Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas! I've been working on my proposal for a Costume History Graphic novel for McFarland & Company, Inc. and another project for EZ Comics. Since I can't post from either of those, I might as well post some old stuff.

These are two pages I worked on last year for the Little Mermaid adaptation I was working on. That project has been shelved for now but I'll eventually go back to it. (The first one is inspired by Hokusai's "Great Wave")

it's my birthday!

Yay! I'm 23 ^.^ I don't have much prepped to post but I did finish this the other day.

I based it off of the masquerade costumes of the 1910s-1920s. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Rebecca Rolfe

I had a random desire to paint someone historical. I don't even like the Commonwealth period but Rebecca Rolfe was pretty awesome so it was worth it ^.^ Paint Tool Sai. I went texture hunting around the house yesterday for a commission I've been working on so I used some of those.

Rococo dance

Finally! I finished this thing! It's not as long as I had intended and the music version is pretty cropped but now I have working puppets in Rococo fashion.

Masquerade

This took me a lot longer than I expected and I keep changing my mind on how I feel about it but overall, I'm please enough with it to show it here.

This one isn't signed because I'm selling 25 prints, each individually signed and numbered, on Etsy. Once I find the right frame, I'll sell the currently signed original too. As stated in the previous post, this is a costume design based on Georgian fashion (think Moliere to Marie Antoinette, also referred to as Rococo. It's what Europe was doing when the U.S. was in it's Colonial period). I took some artistic license and simplified the style some. This is 5" x 7" on watercolor paper.

Masque WIP

I'm running late for class so I'll actually describe this piece when it's done. I was having a "wow, my hands and my artsy brain are totally in sync" moment while working on this.

This is going to be absolutely adorable when it's done and I'm going to sell prints of it online.
To my fellow costume buffs out there, yes that is a French gown. It needed to happen.

Scan-n-Stitch

So apparently my scanner is made of magic. It can look at a picture and stitch it all together. Kinda epic.
I tested it on Timeline, since its a large piece that I'm proud of. It also received my highest number of favorites on deviantART so I've been wanting to get a higher quality picture digitized.
Clearly not perfect but I just started using it and it still works a lot better than what I've been doing so far. The corners got cut off a bit but the line quality is completely intact and the color quality is dead-on. Thank you Epson :D

I'm working on a storyboard for my final class tomorrow night so hopefully I can do something about posting that soon. Also, I'm attempting to go back and scan my costume designs by year and semester so I can post them without breaking the bank.

Timeline

It's about time I put this up. While being able to use the scanner was awesome, some compression or something happened during the saving process and all the colors got messed up. This was the best I could do to get it looking like the original. Looks like I might end up having to go to Kinko's after all. -.-
This was for a creative project in my History of Costume course about a year ago. I absolutely adored this class and this project. We had to combine costume history and our other academic interests so I set up my timeline as a sort of animation on a reflection of women's rights through history. Ancient Egypt through Greeks are both very submissive since women were given little to no rights then. In the Medieval times, women were slightly more elevated through religion because of a pious woman's relationship to the Virgin Mary, women saints, etc. Elizabeth I during the English Renaissance is the first to open her eyes and look forward to a more powerful role for women in society. The Georgian woman is turned away from progress but is looking ahead (since Humanism was gaining popularity but wasn't applied to women). The Crinoline period is what Americans consider the Frontier period as well which was a powerful time for pioneering women. In the Late Victorian era, women began to dress in styles inspired by men's clothing and it was becoming more acceptable for a woman to work. As much as I love the 50s, women definitely looked back at "the good ol' days" a little too fondly. Modern women are becoming so empowered that I had the final figure walk right off the page.
The figures are pencil, watercolor, and colored pencil and the background is metallic gold acrylic paint (stupid paige).

oh man

Lots of changes in Halseyland (that sounds better than Paigeland I think). I'm back from Italy, which is sad but also nice because I was actually getting kinda homesick. Italy was absolutely AMAZING. Not a whole lot of artwork got done while there but I got some great pictures and some reference material for future pieces so yay!
After a few days in Massachusetts, I drove up to the new apartment in Vermont. I'm still not fully moved in and my place doesn't have internet as of yet but at least I have a bed now (believe me, this is a big accomplishment). I can't promise how frequently I'll be posting but I'll do my best.
As for the princess series, I'm currently working on Belle (although I'm not sure about her time period and I may redo her someday) and researching Pocahontas. I'm really liking Pocahontas and Tiana best since it's really obvious WHEN they take place. For Belle, it could have been anywhere from 1770s-1790s or 1820s-1830s, which is frustrating. I went with the 1820s since I did Cinderella as Late Georgian. (Plus, that yellow dress is SO Crinoline period!)
Sadly, no new artwork today since I'm on the computer at work. I'll try and get Belle up soon, she's currently being inked.

JASMINDA!!

There! It's officially a series now! (phew) two is a coincidence but three, three shows intent, it shows purpose, it shows that I not just playing dress-up with some childhood heroes (ok, that last one is still true but at least it's a little more legitimate now). I picked Jasmine (Aladdin, 1992)because of my friend, Gina's, nickname. We were joking around with Disney quotes and she said her favorite was how the Sultan announces Jasmine's full name. She was particularly tough to do for a number of reasons. First of all being, I don't really know too much about Eastern and Middle Eastern costume history. It was fun doing the research about it but without a specific time or location (reasons two and three), I didn't really have two much to jump off from. I decided the best time was the explosion of math and discovery in the Middle East, which happened during the Western Dark Ages. This didn't narrow it down very much and because of the whole "don't draw people" thing in a lot of Islamic art, it was tough finding any sort of reference picture, especially of women. I also didn't want to resort to putting her in the stereotypical belly-dancing outfit, I knew I could find a piece that was elegant and beautiful but was neither underwear nor a burqa. I was about to give her an Indian sari when I considered Persian fashions. Lo and behold, I found a traditional dress that was exactly what I was looking for. Hopefully, I did Jasmine justice and I didn't annoy anyone too badly (either with my choices or with this incredibly long post.) Please let me know what you think.

Also, I think this is my last post for a little while (unless I put something old up tomorrow) as I'm jetsetting to the Riviera (no, really! how awesome is that!?). I completely intend to keep going with this series when I get back. [Belle, as requested by f3m413, then Pocahontas in Commonwealth and Mulan in Sui Dynasty.] I'll also have a ton of new artwork from Italy! See you then!

cinderelly cinderelly

I can't wait to do more of these. When I was little I loved Cinderella so much, I used to pretend my name was 'Cinderella' (much to my sister's embarrassment). It was tough pinpointing a time period for Disney's Cinderella because of it's strong 1950s aesthetic. The solitaire ribbon she wears in her princess gown and the different silhouettes in the court scene look like it would be roughly Late Georgian (think Marie Antoinette). With a combination of 1950s and Late Georgian (my two favorite costume eras), how could I not adore "Cinderella"?