Herringbone

I asked for more animal names in clothing stuff, and got some really cool suggestions. herringbone was one of them, and this is what I came up with. I really love matjes (pickled herring) sandwiches and a nice cool beer!

And, Phew! man, the more complex a piece the more time you spend deleting tangents!

here is the sketch:

Houndstooth

After doing the pussy bow piece I thought it would be fun to look for more fashion thing that have animal names. Frankly I have no idea why this pattern is called houndstooth, the forms may look a little bit like a dog but where does the tooth come from?
Anyway, I had a lot of fun doing this, especially the little pug - am i weird to think pugs are cute?


Question: Do you know any more clothing related things that have animal names? I'd love to do more of these pictures!

here is the final sketch:

some warm ups

Last week my boyfriend and I both caught a terrible cold which rendered us unable to do anything but lie on the couch and sleep or play videogames or watch TV. Today is the first day I feel good enough to draw again, so here are some warm ups:




I threw some quick colors on these:



I'm not satisfied with the likeness of the drawing of Joan Holloway/ Christina Hendricks but I'm sure I'll draw her again some time soon.

watercolor drawing of piksi

I really like piksi's flickr photostream. She has the most adorable outfits! I really enjoy working with watercolors, but I always have to do some photoshopping n the end to achieve likeness.

pussy bow

I am totally in love with pussy bow style blouses and dresses right now. actually even a little obsessed because it made me draw this. They look sexy, conservative, bold and hilarious at the same time! And dont even get me started on that name!
Also: Hooray for hot pink!


here is the sketch:



and some other sketches I made in the process:

Queen Michelle of Kingdom of Style

I love fashion, so naturally I read a lot of fashion blogs. I have always been thinking about drawing portraits of my favorite bloggers. Lately I have seen many other illustrators had the same idea, and produced some amazing artwork, so I'll just join the club.

Kingdom of Style was one of the first independent fashion blogs I came across and I have been reading it ever since. They have such an inspiring creativity and I'm always exited to see a new post in my feed reader, because it will always be surprising and interesting, be it a designer review, a new item they've purchased, a DIY project or a tidbit about their personal live.
And I love love love Queen Michelle's Outfit posts, so here she is:






Original is here

Some sketches and something on sketching

One thing I often hear from artists is that you should be drawing all the time. I think this is a great and true advice, but I also think there lies a danger in it. Some - especially young - artist tend to take this as a gospel truth, and believe if the just wont put the pencil out of their hand, they are already doing everything right. Actually they are doing almost everything right. Drawing constantly will definitely give you great control over your tools, which is crucial for anything you do. But if you draw mindlessly there is the danger of ingraining mistakes or just drawing variations of the same thing over and over without really improving. Of course it would be ideal, if every time you want to start sketching you would actually be really inspired by something cool, or at least you find something challenging.
I have no general recipe for that but one thing that works for me is sketching from street style blogs. They are full of photos of so many different and interesting people, which really inspires me. To keep myself challenged I try to pick the photos where I think: "This looks really cool, I have no idea how i would draw that" Like with the leopard scarf in that one sketch.
Do I draw all the time in my free time? It depends. I have noticed that I have phases. There are those phases where I draw almost all the time, and nothing could make me happier then. And there are those times where I just cant bring myself to it, and only play video games, I know drawing would only suck at that time, so I dont force it. I think that keeps me sane. ;)

references for the sketches above:
http://glamcanyon.blogspot.com/2009/03/sokrates-on-broadway-market.html
http://trendycrew.com/street-fashion/fairy-paris-fashion-week/