The start of something wonderful.

In college we have been given Two new briefs. In these briefs I will write my own brief and work to this to create and develop a collection, that fits to a target audience and market level, a chosen trend and works into my research threads.

To begin with I Did a mind map, this showed idea's, trends, seasons, era's and cultures, fabrics, colour themes and other research idea's that I wanted to look at.

This is my mood board, showing all my original idea's. 

The two main concepts I chose to research into were 'Hippies' and the '50's.' 

What do you think? 

How do you begin when designing or thinking of idea's? 

XOXO

Fashion in Illustration.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I had to create four illustration boards to portray Noir and illustrate my designs.

These are my first two these were done in the Style or Rene Gruau. I did an blog about him earlier. I also showed you my recreation on his work.

I was really happy with both my outcomes but this one was a little hit and miss whether I thought it would work as it isn't very sex and tailored like Noir, but I like the final image. I illustrated my parka coat on this board and tried to make the model look natural but feminine and sleek.

This board in my opinion is very sleek, sexy and fits with Noir's look although her face and hair are very 'posh' and not very natural and doesn't look like a typical Noir model. In this illustration I illustrated my bandeau top with a trim. I was really happy with both boards and think they came out well in the end.

Although they both took forever because I kept redoing bits and panicking about how it will look.

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The next two images are my final two boards and for these I used the techniques of Manolo Blahnik. While experimenting with his work and techniques I realised I have really taken to his style and I think I will use this more in the future especially now I have added my twist to it and made it my own. 

These two boards are my ultimate favourites, I don't think I have ever been so proud of something in my life! HA! 

I love the use of Blahnik's techniques and I put these into practise by enlarging the foot of my mannequin, the top of my mannequin and also the details of the garments like my peplum top. I used white lines and blocks of white to show shadow and 3D effect. Although I did make a little smudge but I hid it with white paint.

Can you tell?

My final board was a little hit and miss on whether I was going to like it but after I'd finished and added some light lines on the bottom of the dress I preferred the outcome. I think I can honestly say I tried my best on these boards.

What do you think?

Do you like doing illustrations?

XOXO

Getting to grips with the concept of things.

CONCEPT BOARD...

So for my brief at college I have to create and explain my concept and to do this I made a board. 

My concept includes 'The Tales of the Orient', 'Military' and 'Countryside Alliance' trends. 

I created this by finding images of my three trends and the top left corner is Noir which is the brand I am designing and creating a concept board for.

I then painted the cherry blossom over the top of the images and the whole top right of the board although it did get a little fat in the middle which annoys me.

When talking to my tutor we came to conclusion that I should have arranged it differently to put the main focus on what's important and the images that will portray the concept better. I could have added a border and had the important or main images over lapping the border so that the interest is on those as they are in the eye line.

I should have maybe thought out going around the figures on photoshop like I did on the image in the bottom left corner so as to put the focus onto the clothing and the models. 

I like my board but it could have been a lot stronger if I had put more thought into it! If I were to do this again I may even change the paper from landscape to portrait to have less white spaces and even add more images.

What do you think?

Do you create concept boards?

XOXO

Rene Gruau.

For my brief at college I was researching into illustrators and fashion illustrations.

One of my favourites so far is Rene Gruau, 1909, Italian born fashion illustrator. 

           

I created this using Photoshop. 2012.

On a recent blog I showed you how I recreated one his pieces, the image I created is on the bottom left corner of the above image and is one of my favourites of Rene's.
I really like the effect he has with paint, before recreating and looking into Rene's work I hated using paint and was never very good at it but I have come to enjoy it and like the outcome. Although I prefer doing block colours and not blending etc.
His paintings are all very feminine and pretty. Many of his paintings are women and a lot of them as you can see use red.

When creating my illustration boards for college I used Rene's technique and style as I thought it fitted with my theme of Noir as it is feminine but sleek and sexy. Especially the bottom left corner - the one I recreated.

What do you think of his work?

Do you have any favourite illustrators?

XOXO