sash

Mermaid Monday #16: Blue Strapless Gown with Silver Sash and Ocean Pattern

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

I don’t really think this is the type of thing a mermaid would wear for a ball on land… too subdued. It’s got a melancholy feeling to me, as if the wearer would much rather be back among the waves, but barring that, she will settle for having them on her hem. And so I wonder what brought her to land in the first place? Is she a diplomat or an ambassador of some sort? Did she make an ill-advised marriage with a sailor or a prince? Is she cursed never to touch foot to salt water again?

Tomorrow is the end of the contest, so today is your last chance to guess! Good luck!

Question: How many Prismacolor pencils do I own as of May 18th?
This includes the ones that I use, all the stubby little pencils that are too short for my current sharpener but I just can’t toss, all the ones I have in reserve and my set of Verithin pencils I hardly ever use.

Just to restate the rules:
1) It’s a new year, so even if you’ve already won one, feel free to guess again.
2) One guess per person per post.
3) If no one gets the exact number by noon EST, May 25th, I’ll pick the closest guess.

No love for winter, huh? Winter is my favorite season until about February 3rd…

poll by twiigs.com

Black and White Ruqun

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

Despite the fact that I think they’re gorgeous, I know hardly anything about traditional Chinese clothes, so I was glad when I was finally able to put a name to this kind of outfit — a ruqun! I’ve seen it before many times, but never knew what it was called. I don’t think I got the sleeves quite right, but it is a first attempt…

No one has the answer to my question yet. I guess the good part is, the eventual winner now has one more black and white outfit to choose from…

Question: How many Prismacolor pencils do I own as of May 18th?
This includes the ones that I use, all the stubby little pencils that are too short for my current sharpener but I just can’t toss, all the ones I have in reserve and my set of Verithin pencils I hardly ever use.

Just to restate the rules:
1) It’s a new year, so even if you’ve already won one, feel free to guess again.
2) One guess per person per post.
3) If no one gets the exact number by noon EST, May 25th, I’ll pick the closest guess.

Also, I’m putting up a new poll, just to satisfy my own curiosity…

poll by twiigs.com

Black and White Gown with Layered Ruffles

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

Yeah… I’ve been spending a little too much time looking at Japanese “color dresses” (カラードレス), dresses that a Japanese bride might wear for part of the reception. Still, this was just playing around with drawing ruffles, for the most part. I wouldn’t class this as my attempt to draw a color dress, because it’s just too darn sober and restrained. Don’t believe me? Let’s do a google image search for カラードレス…　In any case, I had this conversation with my husband after finishing it:

“I dunno if I like it. It looks like one of those princess skirt cakes.”

“They’re gonna eat it up. You’re just pandering directly to your core audience with this. I think it’s completely craven. You know? … You’re not quoting me are you?”

Forgive my craven nature, paperdoll fans… Anyways, I think this would look nice colored, maybe all in shades of some nice warm color, but I started it too late to give it a shot. Hope someone else does, though! Or maybe I will soon, or maybe I’ll do another contest. I still have to color the masquerade dress from the last contest, though.

And would you look at that… I made it through a whole week. I’m posting this one a little late, admittedly, but it’s 10:45, and that’s well before midnight. Having Sunday as my day to sketch and think about the next week worked pretty well, so I’m going to keep doing that. See you on Mermaid Monday!

White Dress with Blue Tunic and Forget-Me-Nots for September

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

Finally, another birthday dress! I want to fill in the months I never got around to this year as well, but for now I will start at the current date. September’s birth flower (one of them, at least) is the forget-me-not, and its birth stone (again, one of them) is sapphire, making it easy to pick the dress’ predominant color. Adding the necklace on top of it all was kind of gilding the lily, but oh well.

It is only September 4th, but I’m starting to think about October. Last year I did a month of Halloween costumes, and I had so much fun I’m thinking of doing another theme month. I could do another month of random costumes like I did last year, or I could do something more narrowly focused. For example, Brian suggested a month of famous witch costumes – the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch, Willow, the Grand High Witch, Minerva McGonagall and so on. If anyone else has any other ideas, leave a comment! I’ve got all month to think about it.