I try not to have favorites among my paper dolls, but I do have favorites. And these are two of my favorite of Cybergirl’s costumes. They feature all the things I sort of love- straps, tweed, crazy hair, a little bit Victorian, wacky jewelry, absurdly impossible to wear…
The joys of fantasy dressing through paper dolls.
So, I got a couple good responses about Fashion Doll Friday and what I should do about my apathy towards Florence. Since I have a few dresses already penciled, scanned or ready to post for her, things won’t be changing for a while, I assure you. I spent last night drawing and inking and working away on paper doll things, so Marisole will get some cute Ancient Greek inspired duds tomorrow. I also put some time in on a new paper doll, possibly a serial one. I wish I knew where my digital camera was so I could preview her. Maybe another time.
Until then, enjoy the future of fashion in this set of paper doll dresses.
So, if this paper doll seems vaguely familiar, that’s likely because I have done steampunk things before for Marisole and for Curves. I openly admit I think William Gibson’sDifference Engine is among the boringest books I have ever tried to read; however, I do love anything which lets me play with Victorian fashion and not have my natural need to research to overwhelm me. There might be better steampunk books out there. Suggestions anyone?
So, if this paper doll seems vaguely familiar, that’s likely because I have done steampunk things before for Marisole and for Curves. I openly admit I think William Gibson’sDifference Engine is among the boringest books I have ever tried to read; however, I do love anything which lets me play with Victorian fashion and not have my natural need to research to overwhelm me. There might be better steampunk books out there. Suggestions anyone?
I feel I should add, I love many of Gibson’s other books including the fantastic art work Agrippa which the librarian in me both loves and hates. Seriously, a mind-blowing piece of artistic work.
Okay, I’m done gushing now about digital poetics which technically have no place on this blog. This blog is about more important things like paper dolls.
So, speaking of paper dolls, today’s Marisole is considerably more brightly colored then my last foray into Steampunk. I like the brighter colors and though I tend to think of the Victorian era as sepia toned, I know the reality is that it was a horribly gaudy era of fashion since chemical dyes had just been invented.
As some of you have no doubt already figured out, I draw ahead of time as much as I can. It’s easier to work in spurts when I have a few hours to devote to the blog rather then doing fifteen minutes here and twenty minutes there. So on Saturday, after I had run my errands and washed my laundry, I settled down in front of some old Star Trek episodes on DVD and drew paper doll clothes for a few hours.
For next Monday’s Marisole I had my fashion magazines out and windows from clothing websites up on my computer screen. To draw for Florence, I pulled out books of Victorian fashion plates and printouts of doll furniture. But when it came time to draw for Curves, all I had to do was find my thumbnail doodles and put then down next to my notebook. It was entirely liberating not to be bogged down with references.
Of course, it wasn’t as though I didn’t have some limits. The thing about Evil Sorceresses is that it’s a slippery slope and once you are one, you can’t wear just anything. Sure, some might say it’s a bit cliche or even over done, but the Sorceress has to maintain her reputation. And most Sorceresses don’t start bad, they just sort of slide that way. Something about being beautiful and powerful seems to just go to their heads. And once they are an accepted memeber of the Evil Soceress Guild, they can’t wear just anything.
What would people say, after all, if you showed up to a gathering wearing flannel or flowers? Well, flowers are okay if they’re evil flowers. Not, you know, daisies or something.
So, usually I carefully plan out my short run paper dolls. I know how many posts they are going to be. I calculate how much work I’m going to have to do. I do all of these things.
But I scanned this doll at nearly 10pm and it was a rush to get her up tonight, so really I have no idea how many posts she’s going to take up, but I like her and hope you’ll like her too.
Now, it is past my bedtime and tomorrow the library calls with the siren song of homework to do and readings to finish. Man… Graduate school is hard work sometimes.
I have come to the end of my first week of classes. I am tired, but pleased to have gotten posted Florence’s underwear. I posted Florence last week, and here now is her corset. 🙂
It’s actually a simplified version of all the layers Victorian women wore. There should be a bustle and a corset cover and a chemise under the corset. I’m glad I don’t wear so many layers of underwear.
Except when it’s really cold out, then I get close with my long underwear and my heavy wool socks and my jeans and then sweater and coat and hat and scarf.
But not corsets… I wouldn’t want to wear a corset every day. Once in a while might be okay, but not every day.
Don’t forget to print out Florence, so she can wear these clothing pieces.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.