Gowns and Dresses

Mermaid Monday #16: Blue Strapless Gown with Silver Sash and Ocean Pattern

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

I don’t really think this is the type of thing a mermaid would wear for a ball on land… too subdued. It’s got a melancholy feeling to me, as if the wearer would much rather be back among the waves, but barring that, she will settle for having them on her hem. And so I wonder what brought her to land in the first place? Is she a diplomat or an ambassador of some sort? Did she make an ill-advised marriage with a sailor or a prince? Is she cursed never to touch foot to salt water again?

Tomorrow is the end of the contest, so today is your last chance to guess! Good luck!

Question: How many Prismacolor pencils do I own as of May 18th?
This includes the ones that I use, all the stubby little pencils that are too short for my current sharpener but I just can’t toss, all the ones I have in reserve and my set of Verithin pencils I hardly ever use.

Just to restate the rules:
1) It’s a new year, so even if you’ve already won one, feel free to guess again.
2) One guess per person per post.
3) If no one gets the exact number by noon EST, May 25th, I’ll pick the closest guess.

No love for winter, huh? Winter is my favorite season until about February 3rd…

poll by twiigs.com

White and Pink 1930s Style Evening Gown with Rhododendrons

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Got started a little late today, so this dress isn’t my favorite, but it’s reasonably cute, I think. It’s supposed to be in the style of 1930s evening gowns, although it’s not based on any one dress. (So as always with the historical costumes that I pretty much make up, take the style, color, etc. with a grain of salt.) The rhododendrons come from some pictures my dad posted on Facebook of wild rhododendrons blooming around my family’s property on Hood Canal. Whenever I go to visit I always seem to miss seeing them bloom, so it’s nice to have pictures at least!

Every day that goes by makes me feel crueler and crueler. Someone, guess the answer soon! A couple people have come really close, but the exact number is still a mystery. But at least you know it’s under 1000 and — OK, above 200. I know, that’s not really much help…

Question: How many Prismacolor pencils do I own as of May 18th?
This includes the ones that I use, all the stubby little pencils that are too short for my current sharpener but I just can’t toss, all the ones I have in reserve and my set of Verithin pencils I hardly ever use.

Just to restate the rules:
1) It’s a new year, so even if you’ve already won one, feel free to guess again.
2) One guess per person per post.
3) If no one gets the exact number by noon EST, May 25th, I’ll pick the closest guess.

Colored Masquerade Dress in Cool Colors

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So this gown, the neglected black-and-white cousin of my beloved cursed sister series, may have turned out a little crazy, but all the same I like it rather better now. Amelia won my last contest by guessing that I learned my gold technique from observing one of the Spice Girls’ dresses (yes, really — there were extenuating circumstances). She got to pick how I colored it, and wrote: “I feel it ought to be mermaid themed really, on the other hand I’d love to see a peacock themed dress but this one’s too flowery…
How about you fish out the aquamarine and do a toned down peacock colours dress with deep green accents like african-violet leaves?”

I think I kind of failed on the “toned down” part of the requirement… Well, but it was fun for me anyways, and hopefully you like it somewhat, Amelia! I’m sorry you had to wait so long, though…

Time for a new contest. Guess the answer to this question, and pick your favorite of ANY of my black and white outfits and tell me how you want it colored, and I’ll do my best to follow your orders. (I think that’s more interesting than forcing the winner to stick to the last one I drew, don’t you?) New rules:
1) It’s a new year, so even if you’ve already won one, feel free to guess again. (This includes you, Amelia, because technically you won last year… ^^;;)
2) One guess per person per post. (So if no one gets it today, try again tomorrow!)
3) If no one gets the exact number by noon EST, May 25th, I’ll pick the closest guess.

Question: How many Prismacolor pencils do I own as of today, May 18th?
This includes the ones that I use, all the stubby little pencils that are too short for my current sharpener but I just can’t toss, all the ones I have in reserve and my set of Verithin pencils I hardly ever use.

Keep in mind my local scrapbooking store went out of business recently, and I hit first the 50% off sale, then the 75% off sale, to stock up on Prismacolors. So that “reserve” number is a little high. That’s the only clue you get, though!

Black and White Gown with Layered Ruffles

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Yeah… I’ve been spending a little too much time looking at Japanese “color dresses” (カラードレス), dresses that a Japanese bride might wear for part of the reception. Still, this was just playing around with drawing ruffles, for the most part. I wouldn’t class this as my attempt to draw a color dress, because it’s just too darn sober and restrained. Don’t believe me? Let’s do a google image search for カラードレス…　In any case, I had this conversation with my husband after finishing it:

“I dunno if I like it. It looks like one of those princess skirt cakes.”

“They’re gonna eat it up. You’re just pandering directly to your core audience with this. I think it’s completely craven. You know? … You’re not quoting me are you?”

Forgive my craven nature, paperdoll fans… Anyways, I think this would look nice colored, maybe all in shades of some nice warm color, but I started it too late to give it a shot. Hope someone else does, though! Or maybe I will soon, or maybe I’ll do another contest. I still have to color the masquerade dress from the last contest, though.

And would you look at that… I made it through a whole week. I’m posting this one a little late, admittedly, but it’s 10:45, and that’s well before midnight. Having Sunday as my day to sketch and think about the next week worked pretty well, so I’m going to keep doing that. See you on Mermaid Monday!