Halloween ’10 Day 2: Evil Sorceress’ Black Gown with Full Skirt and Black Ribbon

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

Someone once told me they liked my darker dresses more than the conventionally pretty ones; the truth is, I do too, but conventionally pretty is easier to knock out when it’s 7:30 PM, I haven’t even started to think about what to draw (always much harder than the actual drawing) and I still have to make dinner too. But I resolved to do some darker dresses this Halloween, so we shall see how I do.

I’m not the only one who has a hard time breaking free of conventionally pretty clothes. The owner of this dress — sorceress? evil queen? both, actually, as she had an unconventional career trajectory — has deeply buried attachments to such dresses from her days as a beautiful princess, as good and uninteresting as the day was long, and she never quite lost her taste for some of the elements: the tight bodices, the poofy skirts, the splashes of color and lace. Now, a dress like this she couldn’t wear in front of fellow evildoers and retain her self-respect, as there’s just a touch too much fragility in the bow at the waist, too much domestic modesty in the long sleeves, too much girlishness in the full skirt and not even a creepy pattern in the fabric of the underskirt. It could be saved by a dramatic collar that jutted out inches past her shoulders and soared to her ears, but she just can’t bring herself to put it on and ruin the neckline. So she wears it in the privacy of her own chambers, although I cannot say she does anything so sentimental as reflect on her past life — I cannot say if she can still remember her princess days, to be precise — and if she suspects a henchman of giggling at her, she guts him like a fish.

You will hear more about her later in the month, if all goes well, and see some of the clothes in her wardrobe that better fit her twisted crown. But practice your poker face in the meantime, so she doesn’t think we’re making fun of her.

Prismacolors used: Warm Grey 20%, 50%, 70% and 90%, Black, Scarlet Lake, Tuscan Red, Greyed Lavender, Imperial Violet and Black Grape

Halloween ’10: High Priestess of Paperdoll Halloween (With Bonus Red Version)

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

I don’t know if the other paperdoll bloggers would agree, but to me, Halloween is the supreme paperdoll holiday, so much that the thought of a month of costumes can pull me out of the deepest slump. In my humdrum real life I don’t like to be scared, and I don’t usually even bother slapping together a costume, but for Sylvia, Grace and company I’ve done some of my best work: poison-green masquerade gowns, cute ladybugs, scarecrows with real, entirely fearless crows. So let us celebrate this month together: we’ll enjoy closets full of imaginary costumes and, I hope, a couple of good stories to go along with them. I shall be the High Priestess of Paperdoll Halloween, and sacrifice dozens of Prismacolors to the pencil sharpener! And here is what I might like to wear for such a job, had I but fabric enough and time.

I myself may be a capricious and unstable sort of high priestess, but the patience of the multitudes touches my heart, so I offer a psychedelic sort of red version of today’s outfit as well.

Colors used: black, warm grey 10%, 50%, 70% and 90%, dark umber, sunburst yellow, goldenrod and pumpkin orange.

Blue Empire-Waist Gown

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

Taylor posted that she thought that the purple gown I put up recently seemed to her to represent “air,” with the other aimless color-centric gowns I’ve been doing recently representing other elements. I looked at the comment, then looked back at the dress, and somehow felt anxious: if that’s air, it’s certainly not a windstorm I want to be stuck in. If it is representing an elemental, I suppose it might be Shade from the Mana series… Really I had no such intentions from the start, so I’m not saying this is meant to be air, just as the others weren’t particularly meant to be earth, water, fire and so on (the orange one’s name was purely descriptive); I drew it without a narrative beyond “It’s gonna be blue. Blue, and light, and pretty.” But it is a pleasant idea that these aimless gowns have an underlying theme, unseen to me.

When I look at the five gowns of this type I’ve done, I like them well enough, but they seem to me to reveal a sort of lightly troubled unsettledness, all rough lines and emotions transferred to color. My normal focus is taking its sweet time returning to my fingers, and in the meantime I just get guilty when it’s late and I haven’t done or planned anything, so I just draw whatever comes to mind. It’s reassuring that people seem to like them anyways…

I’m happy, though. It’s good to be here. I’ve written a long post about the move, but not only does it feel more personal than what I usually write for this blog, I also don’t know what kind of paperdoll outfit should go with it. So you may or may not see that, depending on whether or not my normal creativity comes through for me!

Contest update

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I’m afraid I don’t have time to do a paperdoll tonight, but I wanted to extend the contest, so I had better give you the day’s hint!

If I was going to draw an outfit from this book, I would probably do a Regency-style gown, but in the book’s original illustrations, the women were wearing styles from three decades later.

Update: Kathleen had the winning guess: my favorite book is Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. Congratulations Kathleen! Let me know which dress you’d like colored and how!