White and Blue Angel Costume (based on a costume from Liana’s Paperdoll Boutique)

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Click for larger version; click for the list of dolls.

It’s a half hour before midnight and I’ve managed not to break my streak of two days in a row, although not for lack of trying. I started out so nicely this morning with an attempt to recreate my favorite dress from the Oscars, Penélope Cruz’s amazing pink concoction, which will be up here, eventually. But not today; my attempt at the bodice wasn’t quite the right color. Less of a sophisticated pale peachy-pink — more Totally Actress Barbie! pink. Brian said the pattern looked like muscles, or mummy wrappings, and I’ve known him long enough to take it as a compliment… So then I tried Reese Witherspoon’s dress. Twice.

Night came around, and I thought I’d give up and go with what I knew. So here’s a reproduction of one of my old Boutique outfits: a white angel costume with blue edges and absurdly annoying wings. Don’t ask how one is supposed to keep the halo anywhere near Sylvia’s head; the old one didn’t even have a halo, which makes this, at least in theory, an improvement.

I’ve spent a lot of time with my old Boutique outfits lately: a lot of them make me cringe, all these years later, but some of them weren’t half bad. I never did put them back up after I lost my University space, something my mom has often reminded me of, but if I’m feeling particularly uncreative I may redo some of the ones I like. If I’m feeling really uncreative, I may just put up a small set of Boutique outfits and call it a post of historical interest!

Blue and Sea Green Mermaid Tail with White and Gold Top

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If you like this mermaid, click the “Mermaid Monday!” tag for more — I draw a mermaid, or a mermaid-related outfit, every Monday.

Me and my mermaids! I don’t know when I started drawing paperdolls, but I can assure you there was a mermaid tail or two among those first batches, unscanned and lost. In the doll-drawing process the question “Is she mermaidable?” is a lot more important than “Are her hands right?” (Because the odds are good her hands aren’t right, and I may as well worry about what’s fixable.)

The mermaid tail process has actually been about the same since I started. Consider Exhibit A, one of about a dozen mermaids drawn for the long-gone Paper Doll Boutique, and Exhibit B, Anna’s foray into mermaidhood. I thought I had lost it, but, unlike many things that could be classified as useful life skills, coloring mermaid tails is something I’ve retained, and the basic technique has always been the same. (The main difference between exhibit A and B and the current one is the method used for blending. At the time of the Boutique, I was blending with white and not the colorless blender, which gives them an odd pearly look… Plus the scanner was not as nice as my current one.) I should do a tutorial sometime, it’s really quite easy.

Sylvia, my new paper doll, with green halter dress

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Click for larger version; click for the doll.

I’ve been thinking of returning to paperdolls for some time now. There’s a lot to re-learn, but I think I did all right… the dress is somewhat quick and dirty, but as usual I labored over the doll for a few days. I hate doing the dolls!

She doesn’t have a name yet. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. But I think again the format will be the “paperdoll blog,” I really enjoyed doing that before. Maybe no one reads the words but me, but I like having the record of my temping days.

Edit: Sylvia is her name.

By the way, this is the start of the new paperdoll series with Sylvia and Iris (and whoever else comes next); if you want more of my paperdolls, click here for my old paperdoll blog!