Pretty Dresses

Swann, Graphite with Digital Color 2012

This illustration was inspired by Chanel's Resort 2013 collection. I've been getting interested in fashion illustration this year beginning with my zodiac series, so I thought I'd try some illustrations of recent collections to experiment with different techniques and to get more familiar with what's going on in the fashion industry.

I have always loved fashion, but my expertise in the field pretty much begins and ends with "ooooh pretty dresses!" I don't really follow the names of designers, let alone buy designer clothes...or clothes of any kind really. My wardrobe is made up of things I bought back when I had money and clothes I accidentally bought during a trip to Target for toothpaste. So I had to google the meaning of "Resort Collection", and I don't know why this collection is from the future if the runway show took place last month. But I really liked the color palette and the styling of the models for Chanel's show, especially the pastel bob wigs. Also, when I saw it I thought ooooh pretty dresses!

More Zodiac Ladies!

Hello again, fine citizens of the internet!

Things got a little crazy for me this semester and I have been too busy to post anything for a while. I had a pretty impossible amount of work to do and then everything went horribly wrong during the week leading up to finals. My car broke down, my computer got a really creepy virus (the hacker was watching me work in photoshop and sending me messages about my art and also a startling amount of porn) and then on the last day my power went out! Somehow I still emerged from the art cave victorious.

The Art Cave

So anyway, here are seven more of my zodiac illustrations. I've almost finished the set, Sagittarius and Virgo came out a little wonky so I'm going to redo those ones. Hope you enjoy them :)

Cancer, Watercolor 2012

Leo, Watercolor 2012

Libra, Watercolor 2012

Scorpio, Watercolor 2012

Capricorn, Watercolor 2012

Aquarius, Watercolor 2012

Pisces, Watercolor 2012

The Ram

Aries, Watercolor 2012

Here's another one from my zodiac set :)

The Twins

Gemini, Watercolor 2012

Here's the latest illustration in my zodiac series. Hope you enjoy it!

The Bull

Taurus, Watercolor 2012

This is the first piece in a series of illustrations for each sign of the zodiac. More coming soon. Thanks for looking!

a still life

Requisites, Graphite 2012

This is another one for Lawrence Yun's drawing class. It's about gender conventions and it's also about how much I love to render hair.

Lawrence did a demo for us on applying graphite powder, which is what I used for the table. I cut a stencil and applied layers of powder with a brush until I got it as dark as I needed it. I think it was pretty successful, it was fairly quick and probably the best way to get an even tone.

That's about all I have to say about this one. In my last post I wondered why I don't draw like this (photo-realistically) more often. Now I remember why. I takes ten thousand years, it's fucking boring and I will probably never do it again once this class is over.

a preview

 These are two pieces I did for a collaborative project I recently started with a few friends and friends of friends. We are working on a title and a few other logistics, but we should have the blog for that project up within a few weeks, at which point I will link to it here. The basic premise of the project is a conversation through artwork. So each person created a piece, dealing with the theme "identity" and then we randomly swapped pieces and created response pieces to each other's work. 

We plan to repeat the process indefinitely and just kind of see what happens, sharing the results on a blog as we go. I'm really excited about it because I love working collaboratively, it reminds me of my high school Literary Magazine (which is where I met two of the artists from this project) and it's awesome because there's a lot of variety in terms of work. There are other visual artists as well as writers so I can't wait to see where it goes.

 Literally, I can't wait. Which I guess is why I am sharing these pieces here, now. This first piece is about trying to understand how many people there are living right now. I can read the number, but it's difficult to really grasp what it represents. This is about trying to relate to that number and the what it means to be one of seven billion unique individuals.

Everyone; No One, Watercolor, Ink, 2012

This piece is a response to a poem called Counting Steps, Counting Breaths by my friends Annie Le. The poem will be on our project site and I will link to it here once it is. I know she is inspired by Buddhist teachings and Thich Naht Hahn, who is totally amazing. You should all read his book, The Miracle of Mindfulness. 

Only Peeling; Watercolor, Colored Pencil, 2012

That's all for now! Thanks for reading/looking!