Friday 18 June 2010

David Downton, Part 2



One of my card designers I found 'David Downton' after researching him I realised he was much more prestigious than I thought. As here he was chosen to illustrate the cover of the 50th anniversary edition of Australian Vogue which I think would definitely be an honour especially after years of the cover being a photographic image. I love how Vogue have chosen a drawing based image for such a special edition. After thinking drawing was being shoved out the window this gives me some hope that drawing is still in fashion as it most definitely is a passion of mine.

New Habits, Rene Gruau






Another designer 'Rene Gruau' I found from looking for a card for my mates 21st. My attention was caught from the use of delicate lines laced together to form a beautiful image. 

I later found out that Rene used to fashion illustrate for 'Christian Dior' which was definitely interesting for myself as 'John Galliano' the first fashion designer I took an interest in has been the core designer for 'Dior'.  

New Habits, David Downton




I should probably explain the title 'New Habits', when I'm card shopping for peoples birthday cards or what not if I see a selection of cards with beautiful designs or illustrations I take down the designers name and save it in my phone. You never know when the inspiration may come in handy. 

Here is a selection of David Downtons work. The image placed at the bottom was the design I found in the shop on a card then after googling his name I found others I was impressed with. 

I learnt David Downton is a fashion illustrator which I found interesting. What drew me to his work was the fact it looked very much like the work of one of my favorite fashion illustrators 'Stina Persson' (I have a post of her on my blog).

I love the contrast of the harsh colours against the more subtle ones also each images composition. The top image I found very striking, such strong colours against the black background surprisingly gives the image more focus.

Sunday 13 June 2010

Fashion and Fairytale







After being inspired by the idea of fairies and fantasy I decided to google fairies and fashion and found these images. They are from the fashion magazine Vogue and the fairytale they chose to develop is Thumbelina. I love them they are really quirky which is a quality I love when it comes to design and the whole idea of bringing a traditional fairytale to life in a modern contemporary way is beautiful.

Fairies and Fantasy






Over the summer period I thought I'd love to get back in touch with my drawing side as I love to draw and felt I'd not been doing a lot of it recently.

Having a few days of gorgeous sunshine inspired me to draw and because of the sunshine I thought what better to draw than flowers. As I sat soaking up the sun I remembered I had a few books stashed away from years back on fairies which each represented a flower from every season of the month. For example the image at the far bottom is the Rose fairy. All these books were illustrated Cicley Mary Barker.

Looking through her illustrations of flowers and fairies inspired me to re-create, freehand one of her drawings as seen above (the middle image). I really enjoyed drawing this. I have a passion for drawing and thought what better way to start working through inspirations ready for third year.

The image at the top is another one of my drawings, again freehand. After being inspired by Barker's illustrations I wanted to draw my own flower and picked the lily which is my favorite and also coincidentally the flowers in my mum's vase on the dining table.

As my degree specifies in moving image I obviously took this into account. The image I drew situated above in the middle i imagined the fairy walking up and down the stem, fluttering her wings. If i were to create this I would make it so the movements were subtle yet effective to reflect the delicacy and fragility of my style of drawing.

I would imagine when the majority think of fairies they relate them to children as when their young they have a sense of belief. Though my piece I wouldn't aim for children I think my drawings have a more 'grown-up' feel. So it had me thinking I love fashion and more and more fashion designers these days are taking the next step into the digital World. My short of fairies could promote clothing collections as the ideas that revolve around fairies is all about believing (Peter Pan, clap if you believe in fairies). So the end title of my short could be 'seeing is believing' to represent the clothing as these clothes are so breathtaking you have to see it to believe it.