CL of 2NE1

'Just try to Follow me!'

This is an image of 'CL' from the Korean girl group '2NE1' or 'To Anyone'
the outfit is from their 'Follow me' video. This was just a bit of fun and I am fasinated by this group at the moment. I enjoy their music, style and all of the members have great personalities and are very talented.
Here is a link to the music video: Follow me by 2NE1

preview of future work

wow. I've been soso busy working 6 or 7 day weeks! D:
I have been finding some time to draw though, but nothing is finished yet! so here is a preview of just some of the images I've been making that will hopefully get finished before the end of this year, or early next year at the latest!
Some of this work is just for fun, others are for a friend who wants some artwork for her band.

The lady with birds in her hair

I had to work on this sketch bit by bit over the course of a month or so as I was so busy working 6 or 7 day weeks. Its still not quite done. Its A3 in size, and I kind of made it up as I went along. I call her simply 'bird lady'

I am thinking about inking it and painting it, but less messy and inky than my usual portraits. I might also try to colour it digitally as well as see which one I like most. Basically this is all just one big experiment.

(oh and I have some more pictures still on the go at the moment. I keep jumping from one to another for some variation)

Dita Von Teese

Today is the birthday of Dita Von Teese, one of my favourite celebrities and one of my ultimate fashion icons.
This image is a painting I was meant to give her when I met her at a London book signing December last year, but I became so star struck I totally forgot to hand it to her. I hope I have another chance. I haven't shared it until now. I plan to paint her even more in the future. She is such an inspiration to me.

WIP

I am working on an image, inspired by the current fashion of 'Aviator jackets'. I bought a gorgeous leather one myself a week ago. It has this lovely fake fur collar and its so comfy! I have this image in mind of what I want the final image to look like, inspired by some poster art of the World war 2 era.

I haven't had much time to draw recently, I've been working a lot in various places. I also damaged my back during a gym session which makes most simple tasks very painful. I am still recovering from that.

I am finding the odd day where I have some time to draw, though there are many ideas trapped inside my head at the moment that I can't seem to find the time to get out! no rest for the wicked!

Inspiring Designers/ Artists

This post is not about my own work but the work of some very inspiring and talented ladies I know.

A few weeks ago I had the absolute pleasure of being able to (twice) witness the collaboration between my ex-housemate, friend and photographer Anna Swiczeniuk, aka: Aiko273 and the designer and super multitalented front-woman of the band Angelspit Amelia Arsenic aka: destroyx

These two are a huge inspiration to me and not to mention, two of the nicest and most creative people I have ever met.
This particular shoot was for Amelia's new fashion range 'A is for arsenic'

I was so delighted to be able to watch behind the scenes as the still life product shots and separate model photo-shoots were carefully set up and designed by both Anna and Amelia. The models as well were the gorgeous Nina Kate of Jane Doe Latex and her husband Stitch_D of the band The Defiled. Hair styling was by Ceri of Snarl Hair.

So go here and CHECK IT OUT!

A IS FOR ARSENIC

I even got a mention as an assistant which was far too kind of Amelia as I merely provided some fishing wire, helped hang some props up and looked on amazed as the shoots took place. lol

Also, here are some links to Amelia's other sites:

Blog:'Your daily dose of destruction'
Make-up range: http://www.miss-x.net/
Angelspit band merchandise: BlackPillRedPill
Etsy for Miss X jewelry: Miss X laboratories

(told you she was multi talented!)

Anna's portfolio is linked above and here: http://aiko273.co.uk/

A big thank you to them all for letting me help out.

Going Gaga

For the last few weeks I have been working on some images for gagadaily.com, which hopefully will be used in a section of their website as part of the layout. These images are unfinished starting points, as the brief was also to give them abstract backgrounds with various paint splats and marks too.

I ended up painting loads of images, some of which weren't chosen but I still quite like. The images here, when finished will definitely be used.

I still need to get the others sorted!

Lady Gaga/ gagadaily.com

'The way she moves, the way she walks....'

I am so delighted and excited! or should I say... 'So happy I could die?' ;)

I was contacted by the website owner and designer of www.gagadaily.com a very well respected and trusted Lady Gaga website which has thousands of visitors everyday, (including Lady Gaga herself at least once a week)
and I have been asked to produce some drawings/ paintings that will be used for the layout of the website.

Can't wait to get started on this! I hope it all goes well. fingers crossed!

Burlesque/ Pin up inspired

sometimes the paints/inks just do the talking, more than my brain itself.....

Sketchbook images

a trio of sketches from the Museum of Childhood (middle and bottom image) and the V&A museum (top image) London. More to come from this sketchbook soon.

Korean Contact Lenses

I’ve been debating for a few weeks whether to buy some Korean contact lenses. (and if so, what colours! there are so many types!) This just kind of happened whilst I was thinking about it, nothing special, more of a doodle. :)

Lee Byung Hun

Just trying to get back into drawing again after I've moved house so here's a portrait of Korean actor Lee Byung Hun.

Watch canvas bag

'I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date! no time to say hello, goodbye, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!'

I made some of these canvas bags to sell at my exhibition. There a few left too incase anyone wants one ;)

Zine

an example of the small Alice in Wonderland zine that I was selling at my end of year exhibition.

End of year exhibition

congratulations to all the University of Westminster Illustration students who worked so hard and made our final degree exhibition a great success!

The image above is of my final work which I decided to exhibit as a small installation resembling a victorian house interior with my work on Alice in Wonderland inside some ornate frames. A small table was at the front with a tiny 'drink me' bottle on it, in keeping with the Wonderland theme. My portfolio sat on a table opposite. I was very happy to sell a couple of bags and small zines (which I shall post photos of in another update)

I am happy to have completed my degree and this project. Its definitely time for me to move on. I am currently writing a list of different topics that I want to illustrate over the next few months in order to get me producing work and improving my style. I feel it is high time my work gained some more depth and content, as I am starting to feel as if my work is getting stale.

I am excited about starting to explore my ideas and begin work as an Illustration graduate.

The Queen of Hearts- Coloured

The Queen of Hearts

a portrait of my Queen of hearts design

Painting the roses.... White

This is an reworked version of a drawing I made right at the beginning of this project that I posted a while ago. I think its an improvement, and it now matches the style of the other Alice drawings I have done.
the old drawing is here: http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4691/victorianalice2.jpg
The reason why Alice is painting the roses white is to do with the video game concept which these designs are for where Alice rebels against the Queen of hearts and paints the roses white again.

Cheshire cat

here's my finished Cheshire cat. He looks more complete now with his tail.

At the moment I've been working on my Alice in Wonderland project for our Degree show in June. i have been taking earlier ink drawings and re-drawing them in more detail.
I am going crazy re-drawing Alice all the time! I need to work on some new characters!

In this image, Alice grows to an enormous size, bigger than all the trees.

Alice drawing

A drawing of Alice that will eventually be part of a larger illustration of Alice looking at the Cheshire cat.

Alice' fashion plate'

I really wanted this image to resemble a 'Victorian fashion plate'
I think its almost there, might still need some tweaking

The cheshire cat- Work in Progress

My Cheshire cat design. (He's got a monocle) :)

Drawn in inks. Again, I wanted it to have a Victorian feel to it, hense him being rather old fashioned and gentlemen like with a monocle and some fur coloured to resemle a suit, including a bow tie. He will have a fairly natural colour scheme of Dark Brown/Black and white. I had tried out many colour combinations, but in the end, I decided that a more realistic scheme was more fitting to the victorian theme, as some of the bizarre colour schemes I tried looked too strange to match the theme of the other characters.

Sadly I couldn't fit his tail on the sheet of paper I used, so I will be drawing it on another sheet soon and adding it on in photoshop. I think it would be a little cruel to leave him tailless! I also have to add some whiskers. 

This cat design is also based on my own Cat 'Buttons' who sadly died back in 2007, who had fur colouring similar to this design and she has the same v-shape piece of ear missing, which I gave to the cheshire cat to make him a little quirky, even in the small details. 

Queen of hearts- work in progress

My Queen of hearts dress design and hair design. UNFINISHED.

The bottom strip of fabric is yet to be done, and also she has no face yet. Plus it needs to be coloured. 

This was drawn in ink. I wanted it to have the feel of a victorian woodblock print. 

Going to see the band 'Angelspit' tonight :D

Last time I saw them was in 2007 and I'm very excited

here's a picture of their amazing front woman Amelia Arsenic aka: Destroyx that I drew a while back.

so this was another business card design which I haven't actually had printed yet due to being unsure about it. I will still submit it tomorrow for my professional practice module though.

The idea behind this is that it is like a playing card, and can be read upside down too. The Queen of hearts character on this card is my OLDER design for my final project, but I think it works on the card better than my new design.

I haven't managed to find a company that will print the card with rounded edges yet though, and I don't want to have them printed and have to trim them all myself. I can't even get the edges perfect in photoshop, let alone by hand. lol

I don't have long left for my major project. At the moment I am trying so hard to make my character concept art look more 'dynamic' as my character poses are always so stiff! its very frustrating  as I have this perfect image in my head of what I want the final designs to look like, but I can't seem to get them on paper.

Ideally I want my finished character designs to be a mix between a Victorian illustration and a typical game concept art. I want them to have an essence of fashion illustration, but that means I really have to try hard to make them more dynamic.

Business Cards

(Business card designs. Images on Left are Front designs, images on the right are their corresponding Back designs, which happen to be the same for both cards)

I made the old paper illusion myself mixing a few different textures and tea stained papers that I made (the final outcome was an edit of about 4 of these), and then complied them with my traditional ink drawings. I wanted them to have an old Victorian feel to them.

I was going to send of some business card designs earlier, but to my dismay I realised I had edited them all wrong. I've been trying to fix them all evening and I think I've done it. I've sent these two designs off for print, only a small number, just to test to see how they look. If they look good I will order more before the show.

I also have some other designs that I want to use, which aren't quite done yet, I would finish them but its Easter Sunday and staring at photoshop all evening has made my eyes sting, regardless of how much chocolate egg I have eaten, so I will finish them tomorrow.

Hopefully by our show I will have another business card featuring the Red Queen, and one that is -not- Alice in Wonderland related, just to make sure people don't think thats all I like to draw. :)

Playing around with some possible colour schemes for my character designs of the Cheshire cat and the Red Queen's hair which I have recently changed from a long loose style to a tall up-do inspired by Marie Antoinette which i feel has a more royal feel to it and is very contrasting to Alice's loose curls. 

Work in progress

In case anybody thought I worked in an organised manner.... well, I don't.

I work on the floor, in a corner surrounded by everything I need.

Working on my final major project currently. Got loads to get done :/

Alice in Wonderland cont.

These drawings are part of a video game concept where Alice is meant to be painting the Roses white as she was rebelling against the Red Queens reign. That’s why she is not painting them red and painting them white instead, as in the games basic ideas, Red=Related to the red queen and evil and White=related to the white rabbit and good. I am also working on designs of the paint brush she is using as it is a gift the white rabbit gives to her and I want it to have a really neat design relating to the white rabbit in some way.

Alice In Wonderland

Working on a project about an Alice in Wonderland game at the moment. The project direction keeps changing slightly. I am designing some characters, objects and interfaces that could be used in a computer game version of the story. I have been inspired by the traditional image of Alice and Victorian style illustrations.

I get by with a little help from my friends

designs for bags

I am planning some portraits to screen print onto bags. I tried out a few colour combinations. I think it would be great to have a series of bags with the same portrait but variations in colours. 

Competition entry

Competition entry for Dazed and Confused Magazine 'Decade Drawn Out'

where you had to re-draw an old magazine cover however you wanted.

Lady Gaga- Im a free bitch!

Lady Gaga ink paintings. Just for fun! Photos of Gaga were referenced for these.

The Art of the Teese

I am very interested in the art of Burlesque and vintage pin-ups. This is an older image from my second year at university. I was designing images for www.whatkatiedid.com 

Inspired by the film by Park Chan Wook: 'Sympathy for Mr Vengeance'

East Asian Cinema

I am a huge fan of East Asian cinema, and one of my favourite directors is Park Chan Wook, The Korean Director who directed the 'Vengeance Trilogy' which includes the films 'Oldboy', 'Sympathy for Mr Vengeance' and 'Lady Vengeance'. These ink drawings are for a project I did on these films. The Drawing above is from the film 'Oldboy'.