London Fashion Week

The fashion weeks are here again and I've got to say I've had a very fashionable Autumn so far despite spending most of these glamorous, fashion-filled days working from home in my pajamas and eating breakfast, lunch and dinner all from the same plate (if using a plate at all). All this made possible by a miracle called the Internet.

Next to working on fashion illustrations for Spot On Style, I've also gotten to do some drawing for Amelia's Magazine last week during the London Fashion Weeks. Once again, it was great fun and the crew of Amelia's definitely deserves a bow! Here's from top to bottom: Leutton Postle S/S 2011 and Spijkers en Spijkers S/S 2012

Tweeting with the writers and waiting for the catwalk pictures to drop in your email straight from the runway is always exciting, but another thing I really like about the Fashion Weeks is the shortness of the deadlines - it really pushes you to make decisions on compositions and such efficiently instead of pottering around and letting ideas rest overnight. And weirdly enough, working till the late hours to get a piece finished by the next morning and listening to odd midnight radio shows is actually one of my favourite things to do.

Spot On Style

Fashion illustrations - goodness, I (mentally) drool over them! So, when Tatiana Blood, a stylist and a friend of mine asked me to create illustrations of that kind for her newly founded company called Spot On Style, I quickly wiped away the (mental) drool and said yes.

The briefing was to create visuals that would communicate a classy, elegant sense of style and make the company's website stand out. Other than that, it was all very open, so I grabbed my pencil and started doodling. Still got a few more illustrations to go, but here's the first one I made for the opening page:

Nudes of the week #6

To correct myself, this is not about the nudes of the week - it's actually one single nude and a dog of the week. Why? You know how those life models are always sitting on a platform surrounded by pillows and draped fabrics? Well, in our class we don't really like those kind of props - we like dogs better. The one last week was called Muffy, a funny old one who parked himself on top of my bag that was lying on the floor once I had made the mistake of petting him. But he was a nice doggy, one of those who at times look as if they were laughing (although underneath he has a very serious face).

Both the dog and the actual model were as nude as they could be, so in reality no animals were tortured with ties.

Dear Londoners,

There's no denying the fact that sometimes not living in London makes me really, really sad. But to the ones luckier than me, here's a tip: The Big Draw's Big Splash. Go on, click on the link and go doodle with Quentin Blake, make a fashion zine with Nina Chakrabarti and become the best bubble writer in the world.

And here are some happy news for all the starving artists: it's all for free!

*NB: Okay, so apparently I fell pretty hard for my own advertising...Just booked a bus trip to London, hence attending and feeling less sorry for myself not living there. Anyone else coming? :)

Case of the mystery box

This mystery box that was waiting for me at the studio forced me to jump around a little! Filled with some of the postcards I made for Drawing Room a while ago, I felt like a proud parent (or a postcard maniac with a mental sparkle in my eyes) turning these babies around in my hands and fondling their shiny coating. They turned out just perfect! And no, this is not just proud mommy talk...or maybe just a little bit.

Now all I need is to do is to get some stamps and start sending these dolls and ponies around the world. If you like them, just digitally tap my shoulder and one day there might be a horse waiting behind your door. :)

Nudes of the week #5

It's back to business with the pink socks and weekly nudes! I admit I'm very much slipping from trying to improve my actual life drawing skills into playing around with colours and focusing on the oh-so-interesting details like socks. But oh well - at least I'm having fun.

Nocturnal project

PS. I don't think I have ever heard the 6 o'clock morning news on the radio before. Now I have -how exciting!

Nudes of the week #4

You know those things that you always find when searching for something totally different? My water-soluble wax pastels are one of them. They've been hiding in my drawers untouched for about 4 years, so yesterday I decided to take them out to play with me and some nude models.

I quite liked messing around with the colours and water (to the point where I started hurrying through the sketches just so I could start adding colour on them sooner!). Now I've placed the pastels on the top of the pile on my desk, so the next time I'll remember to use them won't hopefully be in another 4 years.

Wait up, I still wear clothing

Fear no more, for even though the lines I've been drawing lately seem to have been focusing on nudity, this blog shall not be turning into a nude beach of illustrations. Despite the weekly nudes, I still wear clothes and - for your information - do so every day.

To prove my point, here's a piece I made for Gemma Correll's What I Wore Today a few weeks ago. I got that dress at a swap party from a girl who after having suffered from stripe syndrome was finally ready to let her inner zebra go: in fact, the French sailor shirt in one of my earlier posts used to belong to her, too! And now that I got started, I might as well mention that the bag is my grandma's old, and those extremely uncomfortable but cute shoes were found at a flea market a few years ago.

Nude(s) of the week #3

I'm about to show you something that

a) does not look like something I drew and

b) is not drawn with a pencil of mine.

Why? Because yesterday, someone actually taught me how to draw life models. Did you know, that the body is 7 1/2 heads high and the torso from the waist up can fit three heads on top of each other? I didn't, but now I do. I also know that all these facts and trying to put them in practice whilst drawing really made me feel like I never drew before. I also had to ditch my pencils and draw with a thing called graphite, and that actually was the first time. As if this wasn't enough to put me out of my comfort zone, I had to do this all in big scale on a huge paper, which is one of my greatest dislikes. I learned so much, but deep inside I just wanted to dig out my little sketchbooks and draw puppets with abnormally large heads.

Though I've got to admit, I got quite enthusiastic about playing with the water soluable graphite.