The Village of Flowers

It's very important to me that Carrie Hanaurie's original home feel like a real place with its own history and culture. So I began playing around with the idea of the dress being a kind of special festival clothing based on the theme of flowers (hence the title). Perhaps a celebration of spring or coming of age and such.

Each girl will be adorned with a flower that acts as a family/personal emblem. At the moment we just have the basic design without the flower embellishments (I'll add them in a later post). 

Hanaurie            Blankwytt         Luvokeur          Yaustier                 Anafier
Chrysanthemum         Daisy            Rose Red          Rose White         Lavender  

Essentially this is just a good practice with colour combination (an area I believe is not my strong suit, especially with these kinds of bright primary colours). Personally I'm pleased and it was quite fun playing around with each individual's design. I hope that a little bit of each individual character comes through with a sense that these were likely her fellow playmates. Who knows? I may feature them a little more in depth later...

I have no idea what the boys would wear and this sort of bugs me. If it were some kind of festival a more gender-neutral clothing would be more fitting. Maybe the boys can wear dresses too :D!

Cheltenham Illustration Awards

The Cheltenham illustration awards...

Break the Cutie

Hardly, but the occasional guilt of this makes me feel otherwise...

Astonishingly Carrie did not always live in the Dark Woods. Since this does indeed come up and play a part in the story I'm taking the time to go into it now.

If it wasn't already obvious, the way I design my characters is purposeful. Carrie wears an adult man/woman's work coat that is entirely too big for her over a little girls dress that has become too small (obvious symbolism is obvious) but where did the dress come from?

My previous attempts at something sickeningly girly yet also plain and typical were, frankly, so terrible I refuse to allow them to see the light of day. I realize looking back that there was probably some pieces of my childhood that influences this backstory and the need for something that fit that criteria.

But now I feel the need for something else. So here's to the new design:

Carrie Hanauri: Past

Carrie Hanaury: Present and as cheery as ever!

While I'm personally quite pleased with the dress I'm a little worried that it may be... a little bit too...which I suppose is essentially what I was going for... but...

Heidi?