Gowns and Dresses

March and May Birthday Gowns from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique

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Click for the doll.

For those of you who haven’t been following my site for a couple of years (or a decade, depending on how you look at it), allow me to explain why today’s dresses seem rather different from usual: they’re from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique, which was my first paper doll-centric website. I drew outfits for it from December 1998, my sophomore year of high school, to May 2000, partially through my first year of college. It’s no longer online in its entirety, but from time to time I’ll put up some of the old content as filler for anyone with an interest in how my drawing skills developed, and it’s also a thrill to hear from people who followed the old site from time to time.

I’m not sure why it seemed like a good idea in the first place. I had been drawing paperdolls for my own amusement for a few years beforehand. I wish I knew where some of those old ones were, but I distinctly remember doing some for my cousins and a black-and-white historical set for my own amusement. As I imply above, it wasn’t my first website; I was a geek and put up all sorts of webpages about things that interested me – video games, music, interactive stories. In terms of attention received, it was my most successful, but my future husband e-mailed me after reading my video game site, so I can’t necessarily call my paper doll boutique my favorite project I did as a teenager! In any case, I suppose it was only natural to combine my two interests.

At some point, the site’s host vanished, or I had migrated it to my University of Michigan webspace and that vanished, I don’t remember, but either way it was gone. My mom tried to get me to put it back up online somewhere, but by then I was embarrassed at how childish the drawings seemed. But I don’t mind now, they seem cute to me, so I’ll let you all see them too! As you can see, I always did like the concept of the birthday dresses. It is a little sad, though, that after all this time, I haven’t ever done a whole set, much less a whole set in just one year. Hopefully this will be the year to change that…

poll by twiigs.com

Blue Ballgown with Light Blue Underskirt

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

Today I just felt like playing with some of my blue Prismacolors. The result is not very well executed, I fear, because I’m too excited to concentrate on anything too well! Tomorrow, I’m going to be going back to Michigan for a week to visit some friends, and I have been looking forward to it for quite some time. (Although I hear that I’m bringing an ice storm with me. Here in Washington, we’re well into daffodil season, and my friend who I’m staying with is warning me to bring boots and my winter coat…)

Because I’ll be on vacation, I decided to put together a couple of posts from my old Boutique outfits that will update automatically while I’m gone. The next new drawing will be on the 31st, possibly the 1st if I don’t have time the day after I get back.

January Birthday Gown in Deep Garnet Red with Gold Trim and Snowdrop Corsage

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

Here’s the 2011 January birthday dress! I had thought about not doing them this year, actually, but then I had an idea for a March one that seemed like it would turn out beautifully, and now I think I will take another shot at completing a set this year. Now that January is finished, all I will have to do is one for February and I’ll be all caught up for at least a whole week!

I’ve got a good feeling about this year. This year may bring a dress for every month, including poor neglected April, July and August (thanks Liz!). For those of you with January birthdays, I am sorry this one is late; speaking of which, I’m sorry that today’s dress is late in general. Well, Sunday isn’t too bad — and for those of you for whom it is already Monday, well, I throw myself on your mercy.

January’s birth flower is the snowdrop, and the birthstone is the garnet. Incidentally, this is the first January dress I’ve done that I really like. (Technically, I liked the previous year’s dress, but it scanned out really badly and you can hardly see the pattern…)

Celtic Gown in Green and Gold with Clovers for St. Patrick’s Day

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

Hey, happy St. Patrick’s Day! (As if I need an excuse for a green dress.)

This is a vaguely Celtic-style gown with red and white clover flowers and four-leaf clovers. Unsurprisingly, I like this style of dress, but — not having much familiarity with Celtic or Irish anything — I have no idea if it’s actually based in any sort of Irish historical fact, or if it’s more of a modern creation mainly suited for Renaissance fairs. Things like that bother me more than they should, and I tried to figure it out, but after about 6:00 a sort of feeling of “Whatever, it’ll be pretty, stop fussing over details” comes over me and I just draw what I have… Still, I think I’ll file this one under “fantasy” and not “historical.”