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

1. Yup it was an April Fool’s joke, I’ve had the idea for a solid year and have been BITING my TONGUE
2. No there are not actully any foxglove motifs, you are not crazy, stop looking for them
3. What have I done now a ton of you are asking for an actual historical Marian
4. I am just digging this hole deeper and deeper

A lot of people have been asking about Maid Marian, so I figured I might as well give her a shot- a bit tougher when you’re looking at clothing on anthropomorphic animals, of course, but there are still a couple of details that point to the 15^th century- the cut of the dress, the ears disguised as a horned hennin headdress, the bag sleeves, etc.  I still tried to maintain the relatively simple silhouette of Marian’s dress, just with added period details- making it more of a houppelande by design, and resolving the v-shaped neckline to show the kirtle underneath.

Also really wanted to hide some foxglove motifs in the lining of the gown- it’s subtle, but I think it really ties the whole design together.

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

I get the question a lot, and it’s a tough one to answer- so many options, and a lot of my answers just end up being “anywhere other than generic medieval Europe.” More specifically:

• historical or ancient Hawai’i (seeing how Lilo & Stitch did modern Hawai’i so well)- Liliuokalani’s reign is really powerful, but the myths and legends are just as amazing.
• Inuit/Inupiat/Yupik cultures, modern or historical
• any point of time in the American West
• Mexico/Central America during height of the Aztec empire
• India (that isn’t just “Arabia” masquerading as India, á la Aladdin)
• ancient Egypt
• The Wodaabe!  The Gerewol festival is just gorgeous and facinating.
• any time period that would involve Mongolian fashion and wrestling because it is all AMAZING

More than anything this is just a list of places I’d like to see stories/films about, regardless of whether or not it’s done by Disney. Any time or place can lend itself to being an animated movie, honestly, it’s just up in the air as to whether or not Disney would treat the subject matter with dignity. Lilo & Stitch always gets my hopes up in that regard, but here’s hoping it wasn’t a fluke.

-C

Finally updated Pocahontas!  I don’t think this is what people were expecting as the next entry in the series, but some of the criticisms of my first design have been eating away at me for years now and I needed to get off my ass and address them.

So hey!  Spunky age-appropriate Pocahontas/Matoaka, sans feathers in the hair/European imagery/other superfluous details.  This is closer to accounts and illustrations of Powhatan dress from the period, and I kinda think it’s closer to the Disney design anyway. WIN/WIN.

Thanks to everyone who’s educated my ass over the past couple of years, including moniquill, apihtawikosisan, this-is-not-native, and numerous others.  You’ve made me a way more thoughtful artist in the process. :)

-C

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

Hey, guys, finally updated the wallpaper set to include Megara!  Only seven months after I drew her.  It…  It has been a busy year, good god damn.

Predictably, I’m heading back to SDCC this year! I’m not going to be manning any tables this time around, unfortunately, but I will be wandering around for the entirety of the con from Wednesday through Sunday. I might be dressed as Poison Ivy on Friday, but I’ll definitely be dressed up as a post-apocalyptic/battle-ready Ivy on Saturday, in the vein of the DCU online trailer.

If anyone’s wearing Historical Disney Princess cosplay to the con this year (or any other cosplay of my art, for that matter), I’d love to run into you/fawn over you/take way too many pictures of you. I’ll try to update twitter with my whereabouts during the weekend, so that would probably be the best way to get a hold of me on the fly.

I just really want to see you guys in person!  You make my heart go all a-flutter when you post cosplay.

Hope to see some of you guys there,

-C

Y’all are AMAZING.  TwilaTee just sent me a link to her dress diary for her Snow White cosplay, and it’s pretty intense to see my scribbly embroidery designs so accurately realized in an actual costume.

If I ever do an art book collecting my princesses, I’d love the chance to include all of the outstanding costumes that people are making as well- they blow me away.

Adding this to ye olde FAQ, as I get asked this question a lot.

What specific references were you looking at while designing Jasmine’s costume?

Racinet’s plates were a primary source of inspiration, along with paging through sites about Persian miniature painting and middle eastern clothing terminology. Searching for this sort of information becomes a lot easier when you have some vague idea of what you’re looking for.

Problematic though that final Jasmine piece may be, this is at least a great starting point for period Persian fashion.

The lovely Sara Katz-Scher hit me up for an interview a few weeks back and, after some editing on my part so I don’t come across as a complete doofus via Skype, the article’s finally up for your perusal over at OfficialCosplay.com.  Definitely check it out if you’re interested in me rambling on about, quite predictably, cosplay and my historical Disney princesses.

-C

There have been a FLOOD of new Historical Disney princess cosplayers over the last few days, and I’ve been absolutely floored by all of them.  I’ve started a Pinterest board to help myself keep track, and I’d love to be able to find out who some of you are so I’m not blindly spreading your image all over the internet. :)

OH MAN I AM SO PROUD you are all just perfect

Finally moving on to the unofficial Disney ladies with Megara! So fantastically simple to research, just put her in a simple doric chiton and spent most of my time researching fabric colours and patterns to see what I could get away with. It kinda looks like she killed Hercules and took his helmet? I’m okay with that.

-C

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

Shoomlah.com Store Update!

• Historical Disney Princesses - COMPLETE PRINT SET
  I’ve finally finished ordering the 4 x 6” postcards for the remaining princesses, so you can now purchase the entire set of Historical Disney Princess prints with one easy click.  I’ve also added a 15% discount when you buy them as a set, since it’s waaaay easier for me to pack and ship them that way. :)
• Tiny Horuses
  I have four (4) Tiny Horus statues left, so I should be posting those up in the store in the next few days once I figure out a fair price.  Stay tuned!

-C