More Emmy Fashion

So, Gwyneth Paltrow has been showing up on a lot of Worst Dressed lists from this past weekend's Emmy Awards, and I have to admit that I don't necessarily agree. I am sort of loving this look. I mean, I hate say it because Gwyneth is flawless, but I think this top and skirt combo would have been a hit if it was worn by a starlet 10 to 15 years younger at one of the after parties rather than the red carpet and the awards show.

The dress is by Pucci, and it is an intricate black sheer overlay dress with a great deal of detail. I created the illustration in my typical medium of linocut, which I think lends well to the style of the dress. I hope you like it, and I will hopefully be sharing more of my favorite looks from the Emmys in the next few days!

xoxo

My Best Look

Last summer I gave myself the task of creating an illustration a week based on the summer's Top 40 Hits. I have decided to take on a similar project this year; however it is going to be based on one of my favorite things, MY CLOSET! 

Each week I will illustrate "my best look" from that week. All of the items will come from my wardrobe and will chronicle the outfit I wore that week that I liked the best. Last week I shared my favorite 4th of July weekend look, and this week, I am sharing with you a look I wore to work! 

Blazer: J.Crew

Dress: J.Crew Factory

Espadrilles: J.Crew

Earrings: Sara Campbell

Handbag: Kate Spade

Repeat Patterns

A few months ago I attended an Open Studio at SCAD's FIbers department. On display were a variety of different students works, and I instantly fell in love with all of the illustrative repeat patterns that some of the students had created. It made me really sad that I wasn't able to squeeze in a fibers class prior to graduating, but it did prompt me to do some post-grad experimentation and research. 

I found this really great post on the popular blog Design Sponge that gave a great tutorial on how to create a repeat pattern. It is a lot easier than I thought! My first attempt was the image above, and I can't wait to experiment some more this summer, so keep your eyes out for more!

http://www.designsponge.com/2008/05/welcome-julia-and-how-to-make-a-repeat-pattern.html

Girl Scouts

I've been working on an illustration of Girl Scouts visiting Savannah. Because Savannah is the birthplace of the Girl Scouts founder, Juliette Gordon Low, this small little city is a mecca of sorts for Girl Scouts.

When I made the Savannah print that I posted a week ago, I knew that I wanted to color it and use it as an illustration and naturally, Girl Scouts came to mind. All of the elements of the piece are done in linocut and then colored digitally.

More of my Fashion Final

Here are more of the components of my Fashion Illustration final assignment. Each piece is supposed to serve as an advertisement for me as a fashion illustrator. The first is a postcard to be used as a mailer and the second is an advertisement.

The above image is inspired by my love of buying makeup. I won't say I love makeup even though I have tons of it. I love to buy makeup because makeup counters and stores like Sephora are like candy stores for grown girls. Everything is so beautifully colored and tiny and I just want to snatch it all up. But, I never have the time and am just too lazy to actually take the time to put makeup on, so I guess I love to buy makeup but never really wear it. I just throw on lipstick and go.

This image is inspired by one of my favorite shows, Mad Men! I am so sad that I am missing a fab Mad Men themed party in NYC thrown by my childhood BFF. She's so fun and fabulous and I wish I could hangout with her all the time but I especially wish I could go to this particular party because being the savvy and awesome girl that she is, she somehow convinced as Mad Men cast member to attend. So cool. So, since I can't go to the party, I decided to illustrate the outfit I'd wear if I were!

That's all for now. Have a good weekend!

xoxo

Advertising

Another component of my Fashion Final was to create a series of advertisements to promote ME as an illustrator. Above is one of the ads. I was inspired by vintage magazine ads. I have a few fashion magazines from the 1930's, 40's, and 50's that I picked up on my last trip to Paris and they are full of fabulous illustrations. Each one I look at makes my mind race with ideas. The above illustration is a modern take on a Sunday afternoon drive.

The illustration below is another ad that goes along with the "Cat Lady" illustration I posted earlier. This one featured one of today's best accessories, a puppy!

Perfume

For Fashion Illustration I was asked to illustrate an article regarding finding the perfect perfume. Below are the images I am playing with. One is a linocut print colored digitally and the other is a collage of cut paper mixed with a linocut print that was colored digitally.

Experimenting With Cut Paper

My past experience with collage usually consisted of using collaged paper in conjunction with another medium, like ink or linocut prints, but for my latest Fashion Illustration assignment, I was asked to work entirely in cut paper! This was a new experience and I really liked it. I felt like I instantly had a background by lying down the most amazing sheet of blue paper (it was likely so amazing because it was $5 a sheet, YIKES!) and then I cutout flowers from another piece of amazing paper (again, $5 a sheet). I had a blast buying up as many pieces of gorgeous paper from Primary Art Supply, but it was hard to cut them up because they are just so beautiful to look at. I wish you could feel the papers too, because they have such great textures and some even feel like fabric. 

Anyway, I tried two different approaches to the figures. One (the more proportional gal) is more typically my style and the other (the more stylized/elongated girl) is more in line with what I see in the majority of fashion illustrations. I like the way they both turned out, but I still lean towards my typical style of figure over the elongated, super skinny and chic chica.

Which do you prefer?

Louboutin Ads

For my Fashion Illustration Midterm, I was required to make 5 ads for any accessory line. The line had to be either a current Spring/Summer 2011 collection or Resort 2011 Collection. Since I am obsessed with shoes, I chose my favorite, Christian Louboutin.

I experimented with these, as I used cut paper in the majority of the backgrounds. The shoes themselves are individual reductive linocut prints, which I have to say was painstaking and took a great deal of time. I also did the type myself in linocut, which I was nervous about at first, but the Christian Louboutin logo is illustrative in its own right, so it worked out!

All in all, I am happy with how these turned out, the only problem is I am having a terrible time finding a printer here in Savannah that doesn't over saturate my images when printed. The texture of the linocut ink sometimes gets lost and looks too flat. Tomorrow I guess I'll be on a mission searching for the perfect printer all before these are due at 2pm. Ugh. For now, I am giving myself the rest of the evening off.

xo

Fashion Sketching

This winter was my first experience with true "Fashion Sketching" and I've really enjoyed it. Every Tuesday in my Fashion Illustration class we have a live model sit for about an hour and we have to draw her in all her glory. I'm new to the fashion department and it amazes me how hard it has been for me during these model sessions. Apparently I am not supposed to draw her exactly like I would a model in a normal life drawing session. She is supposed to be elongated and more stylized. As you can tell, I haven't really done that. Hopefully next week I will master it!

Seasonal Fashion Illustration

My second assignment in Fashion Illustration was due today. We were asked to do two illustrations in which a season was clearly displayed. At least one of the images had to include two figures. I chose summer and fall, two of my favorite seasons (let's face it, I like them all with the exception of winter).

One Garment Five Ways

I just had my first assignment of the quarter due for my fashion Illustrations class. I am loving this class because while it focuses on illustration, it is actually a fashion class! Part of the excitement over this is that it's in the illusive fashion building here at SCAD. I have heard rumors about this place before (the main rumor being that there's a strict dress code), so needless to say I was a bit intimidated and would be lying if I said I didn't spend a little extra time getting ready before heading to class there. But, it's been great thus far! Everyone is friendly and nice and really into fashion, which is cool.

Our first assignment was to pick a garment of our choice and then illustrate it five times mimicking the styes of five different fashion illustrators. I chose the above J. Mendel dress from his Spring 2011 RTW collection. The recommended text for the class (100 Years of Fashion Illustration) is amazing and provided me with so many choices of illustrators. I was nervous about this because I am on my way to hammering out my own style, so I thought it would be really hard to get out of it and try something new, but it was actually helpful! Obviously I couldn't get too far away from myself and my style because there is the obvious linocut (Im not gonna lie, I had to search pretty hard for a linocut fashion illustrator, but they exist). Below are my final illustrations:

Inspired by Bobby Hillson

Inspired by Eric Stemp

Inspired by Antonio Lopez

Inspired by Francois Berthoud

Inspired by Michael Roberts