Ligne Claire

Made rebloggable by request!

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:59:40 -0700

Hey! I have a random question that was inspired by those drawings and you are my resident historical fashion expert (and I know NOTHING about this stuff). Were the multi-layered undergarments generally worn in cooler climates? Are there examples of alternate options from the same culture/era for trips or living in warmer areas? I cry at the thought of wearing ALL THAT STUFF in, say, here in CA in the summer. For that matter, do you know why so many layers were the preference in these cultures?

So hotter weather would generally mean thinner fabric, and less layers; women could opt for more breathable cotton undergarments:

…skeleton or mesh corsets:

…and/or lightweight linen/cotton dresses:

…All of which would somewhat relieve the stresses of layering up every morning, if not entirely. :) Lots of activewear and travelwear from the period reflects this sort of thing- way easier to move and sweat in it without getting heat stroke.

I don’t think layers were a preference, per se, so much as they were a necessity to obtain the shaped, inhuman ideal of the period; undergarments kept you from sweating and dirtying your corset, the corset cinches you into shape, the petticoat and corset cover smooth out the lines, etc- they were all ends to a means.

If anyone else has more info on this they are more than welcome to chime in! Lord knows I DESPISE wearing my Steampunk getup at SDCC. So gross.

viivus replied to your photo: So the problem with designing characters who… suddenly I feel...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:05:07 -0700

viivus replied to your photo: So the problem with designing characters who…

suddenly I feel really guilty about my lutece drawings

NEVER FEEL GUILTY, you draw them so welllll! I about lost it when I saw your Professor Layton ones.

So the problem with designing characters who become popular is...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:24 -0700

more like UNDRESSING amirite

No she wouldn't be wearing shoes at this point but I am lazy and didn't want to draw feet WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME

So the problem with designing characters who become popular is that, if you’re a needy bastard like me who tracks the Lutece tags when you’re bored, you’re suddenly exposed to a ton of art of said characters in various states of undress.

I’m not one to discourage this sort of thing- no no, I have sketchbooks full of Remus/Sirius stuff from high school- but I figured I might as well give everyone a leg-up with a more detailed guide to Rosalind Lutece’s potential underthings. I’ve seen a ton of drawings of her in corsets from a good 50 years before her time and I… I needed to step in.

Think of this as a primer! Not a be-all-end-all of Edwardian underthings (heck, I’m still learning this stuff), but it might teach you some new fashion terms/ideas you weren’t previously aware of! Go forth, young padawan, and draw historically-accurate Rosalind porn to your heart’s content.

…I do not know if this counts as fanart or not since I’m the one doing it? Whatever. RESEARCH OR DIE MOFOS

Sorry, I mean what content is in that Myst book? Is it all the text from all the books in the game, or from the strategy guide, or whatnot?

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:33:41 -0700

It’s literally an old book that has been customized to look like a linking book, complete with working panel! All the content is just, well, old book content- a lot of it has been cut out to make room for the mechanics so I haven’t given it a proper read through. :)

Doug (McBride, of Cyan and Rivenguild fame) and I invited Rand...

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:07:35 -0700

Doug (McBride, of Cyan and Rivenguild fame) and I invited Rand Miller out to talk to our team as part of a Microsoft speaker series, and I made a point to have him sign the Myst book replica that Dan made for me.

I am… I am a happy camper.

blahmitzvah asked you: I just wanted to tell you how much I admired your Disney Princesses...

Thu, 16 May 2013 03:14:23 -0700

blahmitzvah asked you:

I just wanted to tell you how much I admired your Disney Princesses series! I really enjoy looking up the fashion of time periods I find super interesting and forcing myself to learn about the ones I don’t (after all, you ought to learn a little about a lot of things, even if you don’t much care for them), so I really appreciate your research and images! (ps have you ever thought about doing one for Katrina Von Tassel?)

Hilariously, yes! I even have some very loose sketches of her costume:

(Okay, definitely a bit late on the Artists’ Alley front...

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:37:00 -0700

(Okay, definitely a bit late on the Artists’ Alley front this year- but WHO AM I to announce that applications are open without a fancy little thematically-appropriate poster? Gotta stick to my guns.)

Steamcon® V - October 25-27 - Seattle, WA

Steamcon® is going into its third year of Artists’ Alley, a place for Steampunk craftspersons to promote their hand-crafted and Steampunk-relevant wares! We know that it can be difficult for smaller-scale artisans to afford or procure a full-blown vendor’s table at conventions, so this is a chance for the less mass-produced artists to get their work out there.

Steamcon® will receive Artists’ Alley applications for review until June 1st, at which point we will begin evaluating & accepting exhibitors until the Artists’ Alley is full. All applicants will be juried, and consideration will be based on applicability of wares, date of receipt and diversity of merchandise available in the Artists’ Alley.

It’s worth noting, for example, that we see a lot of jewelry artisans who work with assembled gears and clock parts. If you’d like to stand out from the crowd of other applicants, your best bet would be to make something that is uniquely yours.
Also note that participation in previous Artists’ Alleys does not guarantee that you will be afforded a space this year. We receive a lot of applications at once, and we want to make sure that the Alley is juried for quality and relevance.

If you wish to participate, please read and fill out the application HERE, and send us photos of your wares by e-mailing them to us at artistsalley@steamcon.org.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to shoot me a note at artists_alley@steamcon.org. We hope to see you in October!

Claire Hummel
Steamcon® V Artists’ Alley coordinator

desdemonia asked: Hi Shoomlah! I’m a huge fan of your work, and I absolutely delight in...

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:53:00 -0700

desdemonia asked:

Hi Shoomlah! I’m a huge fan of your work, and I absolutely delight in Maleficent, so I apologize if I come off as rude with my following question: Is there a particular reason you changed some of Maleficent’s features? I’m thinking specifically here of her prominent nose and chin - was it to blend more with the overall style of the series? Thanks, and sorry again - it’s a gorgeous piece all the same, I’ve just always personally found her original face really interesting.

Oh no, not rude at all! Honestly, I think I wasn’t as worried about her face- my Belle is outstandingly out-of-character and off-model, for instance, so it just hasn’t been as much of a priority for me while working on this series.

Interestingly enough, it is worth noting that Maleficent has two models in the film- young/svelte Maleficent at Aurora’s birth:

…and old/angular Maleficent, during the climax of the film:

For better or for worse I was primarily looking at the former as reference, which might slightly explain the softer features. Not that that’s a legitimate excuse, but there you go. :)

bridgioto: Old West Luke and Leia! I imagine Leia would be a...

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:25:00 -0700

bridgioto:

Old West Luke and Leia! I imagine Leia would be a Mexican princess of sorts…

Coworker/buddy Bridget (CHECK HER OUT) drew up Luke and Leia by way of a Western setting, and badass latina Leia is something I would like to savor for a bit. Kiiiiinda kicking myself that I didn’t think of this first.

FYI the style you're referring to with the slash and puff in your post on dagged sleeves is called landsknecht in case you wanted to look it up. :-)

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:14:33 -0700

So upon an admittedly cursory Googling, it looks like landsknecht is associated with a particular brand of mercenary soldiers who happened to wear flamboyantly slashed sleeves and doublets- so “landsknecht sleeves” would mean making sleeves akin to a landsknecht’s uniform.

Is there any evidence of that term being used to refer to all types of puff-and-slash in medieval/renaissance clothing? All of the books I’ve been paging through while researching Merida/Maleficent/Esmeralda/etc. simply refer to the practice as slashing.

God I love dagged sleeves. Almost as much as I love slashed...

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:50:32 -0700

God I love dagged sleeves. Almost as much as I love slashed ones. I just want to dag and slash everything I can get my hands on.

I’ve wanted Maleficent to be the first villain in the series for a while now, ever since I made the mental leap between Maleficent’s horns and 15th century horned hennins. The time period works out pretty well, actually, since I wanted her to look a little more dated than Aurora’s 1480’s getup- both houppelandes and horned hennins were all the rage during the early- to mid-1400’s, and they make for pretty good analogues to her official costuming. Sexy stuff.

This proves more than any of the previous pieces that these are adaptations, not improvements. I mean, look at the original Maleficent design- how does one improve on PERFECTION

-C

See the rest of the series HERE
Read the FAQ HERE
Buy prints HERE

Late night sneak peek for all y’all night owls! Just...

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:05:00 -0700

Late night sneak peek for all y’all night owls! Just finished up the next historical Disney… Well, not a princess, anyway.

ericafailsatlife: HEY GUYS! I have a KICKSTARTER UP NOW!!! It’s...

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:57:15 -0700

ericafailsatlife:

HEY GUYS! I have a KICKSTARTER UP NOW!!!

It’s for the book Baby’s First Mythos, a lovecraftian children’s book I illustrated a decade ago when I was but a wee high school student. After being in print with Z-Man Games for ten years we got the publishing rights and I’m putting it out myself with entirely new art. GO CHECK IT OUT.

ALL OF THESE LINKS GO TO THE SAME PAGE. I’M JUST EXCITED.

Also, I apologize for the video. I really couldn’t get any video editing software to either download or install. It really was amazing.

The insanely talented Erica Henderson (my buddy/former roommate back at RISD) just started a Kickstarter campaign to redraw and publish an updated version of her Lovecraftian children’s book, Baby’s First Mythos!

The original is out of print and was already cute as hell, so imagine that but with even better art. And extra content. And prints. It’s… Its a pretty great deal.

GO SUPPORT HER SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS

-C

My piece for LTD Art Gallery’s Tentacles show that opened...

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:24 -0700

My piece for LTD Art Gallery’s Tentacles show that opened this weekend! If you’re in the area, definitely worth scoping it out while it’s up.

I haven’t done pyrography/wood burning in any substantial capacity since high school, but I wanted to get away from digital for a bit since I so rarely get to sell originals at shows- this was my compromise where I didn’t have to worry about finding all my paints.

I’ve also been dying to draw a girl in a nautilus-shaped helmet for something like eight years now, so finally MAKING THAT HAPPEN in a real way

Okay I really need to catch up on some sleep

Fri, 03 May 2013 16:05:00 -0700

Okay I really need to catch up on some sleep

Merida to become 11th Disney Princess in royal coronation ceremony at Walt Disney World on May 11 | Inside the Magic

Wed, 01 May 2013 12:12:00 -0700

Merida to become 11th Disney Princess in royal coronation ceremony at Walt Disney World on May 11 | Inside the Magic:

Oh hey, guess who I’m gonna be drawing this month

Claire you are spending too much damn time designing background...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:00:20 -0700

Claire you are spending too much damn time designing background characters who are not the primary focus of this piece

STOP IT

Mukuo's Sketchblog: shoomlah: mukuo: characterdesign101: welcome to character design 101,...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:03:31 -0700

Mukuo's Sketchblog: shoomlah: mukuo: characterdesign101: welcome to character design 101,...:

Mukuo's Sketchblog: shoomlah: mukuo: characterdesign101: welcome to character design 101,...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:52:00 -0700

Mukuo's Sketchblog: shoomlah: mukuo: characterdesign101: welcome to character design 101,...:

shoomlah:

mukuo:

characterdesign101:

welcome to character design 101, where six instances where it hasn’t happened don’t change the fact that disparate stylization does happen and it doesn’t matter because here we (in spite of the rather broad url) largely talk about video…

Character designers are culpable.

To act as if character designers and concept artists are all innocent bystanders is extremely naive- that’s where your argument falls apart.

I know hundreds of character designers out there who’re considered the cream of the crop in both the industry and the community as a whole, but they’re shit at designing women. That means they’re shit at designing roughly 50% of characters. Inexcusable, but they get a free pass, and so the cycle is perpetuated at every stage in the pipeline- concept artists, modelers, ADs, producers and execs should all be held accountable for contributing to the problem.

Not every designer is out there fighting against rampant sexism and racism in game design. Granted, some of us pick our battles so we can like to fight another day, but a lot of designers out there either 1) do not care, or 2) are completely unaware of the problems they’re further prolifierating.

Nitpicking women vs. nitpicking men

And again, you completely missing what I’m saying- I don’t get my male characters picked apart. They’re tweaked, sure, but they’re passed up the chain without nary a word, especially in regards to their sex appeal and fat distribution. Female characters, on the other hand, experience far more deliberation. I am talking months of e-mails sent back and forth, after an equivalent male character was designed in a matter of weeks- even when these characters are based on real people, real human beings who exist and have been 3D scanned, they still end up molding the woman towards some perfect, unattainable ideal.

Sexism isn’t just perpetuated by rapists, racism isn’t just perpetuated by the KKK, and homophobia isn’t just perpetuated by the Westboro baptist church. This shit runs deep, and saying “it’s out of our hands, it’s just marketing so it isn’t a problem we need to address” is a damaging oversimplification.

mukuo: characterdesign101: welcome to character design 101, where six instances where it hasn’t...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 06:59:00 -0700

mukuo:

characterdesign101:

welcome to character design 101, where six instances where it hasn’t happened don’t change the fact that disparate stylization does happen and it doesn’t matter because here we (in spite of the rather broad url) largely talk about video games

There’s far more than six, darling. If you largely talk about video games then why was the character design from the comic book artist anymore valid? I like how you realised you were wrong, and ran back to cut the vastness of your initial complaint. xD

Besides, the orcs and trolls, in WoW are broadly built powerful humanoid females, the dwarf females in Dragon Age: Origins are portly and short. All the females in psychonauts were warped and vastly changed, and all the girls who weren’t princess zelda - the love interest - in all of the Zelda games were these weird vastly different women.

; like I said previously, its not the fault of character design, its simple marketing. Females in games are predominantly the love interests of the male character(s) and are supposed to be attractive to their audience, which is predominantly male.

The male figure isn’t changed much either, honestly. For every fat guy sidekick in the world there’s a fat woman sidekick or some other bodily variant for characterization. The majority of male designs are large shouldered buff guys or small shouldered buff guys, this disparate stylization is definitely something you’re imagining. Males get vastly larger shoulders as much as a female character might get vastly bigger breasts and/or hips which, even if you don’t like it, is stylization.

Both genders are equally kept at safe proportionate formula for marketing purposes, like I said before.

My problem with what you’re saying is that its a specific attack on women. Which it is not, nor is it a problem with character design as a whole.

As someone who works in the industry, your take on this problem is complete bullshit. Also, don’t immediately dismiss discussions of sexual dimorphism in WoW that have been discussed regularly for the past eight years.

So, the games industry examples you cite are (not counting the broken links):

Ellie from Borderlands - created specifically to combat the issue at hand, and a character design already addressed and lauded by the blog you’re arguing with
Shiek, who is very much the exception to the rule as a character couched in androgyny and cross-dressing
Dragon Age: Origins character creation, and modded character creation at that

Look, I have to deal with this nonsense every day. I have to deal with producers and art directors nitpicking a female character’s body to the point of optimum sex appeal. [INSERT FEMALE CHARACTER HERE] is too hippy, her features are too broad, can we make her skin lighter, why isn’t she more feminine, but she should have heels, etc, etc. And I work at a company that is generally pretty good about this sort of stuff! The fact that I still see it, the fact that I go home from work with migraines trying to argue with these people, shows that there’s a significant problem in the industry.

Also, stop parroting OH THE AUDIENCE IS PREDOMINANTLY MALE diatribe. Not. Goddamn. True. Even if that was the case, the idea that everything in the media needs to appeal to a particular group’s personal sexual preferences is just boring, lazy, and irresponsible. I consume a ton of media that doesn’t turn me on, and yet I live to fight another day. Lord knows how I do it.

-Claire, who works at Microsoft for god’s sake. We know the power of good marketing.