dilemma!

Butterflies image created in photoshop then placed in illustrator

I'm not sure if I should have the castle and add some tiny butterflies or have just the butterflies..

hmmmm...

bodice detail

The pleated details on the bodice.

I did this the same way as the body shadow.

hat!

Having fun creating a hat for my girl! I used a watercolour brush from the brush library for this with short strokes and playing with the size of the brush! When the shape I wanted is created I layer it over and over around the model's head to give her that papery - feather feel hat. The second picture is the finish product after hours of playing around, as you can see I gave her a bit of hair and also changed her eyeshadow to a minty green :) 

giving my girl a face - make up and shadows!

Adding details to my model's face and body. For the shadow on the body, I simply blocked the shadows seen in the photograph using pen tool and creating a shape then filling it in with the darker flesh tone. I also played around with the transparency of each shapes so that more depth is created. For the face I simply outline the shapes and filled in the colours that i wanted. For the eyeshadow, a watercolour brush was used to create the smoky effect. 

accessorizing

First attempt at drawing necklaces using downloaded scattered brush, I turned the individual diamond into a normal brush

As you can see - there is not a lot of movement

Second try, much happier with this outcome! 

Ps. As you can see I have outlined the paper castles as in the reference photograph here as well

Progress

This is my figure trace out with the skirt detailing completed.The skirt detailing was done by using a flower symbol in illustrator. The symbol came with some leafs and I simply break links to symbol, ungroup and deleted them, then creating a new symbol out of that. I then sprayed the flowers on with the symbol sprayer in different groups and layered them up into the skirt shape.

Before, the skirt was just one colour making it look a bit flat but with the spray stainer tool i was able to make the skirt have multiple colours on it (unfortunately i forgot to screenshot the before image) 

Reference Photo for my cover!

From Vogue, 2010

What I learnt today about Illustrator

Shape tools

• To get the dimensions you want, click on the shape you want to make, double click on the page and type in the dimensions, sides, roundness, points (so you can manipulate it)
• Radius 1 – inside, radius 2 – outside

Width tool (distorting the shape via anchor points)

• Warp tool
• Twirl tool
• Pucker – suck in anchor points
• Bloat – expands anchor points
• Scallop
• Crystallise
• Wrinkle tool

Distorting the whole shape

• Select the shape you want to distort à effect – distort and transform
• Pucker and bloat - change the % click on the preview and see what’s happening
• Roughen – roughen the edge of your paths, details (amount of shards you get). Corner – sharp edges, smooth edge

Brushes

• Brush libraries menu
• Change the colour by turning the fill off and filling the stroke 
• You can apply brushes to lines or shapes you have created
• Change the stroke size, the opacity and play around with the outcome
• Brush option – click twice on the brush that you are using and play around with the option with the preview on. 
• Brush options will depend on the type of brush you are using e.g bristle brush, art brush, calligraphic, scatter brush etc.
• If you have made a change to the brush e.g. scatter brush – just rename them and save brush

Altering Symbol

• Drag symbol onto your page, right click, ungroup, deselect and reselect (you may have to ungroup more than once) – now you can change the colour of the symbol and turn it into a new brush
• If you are not happy with the brush you created, you can play with the option until you are happy with it

Making brushes out of Type

• In word, select your type box
• Type – create outlines (turning the text into shapes)
• You can ungroup them, scale them, scatter them, edit anchor point etc.
• Turn it into an art brush or a pattern brush depends on how you are going to use it

Downloading brush and using it

• Download – go to download folders, drag to desktop, double click on it
• Open other library on the brush section, select file hit open 

Tracing image

• Find reference image
• Place in
• Put in the site web
• Lock the layer
• Create new layer – figure
• Create another one – garment
• Trace away with pen tool!  

I'm still dreaming about you

yes its 2011. and yes i still want you.

I'm back!

I have disappeared from the surface for a long time...no excuses really - just lazy and too much work but i am back and hopefully this time i manage to stay :P 

So incredibly inspired by these images right now: 

favourite postsecret. ever.

It's sad but so liberating at the same time.

studs all over a classic pair of heels?

enough said.

yup. this is my baby from the future.

alexander wang's niece.

greatest hair.

I wish I could pull that off.

Images courtesy of: postsecret, I spy DIY and anickaa.tumblr xx