v-neck

Blue Sparkly Dress

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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.

1930s Gown In Hot Pink with Gold Flower Pattern

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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. The entire gown is a vibrant, dramatic hot pink. There are thin gold lines around the neckline and the hem of the peplum, and the skirt is patterned with large abstract flowers rendered in thin gold lines.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

You may be sick of seeing this dress by now, but this has been a fabulous week for me! I’ve learned so much about coloring with Photoshop. I’ve also learned how dangerous it might be. If I’m using colored pencils, once I select colors, patterns and decorations and start working I’m pretty locked into whatever my vision might be. With Photoshop, I can spend more hours than are healthy for me changing the same dress over and over. (The top of yesterday’s dress spent time as black sequins, silver sequins, light blue and finally the white you see.) I also need to start designing my own brushes and patterns… I have several of them but I’m just getting that DIY feeling, you know? In any case, I think this whole digital coloring thing is going to be plenty of fun for me. Hopefully you all are enjoying it too. Next week will be another dress. I don’t know if I’ll keep up the once-a-day thing: I think that long-term I’ll go for a Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule. But while I’m just playing around with old dresses, I’ll try to do a new one each day.

Today’s dress is for Dannyscotland, who guessed that Milo’s favorite food is yogurt. At least, in my opinion it is! He can’t really tell me, but he chomps it up most enthusiastically each morning. She wrote:

I would love to see some kind of classy looking pinkish shade. I know, some people hate pink. I love it. But it could be like a fuschia-bright shade, it doesn’t have to be a super-baby-girly pink. Ohhh with a little gold or silver trim, that would be gorgeous.

So here you have it! I really like how it turned out. The brush I used for the trim on the skirt is from a set by Jen at Pixels & Ice Cream.

I just can’t resist my polls…

poll by twiigs.com

1930s Evening Gown in Gold and Red

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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. The bodice and peplum are bright gold, with delicate scroll embroidery around the neckline and the edges of the peplum. The skirt is a vivid red, with a gold vine pattern covering it.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

The recoloring fun continues! I think I’m getting a handle on it. I feel like I’m learning something new each time. I’ve used Photoshop for a long time, but I’ve taught myself and so I missed a lot of useful things and tricks, so I feel like I’m new at this. But I think it’s turning out pretty well! Of course, I’m also thinking that I need to start making custom brushes and patterns, so learning more just leads to more work… The gold pattern on the skirt and the embroidery on the bodice are both from Obsidian Dawn.

No one has guessed Milo’s favorite food yet! The rule is one guess per person per new post, so if you’ve guessed already go ahead and guess again. Winner gets to tell me how to color this dress.

I was thinking I’d make a little present for people who sign up for my e-mail list, does anyone have any ideas? A wallpaper? A special outfit?

1930s Evening Gown in Sparkly Purple

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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 warm, dark purple and is covered with sequins, making it sparkle brilliantly all over.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

After several hours of dinking around with brushes and layer styles, I finally have a method of doing sparkles like this. I suspect you’ll see many more sparkly outfits in the future, because I’d really like to get it right. It’s one thing I couldn’t do as well with colored pencils: this sparkly dress came out really well, but I still remember the hand pain. The brushes I used to create the sparkly effect came from Obsidian Dawn.

Don’t forget I’ve got a contest going on!
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.) One entry only please, and you can enter even if you’ve won a contest before. No one got it last time, so if you guessed yesterday, you can guess again today. (Well, technically only one person even guessed… I really have been away for too long!)

I’m going to try to do a new recoloring every day this week, so let’s have a poll to help me decide what to try next…

poll by twiigs.com