I managed to get these scanned sooner than anticipated, so here we have (well before Friday!) two new costumes for Judy that you can download and color.

After scouring the earlier volumes of the serial from which these costumes originate, I discovered a few scattered through Volume 25 which I may pick up to add here, but the "costume of the week" feature really didn't seem to be fully established until Volume 28 or so; but don't worry ~ there is a veritable trove of material to work from given the long-running status of the journal.

Some of the almanacs also have wonderful outfits which I may also use. I think you can be safely assured that I won't run out of Judy material any time soon. Many of these early costumes are somewhat conventional, but trust me, they get a lot weirder and wilder as the years go by (the artist, A. Chasemore, clearly had fun with this).

Click to download the .pdf!

Visit the Gallery to see the new plates. I have been really behind in the posting of updates, so there's not much new (James' outfit in four pieces shown assembled here). I have a coat and bonnet for Emmaline as well, but it didn't fit on the plate (so: next time).

The really good news is that I have been working on all manner of paper doll stuff for the last two weeks. The bad news is I haven't been sharing any of it yet! I am in the process of getting a new computer and scanner, so my world is a little topsy turvy at the moment, but presumably will run a lot smoother once everything is in place. Anticipating a new system in early February. It had to be done ~ I am rather tired of struggling with this poor old thing.

For whatever reason I have been struggling with these plates too. I think my mind is a bit unfocused, but that's pretty typical at the beginning of a New Year, so hopefully I will get into a groove. I am definitely getting better at letting go of some of my horrid perfectionism. Now I just need to work on my color palette (could I possibly use more yellow???). I may not have anything very bold for the next two plates, but I will try to splash a little more variation in color where I can (if I can). I am still apparently very myopic in the realm of color. I am working on a project to try to help with that.

Also, more Judy to come. Lots more! I will be sure to post her by Friday at the latest.

Perhaps the best way to post these interim pictures (before the plates are uploaded) is to show the clothing on the doll as it is supposed to fit. I am still completely disorganized when it comes to posting, but I'd rather post disorganized than not post at all.

Emmaline's traveling dress went through about 187 permutations and I am still not entirely happy with it, but once again, it's an exercise in "get over it and move on". My goal since last year (and topping my list this year) is to quit over-thinking everything and reaching for impossible perfection; just create, pop things off into the world and keep on creating. So far this has worked wonderfully. I have been very productive despite my inner-critic.

After doing this for so many years, I can see measurable improvement and that is encouraging. Even if I am not 100% crazy about this dress, I like it 100 times more than the dress I painted for her the last time ~ and in another year or so, whatever dress I am working will be even all that much better.

While RLC is gearing up to meet the challenge of creating a male paper doll for her blog this year (grin), I thought I would also likewise challenge myself to do something I've been wanting to do inspired by her Paper Thin Personas: draw a black & white doll that you can download to color.

Some background: from 1867 to 1907, a weekly periodical by the name Judy; or the London serio-comic journal was published. One of its regular cartoonists was A. Chasemore, who drew the "Fashion for the week". This illustration was generally a fantasy concoction; nothing anyone would have really worn except perhaps in a theatrical or masquerade ball. The costumes were sometimes allegorical, sometimes political, and mostly just whimsical. And since they were drawn in ink and published in black & white, sky's the limit on the color interpretations!

The model for the outfits was just an "everywoman" but I have taken the liberty of naming her after the publication. Judy the magazine, of course, was a competing journal to the much more popular Punch.

Since I am posting plates for Reconstruction every two weeks, I will try to post Judy in between. My access to the Judy journal is all over the map, so I am not drawing her outfits in any particular order. I started with Volume 26 by pure randomness. It was the first volume that I was able to absolutely confirm the "Fashion for the week" illustration, but I may find it started before. In fact, I skipped the January 14th issue by accident and will go back to pick it up in the next post.

Click the image to download the .pdf. I haven't decided yet whether I will build Judy her own gallery. We'll see how she goes.

The plates I am making for plates I will post on January 22 include Morse, so I thought I would try to get ahead and finish his first bits of wardrobe. I made the mistake of posing this character in a way that makes it a little difficult to layer his outfits and alter the position of his hands, but I am working on ways around that. In the meantime, it's a typical pose for him, so it works, regardless what he's wearing.

This should not have taken me as long as it did, but I made some huge sloppy mistakes with the layers (despite my lightbox), so it required a lot of Photo-shopping to correct (alas). The good news is, the pieces should work together fine now.

The other difficulty with Mister Morse is his infernal collection of purple vests. Purple is the absolutely most wretched color to mix, keep consistent, and paint. Most pre-mixed purples are not very good (and look like no color known to nature), so I feel like I have to make my own. Fortunately the end result doesn't look nearly like I struggled with it as much as I did. Now let's see how many variations on the purple vest I can manage.  This one is pretty simple because I was exhausted from just getting the color to layer.

The base outfit on the left, above, pretty much represents what Morse will wear for the rest of his life (ha!). We shall see how many more pairs of trousers I have to end up painting for him, though (certainly his war uniforms will offer some variety ~ at least for a while).

I have been fighting mightily with my internet connection (hence the silence), but I finally managed to get the plates posted (almost up-to-date). So check out the gallery, download, and enjoy!

In the meantime, I am working on more stuff. The 1st Christmas Annual has been posted to the Reconstruction site (yay!), and the first issue is due to be posted this coming Sunday. I'm having a hard time coordinating the plates with the series at the moment ~ too many plates and not enough series presently, but I think it will gradually even out.

I'm excited about many new things to share very soon! Happy New Year!