Sketches from MFW | Furs at Marni Fall 2013

Marni in the Forest. Pencil, watercolour and Photoshop.

Experimenting with rendering furs. Not feeling quite so loquacious today, so I'll keep it short.

Sketches from LFW | Elegant Bondage at Eilish Macintosh

Eilish Macintosh. Pencil and Photoshop.
 
Someone keeps searching for "elegant bondage" on my blog (whoooo are you? Tweet me!) so I'm giving them what they want today. Also this is my first post and illustration from my brand spanking new iMac! And it's inspired by this year's Central Saint Martin L'Oreal Bursary Award winner Eilish Macintosh. Congratulations to her!

It was a very conceptual collection of long sleek jersey dresses with hangman's loops, bondage ropes and cutout accents.

Instagram via @thelovemagazine

The jersey dresses are especially elegant when viewed from other angles, especially from the back.

Image from Phaidon

The collection reminded me of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki who often features women in shibari/kinaku (Japanese rope bondage) so I kept his images in mind when doing this illustration.

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Sketches from LFW | Meadham Kinky Kirchhoff in Aesthetic Dress

There was plenty of sexy Victorian goth vibes at the Meadham Kirchhoff Fall Winter 2013 show, complete with kinder whore style heart crowns.

This illustration might be especially sexy because I was listening to Savage Love Podcast all morning while I painted this. I spend so much time alone sometimes it's like my only friends are podcasts and that old man that lives 3 floors below us (who is very nice but really only talks to me about how he's impressed with my Chinese speaking skills).

Meadham Kirchhoff. Pencil and watercolour.

Do you like the Victorian style fans? I spent hours down the vintage graphics rabbit hole looking for those. I was looking for a frame too but they were all too busy looking.

Fan Graphics from Graphics Fairy.

I love the long dresses in the collection, very reminiscent of the Artistic / Aesthetic dress movement in the late 19th Century worn by visionaries of the day such as Oscar Wilde and artist's muse Jane Morris.

Aesthetic Dress. Via Polarbearstale.

Portrait of Jane Morris. July 1865. Via The Getty.

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Sketches from LFW | Driving Miss Kelly to Eudon Choi

Eudon Choi. Pencil, gouache, Photoshop. 

We've been on the run/Driving in the sun
Looking out for number 1/California here we come

I almost can't even listen to that Phantom Planet song anymore, you know when something brings back so many powerfully happy memories it almost makes you sad? Like you'll never be that young or have that much fun again?

Listening to that song reminds me of being 15 and watching the first season of The OC with my best friend and spending a very unsupervised summer in Ontario discovering for the first time what it felt like to be thought of as pretty/popular/bad. And also of the the summer after highschool when my friends and I drove down to California for Coachella where we played this song on repeat and I insisted on eating nothing but powdered donuts the whole way.

Stealing citrus fruits in Indio, California. 2005.
That's me on the left, can you even recognize me?
Polaroid from my friend Crystal. 

Day 3 of Drawing Fashion Week. The headscarves at Eudon Choi reminded me of Grace Kelly driving in cars which then reminded me of road-trips. I drew this girl with only one eye because it just didn't look right with two.

This drawing isn't really my favourite but I still kind of like it. Lately I've been thinking it doesn't really matter, since I've drawing so much it's okay if sometimes things turn out kind of ugly. We're just experimenting here, gotta give yourself room to fail and room to grow.

"Don't worry about genius and don't worry about not being clever. Trust rather to hard work, perseverance, and determination. The best motto for a long march is "Don't grumble. Plug on." You hold your future in your own hands. Never waver in this belief. Don't swagger. The boy who swaggers - like the man who swaggers - has little else that he can do. He is a cheap-Jack crying his own paltry wares. It is the empty tin that rattles most. Be honest. Be loyal. Be kind. Remember that the hardest thing to acquire is the faculty of being unselfish. As a quality it is one of the finest attributes of manliness. Love the sea, the ringing beach and the open downs. Keep clean, body, and mind."- Sir Frederick Treves

Eudon Choi photos from Style.com

Sketches From NYFW #2 | Thom Browne Rose Garden

Thom Browne. pencil and gouache.
Here's post 2 of Drawing Fashion Week with a look by Thom Browne. And probably subconsciously with some further inspiration from the Empress Dowager. I love this collection and I wanna wear those dresses and be the weirdest girl for miles.

 Runway photos from Style.com

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Sketches from NYFW #1 / How To Be Sick but Creative

NYFW Sketch #1: Geometric Prints at Jeremy Laing 

It's been almost 3 months since I've had radioactive iodine treatment for my overactive thyroid, since then I've been recovering at home and dealing with the anxiety that comes with my hormones going haywire. I'm so thankful to be living in the age of the internet and to other sick people who have reached out to others using vlogs. It's so comforting to know other people are dealing with the same things and feeling the same way. It's hard to talk about your life when everything isn't going perfect.

It's hard to be sick, not just physically but it's also embarrassing in a way. You worry a lot about how other people think of you. Do people think you're lazy? You worry that everyone is going to forget about you because you never go out anymore. And you burn all the pots because you're so absent minded all the time.

Health issues aside, this is a really good time for me to concentrate on drawing and building up my portfolio which at the moment is just a sad jumble of drawings on Behance.

I've been drawing a lot more this past year and some people have noticed - thanks friends! Sketches mostly, what I'm missing are strong portfolio pieces. So I hoping to take these next few weeks to make some more editorial style illustration and experiment with layout and drawing styles, with inspiration from the continuous influx of images coming from fashion weeks happening around the globe.

So here's my first one - Jeremy Laing at NYFW 2013, I used to intern there when I lived in Toronto, it was my dream internship and I learned a lot there.
Here's to hoping and drawing these illustrations get better as the weeks go on.

Sketches | Goodbye Ghesquière! Balenciaga Shoes Sketched

Balenciaga shoes.
A short little post today, some sketches I made of my favourite Balenciaga shoes through Nicolas Ghesquière's years designing at the historically Spanish fashion house.

In my knockoff Moleskine with my Pentel brush pen and coloured with gouache.

L'Dezen x Kitty N. Wong | Diamonds are an Illustrated Girl's Best Friend

Hi guys! My illustration collaboration with L'Dezen Jewellery is finally done! You've probably seen snippets of these beauties on my Instagram and maybe you wondered what they were for. Well I finally get to share them with you now in all their bejeweled glory along with the process of how I created the illustrations.

Read on for more.