Tag: Judy

Judy : Vol. 29, 1881 Plate 5

vol29_05_thumbDigging up Judy, I discovered I actually did have two more plates worth of costumes drawn for this volume.  There were still four more that I had intended, but didn’t draw. The ones that I did, however, I might as well share–even if they aren’t the most glamorous.

The “Paraluna” costume here was rather lovely in Chasemore’s original drawing and included an interesting rectangular parasol. I not only made a hash of the dress itself, but then bailed on the accessory. Not one of my finer moments ~ ha! But I’m trying to post stuff even if it’s not to my (already low) expectations. I remind myself that just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean other people might.

I redrafted the Judy dolls, but I’m kind of torn about replacing them (the new ones are prettier, more delicate, but essentially the same pose). On the one hand it seems silly to trade horses mid-stream, but at the same time, I think the current couple of dolls have had a pretty good run.  New year: new dolls. Seems like a good idea. I was hoping to sort it out over the holiday, but lost the weekend in visiting and enjoying other stuff.

As usual, to find all the plates in this series (and the dolls themselves) click on the Judy tag down below.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

Judy : Vol. 29, 1881 Plate 4

vol29_04_thumbMost of the Judy volumes have at least five plates. So hopefully I’ll do at least one more for Vol. 29.

I like these two costumes because of their rich textures and the black contrasts. These are my favorite kinds of Judy costumes to draw. I was talking about baroque tastes in a previous post and yep: there you have it.

This is part of why 19th century styles appeal to me so much. 18th century clothing was obviously even more opulent, but also less practical (not that the Victorians were very practical-minded in some of their couture). But those insane dresses of the mid-to-late 1700s are too much for me. I like a slimmer silhouette and fewer bows. Trim, dense patterns, and opulent jewelry I can dig, but too many flowers and bows and I get a bit nauseated.

I tend to get lazy with Judy and don’t work on her for months. Then I’ll sit down on an afternoon and draw a whole volume’s worth of costumes. Maybe that’s what I’ll do over the Thanksgiving holiday.

As usual, to find all the plates in this series (and the dolls themselves) click on the Judy tag down below.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

Judy : Vol. 29, 1881 Plate 3

vol29_03_thumbWe’re having Judy Tuesday on a Thursday!  Aw, why not; the continuity with this volume was completely shot long ago, so who cares what day we pick it up on again, right? See: chaos.  emoji_wink

The important thing is that Judy’s back!  And I have a couple of plates to carry us forward. Ironically, when I left off it was spring and I was drawing fall/winter costumes. Now the dates kind of align! Well, almost. Let’s call it fate.

I’m thinking of freshening up the dolls for this series. Maybe not changing the post, but I feel like the face are kind of schwein-ish (how did I never not notice that before?). I’m pretty sure I can do better.

I’ll finish this volume before I make any decisions on that, however, so in the meantime, enjoy! I really love the tall peaked hood and acorns on the October dress. I have no idea what the other one is supposed to be, but the boutonniere is fun!

As usual, to find all the plates in this series (and the dolls themselves) click on the Judy tag down below.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

Judy : Vol. 29, 1881 Plate 2

Judy 19th Century paper dollsJudy Tuesday brings you a mix of sporting and visiting (?) attire today with a fancy shooting outfit for flushing partridge in the “Moors” apparently, as well as rather noisy costume of a variety of patterns called the “Gadabout”.  Gadabout is one of those old-fangled words that unfortunately, has fallen out of usage. It was used to refer to people of somewhat hedonistic predispositions who spent all their time and energy lunching and gossiping and showing off their finery (so basically, the Kardashians).

I actually love the Moors costume. I imagine the black contrasts to be velvet and I love the long gaiters with all the buttons. I would totally wear this outfit.

Judy’s gadabout ensemble, on the other hand is kind of a horror: a nightmare of lace and patterns designed to draw attention. I’m frankly surprised the hat wasn’t more outrageous.

As usual, to find all the plates in this series (and the dolls themselves) click on the Judy tag down below.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

 

Judy : Vol. 29, 1881 Plate 1

Judy paper dollsWe have a brand new volume for Judy Tuesday starting today: Volume 29 from 1881. It’s a bit of leap from Vol. 25, but I did do a couple volumes in between with the older dolls. Now that I’m done playing “pick-up” with the lost volumes, everything from here on out should be relatively chronological.

The “Camp” costume is pretty simple, but I really love it and had fun drawing the whorls. I find I like the Judy costumes that have more contrast and this one has a nice balance. The “Apollo” was quite beautiful in Chasemore’s original rendition, but I’m afraid I made a hash of it. And this was my second attempt ~ it’s the only Judy costume I’ve actually redrawn because my first go at it was dreadful.

I confess that in the end, I just settled. And don’t even ask me how one is supposed to cut out that crazy sunburst hair dressing!

As usual, to find all the plates in this series (and the dolls themselves) click on the Judy tag down below.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

Judy : Vol. 25, 1879 Plate 5

Judy 19th Century paper dollFor Judy Tuesday we have the final plate for Vol. 25. I really enjoyed drawing these two (though that hand on the “Princess Royale” is a bit of a brutish paw).

I really try not to fuss too much about the Judy plates. If I get too hung up on perfection, they’ll just bog down (like some of my other series have ~ ha!).

My personal favorites of this series continue to be the ones with interesting patterns or detailing. Sometimes they can be a pain to render–I just finished one for Vol. 29 that’s got a lot of horizontal and vertical lines, which are hard for me to draw these days; just can’t draw a straight line to save my life anymore and I’ve never liked the absolute precision of a ruler.

But anyway, say goodbye to the 1870s! We’ll be mostly firmly entrenched in the 1880s from here on out with Judy.

As usual, to find all the plates in this series (and the dolls themselves) click on the Judy tag down below.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

 

 

Judy : Vol. 25, 1879 Plate 4

Judy 19th Century paper dollJudy Tuesday brings you weird sporting wear from 1879! It’s highly doubtful anyone in 1879 ever wore anything so gaudy unless they were in the circus or doing burlesque, but if we think of Chasemore’s designs as poking fun of trends in fashion, who knows what hideous thing in Paris might have inspired either of these pajama-looking atrocities. Of course, to a modern eye they’re probably not so awful (or at least not shocking in any way).

Either way the Ladies’ Football costume strikes me as especially hideous with that crazy mix of patterns. I can only imagine Chasemore was also visually commenting on how ridiculous women in sports were by suggesting such an eyesore getup.

One more plate from this volume next week and then we leap forward (appropriately since this is a Leap Year and it’s Leap Month) to Volume 29!

As usual, to find all the plates in this series (and the dolls themselves) click on the Judy tag down below.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

 

Judy : Vol. 25, 1879 References

Vol25_AugustPage2It occurs to me that I’ve never shared any of Chasemore’s original art throughout the Judy series and I wanted to take a moment to recognize that in some small way. My renditions of the costumes are pretty accurate, but nowhere near as charming, and to see the costumes in context of the pages on which they appeared may give you some idea of the artist’s sense of marginalia-like whimsy.

Apologies that the pictures are on the small side. I wanted to make sure to include the whole page so you could get a sense of the layout, etc.

This first image shows the “Holiday Time” costume from Volume 25, which I just posted on Tuesday. “Holiday Time” is actually the name of a poem for which Chasemore has drawn this collage of characters. You can see I omitted details like the walking stick and fan (I often skip the fans ~ so many fans!). The face and silhouette is typical of Chasemore’s regular fashion series, which you can see in the next image, of the “Bird of Passage” bathing suit.

Vol25_AugustPageThis is the typical layout of the page on which the fashions usual appear toward the back of the periodical. On this page each week, there’s usually an editorial “Our Weekly One”, sometimes overflow text from a story, and often some other collection of vignettes and humorous drawings, one of which is the “Fashion of the Week”. The series began as a doodle off in the corners of the page (clearly as filler), but you can see by Vol. 25, the feature had gained prominence. This particular page shows an unusually large image compared to others in the same volume, but this scale is to become the norm within the next few years, as “Fashion of the Week” assumed the focal point of the page in terms of the art. It clearly must have appealed to the readers of Judy.

I know I’ve said it before, but this really is a fun set to draw. Chasemore’s linework makes it so easy to replicate and he does such great easy things with very basic textures and frills. I’ve learned a lot about the power of suggestion with well-placed lines. I wish my Judy dolls had appropriately delicate feet as his models do; I drew them too big and never corrected them.

I’ll try now and then to share more resource images from this series because Chasemore deserves credit and they are pretty cool to look at. Also, it would be fun to share some of the designs I don’t pick to reproduce for the paper dolls, just so you can see some of the artist’s other stuff.

 

Judy : Vol. 25, 1879 Plate 3

Vol25_03_thumbJudy Tuesday here with another plate from Volume 25, which ran from July to December in 1879.  These two particular outfits were featured in the month of August and include (as previously promised) a funny bird head hat. Given that it’s a bathing costume, it almost makes sense since it could be a tightly-fit cap that’s almost sort of aerodynamic for swimming. No?

The Holiday Time costume was something fun that was in the margins (not part of Chasemore’s actual “series”), but this volume was low on costumes I wanted to reproduce, so I teased this one out for inclusion.

I guess I should mention, in case it’s not obvious: I am picking and choosing which costumes I’m drawing out of many. In these early volumes there aren’t as many good choices so I’m only filling about 5 plates. In the 1880s there are a lot more to choose from as Chasemore got more fanciful with his designs.

In the meantime, enjoy this weird bird thing and the holiday costume with the jingle bells. To find all the plates in this series (and the dolls themselves) click on the Judy tag down below.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]

Judy : Vol. 25, 1879 Plate 2

Vol25_02_thumbJudy Tuesday brings us some more whimsical stylings from the 19th century.  These two Wimbledon costumes illustrate the contrast between “civilized” Britain and the great untamed wilderness of Canada. My favorite thing is the fringed moccasins on the Canadian costume. I also rather enjoyed making the woolly hat and trim on that particular costume.

The British costume is less interesting, but I do like the hat and the fact that the rifle doubles as an umbrella.

I’m sure these costumes were making some commentary about the relationship between Britain and Canada at the time. Canada has fairly recently become a Confederation and relations back and forth “across the pond” were fraught with city vs. frontier mentalities.

Three more plates from Vol. 25 are forthcoming. Next week I promise another very silly hat.

To find all the plates in this series (and the dolls themselves) click on the Judy tag down below.

[Click this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of these costumes]