Historical

Blue, White and Purple Ancient Greek Peplos with Gold Jewelry

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A blue peplos, which is a sleeveless draped garment held up with pins at the shoulders. The top is folded over and is light blue, fading to white at the hem at the waist. At the edge of the fabric is a gold heart and line pattern. Underneath is the skirt part, which is a rich blue, turning purple towards the hem. At the hem of the ankle-length skirt are gold line, wave and scroll patterns. There is a bracelet with two large purple stones, a gold necklace with purple stones and gold drops and a diadem with a heart pattern and purple gems.This outfit is the result of my second contest, which I held over Twitter. An ancient Greek outfit won out over a 1930s dress or a fairy outfit, so I started a Pinterest board and did some research into what they were like. Happily, in this day and age plenty of the relevant information is easily available for free!


I’d be happy to hear about other good sources of information — for all I know, something new has been found since these books were printed! I wanted to read these books thoroughly and do more research, but didn’t have time. So I will probably continue, albeit slowly, even though this outfit is all done.

The winner of the contest, chosen by a random drawing, was Karen Martin, and here’s what she requested:

I think for colors, I’d like white, blue, and gold, with maybe some purple thrown in?

She also got to choose from a list of patterns, and she chose the wave, scroll and heart patterns you see on the outfit. So here it is! Karen, I hope you like it.

Let’s start a new contest! Part 1 is a poll, which will close next Thursday. Once I know what I’ll do next, I’ll do my research and draw a sketch, then hold the contest on the 21st. Here are your options…

poll by twiigs.com

Come back next week for a dress based on a key scene from one of the coolest games I’ve played in a long time! As always, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterestfor updates, sneak previews and lovely Art Nouveau pendant pictures. If you enjoy my work, I’d also appreciate your support through Patreon.

1930s Gown In Hot Pink with Gold Flower Pattern

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A 1930's style evening gown. It is sleeveless, and has a deep V neck with ruching at the shoulders and chest. It has a peplum around the hips and a long, fitted skirt that flares out slightly at the ankles. The entire gown is a vibrant, dramatic hot pink. There are thin gold lines around the neckline and the hem of the peplum, and the skirt is patterned with large abstract flowers rendered in thin gold lines.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

You may be sick of seeing this dress by now, but this has been a fabulous week for me! I’ve learned so much about coloring with Photoshop. I’ve also learned how dangerous it might be. If I’m using colored pencils, once I select colors, patterns and decorations and start working I’m pretty locked into whatever my vision might be. With Photoshop, I can spend more hours than are healthy for me changing the same dress over and over. (The top of yesterday’s dress spent time as black sequins, silver sequins, light blue and finally the white you see.) I also need to start designing my own brushes and patterns… I have several of them but I’m just getting that DIY feeling, you know? In any case, I think this whole digital coloring thing is going to be plenty of fun for me. Hopefully you all are enjoying it too. Next week will be another dress. I don’t know if I’ll keep up the once-a-day thing: I think that long-term I’ll go for a Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule. But while I’m just playing around with old dresses, I’ll try to do a new one each day.

Today’s dress is for Dannyscotland, who guessed that Milo’s favorite food is yogurt. At least, in my opinion it is! He can’t really tell me, but he chomps it up most enthusiastically each morning. She wrote:

I would love to see some kind of classy looking pinkish shade. I know, some people hate pink. I love it. But it could be like a fuschia-bright shade, it doesn’t have to be a super-baby-girly pink. Ohhh with a little gold or silver trim, that would be gorgeous.

So here you have it! I really like how it turned out. The brush I used for the trim on the skirt is from a set by Jen at Pixels & Ice Cream.

I just can’t resist my polls…

poll by twiigs.com

1930s Gown with Blue Starry Sky Skirt and White Satin Bodice with Peplum and Sapphire Pearl Brooch

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A 1930's style evening gown. It is sleeveless, and has a deep V neck with ruching at the shoulders and chest. It has a peplum around the hips and a long, fitted skirt that flares out slightly at the ankles. The bodice and peplum are a delicate, shiny white silk, and there is a sapphire cabochon ringed with pearls at the neckline. The skirt is a dark purple-blue near the waist, gradually turning into lighter and lighter shades of blue towards the hem. It is overlaid with a field of gently shining stars.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

Another version of the 1930s gown. With this one I wanted to play with gradients, and I also changed the shading on the skirt, because I thought that the previous version looked pretty flat. The star brush is by Obsidian Dawn.

No one has guessed Milo’s favorite food yet… I’ll give you a hint, it’s white when I buy it and pink when I feed it to him. Winner gets to tell me how to color this gown, one entry per person on every new post. (So if you’ve guessed on a previous post you can guess again today, but if you haven’t guessed on a previous post you can’t go back to them and guess more than once.) Edit: Dannyscotland got it right! It’s yogurt. At least I think that’s his favorite. Dannyscotland, please post how you’d like me to color this dress!

I am making various changes to the site, so have patience with me if, say, you should see it looking totally goofy because a new theme has placed all my sidebar menu items at the top of the page instead. One change I like is the ability to navigate by dress. It’s a work in progress, though. You can also now see all the dolls at one. (All four of them, sure, two of which are retired, but still it’s something.) Also, I’ve started a Twitter feed that’s just for paperdoll related things, primarily updates to my page but I might write other things there as well. It’s @lianapaperdolls. If you use Twitter, please follow me!

1930s Evening Gown in Gold and Red

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A 1930's style evening gown. It is sleeveless, and has a deep V neck with ruching at the shoulders and chest. It has a peplum around the hips and a long, fitted skirt that flares out slightly at the ankles. The bodice and peplum are bright gold, with delicate scroll embroidery around the neckline and the edges of the peplum. The skirt is a vivid red, with a gold vine pattern covering it.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

The recoloring fun continues! I think I’m getting a handle on it. I feel like I’m learning something new each time. I’ve used Photoshop for a long time, but I’ve taught myself and so I missed a lot of useful things and tricks, so I feel like I’m new at this. But I think it’s turning out pretty well! Of course, I’m also thinking that I need to start making custom brushes and patterns, so learning more just leads to more work… The gold pattern on the skirt and the embroidery on the bodice are both from Obsidian Dawn.

No one has guessed Milo’s favorite food yet! The rule is one guess per person per new post, so if you’ve guessed already go ahead and guess again. Winner gets to tell me how to color this dress.

I was thinking I’d make a little present for people who sign up for my e-mail list, does anyone have any ideas? A wallpaper? A special outfit?