Fashion Illustration Workshop @sketchbookmagazine's Pop up Shop

On April 17th I made my way down to Carnaby St on a lovely sunny saturday for Sketchbook Magazine's Pop Up Shop. After fighting my way through the crowds and tourists around Oxford Circus (and holding my bag like a baby after it was broken by the tube barriers shutting on it!! Not happy, it literally opened for less than 2 seconds) I got to the shop on Newburgh street for a 12pm Fashion Illustration Workshop with a lovely girl called Gabriella, who is currently on her MA and was teaching the workshop.

 Picture taken from Sketchbook Mag's online blog.



I had a little mooch round the shop before going down to the workshop - it's a great little space. I was going to take photos but after the great bag debacle I really couldn't be arsed to dig around in it, risking serious overspill, to find my tiny camera (one of the reasons why it ripped was possibly because it was full of heavy magazines and everything I lug around with me all day) so... there. Plenty of other bloggers have taken photos though, like Diamond Canopy's Winnie, so don't feel too hard done by.

I absolutely love Annie Driscoll's illustrations that are around the place - http://www.anniedriscollillustration.com/ so amazing. Really beautiful.

Images from Sketchbook Mag's blog, copyright to Annie Driscoll.

Oh, and free Vitamin Water though, that was nice :)

I love fashion illustration and it's one of those things that I always tried to do a bit of at uni, and love it (especially people like David Downton, so amazing) but was never any good. Drawing people has always been my weakness - I loved life drawing at uni but our course never offered enough of it, and the variety of model was very poor. I tend to draw people with strange proportions, which is fine, but not great for representing clothes.

The workshop was really nice, only about 8 of us I think, and we were all pretty much beginners when it came to it so it was good. Gabriella started right at the beginning, with proportions and how to get it all right.

I knew how it normally works, with splitting the body into sections, etc, but I had no idea that fashion illustration proportions were different to normal ones. It makes obvious sense because all fashion illustrations have really long legs, but I never gave it a thought before. You basically move the navel up higher than you normally would, and then split it up as you would from there. Aha.

The above one is an attempt at giving the model some kind of pose, with hips onto one side. Harder than it looks. A lot of my sketches came out looking like aliens.

After we had our poses though, we could then use our magazines to cut pieces out and collage over the top. I love collage, and do a lot of it, so I found this much much easier than the drawing part.

This was my best attempt I think. I loved finding pieces that were out of proportion to the others, I think it gives it a great effect. Her head looks funny though. You can see some of the other's collages at the Sketchbook Blog.

It's definitely given me lots of ideas with regards to how I could use this in my work in the future, and I really want to keep practising at it and get a lot better at the proportions. I also reeeaally need to go life drawing again, I miss it. It's just time though.. I don't get much time to do any illustration these days with my job now. Which upsets me. Sigh.

The workshop was great and really relaxed and fun. I definitely recommend it if they run it again: Sketchbook have announced they have extended the shop so I'm sure they'll be doing lots more workshops. If you have time, check it out.

Afterwards I crossed back over oxford st to H&M and got myself a new bag. Turquoise! Nice. Old bag was duly recycled.

What I wore today: sunshine saturday outfit post!

 

What's wrong with this picture?

It dawned on me today, while on a train into London checking twitter, that something was wrong with the sky - not that it was abnormally blue and cloud free for April in Britain (that alone was ace), but that there were no aeroplane trails. Once you noticed it, it was hard to not notice it. And it was quieter, when I was in the garden later, when this picture was taken, I couldn't hear any planes from Luton airport. Nuffin'. It was so nice. And it got me thinking - I know the airlines are going on about how many millions of £s they're losing because of this Volcano (don't ask me to spell or pronounce it, I'm good but not that good) - but how much CO2 are we saving? It's nice to think about it. I like the notion that Mother Nature could be spewing out her guts so that we stop polluting her... makes sense innit. There are lots of people that have been put out by this, and I can see that it would be so annoying if you were on a holiday or worse, business trip - even the F1 has suffered, many mechanics haven't been able to get out to Shanghai for this weekend. 

From an environmental perspective though, it's ace. And it's given me a crazy thought - we should have 4 fly-free days a year. The airlines would hate it, but just think - 4 days of no aeroplanes in the sky, no pollution, no noise... and you could easily plan your holiday if you knew exactly when those days were. Hmmm. I'll just ring the Big People In Charge of all the Aeroplanes.com and let them know.

So as I said, I went into London today for a fashion illustration workshop at Sketchbook Magazine's Pop Up Shop in Carnaby St. I'll blog about that separately, but it was really nice, and the sunshine made the busyness of Oxford Circus bearable. I've persuaded myself to do more outfit posts: I've been rocking some good outfits lately (if I do say so myself) and so I really should share them, being that I am a hybrid fashion/design/trend blogger person. I can't really define what I blog about. Cool stuff that you should know about. Hmmm.

 

Skirt: New Look, lace vest: Primark, bra: Urban Outfitters, cardigan: New Look.

Every year, nautical comes out, and I'm never massively excited. I don't know why, it's just one trend I'm never really a part of. However this year, it's got a military twist and I'm all about the military: this skirt from New Look is subtle; just navy with gold military style buttons: not an anchor in sight! I also got a white stripey tshirt to go with it - it's made me realise I don't have any navy or white shoes though. Which is weird.

Hope you've all had a lovely sunshine-y saturday, I spent a good hour or so reading Grazia on the hammock in the garden ^.^ good times.

London Times: Liberty, Beyond The Valley, and other adventures...

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I had a little trip to London on thursday :) Packed quite a lot in, did I.

First up, Liberty's. I can never get over the beauty of that store. I don't think I've ever bought a thing from there but I love wandering around the rooms, with all the low ceilings, tudor beams, perfectly curated designer collections and mountains of beautiful stationary, home and bath ware, just lovely, lovely things. That place always makes me feel very calm and serene and a tad aspirational... i.e I want to live like this.

And they always have very dramatic, yet somehow subtle and understated decorations in the centre sections. Like this fabric/textile pattern style chandelier sort of installation. Huge. But not imposing.

Next I steadied myself for possible bankruptcy as I headed down Carnaby Street. That place is like a Rachel trap. Unlike Liberty's, I don't think I've ever been down that street without buying anything. This time was no exception.

Beyond The Valley is a shop I heard about through the mintynet and was dying to check out. It's more than a shop though really, they describe themselves as 'a creative community in the centre of London that supports and promotes emerging new talent across the fashion, art & design industries.' But basically it's a little boutique that sells prints, clothes, furniture, objects, jewellry, all very very covetable and cool, and all by up and coming young designers.

For example, a set of giant post-its. This had me quite excited - anything that is a mini or giant version of an ordinary object usually does. Even more so when it's some kind of organisational stationery object. Think of the lists you could write! And stick everywhere! Or when you need to have a brainstorm, bam, whack it on a giant post it and stick it to your face. (or wall). Ah, such organisational joy could be had!

However, I then had a bit of 'wait, £10 for a stack of slightly sticky paper' and thought 'I'll get it when I get paid'. Haha.

But the whole shop is very well set out, with shelves full of lovely designed objects and prints and things that I want.

What's this? The Crispin Finn 2010 wall planner I've been harping on about? In it's lovely brown paper bag? Yes, yes it is. Again, I so nearly bought it, but the angel on my shoulder whispered 'massive overdraft' and I scampered away.

But definitely go check out Beyond The Valley's site and all they have on there. They also, interestingly, have an Insight section too, which is cleverly www.beyondthevalleyinsight.com See what they did there?

"When Beyond the Valley was launched in 2005, the aim of its founders was to act as a springboard for new designers, offering unique, affordable products from breakthrough talent. But after three years of increasing demand for their skills in trend perception and brand consultancy, the concept store has grown from its roots on Soho’s Newburgh Street, joining forces with the brand experience people,‘i-am’ to create a new offer - ‘Beyond the Valley Insight’. As a result, this new union is able to offer a unique one-stop package for companies that need access to current trends and markets. Through creating full marketing strategies and bespoke brand events, Beyond the Valley Insight acts as a bridge between the next generation of designers, consumers, and those businesses that want to stay connected.."

So there. Worth bookmarking and checking out every so often.

The Diesel store's looking a bit weather-beaten, somebody really should like, paint that thing.

Yeah so this is Diesel's A/W thing, 'extreme weather washes', so everything is destroyed by storms and rain and such. I think it's just an excuse to smash stuff, and to bring ripped jeans back. I like the smashy smashy, but oh, the travesty. I used to wear ripped jeans when I was... well, a massive skater/rock/lame/goth-like creature, and so I now sort of abhor ripped jeans a bit, on girls anyway. But you know, when it comes to fashion, I can be a tiny bit hypocritical (i.e. "I can't believe they're bringing big shoulders back again, it looks awful, I mean.. oh, wait, actually, look at me go.") So you never know, I might chuck myself in front of a tornado yet.

So what did I buy? This sex-tastic bag. And bracelet style watch. The watch is from a shop in Carnaby Street, called Octopus, (no proper website yet) which is teeeny but packed with all manner of cutesy, kawaii, brightly coloured, STUFF. And everyone knows how much I like stuff. They had about 7 different colours of this watch and I very nearly went for bright pink (of course) but then got drawn to the lovely purity of the white one, for no explainable reason. So I now have a white, chunky, plastic watch and it rawwwks dude.

The sex-tastic bag is of course Paul's Boutique and there's a bit of a story here. I originally bought the blue one of these in Selfridges in Birmingham a few months ago, but it was the larger version and it was just a bit tooo big, more weekendy, so I took it back. They didn't have the same pattern in this size so I left a bit sad and minus one bag. I then found it on ASOS, but on there you have to pay for postage as well, and then I got poor so just didn't.

Anyway, fast forward, wandering around Topshop on Oxford Street in what I can only describe as an overwhelming-lust-for-everything-I-can-lay-my-eyes-on haze (dangereux), which usually happens to me in there, and I spot the bag. I THEN spot it in pink as well. I had a tiny brain explosion, gagged the angel on my shoulder, grabbed the bag and never ever let go.

Now I'm pretty much the coolest, poorest girl in the world.

After all this I went to visit the SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution exhibition, which I'm just writing up a review so will be posted later. Good times.