Adventures in Watercolour

When I decided to turn Bell Street into a bridal business, I decided that I needed to get a lot better at fashion illustration. I can't churn out bridal samples quickly and cheaply, so I can't rely on samples and photography to communicate my design ideas. A beautiful fashion illustration goes a long way in getting customers excited about an idea, but I had one problem - my fashion illustrations have never been very beautiful. I had a great illustration teacher at uni and learned a lot from him, but I've found that if you don't use your illustration skills regularly, you lose them.

I've been a fan of Katie Rodger's work at Paper Fashion for a long time so I was excited when she offered an online course in watercolour techniques. The class taught how to mix colours and create a colour chart (above), and how to render different textures such as leather, suede, sequins and satin. This was perfect for me as I was quickly realising that when most of your designs are white or ivory, you need good skills in rendering fabrics and details!

I illustrated my favourite Golden Ponies shoes as an exercise.

I'm hoping to get a lot better with practice (I think I have improved since I first said that a year ago!), but I'm enjoying the experimentation for now.

What I wore/What I draw 3

I think my drawings are starting to improve... at least, I'm doing more of them so I have more to choose from to post on the blog! Still have trouble drawing faces and can never get my own hair colour right.

New in store: Angie & Ayumi T-shirts

Remember I mentioned maybe calling the new collection 'Angie'? Well, this is Angie. Angie arrived in Tokyo with nothing but a sewing machine. She knew no-one and got lost frequently. One day she stumbled upon a textile workshop, filled with happy chattering girls dipping scrunched up fabric into indigo dye. Angie introduced herself to Ayumi, who immediately said 'Angie? from the Rolling Stones song?' and Angie knew they would be best friends.

These t-shirts were made from quick illustrations I did while teaching a fashion design class. I liked how the girls turned out, so we made them into a screen print and coloured in their dresses by hand. Each one is slightly different and they are very limited edition.

This is Ayumi, in her favourite rainbow dress.

She also likes to wear her blue polka dot dress.

Angie has a blue polka dot dress to match.

Get the girls from the etsy store!

what I wore/what I draw 2

 

I'm hoping this week's drawings look a bit better than my first lot! Now that we've moved into our apartment I have my workspace all set up, so I was able to colour these by hand rather than on the computer. 

I've been working at home most days, with a lot of trips to the shops as we keep thinking of more things we need for the apartment! We've also been exploring the local markets on the weekends and occasionally going out with people from James' office. I really like it here!

what I wore/what I draw

Have you seen this flickr group? People submit their daily outfits, as drawn by them! I got really into it a few years ago and drew my outfits for about two weeks, then got over it - I didn't have the time.
 Now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I'm going to start doing it again. It's a great way to practice your freehand illustration skills - and mine desperately need practice!
 I figured if I post the drawings here, it'll motivate me to keep doing it... and to improve my skills a bit so I'm not embarrassed! Oh well, gotta start somewhere.
Hopefully in about a year's time I'll link back to this post and say 'hey! look how much my drawing's improved since these funny little figures!'.