Blue Watery Masquerade Ball Gown with Satin Blue Underskirt and Crystals

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So recently, I got an e-mail from Diana asking if I could draw a dress for a roleplay she was taking part in. I went through and read the scenario, and Diana’s character Leslie is a human spy in a magical world who has to infiltrate a masquerade ball attended by aristocrats. So I thought this was a fun challenge: what sort of thing might a spy wear to such a ball? It’s dead easy to make a gown that says “hey everyone, look at me!” or one that says “I am a Woman of Mystery” but one that looks expensive and magical enough that no one questions its wearer’s right to be there, yet isn’t so noticeable that everyone winds up talking about her… fun. I ended up going with blue, a rich but soothing color, and an overskirt with fabric like shimmering water and seafoam, studded with crystals — although I don’t really think the crystals worked out too well. Oh well. Diana, I hope you like it anyways, and I look forward to seeing where the story goes!

The poll is yet ongoing…


Mermaid Monday #9: Arctic Mermaid with Deep Blue Tail and White and Blue Top Trimmed with Pearls and Sapphires

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I was going to do an unfortunate light-green colored mermaid this week, but it is the first of the month. You may remember from last week’s installment that mermaids associate light green with death, and even if it is a superstition I created with no basis in mythology or reality, it still seems inauspicious to start one’s month with an ill omen. Instead, since it’s getting snowy here, I thought I’d do a wintery-looking mermaid.

Now, mermaids tolerate cold temperatures very well; their clothes are almost entirely ornamental and they can swim around entirely naked if they choose, although for obvious reasons I end up focusing on the ones who opt for shirts and shells. So even the mermaids who live further to the north in colder waters, like this one, don’t have to do much covering up. Don’t be fooled by her sleeves, they provide about as much warmth as the average silk scarf and their only purpose is to swish fetchingly around her wrists as she chats animatedly with her friends.


Colorblock Mini Dress (inspired by the Metafilter colors) with White Go-Go Boots

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Hello Mefites! Wow, this very well may cure me of just abandoning my site for a few weeks…

Anyways, for those of you who aren’t Metafilter readers, it’s a community blog for the “best of the web,” and someone posted a very thorough writeup of my paperdoll blog. Metafilter being no trifling little site, my traffic has gone something like this: plodplodplodplodWHEEEEEEEEE. I’ll post a picture later.

For those of you just arriving, I thought I’d point out some of my favorites that the writeup didn’t mention:
I did twenty outfits for my Halloween Costume Series, some of which are my favorite things that I’ve ever drawn. (My mom really likes the first one, the Good Queen’s Ghost, but she wants to give it a good washing.)

One of my mermaids was linked to from the Metafilter post, but there are many more. My favorite, of course, is the wedding mermaid, although she throws people searching for mermaid-style wedding dresses for a loop.

For some reason, my drawings of Princess Garnet’s white gown and Princess Ashe’s Wedding Dress (from FFIX and FFXII, respectively) both turn up very high in a Google image search for either of the two characters; Ashe’s wedding dress is my site’s single most popular image. I’m glad, then, that they turned out reasonably well, unlike Cloud’s dress, which I will probably redo before the end of the year.

I have been known to do nice things for people who link to me. Hint, hint.

This is just the tip of the paperdoll iceberg; I have a whole other series of paperdolls from earlier in my life. (The Boutique paperdolls that I’ve been putting up are even older than that, too…)

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you enjoy the site!