I love drawing ruching, but really this dress just isn’t that complex. The color scheme with the rainbow skirts makes it feel more elaborate than it actually is and I really like that
Inspiration for Today’s Paper
I really love designing these over the top princess gowns and this one started as a doodle I drew on my phone. I wanted something that felt like a jumper, but was a bit more formal than that. You know, an evening jumper.
Last Thoughts on Today’s Princess Fantasy Paper Doll
My patrons get a Friday patreon paper doll and I am excited to share a few of these pieces this year. If you want to see more, get more paper dolls, join us on Patreon.
Not exactly sure what will go up next week, but I’ll no doubt make some decisions as I start scheduling those posts.
Some of you may recall that last year, I started drawing these full-skirted fantasy gowns for the Jewels and Gemstones. I’ve always loved the idea of a trousseau- all the dresses a woman needed for one year. The idea was to go into married life without needing to spend money on a whole new wardrobe.
The term was also used for describing fashion dolls who had extensive wardrobes in the 19th century. I’ve always been smitten with the idea of dolls with trunks full of tiny perfect little garments.
Shocking? Not really.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper
I wanted to draw a dress where the pattern on the fabric was more important than the complexity of the gown. So, I decided to draw a complex Jacobean floral design which did mean I had to then color the complex design. I always wonder what I was thinking when it comes time to color these sorts of florals.
Last Thoughts on Today’s Princess Fantasy Paper Doll
There will be another Princess Trousseau dress later this week, a Friday Patreon one from last year that I am eager to share. One of the things I really am excited about this year is having a few favorite Friday patreon pieces to share with you all.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll This dress is one of four I designed together. I wanted to create some rather traditional “big skirted princess dresses” for the Jewels and Gemstones paper dolls. Two of the dresses are Patron exclusives (join here) and the other two are being shared on the blog. This is the second one.
I have more in the works, but I started with four.
They all have the same muted color scheme. I really love muted colors, but I find I don’t use them that often. I think on computer they can get muddy really fast. I really liked the idea of having the same colors for all the dresses in the collection.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll This dress is the dinner dress of the set. It’s more formal than the music dress, but less formal than say the ballgown I shared with my Patrons. There’s something 18th century going on here, I think, but I didn’t really look at any reference images.
Specific Source Images:Â I doodle this before I drew it, but I can’t find that piece of paper- so you’re just going to have to believe me.
Last Thoughts I love drawing big skirted fantasy gowns. The width of the skirt gives space to explore decorative elements that are harder at a smaller scale. Plus I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, so I am somewhat a child of the big skirted Disney Princesses.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll Today’s dress is one of four I designed together to be classic “big skirted princess dresses” for the Jewels and Gemstones paper dolls. Two of them are Patron exculsives (join here) and two of them are going up on the blog here. I plan to create more, but at the moment, I just have the four.
Four dresses doesn’t make a full trousseau though, so stay tuned for additional dresses for this collection.
Princesses get a bad rep. It’s easy to look at the idea of a Princess and argue they have no automony, they get rescued and they are valued only for their appearance. Despite that, and despite being a feminist, I continue to draw regularly and often my Princess dresses.
It’s not that I’m not aware of the issues surrounding the concept of the Princess. It’s not that I don’t have serious issues with Disney and the commodification of girlhood. It’s not that I don’t occasionally prefer the idea of full-plate armor over full-skirted gowns. It’s that I don’t think femininity should in anyway be associated with weakness.
The only problem with Princesses is when they are offered to young girls as the only acceptable way to be.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll I really did have a lot of fun designing this one. It pretty much came out of a doodling session on my phone using the Procreate app on my phone, which I am sort of enjoying when I don’t have pen or paper with me.
Last Thoughts As my long time readers know, I have a strange obsession with the idea of different dresses for different activities. I think I read to many Victorian novels at an impressionable age. So, this is kind of an excuse to indulge in that fantasy.
Yes, I know actually having to change my clothing for each activity of my day would really be annoying. I don’t even like putting on gym clothes.
If you’d like an extra paper doll each week, check out Patreon. It’s a great way to get more paper dolls and support PTP.
