peplum

1930s Evening Gown in Light Blue

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A 1930's style evening gown. It is sleeveless, and has a deep V neck with ruching at the shoulders and chest. It has a peplum around the hips and a long, fitted skirt that flares out slightly at the ankles. It is a light bluish-green and has a small floral pattern all over.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.
I’m back! I never can stop paperdolling for too long, even with a baby. As you can see, there’s something different about this dress. It’s one of my black and white dresses, and I’ve colored it in Photoshop. Please don’t worry that I’ve abandoned my colored pencils! I’ve decided to learn to use Photoshop to color for a project my husband Brian and I are working on. I’ve always used it for various things, but there are so many things I still have to learn about it. Melissa Evans’ Coloring Line Art tutorial has been the most useful tutorial I’ve found, although I’ve poked at other ones as well. I’ve got some quibbles about how this one turned out, but it is a first attempt. It is much easier than I thought it would be, once you learn how to break it down. (For example, clipping masks changed my entire outlook on coloring with Photoshop. It makes so much sense! I just never knew.) For this dress, I used a pattern made by Jen of Pixels & Ice Cream, Feliz Navidad Damask. I’m on the lookout now for good patterns and brushes, so if you know of any, please let me know!

You may have noticed an e-mail sign up form to the right. If you sign up, I’ll e-mail you whenever I have a new update. Of course, I won’t sell your address or spam you or anything like that. I hope it’s a good solution to my habit of erratic posting.

Milo smiling and walking around in the rose garden. How is Milo doing, you might ask? He’s doing beautifully! Just look at him. That’s where all my free time goes. It’s also why my desk is piled three feet high with books. (He likes to take them off the shelves, so I have to rescue them.) Another reason why, for the time being, digital coloring wins over ten plastic bags of colored pencils…

I have a long ways to go to get good at digital coloring, so I’m going to try to do a lot of it in the next few months. So let’s have a contest!
What is Milo’s favorite food?
The first person to answer correctly gets to tell me how I should color this 1930s black and white gown. (I’m going to color other ones eventually, but for now I want to practice on this one.)

For this contest, even if you’ve won one of my previous contests you can enter. Let’s call it the great contest reset button. One entry only, please, and my mom and husband are excluded. (You guys get a free suggestion without having to enter, how’s that?) Get your entries in now, while everyone else has forgotten this blog exists!

Gold 1930s Gown with Black Lace Peplum

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

So somehow I got it in my head that Kathleen, who won my last contest for guessing my favorite book, never posted the dress and coloring scheme that she wanted, and as it turns out I was wrong — I don’t know if I missed the post or just forgot about it, but either way it was there, and I’m sorry, Kathleen. In any case, this is what she wrote:

OK, how about the 1930s evening gown with the peplum. It’s kind of old, but I love it. And could you do like a metalicy gold for the dress with black lace for the peplum?

I liked how this one turned out — I haven’t done that much indulgent gold for a while! I think that the lace part kind of breaks up the straight gold and lends it a little sophistication.

Prismacolors used: Black, Goldenrod, Cream, Sunburst Yellow, Dark Umber, Light Umber, colorless blender

Halloween ’10, Day 7: Black And White Cute Bat Costume

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Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.
After drawing six iterations of a half-hearted gown, I took elements of the bodice that I liked and drew a cute bat costume around them.

That might tell you all a little more about the way my mind works than I am entirely comfortable divulging, but there you have it.

Next week, we shall have masquerade gowns for a mythical ball. I haven’t come up with a story to catch them in, but even if I don’t, they should be so much fun that they won’t need one…

There’s still time to vote on the Good Queen’s next appearance, but you’ll have to scroll down for it, because now it’s time for my favorite part of the Halloween costume parade: what was your favorite this week? (And last week, actually — I can’t leave out my priestess robes.)

poll by twiigs.com

Gown in Pink, Green and Violet with Gold Sash

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

Hannah won my contest before the last one for guessing what kind of nail polish I was wearing, and she wrote:

I was thinking about maybe the Japanese “color dress” in pinks and greens and violets with maybe some gold as an accent on the sash..?

You might have noticed I don’t do pinks all that well, but I gave it a shot. (This is actually the reason I worked on my color chart yesterday. So thanks, Hannah, I might have never got around to replacing it otherwise…) Actually the finished dress reminds me of the Barbies I played with when I was a kid in the 80s. Totally Ruffles Barbie, anyone? Anyways, I hope you like it, Hannah!

This is my color warmup week, because you know what’s coming up? Halloween! October’s always been my favorite month to paperdoll, what with the Cursed Sisters and the Good Queen and all my other beloved costumes. And I’ve got plans for this October, oh yes I do… So I need to get well reacquainted with my Prismacolors before then. I’ve got Wednesday and Thursday covered with one for Diane and one for Brian, so that means I need someone to boss me around on Friday, too… Why not — this calls for another contest!

What’s my favorite book?
Rules as always:
1) If you’ve already won this year, please don’t enter. (Music contest winners are OK to enter a black-and-white coloring contest though.)
2) One guess per person per day.
3) If no one gets the exact book by noon PST, September 17th, I’ll pick the closest guess.

I’ve certainly written about books that are among my favorites, but I don’t think I’ve ever written on this site what exactly my favorite book is. If I did and forgot about it, feel free to use my spotty memory against me, but don’t bother googling “liana kerr favorite book,” I tried that already.