These are initial sketches. At first, I thought I'd try to design the coat, the iconic appearance of the princess in Donkeyskin, and also decide whether the coat would literally involve a donkey's skin as the head. However, when I had trouble visualising the coat, it struck me that I could try the design process a different way.
I own a number of old How-To-Draw books, and one which is particularly well-loved is "How To Draw Magical Girls" by Chris Hart. "Magical Girls" is a genre of Manga and Anime, which features a young (usually 10 - 18) girl who gains magical abilities, which usually include a transformation into a glamorous Magical Girl form. In this book, the author advises the reader to design the magical girl first, and design her ordinary appearance afterwards. This helps the artist establish the character, and means that they are less likely to go too far with the magical design, to the point where it looks ridiculous.
Because of this, I decided to do some preliminary sketches of the three dresses from Donkeyskin. These were mostly just me deciding on a theme for the three of them, what kind of fashion I wanted this fantasy kingdom to have. I tried out several ideas, icluding:
a dress inspired by the fashion of the Regency era in England, such as the setting of the work of Jane Austen.
Stereotypical, vague "fairytale" dresses, not particularly based on an era. I, in the comments written on the page, made a jab at the fact that I felt one looked an awful lot like the dress worn by Odette, the main character in "The Swan Princess".
And, finally, a dress based on the stereotypical "Southern Belle", similar to the women in "Gone With the Wind".
I like the Regency dress best, and I feel it works with it's theme the best out of them, so I will be doing more sketches of the various dresses featured in Donkeyskin using the Regency style. Even so, I very much like the Southern Belle dress, and may be considering filing it away for use elsewhere in the future.
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