Thursday 26 April 2012

A dress made out of masking tape!

I came across this amazing creation... a dress made entirely out of masking tape!!! It was made by a 17yr old American student called Esther Boller. She entered it into a competition and unsurprisingly won a Gold Award!! You can read about what inspired her to do it here! It took her 80 hours and she used 15 rolls of masking tape! I'd love to get my students to do something like this - pretty unbelievable!

Paolo Roversi - a genius photographer!


I didn't realise that one of my all time favourite photographers has had an exhibition in London at the Wapping Project since February (link here). It's on until this weekend but unfortunately there's no chance I'll get down there before it ends! I have the picture above in my spare room. I was lucky to see one of his exhibitions a few years ago but I would love to see his more recent work. There's something about black and white photography & the use of striking female models that I just adore!


Wednesday 25 April 2012

Somebody please take me to this hotel!!

Oh dear, I'm in dreamworld again & keeping my fingers crossed very tightly that one day I'd be able to stay in this most magnificent country house hotel, Ardanaiseig in beautiful Argyll!!
If anyone wants to take me please let me know... I'll drop everything to go here! :)

Another cool blog!

I forgot to mention another blog which is really quite good for us illustrators...Would You Rock This features illustrators from all over the World. The concept is that you vote for each illustrator saying whether you would rock their work or not!!

I've put a few of my drawings on there but there's more people saying they wouldn't rock my stuff.... how rude!! :) Ah well, each to their own!! I'd put a link to my stuff on here but I have no idea how you find my work!!!

On another note, I was having a small drawing sesh at home last night... probably not in the best environment as I was working by the light of only fairy lights and had my stuff balanced on my knee.. not something I would recommend to my students!! Anyway, I had a go at drawing Scarlet Johansson who has the most amazing lips I have ever seen on a woman! My drawing wasn't so clear so I've scanned it into Photoshop and had a little play!! I love the way you can transform an image with the Filter tool in Photoshop!! My students always love using that! :)
I used Crosshatch, Photocopy and Posterised on the images below.


Tuesday 24 April 2012

The Ten Best Fashion Illustration Blogs

I'm working with the 1st years today on developing their illustration skills. I love this part of my job as it always introduces me to little known illustrators I might not necessarily come across! I'm always Googling fashion illustration as I am totally obsessed with what other people do and I always want to better my own style so it's great to be inspired by up and coming artists or artists who are already established but are perhaps not based in the UK.

I came across this post on Fashionista.com (of which I'm a frequent visitor to!) and I like the fact that the top ten blogs are by illustrators that are not so well known!

I think one of my favourites is Richard Haines blog What I saw today which is basically a diary of his drawings illustrated out and about in New York! I love the quirkiness of his drawings and the fact that you get a real feel for the people he is drawing, from the eccentric bearded man to the cool street guy in the picture below; they just want to make me smile!!

Sunday 22 April 2012

A film worth watching!

I know this blog was initially set up to cover illustration and everything to do with art, but really it's to do with everything that inspires me so I had to include the film I've just been to see today!!

I had heard of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and I'd heard it was good but I hadn't been too bothered about going to see it!! Recently I've not been a big cinema goer, not enough time and also, I don't tend to go so much with friends as it's quite an unsociable thing... however, my mum had been to see it and she convinced me to go with her and our neighbour!

I didn't know what to expect really. I knew it featured some amazing actors including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy but I didn't know the story.

It blew me away & I can see why my mum liked it!

Basically it tells the story of a number of 60 somethings who have all reached different stages in their life. A married couple whose daughter has lost their life savings through a misguided business venture, the gay man who has never got over his first love and the racist woman who needs a hip replacement but needs to go to India to get it done sooner!

It's based on the book 'These Foolish Things' by Deborah Moggach and I quote "...by turns funny, touching and thought-provoking, not to mention, life-affirming, offering an alternative to the notion that retirement is little more than death’s waiting room. It demonstrates that there is still plenty of opportunity to embrace life – and even love – before the final curtain, especially if you head for Bangalore and a run-down hotel with ambitions to be the first in an empire of homes for retirees."


I'd highly recommend it and yes, there were a few tears! :)


Friday 20 April 2012

My own pencil dancing!


It would be silly of me to start this blog without a link to my own work! I don't get as much time as I would like to do my own illustrations but I try to fit it into my hectic schedule!! I think it's really important to keep developing my own work. It's all very well passing on my experience and skills to my students but unless I keep up to date with different materials, techniques and processes then I would have nothing to pass on!! It's amazing just how advanced the digital world has become! I graduated from Uni having done very little work using a computer. Everything I did was hand drawn, but I entered an industry which  was beginning to rely heavily on digital technology not least for the speed of which you could do things!
I am completely self taught on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and I picked it up quickly! I adore working with Illustrator but, I have to admit, my heart belongs to hand drawn illustrations!
My intention is to spend a lot more of 2012 doing my own drawings. I started off well but my full time job means it's difficult to find a spare moment! However, I hope to have at least 10 new drawings done by the end of the year! 2 down (including the one I've used as my blog background and the picture at the top of this post which I did for a lovely friend Michelle, who designs the most beautiful lingerie which you can find here ), 1 in progress (hopefully I'll finish it this weekend!), 7 to go! :)
I hope you all like my work which you can find here xx

Fashion Promotion & my love of photography


So, today I've been working on a Fashion Promotion unit with my 2nd years and we're currently looking at promotional literature and how it works effectively targeting the right audience. I've obviously been doing my own research to help them and I've come across some great websites which will hopefully inspire them! This image has been taken from The KDU Network blog and has some brilliant images including graphics, illustration and photography! I'm already inspired by it... I hope it does the same for at least some of my gang!

Another website which has inspired me is Nubby Twiglet which features lots of graphic ideas and again, photography taken from magazines.

I've been drawn to the work of Luke Copping.... particularly this image as I find it so strikingly beautiful.
Some more of his work can be seen here.
I love photography and wish I'd been able to do more of it at college/uni but I'm finding my phone a perfect accessory to take on days out as I'm always taking photos! I will no doubt upload some in the near future!! Maybe I should take up a part time photography course?

Thursday 19 April 2012

David Downton's blog!

David Downton, my most favourite fashion illustrator of ALL time, has his own blog through Vogue! It has always fascinated me how the space that he leaves blank is probably the most important part of his illustrations as this is what makes them so special! And I only dream of being able to use a paintbrush like he can! He's a genius in my eyes! http://www.vogue.co.uk/blogs/david-downton

The Beautiful - a beautiful book of illustrations!

I love the look of this book.  http://shop.gestalten.com/the-beautiful.html Another one for my shopping list!