My Steampunk Fashion Illustrations

Thought I'd show you the fashion illustrations that I had done for my apparel design assignment. 

I mainly used water color to do the coloring. Which was quite a "daring" decision on my part... Since it's a media I wasn't very familiar with (I'm more comfortable with filling in with pencil techniques) and I ran the risk of ruining my drawings.. But you know, after some getting used to, I found water coloring quite enjoyable and therapeutic. Hahaha! 

I also used copic markers on the faces, skin, hair and some parts of the clothing. If you had not known, I'm quite a fan of Kristina Werner and I've learnt a lot of copic coloring techniques from her youtube videos. Ironically, I didn't have any copic markers to practise with then. When I finally got hold of the colors I needed for this assignment, I was quite surprised to find copic coloring quite a breeze! Thanks to Kristina Werner and her amazing techniques! =D

I am a girl who loves mixed media in artworks. So to finish up the pieces, I heat embossed all the lacework and flourishes on the garment drawings; gave a light wash and added heat embossed images to the backgrounds; glued on tiny watch gears; and distressed the paper with chalk pastels and color mists...

Last lessons

Have been really busy doing up my fashion illustrations and prepping the presentation boards for the apparel design presentation which will be held later today. Perhaps the problem is mine that I spent 95% of my time on it and lost sleep over it (This is only a certification course!). It didn't help that by the time I really turned in for bed, Ed's already waking up to prepare to go to work... Whaattt? (In minion's voice)

Usually, I'd be nervous about presentations, but right now, my exhaustion level is way past my anxiety level. Should I grab an hour's nap?

Presentation boards made compact

A couple of my illustrations, all hand-colored

I also had my "last" lesson for textile printing last week. Wanted to make one more screen for screenprinting but I didn't make it in time to make a photocopy of my illustration on transparencies. =( I ended up doing more tie-dye...

These will be for my cushion covers..

Oh! Remember me saying to stay tuned in this post? Here's the base fabric that I did.

Tie-dye + Itajime Shibori

And I got to screen print reindeer heads all over the fabric... LOL..

Reindeer head on my dyed fabric!

And sleepy me accidentally stepped on my Dahlia screen just a while ago. Now it has this annoying dent in the screen! Looks like I need to remake it today after the presentation... Yes, thank God our textile printing lecturer allow us use the studio today! And I'd better photocopy my illustration earlier less the shop closes early again!

Sewing and drafting classes will commence next week! Exciting, but I'm now in need of sleep....

Busy being a student and some sort of a homemaker... =(

Have not been crafting much this couple of weeks except for perhaps knitting a few more rows on my chevron top.. I thought I would have more time crafting now that I'm focusing on my part time course but I'm so wrong... Most of my time is spent doing the daily housework and preparing for the next lessons. XB said it's okay not to clean the house everyday, but looking at the amount of dirt stuck on the dry wipe every after cleaning kinda deters that thought..

Classes wise, for textile printing, we learnt to replace the mesh over our screenprint frame and burnt another image onto it. We were allowed to bring any image we want, but I went with my own illustration. (Talking about screenprint, I got myself a very affordable screenprint kit that comes with a simple exposure unit! I have yet to try it, but once I do, I'll post it up on my blog!)

Dahlias

Poppies

As for apparel design, we had to finalize on our color scheme before this week's class. I had a hard time trying to find out the pantone color codes until I realized my illustrator has some pantone libraries... For the class itself, we finally began on our design sketches.

Having been more of a sewer than a designer, the idea of designing as much as you can is quite a challenge for me (especially within the 3-hour lesson). I like to put details on my garment, but once I got onto the 10th or so garment, my brain juices were pretty much dried up. And yet, I'm far from done. Looks like I have myself some more homework to do...

Design sketches so far..

And while I'm busy being a student and a homemaker, I've also been doing some thinking on the possibility of my online shop. Still in the thinking/brain-storming stage. Hopefully, I can get to the planning stage soon!

Textile printing & Apparel design classes: 2nd lessons

For textile printing this week, we had (surprise!) drawing exercises and learnt the traditional way of pattern placement. The drawing exercises came as a surprise/shock to us but the emphasis of this exercise was not on how well you can draw, but rather, gathering interesting images/shapes/angles within a short span of time.

Sketched all these (except the one in markers) in less than an hour.. A first for me!

Having done a bit of fabric pattern placement using the digital way, it's refreshing to know how it's done traditionally. In fact, I think the traditional method allows more creative juices to flow!

Lecturer demonstrating color placement on our group's pattern piece

For next week's class, we were asked to select one of the sketches that we had done and have the sketch printed out on 3 transparencies. We'll be creating our very own screenprint stencil next week! Exciting!

I re-drew my final image with markers

As for the apparel design class, we had consultation with our lecturer on our selected theme, direction and mood. As for me...

Reprise of Mr. Steampunk Ninni!

STEAMPUNK!