Blue Gown with Gold Trim

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Hello! See, I promised I would stay alive long enough to start drawing again.

To those of you who are still checking in on this page, thank you for your patience! I’m not too sure what things are going to look like, so I’m not necessarily going to go back to the old schedule just yet, but I am going to try to get back into the drawing habit. Please don’t rush to suggest things that I should draw, it will tire me out ^^;;

For those of you who aren’t already reading it, I wanted to highlight the awesome paper doll blog Paper Thin Personas. RLC has been drawing some wonderful, varied sets lately, as well as showing us what her sketches look like, and seeing an update pop up in my RSS reader never fails to make me smile. (She’s also been posting regularly, I could stand to take some lessons!)

I’ll write more another day, but for now please enjoy this blue gown. I suppose it’s a little nightgown-ish, but at least it’s better than the previous dress I posted. (You can really tell when I’m well and truly sick of drawing, I’m afraid.)


Queens of the Sea #8: Green Justacorps for Anne Dieu-Le-Veut

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Welcome to day eight of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Anne Dieu-Le-Veut: The Brave Buccaneer

A buccaneer during the Golden Age of Piracy. She was originally from France, and deported from France to Tortuga by the order of governor Betrand d’Ogeron de la Bouere, himself a former adventurer and pirate.

She fought a duel with a Dutch pirate who’d killed her first husband. He was impressed with her courage in challenging him and asked her to marry him on the spot. He already had a wife whom he’d abandoned, but from that day forward they were recognized as partners and fought side
by side on raids, sharing command.

Anne had a reputation for being laconic, brave, and willful. She also didn’t back down, and this was how she earned her nickname (Anne Dieu-Le-Veut, or Anne What-God-Wants), as people said of her that what Anne wanted, God would make happen for her.

Although it was a common superstition at the time that a woman on board brought bad luck, Anne’s presence was considered lucky. Reportedly born circa 1650, she disappeared from recorded history in the early 1700s.

In my imagination, there was certainly at least one time in Anne’s life where what she most wanted was a sweet pirate coat and gloriously shiny boots. Who can say whether or not the Almighty granted that particular request, or indeed any of them; at least I can, although it is rather too late for her to enjoy it. In any case, this kind of coat is called a justacorps, and it’s what we think of — or, at least, what I think of — when we think of over-the-top pirate captains from the Golden Age of Piracy.

So, I’m quite behind on my pirate series, I’m sorry to say; today was supposed to be the last day, but I still have two left, so I’ll do one tomorrow and one on the 26th, which is when the final poll will be open.

Don’t forget to enter my contests! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!


Introduction to the Random Magic Pirates Book Tour and Queens of the Sea #1: 1300s Outfit for Jeanne de Clisson

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So for the rest month, I’m doing something a little different… A while ago, I was asked to join in an online “book tour” highlighting the book Random Magic that would be centered around a pirate theme. The idea is that multiple blogs would all do something interesting and pirate-related as part of the tour, and although I’ve never done something like this before, it sounded like it would be fun to try. Check out the organizer’s blog to see the schedule and get an idea for the kinds of events that will be taking place!

Each day’s outfit is going to be based around a pirate (nine historical pirates and one character from Random Magic); I don’t intend to give much more than a passing nod towards any sort of historical accuracy, so although most of these women were real historical figures, the outfits are going to be a little on the fantastic side — more like costumes.

Today’s pirate is Jeanne de Clisson, who lived from 1300–1359 and was an active pirate between 1343 to 1356. Here is a mini-biography about her, written by Lyrika:

The Avenging Angel

One of the most bloodthirsty female pirates in history. Jeanne de
Clisson, nicknamed the Lioness of Brittany, was driven to piracy by a
desire for revenge, after her partner was executed.

She sold off all that remained of her estate to raise enough money to
buy three warships, had all three ships painted black, and the sails
dyed blood red. Her Black Fleet was the terror of the English Channel (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean), but one
personal proviso was enough to save hundreds of seafarers.

The proviso was this: The Lioness held the French king accountable for
the death of her beloved Olivier, so she spared the ships and crews of
other nations she met on her way — she only attacked French ships.

You can read a more in-depth biography about her at the blog Fluidity of Time, as part of the “Pirate Queens” series!

I had fun thinking about what she might wear, as this is a good couple of hundred years before the age most connected with pirates in the popular imagination. Women’s clothes in the early 14th century were rather pretty, I found, but rather less than practical for life at sea, or for personally beheading captured aristocrats. She apparently didn’t disguise herself as a man the way some other women pirates did, but I like to think she went with men’s clothes anyway, so today’s outfit is loosely based on men’s clothes from the first half of the 14th century.

I’ll be changing my regular schedule a bit during the tour: I’ll be posting a new drawing on the 12th and 14th, a drawing each day from the 16th to the 20th, and two final drawings on the 23rd and 24th. There will be a poll to determine everyone’s favorite pirate outfit that will be open on the 26th and the 27th, and on the 28th I’ll draw an extra outfit for the winning pirate and also announce the two winners of the contests I’ll be holding during the tour.

That’s right, two contests! For one, the prize is the original drawing of any one of the ten pirate outfits, and since that one requires an address, it’s open to anyone who is able to provide me their address if they win. Because I know I have a lot of readers who can’t give out their address online, I’m running a second contest that’s open to everyone, where the winner gets to design a pirate outfit! Click here for more information about the first contest; click here for more information about the second contest.

Welcome to anyone who’s joining us for the tour, and for my regular readers, I hope you enjoy it too! I personally am looking forward to a lot of buckles being swashed — and maybe little parrots perching on shoulders of dramatic coats…

Don’t forget: check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes! (I like the look of that pirate puppet, myself…) Speaking of that contest…


Golden Yellow and Blue 1700s Gown

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Shannon won the contest before last for guessing which kid I was in this picture: I’m the girl with short brown hair to the top right, underneath the outstretched arm of the boy on the chair. There are pictures of me on the “about” page and on my Twitter feed, so you can see how I turned out. She wrote:

Yaay! Lucky guess. :) I would looove to see the black and white 1700s dress colored in a golden yellow and royal (tending navy) blue with cream lace.

It reminds me of the other time I colored this gown, but it’s cute in its own right! I hope you like it, Shannon.