Illustration Inspiration

Recently my parents surprised me with The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, a showcase of the ever-talented "Disney Legend". Blair's conceptual work on Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Cinderella is partially what inspired me to consider concept art as a future career, and since researching her art more, my heart is dead-set on joining the world of illustration. Her use of colors, linework, and complete control of shape are what truly set her apart in the world of illustration and she's inspired thousands of others in her work both in Disney and outside of it, too.

(Art by Mary Blair for Disney's Peter Pan)

(Art by Mary Blair for Disney's Cinderella)

I think what I love most about her style is the mix of lineless & lined shapes, and the subtle value changes to create such a wonderful atmosphere in all of her pieces. With every illustration comes a new story, a new feeling, and an overall sense of wonder. 

(Saludos Amigos by Mary Blair, 1943)

Recently I've been really pushing myself when it comes to my own illustrations and I've been trying hard to step out of my comfort zone. I recently re-installed the driver to my Huion tablet that'd been lying around my room for months to see if I could get it to work again, and voila! Getting used to a bigger workspace and different pen sensitivity has been another challenge on top of forcing myself to draw more than I have before. I usually shy away from backgrounds, or even establishing somewhat of a scene, but with these two illustrations I forced myself to attempt something, anything, to at least give it more substance. 

As you can see, I've drawn a bit of influence from Mary Blair, but at the same time I'm building off of my own style that has developed on its own throughout the years. I think the biggest challenge in both of these illustrations was simply starting them. Backgrounds for me have always been daunting, and these are very simple, easy ones. Yet, I still struggled, I'll admit that. However, to become better, as my parents have reminded me before with both drawing & sports, you have to get through a lot of bad to get to the good. 

I'm looking forward to pushing myself even more with future illustrations, and hopefully with a tablet that has a workspace larger than 4x6, I can push my art even further. Well, thanks for reading and goodbye for now lovelies! 

Style Icons

So, I am currently in college and double majoring in Studio Art and Interactive Digital Media: Visual Imaging(pretty much my university's equivalent of digital art). I've always loved drawing, and I decided for this post that I wanted to feature some of my recent style icons. And what better way to do that than by drawing them?! 

I've always loved fashion illustration and it's something that has really peaked my interest the more involved I am with the world of fashion and the more I follow it. One of my recent inspirations has been Elle Fanning, who is absolutely adorable in my opinion. 

I first saw her in the film Phoebe in Wonderland, and I loved her in Super 8(which is one of my favorite films!) and We Bought a Zoo. I've been dying to see her in Maleficent which just came out, and I'll be seeing it (hopefully) soon. Her style is so soft and innocent, especially as shown in both the February '12 and newest June/July '14 Teen Vogue issues. In the recent article, she mentioned preferring no makeup over wearing any. I wish I had that same confidence, and a face that allowed that, but what can ya do!

As an avid reader of the magazine, I was so excited to see her on the cover again. A couple of my favorite looks of hers include this lovely pic of her in Miu Miu, attending the Miu Miu 2014 Fall RTW Show. I'm a sucker for pastels and that soft blue coat is lovely and chic. 

The July '14 ASOS magazine feature of the young star is another attest to her adorable-ness and how fashion forward she is. I especially loved this look, and I think Elle is definitely a girl who can rock her pink. My final(and favorite) outfit of the darling actress is her in Georges Hoibeka Couture at the private reception of Maleficent at Kensington Palace. She has officially achieved all that I want in this world - to both be and look like a real-life Disney princess!

My next style icon is taking the film and fashion world by storm, especially now that she is an Oscar award winner. Lupita Nyong'o is soso beautiful in my opinion, and I'm glad to see her gracing covers and front pages everywhere. A truly talented and gorgeous actress, she deserves all the recognition and more. She continues to stun with her outfits, especially at the Oscars in that lovely custom Prada Grecian gown.

My first outfit of Lupita, she's in a Chanel outfit with Christian Louboutin heels at the Charles Finch & Chanel Pre-BAFTA Party. I think she looks amazing in pink, and it really highlights her beauty well.

(first image source: Chris Jackson/Getty Images Europe)

I chose the second shot mainly because I am continually fawning over how gorgeous Lupita is. It's no wonder she was voted TIME Magazine's Most Beautiful Person of 2014, and is now Miu Miu's celebrity face for their spring campaign. The girl definitely deserves it. 

My next icon is a bit of a girl crush for me as well. I honestly can't recall the first time I saw her in a movie, but she's been in so many things recently, it'd be hard to begin to look. In Captain America, Game of Thrones, CBS's Elementary, and soon to be Mockingjay of The Hunger Games series, she's a splendid actress with a wonderful and rather quirky beauty. 

A friend once remarked to me that she looks like she could be an assassin on the side, and I honestly couldn't disagree. I think it's that smile of hers. 

Although she has had some more over the top styles, including her recent side-buzz of her hair for Mockingjay 1 & 2, I really love this simple white set she wore to the Aston Martin's 100th Anniversary Party in London back in 2013. I wish I knew who she was wearing, but I've scoured the internet and couldn't find it anywhere. Sad day, but ohwell! Amazing choice nonetheless.

The next dress is once again white, but it's such an interesting piece in my opinion. By Marios Schwab, Dormer wore the number to the 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards, sporting her recently shaved head hairstyle. Although hailed by some critics as a not-so-hot choice, I applaud her for the audacity. It's nice to see a girl go outside of the box and do something different for once. And I personally think she holds the look well! 

Well, that's all for today, lovelies! I hope you're well, and you find your own inspiration in the fashion world and really express yourself. ;)

Inspirations

Just sharing my inspirations as of late. I've really been into pink things and just neat art! Soo voila:

(Kirsten Tradowsky)

(credit unknown, Elizabeth Taylor, Lois Butler, and Ann Blyth)

(Tavi Gevinson by Petra Collins for Oyster Magazine)

(Kelven NG)

(Detail of Portrait of Madame F by Edouard Louis Dubufe)

(thecobrasnake)

("Macaroons by JUCO for Fashion Gone Rogue)

(Backstage 2014 Pronovias)

Springfield Shopping Adventures

This past Saturday I had to go to Springfield, MO with my parents for my mom's Gourd Society meeting(she makes beautifully handcrafted gourds!). Since my aunt lives in Springfield, I got to spend the day with her and go on a shopping adventure! As I mentioned in my last post, I've been working on cycling out my wardrobe for one that feels more "me". This includes getting rid of a lot of the graphic t-shirts I used to wear and putting in some more professional pieces, as well as really cute and girly things. Which is exactly what I found on Saturday!

So, we headed to Battlefield Mall and hit up Forever 21 and Macy's. I planned on finding a simple pastel pink sweater for the day, and ended up getting quite a bit more, but it was totally worth it(and I got my birthday & Christmas presents out of the way from my aunt).

At Macy's, we found this simply adorable pink faux-leather jacket by American Rag Cie. I've taken to calling it my second "Pink Ladies" jacket and I'm really excited to wear it on warmer days this spring.

On to Forever 21! If you know me personally, you know I practically live in this store and it makes up probably 75% or more of my wardrobe. My only problem with it is the fact that their shoes sizes only go up to a size 10, but that's a post for another day. Anywho! At first I searched all over for that pink sweater I mentioned before. I found a couple possibilities, but all of them were a size small. I like to get at least a medium for arm length and I also just love oversized sweaters. However, I finally found this adorable pink and white striped sweater that made me pretty happy!

I tried on a couple dresses after that, accepted that I own way too many already, put them back, and then ended up finding this adorable floral top and a cream lace skirt. 

 I think both will be great to wear in the summer, and on especially warm spring days. I'm super excited about the top, it's so adorably girly and the way it drapes is absolutely lovely.

Also! I got a bonus once we went back to my aunt's house. My dad had gone around to the different antique stores in the area while I was with my aunt and he managed to find me something. He knows of my love for Disney and managed to find two Golden Books that fit my fancy.

They're both straight out of the early 1950s from what we could tell, which explains the poor word choice of "Indians"(oh, 1950s, you and your blatant stereotyping), but overall, the books are pretty cool. The art inside of the Cinderella one especially reminds me of the art of Mary Blair, but the listed Illustrator isn't her.

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good day for shopping! I managed to get some pink hairbows too from Forever 21, which I totally forgot to photograph, so I might include them in a future post at some point. I'm just happy with how my closet is slowly turning into exactly what I want it to be. In truth, my goal is to look like a pretty pink princess, and hopefully I'm getting somewhere with that!

Retro-Inspired Outfits

So, last summer a friend and I got the idea to re-create outfits inspired by certain decades with the clothes we had on hand in our closets. She ended up not doing it, but I did, and I'm actually really pleased with the results. I chose the '40s, '50s, and '60s to model my outfits after, and I also edited each picture to follow the era they were from, to give it more of that "vintage" feel. I ended up doing two outfits per era because I just couldn't help myself, and happened to have enough clothes lying around!

Starting out with the '40s, I'm wearing a Charlotte Russe light pink dress with little black hearts on it. It's absolutely darling and I'm so glad I bought it two summers ago. The next dress is vintage, from the '80s. My mom found it for me at a garage sale a couple years ago and I ended up taking out the shoulder pads. I also pulled up the skirt a bit too, as the dress is normally halfway down my calf otherwise. I think with those adjustments it better captured the essence of the '40s.

Now for the '50s! One of my favorite decades aesthetically, in case you're wondering. At the time, I didn't have much though for clothing, but I made do. In this first outfit, the top is from Forever 21, a mint green tube top with white polka dots. The skirt is from Old Navy, something I picked up years ago and I've used it since. It's such a versatile piece! In the second outfit, I'm wearing one of my favorite jackets, which I like to call my "Pink Ladies" jacket. My aunt bought it for me last summer from Kohl's and I absolutely adore it. The top is a white crop top from Forever 21 and I honestly can't remember for the life of me where the shorts are from!

With the '60s, I tried to get my difficult hair to tease even a little, and really went for the Twiggy eye makeup look. The first dress is one of my current favorites, also from Forever 21(can you see the pattern here?). I wore it this past Christmas with a Santa hat and felt like a doll the whole day. The second dress is from Target, something I got probably about 3 years ago. I've worn it on several occasions, and I felt it gave off that nice Mod vibe so popular back in the '60s.

It's been awhile since I took these photos and did these outfits however. I've bought quite a lot of clothes since then, as I'm in the process of cycling out my wardrobe for a bit more "me" sort of style. I think here soon I might have to do another and try some of my new pieces while incorporating them into different decades. We'll see how it goes! Anywho, thanks for reading, dolls!