Susie Bubble doing the lean.

Sketch of fashion blogger extraordinaire Susie Lau aka Style Bubble. I think the sweater turned out a lot more chav-tastic and a lot less high fashion than I expected. I'm lusting after those little low-heeled lavender Ferragamo pumps though!

From photo by Vanessa Jackman.

Just a quick little sketch in my notebook and then coloured on Photoshop.

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you're talking it easy today and why not try some self-care this weekend and pamper your inner self?

Sketches from PFW | Chalayan Changes Clothes

Hussein Chalayan F/W 2013. Pencil and gouache on cardboard.

Ah, what a horrible day. I started a small fire in my kitchen this morning. I left my Diva Cup boiling on the stove thinking I would come back to it but then got distracted with an illustration, when I came back all the water was gone and the thing was literally on fire. I was so scared and it left ashes absolutely everywhere in my kitchen. I spent the day wiping everything and it still looks like Industrial Era London in here. 

It kind of ruined my day and I wasn't up for any serious illustrating, so I just did a quick little gouache sketch on cardboard, so commitment free.

There are some really fabulous gifs floating around on the internet of the Chalayan show (apparently it's just Chalayan now, took me forever to find it on Style.com 'cos I kept searching under H). I feel like we really are living in the golden age of the 'gifs' as a medium (see Vine, all of Tumblr and work by illustrator and fellow Ryerson grad Tara Dougans). Except this gif here below nearly gave me a seizure flashing non-stop while I was typing out this post.

Gifs by Errolson Hugh. Photos via Strangeline.

Sketches from PFW | Undercover Fashion Illustrations on Cardboard

Undercover at Paris Fashion Week Fall 2013. Acrylic and pencil on recycled cardboard.

It's part cheapness and part upcycling but I love drawing and painting on cardboard. My new iMac came last week and other then the powerful new machine itself I'm also really happy with the enormous amount of cardboard it came in (so Maru and I are alike in many way. Here's a really wonderful longform piece about Maru and internet cats because y'all know I love tangents and information).

This has given me ample material to experiment with acrylics. Painting on scrap material is great, bright fresh white paper can be so intimidating even if you keep telling yourself "it's just paper, if I mess up I'll just use another sheet" but there's still this weird internal pressure to not mess up a pristine page (not to mention watercolour paper is expensive!).

I think I still liked my Pringle of Scotland acrylic piece more, this one seems a bit too solid for my liking. Perhaps it's because I'm used to painting with gouache but the paint starts to look really yucky and plasticky if I don't paint in many thin coats.

The outfit is not something I would normally paint but I was inspired by the belt and the intimating lighting on the runway.

Ok, I'm off! I promised myself a scone after I finish this post. See you next time!

Runway photos from Style.com

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Inspiration Scramble | Hollywood & Parisien Nostalgia

Happy October! Inspiration Scramble is the new feature where I share with you all of my favourite links, articles and inspirations. Inspired by all the link love posts, I realized I spend sooo much time on the internet and come across some many gems it would be a shame to waste them. So I'm going to share the best of them here with you guys!

• Not one but two very beautifully illustrated zines about Paris. These illustrations from Priyanka Pandit make my heart ache and ache for Paris. When I was a student and very frivolous with my money, I used to go to there every summer, one time I even spent a week wwoofing in the South of France. Hats off to Iveta K for the tip, she's also an illustrator and a beautiful one at that.

• Just Tell Me That You Want Me. A roaster of cool hipsters team up to cover my favourite band Fleetwood Mac on this tribute album. I'm especially slayed by the Best Coast song. Via my friend Esther.

• Greta Garbo is the best, and why Kirsten Stewart is my favourite. Scandals of Classic Hollywood and Friday Bargain Bin are my favourite features on Jezebel.

• The legendary photographer Cecil Beaton was a compulsive scrapbooker. Did you know that? He'd be a star Pinner if he was around these days.

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• Cool retro letterheads from everyone you've heard of.

• The Gloss on why it's so hard to bring your own lunch to work like a big girl.

• Danielle Meder, one of my favourite blogger and illustrator on the joys of the unplanned career.

• An Andy Warhol quote for artists who are feeling discouraged.