Kittys Drawings

Hi All!
Here is another portrait I did just this week. I thought I’d give the black and white thing a go. Interesting for sure but I think I still love colour more.

Fairly pleased with the result but once again I left it too long.  So the details are lacking in the flowers and stuff. I’m not sure if it’s important or not – should I fiddle with details when I’m really over the piece? Or should I still keep trying to knock things out fairly fast and the detail will come with practice? SO MANY QUESTIONS! Hah!

It’s Nancy Sinatra by the way. Inspiration found via someone else’s inspiration. Thanks go to Strawberry Koi (her blog is most gorgeous and she draws very well!).

I took some more WIPs of the very early stages. The first two are done within a few minutes. Then the rest takes increasingly longer as you tweak each bit. The nose was difficult again.

I think I’m getting the hang of hair a little better. Block in the major shapes like where it breaks from light to dark. Then go over it with lots of brush-strokes using a tiny brush.

Anyways….
The sewing is going swimmingly (heh I love that word!).  I’ve got a red button front pencil dress with a big collar on the go. I just need to buy some interfacing and wait for my buttonholer to arrive from Etsy (pics when I get it cos its KILLER) for all those squillion buttons. Well. 10 buttons. Still a lot. I can’t be bothered doing that many bound buttonholes.

Also – I’ve nearly finished a fantastic pencil skirt. Found a navy linen from the Salvos which was just the right size.  I shan’t babble too much about it yet as I’m only a zipper and a waistband away from finishing so I’ll do a post on it then. Can’t wait to wear it though!

I hope you all don’t mind my sewing rambles. It really is a new found passion which to be honest is really taking over from the drawing at the moment. But I seem to be managing both at a pace that is markedly better than where I was at with my “hobby time” last year.  So expect this to become a half and half blog now – half drawing half sewing!

The sewing thing really couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve become increasingly disillusioned not only with modern fashion, but even vintage is becoming a more difficult search. I kind of blame Mad Men for bringing the 50′s and 60′s into the limelight again (even though I love the show to death!), thus making it trickier to find quality pieces from that era (without crazy costs).  It’s not like I can’t afford spending $150 on a dress but for that kind of money I could make more than three dresses and have the added satisfaction of creating something instead of just consuming. Not to mention I have full control of the quality of the finished product. Something that can’t be guaranteed when buying ready-to-wear – no matter how much you pay for it.
I am not sold on “luxury” brands.

Okay I’ll leave it for now. More fashion musings when I get that skirt finished.

Til then – seeya!

Hi All!
Having a great Sunday? The weather is perfect here in Melbourne – not too hot with a nice cool breeze.
Me and Jonny went to the annual Volkswagon meetup out in Cranbourne. It’s been 60 years since they made the first Kombi so there was a whole cavalcade of them from each year of production. Cool as! We also saw a whole tonne of Bugs and quite a few Type 3′s. Not very many Fastbacks like ours which is a good thing I think – our little car is quite unique! Jonny is full of ideas of what to do with it now. Yay!

So…back to drawing stuff. The last couple of days I’ve been working on this. Referenced from a photo – but she doesn’t really look like the girl in the photo – which I’m okay with. Trying out digital painting in Photoshop and only doing tonal values (black & white). I’m getting the hang of working in PS and may be even preferring it over Painter right now. Crazy huh! Hehe. This took a total of about 3 or 4 hours….lost count after the first hour
I could have worked it a LOT more but thought I should leave it before I overdo it. Kinda like the roughness anyway.
As you can see in the work-in-progress (WIP) pics, I changed her proportions a bit….as I was going along I noticed more things that were a bit out of place.

And the WIPs.

Bya!