Category: illustration

Doodle Galaxy (Doodle Time Part 2)

Posted on Posted in art, doodling, drawing, experimentation, illustration, layout, life, my work, pen drawings, process, Uncategorized, unconsciousTagged , , , , Leave a comment

Doodle2

I didn’t really notice the kind of doodler I was until I compiled them altogether for these posts. Given that they tend to be entirely separate and individual occurrences, I don’t pay much attention to the technique or style at the time. So photocopying them from my notebook and creating digital copies was quite a sterile process for me, as it almost diluted the fluidity of such personal drawings. 

Doodle3

For someone who is generally not too interested in natural forms, it is interesting to see how much these feed my depictions. Flower motifs are abundant in my drawings which is highly unusual when compared to my body of work, as I tend to avoid explicit feminine depictions like the plague!

Doodle6

Yet for me there is something incredibly soothing in creating these organic forms. Water and leaves are also core components to the drawings, as is an almost excessive use of line which I exploit almost to the point of exhaustion. 

Doodle1

It’s a soothing and somewhat addictive repetition. Molten forms and swirling shapes cluster the pages. Unlike a painting I don’t think you can ever overwork a doodle, as you can simply adjust your progression across the page if it goes wrong. In most cases however I know when a doodle is done, as I no longer have the urge to pursue and extend it. I just know that I have done all I can and all that I want to do and as long as I have that therapeutic longing satisfied, then that is all that matters. 

Fashion Illustration

Posted on Posted in art, fashion, illustrationTagged , , Leave a comment

Fashion Sketches No 1    Fashion Sketches No 2

In my mid teens I became very interested in fashion. Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar were the things I read. Ironically some of my favourite pages in these magazines was not the editorial content, but the photo shoot pages and the adverts with the seasonal campaigns for the mainstream designer brands such as Louis Vuitton, Mui Mui, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, etc. It was the composition of these images that fascinated me. The way the light fell, the pose of a model, the colour palette selected. The clean cut clothes against billowing desert winds. I loved the contrasts, I loved the imagination that went into depicting something as simple as clothing. I was convinced as a result that I wanted to work in fashion. I began to sketch religiously. I made a scrapbook with images cut out of magazines and drew outfits inspired by the ‘rock’ look or the ‘hippy chic’. I think all of this also fuelled my fashion sense, as I began to experiment a lot more and explore outfits that suited my body as opposed to fitting trends.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

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As my interest in fashion developed, so did my interest in fashion illustration. It was Vogue that introduced me to this world; their past covers featured some of the most renowned fashion illustrators. I of course felt the urge to experiment as a result of encountering all these images. It was the simplicity that resulted in their success. The minimalist lines and the sharp bursts of colour. The emphasis of pencil pressure. Above are my imitations of two Rene Bouet illustrations, they are essentially identical to the originals although I have adapted the colour palette of  Rene Bouet’s original which is shown below:

rene bouet

Imitating an artists work is something I find incredibly easy (unless it’s hands or horses, those are my problematic areas!) It allows me to explore a media with the guidance of an art work that already exists. It also allows me more into the mind of an artist and let’s just say it would have been pretty fantastic to have been Rene Bouet!