INTRODUCING..

I want to introduce a new capsule collection I've been working on, entitled Kawaii Kingdom. A collection inspired by the essence of anime, cartoons and the sense of adventure that is so special on those warm Summer days. 

I wanted to design a small collection of clothes for both boys and girls, a collection that was inspired by the cute Japanese anime films and American cartoons that have filled my days lately. Everything I design is always so serious and 'grown-up', I wanted to create something that showed the other side of my personality. Something very cute, youthful, fun and a spirit that's full of adventure. 

Below is just a sneak peak of a couple of my designs, fully rendered illustrations are to come over the next week or so, I just want them to be perfect. I don't know wether any of the pieces will be made for sale, I'll see what the general response is when I reveal the full range, if it's positive I might make a few of the key pieces or ones that have been requested.

Looking forward to showing this collection off to you guys!

ex.oh.ex.oh

A WEEK IN PICTURES

It's been a good week, a little quiet seeing as the majority of my flatmates have moved home for the summer and there seems to be no-one left in Cardiff that I know! Been keeping myself busy, distract me from the boredom and making the most of my time left here.

Monday I had a little adventure down Cardiff Bay, it was a really sunny day so I thought I'd go down and take pictures of the amazing modern architecture there for my Summer Project. Wore my favourite Topman Mickey Mouse t-shirt and what better to wear with than my Mickey Mouse sunglasses!? I loved it, a grungy Mickey Mouse.. got quite a few looks! I got some great images and inspiration, will have to sort though it all and post some of it here.

I've been working more on my male figure templates, I wasn't happy with the first one I did (the one I last posted), he lacked a certain masculinity I wanted. So I tried again and this is the guy I came up with, much more muscular than what I originally wanted but it works well. I've been learning a lot of male anatomy V female anatomy, ok there's obvious differences but a lot more subtle ones that I hadn't really noticed. Still got a lot of work to do with him, trying to work out different views at the moment. 

Finally, I got my official results today.. I've passed my first year of University with a First. I'm really proud of myself and thought I deserved a little treat! So went around the sales (so many sales going on right now!), went to the All Saints sale, even with 50% I couldn't afford anything in there! I was quite disappointed with the current sales, not much worth buying. Got the ring below in the Topshop sale, £2.50, not bad for a cute little triangle. The purse/wallet/smartphone holder is from Topshop also (non-sale), it's cute.. designed to hold your money and cards but also your phone. Love the texture of it, love a bit of mock-croc!

So that's my week so far, not entirely boring but not entirely exhilarating either! How are your week's going? Anybody else get good results?

ex.oh.ex.oh

ILLUSTRATING MEN

Men.. I am one, I know other men, but I have never drawn one until tonight.

As a fashion designer I've always drawn and illustrated women because that's who I designed for, this past year I've been working hard on refining and improving my skill illustrating women. But now I have a new challenge, when I return to University I will be doing menswear so obviously that means I have to illustrate men.

This is my first attempt, I think it's alright for my first go. Obviously men's bodies are very different from women's, they're much blockier and with a lot less curves. So I tried to draw a convincing male body, not too muscular.. didn't want him looking like a body builder! I really need to learn how to draw hands, feet and faces.. those are my big 3 illustration 'let downs'.

I will be practicing a lot more and will just keep drawing until I find a style that I'm happy with! I am trying to experiment with a more sketchy/loose look to my figures and working with messy shading as you cans see above. I used a picture of the Moon's surface for the jacket print which I put in on Photoshop, I will always complete my illustrations digitally, I think it's my signature.

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FASHION VISUALIZATION

Things have been quiet here for the past couple of weeks, apologies but I have been working non stop. Monday I had a huge deadline for my Fashion Visualization module, I had only a few weeks left to complete a research journal into the fashion of the 18th Century with designs, a layout pad with developed designs, a file full of visualization tasks we had to complete such as figure drawing, collage techniques and digital work, a final A3 fashion illustration featuring a shirt we designed from our research and a power point presentation of our work.

Phew! So as you can guess I was pretty busy! But it's all been worth it, I'm very happy with the work I did and I can see that my drawing skills have improved.. especially when it comes to figure drawing. We had to draw a model from life every Wednesday then develop refined figure templates from those, I'm really happy with how mine turned out and it's cool that they're totally mine and unique to me.

I did a lot of digital visualization too, something which I have had much experience with in past projects so I was confident with that work and did well with it. I learnt a new collage technique, using masking tape to create a silhouette, it was really effective as the texture of the masking tape mimics the texture of the fabric that would be used for a dress like this.

And this is my final fashion illustration that I made, it was inspired by the dresses of late 18th Century France, think Marie Antoinette but with a more contemporary look. I firstly hand drew the drawing, then scanned it into Photoshop and used a digital collage technique to 'color it in'. I hope you guys like it, I've already got my new project brief entitled 'Innovations' which I will be posting about very soon!

ex.oh.ex.oh

CLOUDS

As part of my Fashion Visualization brief I've been learning all aspects of how to visualize design ideas.. from figure drawing, rendering fabrics, fashion illustrations in many different media and technical spec drawings. 

This is the first technical spec drawing I've done, it's a classic men's shirt from my own wardrobe. It's hand drawn then cleaned up in Photoshop, I then used a scan of a cute cloud print fabric to 'color' it in using the digital collage technique I'm quite fond of for my illustrations.

I'm really please at how it turned out as it was the first one I've ever done, if you are interested in doing some technical spec drawings here are a few tips that I used:

1. Use a ruler and french curves, it's really important that you have smooth lines.
2. Always look down at the garment from a 'birds eye' perspective.
3. Keep everything in scale with each other e.g. the arms in scale with the body. 

Hope those help, if you have any questions or a comment you can leave one below or tweet me!

ex.oh.ex.oh

PURPLE, PINK, RED AND GREEN

Been working on in my journal today and also working on a little side project which I will tell you about when I'm finished! These are just a few quick illustrations I did earlier inspired by the Christian Dior Haute Couture Fall 2010 collection, wanted to share them with you.

Hope you like them!

ex.oh.ex.oh

BOY YOU'RE AN ALIEN

OMG.. how can I even explain my amazement at this?

The music video for Katy Perry's new song E.T. featuring rapper Kanye West was released this Thursday and already I'm in love with it. The song itself is great, one of the best off her 'Teenage Dream' album, it's futuristic sound and content just makes me hit that replay button over and over.

But when the video was released my jaw dropped and has stayed there since Thursday! A team of highly talented make-up artist transformed Katy into a beautiful alien with various looks/guises. The sharpness and intricate patterns on her face are just exquisite, Katy recently revealed that it took 5/6 hours to transform her and I can see why.

 

One of my favorite looks is when her face is painted a gorgeous mix of white, pink and blue with very a delicate pattern on her forehead and bright blue cat eye contacts.. but one of the most amazing parts of this look is the hair. She has these white braids that just seem to defy gravity, I wanna know how they did it!! Would love to have that hairstyle for a fashion event or photo shoot.. would get so much attention! I'm going to find out how they did it, I just have to.

This video has totally re-sparked my interest in futuristic/spacey/avant garde alien fashion, last summer I designed a little 6 piece collection inspired by space travel.. this is really inspiring me at the moment. When I get a chance I might sketch down a few ideas, might do some illustrations. Right, thats enough of my rambling about this.. check out the epic music video for E.T. below. Would love to hear your comments on this too!

ex.oh.ex.oh

Fashionary

It has arrived! I have come across something which every aspiring fashion designer needs, Fashionary. It is a sketchbook with almost invisible outlines of women, so it is very quick to sketch out an idea or design and not have to worry about the figure or proportions. But it also has a great reference guide at the front, it includes measurements, patterns and lists of designers, stores, blogs ect.

I really can't wait to start using this, it is going to take the frustration of designing away (always find it annoying when you have piles of tracing paper and you are constantly re-drawing the same figure). For more information and to order one for yourself please visit http://fashionary.org and http://www.etsy.com/shop/fashionaryonline.

They included a handwritten note, I thought this was a nice little touch

ex.oh.ex.oh