FASHION ILLUSTRATION 1ST SEMESTER

today is the end of the semester, here's the breakdown:
* sketches: 4
* garments: 3
* happiness from 0 to 10: 10
* marriage: still happily intact
yah!

some thoughts:
* I really enjoy fashion, but it also reminds me how lucky I am to have my job. while my classmate draws christian louboutin, I get to wear mine. If I was doing fashion, I'd be working for free for a long time.
* Go for what you are afraid of and you'll find out it's not so bad after all. I know that from college studying engineering. when I attack the most difficult subject, everything just seems easy. I always thought the path of fashion is impossible for me. I could never draw people, but I'm doing it now. not the best, but it's a start.

ok, now, here are the sketches. I'm not very precise with the details yet, but I'm getting the proportions down. in time sequence:

line manipulation, the arms are too short compare to the rest of the body. not enough shades in the drawing.

black and white drawing, using pencil and charcoal. overall a good one, coloring on the legs need to be more smooth. I love the gloves and the hat.

color pencil sketch. I'm getting much more comfortable with figures although the way the skirt draped was a little off. but I was having alot of problem with coloring. layering different color to create the shadow is hard.

water color. the figure is good, actually I really liked the pencil sketch. but coloring is also difficult since I was doing a grey coat and grey skirt. I added purple to the coat to distinguish it from the skirt. some color bled a little.

During today's presentation in class, I realized alot of people in class have some experience or influence from cartoon, manga or other artistic style. I was pretty much a blank canvas, I knew nothing. as a result, my drawing tend to be more fashion like even though I can't quite get the feet, hands or hair perfectly. I don't have the big eyes, or the way too happy look (fashion models all look stoned if you didn't know already).

btw, go SHARKS!

Water Color Fashion Illustration

I've been doing alot of sewing and drawing. so not much blogging lately. but I do want to share a few things. 

last night was the second to last class for my intermediate sewing, which means notebook due which means all the sample sewings were graded. I was crushed when the samples graded for the mid term, because I got a B. I've never gotten a B in a junior college and to get a B in fashion is just like my dream was crushed. I know it really didn't need to be so dramatized, but that's how it felt like at the time. so last night, I didn't really give it too much thought when turning in the notebook. surprisingly I got an "A". whoohoo! the instructor seemed surprised that I caught up and actually spent sometime to talk to me afterwards. now I'm even more motivated to make my final project.

for the illustration class, things are going well, too. eh...I mean..knock on wood, things are going well. I got a A- for the Tina Fey drawing. I still struggle with drawing feet and face, but I'm getting alot better with gloves. I'm noticing a fashion trend of gloves lately. It's kind of fun to get grades, because I haven't gotten a grade for so long. It really validates me (only when I get a good grade) where as I don't get the instant gratification at work. I'm super excited for the next assignment, which is water color. I enjoyed playing with water color as a kid, so I'm really looking forward to it. 

ok, now a few awesome drawings to share:

*my illustration instructor always has some Karl Lagerfeld's drawings and they are always my fav. his stylized look is very high fashion in my opinion. 

* no outline, kind of oil painting look.

* blond is really difficult to draw and this one is from Ralph Lauren, a good example of blond.

* a stlyized drawing from Ralph Laurent

* an Italian drawing, I love how they did the skin colors. the color manipulation is really great.

*last but not least, this is from a previous student. I like it not in a fashion way, but it reminds of one of those kids story book picture. she needs some figure though.

btw, these pix are all taken with the camera phone I had for that one day. as you can see there are tons of different ways to do water color. every arist has his or her own style. I have yet to develop mine. here's the thing about art, you never know what you are going to do. I really enjoy just get lost in the moment and let my mind to lead me to do whatever. it's quite therapheutic actually.