About my shirt

I hope you liked my first attempt at making a shirt out of calico. This project was about constructing and knowing different type of techniques in detail and construction.
This project how veer was a bit of a faff on because I had some many complications with it. Just some of the overlocker ended up eating the bottom of the shirt making it look boxy and shorter, the cuffs ended up looking pretty crap because I didn't practice before hand, I had huge problems with attaching the sleeves. I'm pretty sure this project hated me, nothing went right but thankfully I handled the situations and I tried my best, it is the first I've done after all. But I do wish it could have been better.

Better luck next time, eh?

My first shirt (There will be an update on this post later on) Remember you can click on the images to make them bigger, making it easier for you to see them

 

Zac Posen (You can click on the images to enlarge them)

Peter Popps - Cubed Shoes

Map for this week.

This post is based on what i'm going to attempt to post this week.

- Progress on calico shirt

- Drawings from a close friend on mine and his crazy designs, as well as my own.

- Purchases

- Design ideas

- Recent interests in styles.


I'm thinking about doing this kind of post towards the end or at the beginning of the week to give you the sort of idea on what may be appearing on this blog and what to expect. I should have at least two of these by the end of this week.

It's all about timing and space. I'm still keeping to the posts on purchase because I think it is a great idea to show you how I dress and what kind of styles I am interested.
The purchases can contain jewelry, accessories, shoes…. ( You get the idea)
Writing about them as well is also a good idea, i'm showing you that I don't purchase things because of the style and the way that it looks, I purchase them because of the textures, the detail in buttons, the heaviness of the purchases. Just because things look nice doesn't mean that it's going to last long or is going to be in goos condition.

Posting my art work and other peoples work helps you understand what my interests are and what to expect from my design ideas, whether they're going to be clean or have an edgy carved look to them.
I have stated in one of my posts about one of the paintings I had done, explain how i feel about surrealism and how it stands out to me, also one of my favorite art genres to be involved in.

I do however need to post more of my design ideas and fashion inspirations rather than art all the time because I feel that I haven't shared enough of my side on this blog.

Glimpse of a line-up that I had done from the first project from Fashion Drawing and Communication.

This is a line-up I'm showing is from our first module, Fashion Drawing and communication.
The designs were based around a theme/storyline that we had to come up with and work around it. I decided to go with Modern Myth from macro trends on WGSN and I went down the root of Cosmic Couture.
 I chose these two because Modern Myth is based on mythology and scientific surrounds and beliefs, the fact that it is a mixture of religious and scientific views makes a story line interesting with the amount of stories that can come from them.

The storyline however...
I researched on some short stories and I came across Population 218 by Acacia. The story is based around a nuclear war that happened and the survivors live in a dome where the population is strictly 218! So, if a baby is born a member of the population must die. BUT!! Instead of using the tragic side of the story I thought I would base my ideas around the surroundings inside the dome and what it would be like not being able to enter the outside world.

Researching further with this storyline I looked into the Edens project with it's shape and the plant life on the inside to give me the idea of what it would be like if there was no green life on the outside of the the dome.
I then looked into the hexagon shape that appears on the dome, looking at architecture and bridges around Newcastle and into designers such as Gareth Pugh and DZHUS, looking into their collection that used a lot of laser cut and 3D uses.

I then went on to experiment with my own designs and illustrations by using water colour paints, photo copying fabrics and placing them on to my designs to help me capture what I would be looking at if I were to create the garments.

For this first module I really enjoyed it because drawing is one of my strongest points and being able to use my skills and ideas was good use to this project.

The other photo I am showing is one of the experimentations that I had done in my file to back up my ideas and designs, focusing on shapes and detail with the use of water colour.

Close ups on the leather jacket and the boots

Pictures of the inside and out side of the purchases.
Noticed there is quilting on the inside of the leather jacket, making it warmer and adding more to the garment with the criss-cross design.
For the boots on the other hand it's a nice warm wool that makes the boots more comfortable to wear and making it easy to move around in.

Purchasing these together was under £100 where as buying a brand new leather jacket would be the same as the two put together or even more.

Next week! I will be posting glimpses of my design ideas, inspirations and progress on how far I am getting on the calico shirt that I'm doing.

Retro bargain

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I would share purchases that I have made recently and from a while ago.

Today I'm showing an old fringe and very stunning leather jacket. I've been after a leather jacket for such a long time and now that I have one I can't get enough of it. I've purchased it at a shop called Retro and sadly they don't have a website so I'm unable to show you what else they have.

The jacket was quiet cheap considering that it's actual leather and the condition was incredible for second hand, it's well worn so the leather was soft and it was easy for me to move about in.

One thing that I had noticed about the leather jacket is that it has multiple zips, on the arms and down the back, meaning that I'm able to adjust the jacket to suit my body which I love! As well as being covered in small silver circle studs.

I've had this jacket for about a month now and some of the fringes have started to fallen along one of the arm sleeves and one of the studs have fallen off due to my bag, so from now on I think I'd'd be wearing this every now and again just so I don't mess it up even more.

I'm also showing my lovely biker boots that I've purchased from Primark. Now! I never usually go in there due to the products not being my type of style but the shoes on the other hand can be absolutely amazing and especially with their prices. AND! The shoes fit me, which is a first considering women's footwear never fits me. Again just like the leather jacket the buckles can be altered and the straps can be moved around to suit my size and to what ever makes me feel comfortable.

Again these were quiet cheap as well. 

I've decided to capture them together like this to show how they go together but I will be posting another picture of them later on to show the buckles, the zips and how they look separately rather than together.

Leather jacket : £39.00

Boots : £22.00

From photo to painting... Thomas?

The other day I thought it would be a good idea to download an app called photo booth, and after playing about with the app I managed to capture one of the most oddest pictures I have taken. I'm not going to lie, I am absolutely loving the the image. It's creepy, surreal, interesting, scary, it's everything that you wouldn't expect to see in a picture and the fact that I've managed to create this is amazing. The quality of the image gives off a paint like texture which then gave me the idea to recreate the image onto a small canvas.

I used water colour and a 20x20 cm canvas from Wilkinson. Recreating this image onto canvas was great fun, I decided to change the second lot of eyebrows (underneath) and turn them into heavy bags and I also decided to turn the image into a surreal character.

How does 'Thomas' sound?

I like to give the characters in my drawings/paintings names. It brings them to life, makes them seem individual, free and special. That to me is what surreal art is like, you have complete freedom to change a perspective and make it your own, whether it is giving a character a name, a certain style or even deforming a face and making it seem abstract and unique. 

Surrealism has been around since the 1920's and is by far one of my favourite art genres to be involved in. You can have freedom in all art genres but there's something specific about surrealism and abstract like art that makes some sort of sense, it brings out the creative mind and makes you look at other things in a different perspective.

Art is in your hands and can be developed and created in anyway you want, experiment with materials, go out of your comfort zone and expand your mind to new things...

You many never what you can create next or even come across.

 

Here's an idea?

So what about sharing what I purchase, say once every 2 weeks or so? I want to show you what my style is like, giving you ideas on how you could connect pieces together and create a new look that can be altered how ever you want.

ALSO! I will be posting my inspirations, designers, artists, sculptures, everything and anything that involves my progress.

So what am I showing today?
A skull, spiked belt and a bullet chain, both from Queen Of Darkness.
This shop is quiet small on the high-street but luckily they do have a website which I will post in here.

Why did I purchase these?
Guessing because they look cool, right? That they do but what I really loved about these was the weight! Ridiculously heavy by the metal and bulky in looks, the product doesn't feel like it looks, both are surprisingly comfortable and they are a great way to bring two pieces together.

The belt is 42.5" long and the bullet chain is 28.5" long, although there is a size difference you can use the chain could be used as a small belt around the waist, use it with a dress or a long shirt, making your hips bigger and  you waist smaller.
These two purchases were a great find and I honestly can't wait to wear them about.

Website as promised - https://www.queen-of-darkness.com/

Week 2 in caad

During the 2nd week of caad, there wasn't much progress being made.

Every Monday we use the caad to develop skills, using illustrator so we can use the program in our design development.

This week we focused on using the pen tool in illustrator and creating shapes, it sounded easy but it wasn't.

It seemed like a dull task so why not have a little fun with it, experiment with colour, shapes and sizes.

I was able to make a shape look transparent within it, inputting a shape and making it invisible.
This could demonstrate and highlight certain areas that I may want to be more visible of a design or even bring out a pattern within the garment.

Also The difference between illustrator and photoshop is the pixels, when you zoom in on illustrator the pixels don't change and the image is still as crisp as it was at full scale.

Week 1 in caad

First task in week one.
Learned how to use a scanner and changed resolution  to make the image more contrast so i am able to see the lines and detail visible.
Also organized folders into weeks so i am able to find what i have done for that session.
Coloured scanned image by multiplying a a new layer over the top so the lines would be visible onto of coloured areas. For a first attempt i feel that it has gone well and it is a technique that i would like to use more often in future projects.