Pinterest

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Fashion triumphs and beauty disasters

So I have tracked down the Chloe-fake shoes at Top Shop in Covent garden and bought them. It was only by pure luck. The sales assistant I asked said there were none in stock. Fortunately another member of staff overheard and rescued a renegade pair from the stock room that she had remembered being delivered over from another store. I thanked her so much she looked at me as if I was a weird desperate foot fetishist  (insert correct term). In buying them I have saved £700 - the real ones are £800 and then some.



But with a ying there always has to be a yang. 

So I popped out of work while I was waiting for a meeting to get my eyelashes and eyebrows tinted, as I had done in Swansea (it immediately looked nice there...they do it in the middle of Debenhams department store so it has to). Unfortunately the woman didn't understand when I said the word "natural" and has given me almost BLACK eyebrows. And not just that! She thickened them. I've got two slugs on my face! It looks fucking ridiculous. I look like frankenstein's aunt. In an effort to get rid of some of the hair she'd just died I told her to pluck them. The worst bit is I had to go straight back to work afterwards with frankenstein eyebrows and bright pink skin all around them. 

The moral of the story? 
Don't be a retard and get your eyebrows done in the middle of a work day. 

PS. Its now pissing it down outside. The weather understands my anguish.



Friday 4 May 2012

iPad Brushes Animal Paintings

Since my post on my iPad Brushes portraits went down so well, I thought I'd post some of my iPad Brushes animal paintings. These were unfortunately not done from real life like my sketches of Fiance and my self portrait but from pictures. In art lessons I was told this was less artistic as the photographer has already made choices. In my defence, who has asked a lion to sit still for a picture recently?

This butterfly was at least a self-taken picture from Kew gardens I think. 



I posted this tiger a while back but it turned out really well. So I thought I'd show you the process that created it. One of the really great features of Brushes is the replay which lets you see your drawing process sped up. It's also helpful to see when your changes stopped improving the picture. 

Here is my initial sketch with one guide line.



 Blocking in colour and starting to add black lines which really make all the difference and is probably my favourite bit.


Again here blocking in colour. Its generally best to block in background colour earlier but I didn't start with the intention of including a background. I changed my mind because I need a coloured background to make the white hair of the tiger visible. 


The finished iPad finger painting. 



Here is my initial and very minimal sketch for a lion's profile. In fact its the background on my MacBook.



Blocking in the colours for the background and face.


With different shades added to create shape. I usually use only three brushes on Brushes - the first solid one, the second opaque but circular one, and the 5th circular but graduated towards the edges one. This last brush obviously creates the most subtle shading.  I also vary the opacity of the brushes and the size - ranging from one pixel to 20.


The finished picture. The colours actually look a lot better on the iPad's screen - less yellow but whatever I do it seems to come out yellow rather than orange here. Believe me - my colour pallet is more orange/beige - as you can see above. 


 So there we go. More iPad art in the making coming to a blog near you soon.



Wednesday 2 May 2012

Fashion Love From Afar

The stylist here has an amazing pair of shoes. They are so amazing that she wore them two days in a row. If a stylist wears something two days running its got to be the shizzle. And I have a major crush on these shoes. I dreamt about them last night and when I woke up this morning they were in my mind. Its love. But its unrequited. They cost £800ish and that would hurt my bank balance. That's more than I paid for my entire hallway to be replastered.

So brace yourself for the sheer loveliness - here they are, the Chloe Susan:


And here they are in red. Apparently they also came in green but I don't think those were so popular.


Not only are they gorgeously detailed they are also slim to the leg - something I, with my stick legs quest for. But look, this love affair will never be consummated. My feet will never enter them (lets just stop and take that sad fact in). 


But I do have some cheaper options. 

Here are some rather good copies from Office called the "Nighthawk" for £80. Slight hitch is they are sold out.


These copies are by Jeffrey Campbell - hitch is they just aren't as good. Plus they are over £100 and not as good.





These are from Freepeople and they are actually pretty cool. Hitch is they are over £200. 





















Hey look there is no happy ending in this love story. 

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Michel Gondry's cars

For his new film Moon Indigo, based on the French novel Écume des Jours (Froth on the Daydream) by Boris Vian, Michel Gondry has created some really weird looking back-to-front, Frankenstein vintage-looking cars. 


The Citroen GSA



Fiat Uno


Peugeot 205


Peugeot 306


Peugeot 404


Renault 21


Renault 4


Peugeot 104


Renault 18


The story of the film goes like this: Audrey Tautou plays a young wife who falls ill on her honeymoon. A water lilly enters her lung and the only way to cure it is to surround her with fresh flowers, which takes a toll on her husband’s bank account. My friend Thomas who is like, totally French, tells me the water lilly is a symbol for cancer and it is a story of true love. A mouse commits suicide at the end apparently. Ah those Frenchies. 


Thanks to http://www.blenheimgang.com/gondry-spotting/ for the pics.