Shimmery Blue Princess Gown

An off-the shoulder gown with a tight bodice and a trumpet-shaped skirt. There are pearly white ruffles over the shoulders, while the bodice is light blue with a small swirl pattern and a silver pattern at the neckline. The ruffled overskirt is in three layers, which start near the hip and get increasingly longer until they touch the ground on the other side of the dress. The top one is light blue, the middle one is a deeper blue and the bottom one is a darker purple-blue. They all have a silver swirl pattern on the edges. They're over a pearly white full skirt with a subtle swirl pattern in white on it.Happy 2015! Coming a little late to the party, am I? Well, I’ve still got a large portion of the year to make up for it. And I think this is going to be a good year for paperdolls and, hopefully, for some stories to go with them.

This dress is a princess gown I designed when I was doing my other princess gown series, but just never got around to it. I wanted to give it the time it deserved, and I think it turned out pretty well!

Next week, I hope to have a new paperdoll, but they always take a little longer than I expect, so it may just be a dress. Until then, you can download combined color and black and white PDFs of all of my 2014 dolls and outfits for free! Also follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest for gorgeous African print skirts, grousing about working in 200 DPI and sneak previews. If you enjoy my work, I'd also appreciate your support through Patreon.


Blue Sparkly Dress

A sleeveless form-fitting blue dress with a hemline just above the knees and a V neck. The dress is sparkly and is covered all over with a pattern of blue sequins in scroll and flower shapes.After knocking myself out with last month’s series, the next few are likely going to be much simpler. This month I’m working on my special Christmas project and joining in on NaNoWriMo, so if I can practice digital coloring and work up some new brushes in this space, that’s good enough for me! In this case I tried a new sequin brush, and I think it worked pretty well.

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo? Feel free to add me as a writing buddy!

Incidentally, Phoenix is thrilled that she’s run away with the voting. The thing is, by now all of the other archetypes aren’t all that impressed when she wears sparkly, vibrantly colored gowns; it’s what she’s known for and the novelty has worn off. She has to literally burst into flames to get any attention from them, so she’s glad to find an audience that appreciates her.

Next week, I’ve had a brainwave about how to do the type of pattern that I used on Phoenix’s dress and the white and blue princess gown, so you’ll probably see a dress decorated with that technique. In the meantime, you can download combined color and black and white PDFs of all of my 2014 dolls and outfits for free! Also follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest for sneak previews, paperdoll thoughts and sparkly formal dresses. If you enjoy my work, I'd also appreciate your support through Patreon.


Pink Princess Gown with Opals

A pink gown with an off-the-shoulder neckline. There are five large opals at the neckline, surrounded by diamonds. The dress has a fitted bodice and a small, semi-transparent white overskirt patterned with rhinestone scrolls and edged with lace. The skirt is full and sparkly and is patterned with a light scroll pattern, and there's a rhinestone pattern on the hem.I do think this is one of the most unabashedly girly dresses I’ve ever done. It looks to me something like the dress that the mice made for Cinderella in the Disney version — as if the fairy godmother had decided to spruce that one back up and make it sparkle instead of going with the silvery-blue gown.

I must admit that I’m not any more ahead now than I was when I started this princess project, but I’m happy with things. I felt like I was in a bit of a paperdoll slump these last couple of weeks, but since I had sketched and chosen colors for my princess dresses at the very beginning, all I really had to do was make them happen, and that’s often the easiest part of the whole process. I hope that those of you who aren’t into princesses (that would be 1% of you, according to my recent princess poll) found these last three weeks’ offerings tolerable; in any case, this is the end of my princess parade for now, as Halloween is coming up, and I do have plans for October that don’t involve princesses. (They do involve a very special masquerade ball, though…)

Next week… that very special masquerade ball. Don’t forget that you can now download combined color and black and white PDFs of all of my 2014 dolls and outfits for free! Also follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest for sneak previews, paperdoll thoughts and kimono pictures. If you enjoy my work, I’d also appreciate your support through Patreon.


Sparkly Pink Gown with White Roses

A sleeveless pink gown with a fitted bodice and a full skirt that flares out like a trumpet. There's a ring of white roses around the top of the bodice and the shoulders, dotted with small green leaves. The dress has a subtle scroll pattern and is very sparkly all over.
As you see, this is not the new doll; she’s coming along nicely, but I decided I’d rather put up a substitute post than rush her. So here is a quick sparkly gown to make up for it! Since I didn’t start it until Thursday, it is not the most detailed or original dress I’ve ever done, but as they say, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, distract them with sparkles.” (That’s how it goes, right?)

As for my most recent polls, first, it doesn’t surprise me that not a single visitor to this page particularly dislikes princess stories! Second, I’ll do some sketches for the “fairy tale antagonist” dress soon, as that won the poll. Incidentally, I chose the wording so I’m not boxed into the archetypical “evil queen.” Who knows, after the previous week’s discussion, perhaps she’ll be an evil princess.

I’m thinking of doing another one of those not-a-tutorial tutorials, and I’d love your input on what I should work on next — if you’d like, take a look through my paperdoll reference board and post a link to whatever you’d like me to go through. I’ll choose my favorite, or whichever seems to be most popular. I think my thought process is fairly easy to follow, even if I didn’t write anything with the pin – if the fabric is shiny, I was probably thinking “How can I get mine to look this shiny?” and if it’s draped or folded in an interesting way I was probably thinking “How can I draw that too?”

Next week I will have the new doll! She’s actually close to being done, I just want to make her perfect. Don’t forget that you can now download combined color and black and white PDFs of all of my 2014 dolls and outfits for free! Also follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest for sneak previews, paperdoll thoughts and a fabulous jewelry board. If you enjoy my work, I’d also appreciate your support through Patreon.