The Kick Inside/Meadham Kirchhoff

Its kind of unfair that when I finally decide to post, I show a contest drawing. Things have been...strange..lately. Senioritis? More like freaking out about the future. Lately Ive been willing to try anything that isn't oil paints (strokes them lovingly). Or at least oil paints not on a canvas.

I always seem to have trouble actually drawing shit. How do people do that Robert Crumb style? It boggles my mind. Like you have to engineer the drawing into being. I like messy shit like pastels, charcoal, and oil cause it forgives me for the terrible drawer/engineer that I am.
All the same I love ink. Maybe because I cant do it myself, except as accents to the pastel and wash drawing. The process that I've been really enjoying/exploring at the moment. The idea of creating work through a sculpture on paper, through a process is very appealing to me.

I think about the type of fashion illustration I admire. and then I realize I don't want to, nor can i make work in that particular look (and I am not talking about hipster line art crap..)
Then i start going back to my god among gods. Yawp, Degas. Misogynist, anti Semitic Degas. He could really showcase fashion, and know it was beyond the exact ruffle of that overly ruffled skirt anyways. That's why people remember his work and not Tissot (I hope at least).

So going back to his mono types reminded myself that one does not always need to be clean and crisp like a photo-shopped vogue spread to get across fashion, or crazy thought, something even deeper. Sometimes it can be all about playing The Kick Inside (that album has grown TREMENDOUSLY on me over the years) and imagining all sorts of depressing shit, but hae at least you look pretty in your dreams?

In Between the Fashion Week Madness..

Enjoy my attempts at using lines. Oh shall we ever be palsies?(does not look promising)




I love girls with short hair, especially those who rock a Louise Brooks or a Pixie. I tried to be one of them 4 years ago, but failed miserably. My friend looks great with short hair. Bitch.

In Which I do Shape First, then Line

Process Process.I do a more gestural shape first and then slowly add lines. Lines and I are not friends, though I'd love to be.
Old but they capture the mood I'm in for dressing. Scarves, and long sleeved mini a-line dresses.

Who cares if I don't have legs for days?

Sneak Peak

Bigger update coming soon I promise!



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Anyone got any music to recommend that sounds similar to Giant Panda?

Schools Out, Time for some Bloggin

I feel like I am constantly apologizing for the lack of updates...well apologies again!
School is out until August and then I shall be a senior! Scary stuff.

This painting came after the piece shown in my last post. It was an open assignment, so I decided to finally create a image a friend of mine requested for his band.
Check them out,
http://www.myspace.com/thebandrabbit

My process for this piece at first felt very forced because I was trying to come up with clever and witty concepts. Realizing that that process got me no where fast, I resorted to simply drawing the first images coming to mind.
The final result being..


I think this painting was a big milestone for me. For the first time I felt I had conveyed some semblance of what I felt personally. I also got to continue to explore how clothing can bring to life a character you've created through memories, visual imagery, and music in my case. I found the process challenging but very theraputic. It allowed me to explore feelings and personal issues in a veiled way but to exercise them nonetheless.

I originally was going to base the girl's face on Abbey Lee Kershaw, because like everyone else I think her look is incredible and could have been a great fit. I am still quite happy with the current face? Thoughts?

This painting was almost not created due to the hardships of finding really great fur coats in Florida. This is why friends who thrift, and friends who take great reference photographs are my life blood. Also owners of consignment stores who allowed us to take said reference photos with no harassment.

And last but not least appropriate music really sets the mood, especially when its the XX and Phoenix.

Incorporating Fashion into Illustration

In my last two illustration assignments I've become more and more concerned with how my "characters" look and appear. Since I can't do straight fashion illustrations, this is the next best thing and I think allows me to think harder about my process for creating illustrations.

This is probably my most complete and successful. Our assignment was to do a book cover, illustrating a title of our choice. I chose The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath mostly because I hate the one on the book I had. Feet pointing inwards with pink type? The Bell Jar is far more violent than that.

In terms of my goal achievement I think I still need to become a better artist to convey what I wanted, which was something more violent and immediate. However I am still pleased that I created a striking image especially because I thought that drapery was going to be the motherfucking death of me.

The costuming was fun, since it forced me to go to goodwill and figure out what was going to work best for the story I wanted to tell. Of course I had to listen to a moron from class tell me that backs were NEVER EVER shown in the 50's....heh...please see Marilyn Monroe, Sabrina, Irving Penn, Dior, etc etc.

Rag and Bone

Much apologies about the delay...We've gone through several fashion weeks and I am just now updating! I've been abit bogged down once again with school. However this week is spring break so hoooraaay for updates!!

Since photographing my work can be abit of a pain I've started to experiment more with corel painter which is such a fun program. I definately wont be using it to do school illustrations but its great for fun doodles of my favorite looks from fashion week.

Starting off is probably my favorite from NY fashion week, Rag & Bone!


This set is abit old, almost a month I think....yeesh. You can really tell in contrast to the second set which is alittle bit better by comparison.
Right now I am still experimenting in black&white...we'll move on to color later. Right now I am more concerned with line and texture since I think alot of computer illustration has a tendency to look airbrushed..


Everyone thinks I am weird for now wanting to get a one shoulder dress to layer over button downs, but I mean c'mon!! How great is that look? My personal favorite collections were ones that I could to a certain extent, apply to my own life. Although the real deal would certainly not be a bad thing...

Impression of Kingdom of Style

I apologize for the long wait...school this year has been crazy so far!! I am taking five classes, which include two figure painting courses! Probably doesn't sound very relevant to a fashion blog, but a good foundation in the human figure can only help my fashion drawings in the long run.

One of the first blogs I started reading is, Kingdom of Style(btw does anyone know how to create a link just using the name?) http://kingdomofstyle.typepad.co.uk/
The reason I've kept at it is Queen Michelle continues to inspire through a fantastic combination of outfit posts, new designers, and DIY. I can only dream of pulling off the outfits she comes up with, so for now I'll be content with this sketch I did at the beginning of this month,



Overall I am fairly happy with this, in that I think it conveys a certain mood I was going for, which was a bit of a Gothic, Wuthering Heights feel. It was rather spontaneous, with me finding one of my favorite outfits of Queen Michelle's and going from there(I am kind of creepy in that whenever I find a favorite "image" or "look" I immediately save it on the desktop). The challenge was how to convey a sense of transparency in the skirt, I've never really been successful with it before. I think if I could go back I would have gone for more of a yellow orange rather than so "yellow yellow" that verges on yellow green. But that's the point of these exercises. You learn your mistakes and move forward.

Will try to be online soon...Ive still getting into the groove of school, but hopefully will be able to resume fashion sketching shortly!

1st post (for me)

Hey I've found time to finally contribute. Rachel asked me if I wanted to start this up with her and it's probably because I borrowed her magazine Lula for way too long and I've asked her many times for fashion advice most recently on which colored oxford heels I should buy. She is way more in the know then I am but I'm slowly getting my head into the fashion world. I've always loved fashion illustration so this will be my attempt to bring something to the table. Here is some work, mostly pen and ink. I'm still trying to figure out a "style" and I'll probably put more color into my work in the future. Woooo!!


Mixed Media

Figures in watercolor

Figure study

Lady Gaga inspired sticker for Ringling Illustration Show

Rachel from behind! How stylish :)

Debbie Harry!

I was trying to put different patterns/ textures on each piece of clothing.


Simple attitude


More recent doodles.






-Kristen

New Project

What I enjoy most about drawing is the purely gestural, observing information and than interpreting it into a different format.

With that in mind, I've started doing series of drawings based on photographs of my favorite blogs. I feel as though they're great exercises for me in learning how to control pen and ink. And overall I become more comfortable in learning how to play with proportion, color, etc.

I use references because I feel for me, if I am guessing what the gesture will be, I lose a sort of vitality. This is due to me trying to get something "correct". Another aspect for this series is that they overall are quick, and dont usually take more than an hour to two hours to complete. This is to ensure an overall liveliness at the expense of flaws that I will learn from.

My first two are of the Aldridge family which I am sure every Texan who's remotely interested in fashion has heard of. What I love about their blogs is the phenomenal collection of fashion they have amassed, while never coming across as "status obsessed". There is also a great sense of playfulness that I find very inspiring.
http://atlantishome.typepad.com/my_weblog/
http://seaofshoes.typepad.com/



The second image was the quickest, only taking about 45 min to an hour. Often I will either do the whole thing at once. After time has passed I go back and try to look at it with a fresh eye.

The first image (my favorite) was similar except I took multiple breaks while I was working on the texture of the fur. I do like the combination of wash with the heavy line but hindsight is always 20/20.

Let me know if you'd like to see the original reference photos. I am abit too lazy at the moment to go look for them since I did not save the photos after I was done.

Laura Laine

One feature on this blog that I feel very passionate about is showcasing illustrators that I see as being innovative and stand out from the pack.

An illustrator I only learned about from a MUSE editorial she took part in is Laura Laine. I couldnt find a bio on her website, so from snooping around I gathered that she is a 26 illustrator living in Helsinki.

What I love about her work is a sense of playful-ness created from her use of volume and proportion. Particularly I love her use of value on the form, which creates this fantastic sense of volume on a very distorted(but in a way that suggest she knows what she is doing) form. She seems to do a marker pencil combo which I would first think is a terrible idea really works beautifully together.