success.

Ok so I have spent all morning on these and now I am starving. Here they are - my new girls:

Ok so they look a bit like aliens but I think it's a definite improvement.

I have added some fashion illustrations to a page too. They are beautiful.

The addiction returns!

Ok so I'm back on illustrator again. I have scrapped the idea of doing my own figures so Im just going to scan in some templates and work over the top of them to make them into characters. These are the shapes that I am going to use. We have to draw twenty designs and our pages need to be laid out as if these models have just come down the catwalk. Also all the designs must compliment each other. Here goes....

Images are all from "NEW FASHION FIGURE TEMPLATES" by Patrick John Ireland. Thanks Patrick very useful.

Today I tried to figure out Illustrator again. When I was in Australia I hated the CAD lesson because I was basically the oldest in the class (as usual) and everyone else seemed to be really on top of their computer literacy, whereas I would just touch a key and the whole think would freeze on me. Anyway in the end ( after asking lots of questions) I fell in love with it completely. I was a bit of an addict really so it was probably good to have a break but now I have forgotten what all the short cut keys are and I feel really unsure of myself again.
Hence forcing myself to go on the computers and try to do some art work.So here it is - I am trying to design a model for my clothes and I want her to be really distinctive. I really want a style of my own but it doesn't seem to have arrived yet - can I have it for xmas please?

Ok this drawing is not my best. The girl in the middle looks a bit intoxicated and the other one on the right has horses legs and bad shading on her face but hey it's a start. I spent ages on the shading on the top lip as well! Oh well...
Oh and I can't upload my illustrator version so i guess that will be a print out and scan job.  Coming soon people, coming soon....

hello world!

Hello world!!

This is my first official blog, I hope that somebody actually reads it!
So, it is Sunday night and after tearing myself away from facebook I am now focussing on college work. I am a second year student at Newcastle college. I'm also 28. I got there a bit later on in life I know, but hey at least I got there eventually.
So if you're interested this is what I have been up to at college. We have been lucky enough to work with the designer Anh Mao, who owns a boutique based in South Gosforth, Newcastle. She designs and makes beautiful evening, prom and wedding dresses and is currently working on the Miss England 2010 wardrobe. Think of gorgeous natural fabrics such as silk, hand beaded and embroidered in a variety of styles, sweeping the floor lengths and cute little prom dresses with puff ball skirts. That doesn't really do her garments justice but take a look at maocouture.co.uk to see what I mean. She also writes for two magazines, runs her own store and designs and makes the garments. I don't know how she manages to squeeze all this into her life, but she says she thrives on it which is a good job really as that amount of work would get to most people after a while.
However this is what I am learning. Your life has to become about fashion from the minute you wake up until you go to sleep. Sometimes it even filters into dreams. I believe it is a lifestyle choice because the dedication that you must demonstrate to get anywhere in this business means spending your life absorbed in fashion books, fashion shows, art galleries, networking...it is an endless list. But it is a challenge towards which I am incredibly focussed.


Paul Poiret, dinner dress 1922-23

red and navy silk block printed faille

 Anyway,I went off on a tangent there but back to Anh. She has asked us to design and make a prom or evening dress that can be sold in her store for an age range of around 18-24 year olds. The theme for the design can be anything. It can be any colour but it must sit well within Anh's store.
My initial inspiration was the Wizard of Oz, but the more I researched it the more I realised that this had been done before.

Paul Poiret (French, 1879–1944)
Opera Coat, 1912
Yellow satin, pale blue silk overlaid with gold filé embroidery, and black silk velvet

I had to go somewhere else for some inspiration so I looked at the designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh as I love his work and really appreciate the graphic designs that he created from organic forms. However, it was his stained glass work that really caught my eye and I started day dreaming about panels in a dress that represented stained glass. I started looking into other stained glass work and also but researched the Art Deco period, looking at designs from that era from Erte and Paul Poiret.
Then I visited the glass centre in Sunderland. It's a great little place and you can do workshops there as well where you can blow your own glass vase or something resembling a vase.
I am going to put some pics up on here on a separate page that I took at the glass centre. They're not bad pics for a failed photography student!