More Downton Abbey Costume Sketches

Little Reminder: Every Tuesday at 6 pm PST I’ll be painting live via Google+. This week I’m previewing the Birds On Branch. Hope you’ll drop by! (If you’re not on Google+, you can watch it here on the blog.)

If you saw my post yesterday with the first Downton Abbey costume sketch then you saw these three gowns unfinished. You knew I couldn’t leave them unfinished for long, right? Not after watching the first episode of Season 3 last night!

Since I had the color laid down on all three, it really didn’t take too long to add the detailing.

This is a beautiful gown Lady Edith wore in Season 1. Ahh. Poor Lady Edith.

But I digress.

Starting out, I tried to make this a very pale watercolor illustration.

To get the mauve-rose shade, I added a tinge of “Sonoma Wine” to “Harbor Mist”.

It wasn’t long before I realized I was losing the “watercolor” effect.

The “apron” stayed light enough but I got carried away with shading on the underskirt. *sigh

It happens.

I recently discovered that some markers I’ve had for a few years are water-based which excited me to no end. When I found one fairly close in color, I just made some scribbles to represent the delicate appliques.

Not so delicate-looking though.

Then I tried taking a damp paintbrush to soften the marks.

Meh.

Next I grabbed the fine tip black Sharpie.

Hmm. Okay.

Since the underskirt was already too opaque I added some white highlights on the folds and just a few dots on the edge trim.

It’s so much fun – not knowing what I’m doing, trying different things, and seeing what happens. It’s what I’ve always loved about painting. It’s like a giant puzzle and you don’t know what picture you’ll get with all of the pieces.

This is Lady Mary. Lady Mary has the most gorgeous wardrobe. In my opinion, that is.

But it’s hard to find full length shots of the costumes.

And then I found this shot. Oh, I see! It’s a sheath over the long skirt.

More appliques.

sheesh.

Just one color, diluted with water. I added layers to get the shading but tried to keep it watercolor-y.

Rather than messing around with the water-based markers, I just grabbed the black Sharpie. Doodles = appliques.

At least, until I find some other method.

Now, yesterday I mentioned that these fashion sketches are just for fun, right? So I was all ready to just leisurely doodle away the day and let my mind wander to England. Then I took a break. And got the mail. And got an invitation. To a baby shower. For my nephew and his wife!

My mind began reeling creating. My nice leisurely afternoon turned into a how-fast-can-I-get-these-done-so-I-can-paint-something-for-the-baby afternoon.

And you know what? That kinda turns out to be a good “method” for illustrating.

But I had one more costume to finish due to the fact that I’m so cheap resourceful and had sketched all three gowns on one sheet of 18 x 24” watercolor paper.

Lady Grantham. The only American in the lot. (We love Elizabeth McGovern’s portrayal of Cora. She’s wonderful.) Don’t you love her stocking feet? I don’t think that was part of the show, although I have no idea why she has no shoes on.

I love this suit because of the black applique work. But I knew it’d be hard to capture the cream tones on a white background.