Tag: 1870s

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]

Judy : Vol. 25, 1879 Plate 1

Today we begin a new volume for Judy Tuesday! Vol25_01_thumb

Volume 25 takes us back a year to 1879 and features more “sedate” costuming than the later volumes. Even so, here are some fancy hats and fans to start with. If there’s symbolism in the carafe and the eye on the fan, I have no idea what it might be. But I do love the butterfly-looking fascinator.

No clue whatsoever how the other one represents a “mid-summer” costume, but again, the costumes seem to get more literal later on the years. These early ones sometimes just seem to reflect fashionable (and/or laughable) trends in dress.

[Click on this link or the image to download a printable .pdf of this plate]

Note: I know I said I was going to post something about Star Wars last week (and a related paper doll on Sunday), but things got weird and I mothballed my original plan (it’s a long story). So now I’m in the process of rethinking what to do with it.

I’ll post more on that tomorrow.