the black ribbon under the bust and goes over the shoulder, falling behind her and draping over her arm like a shawl. Ellen is wearing a black velvet jacket, a vest and pants with a thin white scarf tied in a droopy bow.9:20 PM: And here’s Penelope Cruz and our host, Ellen DeGeneres. Let’s see, we have Best Costumes for The Great Gatsby, Cate Blanchett for Best Actress, Matthew McConaughey for Best Actor and 12 Years A Slave for Best Picture. That means no one got all four, but muddgirl and dannyscotland each got three. So you both win a recolored dress from the new series! Since I’ve just started out and there’s really only three choices (well, five if you count the dresses Mia and Leyla are wearing, but I wouldn’t) you’re free to wait for a better selection, or let me know if you’d like one right away – either way works for me! As for which of these drawings will become an actual dress, let’s put up a poll. It’s at the end of this post.

I’ve had lots of fun with this round of Oscars dresses! I hope to do it again next year, but next time I’ll make the post earlier so more people can enter.


Liza Minelli and Jennifer Garner's outfits. Liza is a satin top and pants set in royal blue, with one shoulder exposed. Jennifer's is a silver gown with spaghetti straps and a tiered skirt. 8:04: Here’s Liza Minelli and Jennifer Garner! I’ll probably be able to finish one or two more of these before I’m out for the night…


5:58: Taking the next hour off to put together dinner and get the boy in bed. I’ll pick out new outfits and start sketching again at 7.
5:45: Emma Watson and Jennifer Lawrence's gowns. Emma's is sleeveless with a scoop neck and is sparkly on the bodice, with a black belt, then sparkly at the top of the mermaid skirt, turning black towards the hem. Jennifer's is strapless and bright orange, with a peplum around the hips.Here’s Emma Watson and Jennifer Lawrence. I think the coloring on Jennifer’s is great, particularly! I’m up for taking suggestions, so if you see a dress you really like post in the comments. Caveats – the dress has to work on more than one skin color. For example, I may do Julia Roberts’ dress and just change the little lace panel in the middle, but Lady Gaga’s, with the net base, is probably out. The actual Oscars is going by now, right?


4:57: Mia and Leyla in Bette Midler and Lupita Nyong'o's Oscar gowns. Bette's is a cream mermaid dress with thick red lace, and Lupita's is a light blue gown with a low V neck and a full skirt, classically draped.Here’s sketches of Bette Midler and Lupita Nyong’o’s gowns to start with, straight from Procreate. It’s the first time I’ve posted an image that’s not a finished dress, but it looks like it’ll work right! Lupita’s gorgeous gown suffers from the dolls having underwear too wide to really permit a dramatic V-neck like that one…

4:00 (all times PST): Hello! I think the last times I did this I had more readers, so I don’t know if I’ll be all alone or not. If I have company, please say hi in the comments and enter my contest!

First things first: Let’s have a special Oscars contest! In the comments section, post your guesses for which movies will win Best Picture and Best Costume Design, and which actors will win Best Leading Actor and Best Leading Actress. (Click for the list of nominated movies.) The contest is closed when Best Costume Design is announced, one guess per person please, and it’s open to anyone. The prize for anyone who gets the right combination is an outfit from the Mia and Leyla series of dresses, recolored by me as you like. (You can put off your prize until there’s more dresses to choose from, if you like.)

I’ll be watching the Getty Images feed of red carpet images and posting sketches of red carpet gowns here…

30 thoughts on “Livedolling the 2014 Oscars

  1. Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
    Best Costume: The Great Gatsby
    Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (should have been nominated for Gatsby, not American Hustle)
    Best Actress: Judi Dench

  2. Hi Liana, good luck with your contest. I haven’t seen any of the movies, so I’m not really qualified to vote. Your dresses are beautiful. Have fun!

  3. Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
    Best Costume Design: The Great Gatsby
    Best Leading Actor: Chiwetal Ejiofor
    Best Leading Actress: Judi Dench

  4. Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
    Best Costume: The Great Gatsby
    Best Leading Actor: Matthew McConaughey
    Best Leading Actress: Sandra Bullock

    (The last two are complete guesses on my part, and my 90’s Childhood Nostalgia Brain would explode if that did happen.)

  5. Hi there! I am glad to see you’re not alone. I remembered that you did this in the past and hoped you’d do at least one or two. :-)

    My guesses are completely uneducated and are:
    Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
    Best Costume Design: The Great Gatsby

    Best Leading Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor
    Best Leading Actress: Cate Blanchett

  6. I myself like Jennifer Garner’s dress (maybe because I like Jennifer Garner) and the dress worn by Christine Teigen (who I don’t recognize…probably because I don’t watch enough movies!). Adele Fassbender’s gown is different and colorful and I also kind of like Sidney Poitier’s daughter Sydney’s silver dress.

  7. Jennifer Gardner’s dress is lovely. I bet with your skill at sparkles it could be really beautiful. I’m less into Liza Minelli’s outfit. I think it looks dowdy on her. Oh… did you see Lupita Nyong’o’s dress? I want that skirt so badly. Such a beautiful gown on her, though I think with her dark skin she could have gone for a more dramatic color.

  8. Aw, thank you for doing Jennifer Garner’s dress!! You made my morning. :-) (I fell asleep early, what can I say). I wish I could vote for all the dresses, you always do such a great job. I’ll be happy with whichever one wins the poll. As for my choice of a recolored dress, I will consult with my ‘assistant’ (aka daughter) and see what we come up with. Thank you so much, this was fun!

  9. Mrs. Kerr,
    Wow! It must have been a lot of work to do all those! I particularly like the red-and-white-patterned-one, the grey one, and the pink one. Can’t wait to see which one wins!

    Sarah :)

    1. It was a lot of sketching, yes! Thank my husband, he kept our son happy while I worked ;) And please call me Liana! (We’re all friends here.)

  10. In shock that Mr. McConaughey actually won! I will have to think about what dress to recolor. As for my vote in this poll, it was a toss-up between several of the outfits (Ellen Degeneres’s tuxedo turned out great!) but Bette Middler’s dress looks soooo good in 2D!

  11. My internet was broken this weekend, so I missed the livedolling. :( Oh, well. At least it’s back today so I still get to see all the outfits you did. :)

  12. All the dresses turned out so nicely it was fun to see all the different colors patterns textures and styles. You used some really cool techniques your alys so creative tithe your dress drawings and they look super good. i cant wait to see which ones you will make into dresses for your paper dolls i think would all make a good additon to the paper doll wardrobe!

    1. Thank you! It’s fun for me to give people a peek into how I sketch, although when I sketch just for myself they’re a *lot* messier than these ;)

  13. Hi Liana, I hope you will see this reply; I wasn’t sure how you preferred to be contacted about the dress to be colored. I have consulted with my ‘assistant’ a.k.a. daughter, and she would like to have you color the Valentine’s Day Regency Gown. For five years old, she’s pretty specific, so please feel free to alter as you see fit. :-) And thanks for understanding. She (and I, I guess) would love to see turquoise gloves and bottom ruffle, a pink shawl, lavender dress (the body of the dress), red roses, and pink draping over the bottom ruffle, kind of like it is now. Maybe it could be a different shade of pink? Well, I’m sure this will be a very vibrant dress, so again, feel free to make changes so it doesn’t look clownish. And thank you for this blog, my daughter just loves it! And so do I!

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