Renaissance Girl

What do these two pictures have in common?

(It looks like these two ladies are looking at this young woman and wondering why she is dressed like a man.)

I will tell you what they have in common.  Isn't that good of me?

I have been learning about Renaissance costume in school and I had to make a contemporary, viable design based on an element of Renaissance fashion. Even though I had a pretty good speech planned out in my head, and a few notes to work from, my presentation only lasted about 30 seconds.  At most.  I probably said about an eighth of what I'd thought of. (Note to self:  write down your presentation.) Still, I got a perfect score and lots of really good comments. 

Anyway, this is how my presentation should have gone:

This painting (below) called "Two Courtesans," was made by Vittore Carpaccio who lived during the Renaissance period from 1465 to 1525. You can see this painting in the Museo Correr in Venice, Italy. Judging from their dress, which appears to be velvet and is embellished with embroidery and pearls, these are two wealthy women.  I'd like to draw your attention to their sleeves.  You will see that the sleeves have slashings in them, which means that they have open areas in the outer dresses where they could show off their beautiful, fine camicias (or chemises). As a display of wealth and power they would pull the camicia through the slashing and puff it out so that people could see all of their finery.

My Renaissance Girl (below) wears an ocean-blue tunic with slashed sleeves.  The slashing is emphasized by goldenrod trim and rusty-pumpkin ties; she wears a goldenrod belt with a gold flower-designed buckle.  You can see her shirt—which is made of heavy, crocheted lace in coffee color—through the slashings in the tunic sleeves.  She completes her outfit with rusty-pumpkin leggings and slouchy suede boots in goldenrod.

So now you've been educated a little in Renaissance fashion.  As I said, I got lots of really positive comments on my design, and even on my very short presentation. Someone was impressed that I used the same color palette as the painting, but not the exact same colors (unintentional); the teacher liked how my sleeves echoed the drape of the handkerchief in the hand of one of the women (completely unintentional!). They gave me credit for more smarts than I really used.

I am quite pleased with my drawing.  This is the first time I've tried to make a croquis in color with some detail/shading in her face.  (In fact, this is the first time I've drawn my own croquis; usually I just trace one and draw my design onto it.) I'm not excited by the bumpy crayola look of the pencils, but next week in Illustration we are learning about using color, so maybe I'll find out how to smooth that out.

School is going pretty well this semester!