Starting a Fashion Sketchbook!

Hello! As you probably know, fashion design is something I am very passionate about. With that in mind, I decided to share a fashion related project with you all this week! At the moment I am working on creating a fashion sketchbook/portfolio to practice my design skills in! I am super excited to start sketching inside my unique portfolio! I'm going to show you how to create your own fashion sketchbook step by step and share some ideas of how to fill it up!

Step 1: Choosing your book
To start your project, you'll need a book such as a large notebook, sketchbook or scrapbook. I bought a plain scrapbook from Paperchase which has some cream pages and some thicker brown pages in the centre. I wanted a plain scrapbook so that I could decorate it later on. However, if you don't want to decorate it like I have, you could buy an already patterned scrapbook (Paperchase has lots of cute patterns such as pineapples and polka dots).

Step 2: Collecting images
If you're planning on decorating your front cover with a collage then you'll need to collect some images that you like. I chose pictures that inspire me because I'll be looking at them every time I start to create a fashion design. You could collect fashion quotes, fashion designs, photos of accessories, your fashion icons and anything else that you would like. You could either print off images you find or cut out pictures from old fashion magazines to use.

Step 3: Putting it together
Now that you've got all of your images ready, you can start decorating the cover! Start by laying out your images until you're happy with the layout. If you start gluing straight away, then you might make mistakes! You don't want that do you? Once you've glued everything down and there's still spaces you could fill them in with stickers or scraps of fabric. Whatever you want really, this is your fashion sketchbook after all!

Step 4: Start designing
Yay! You're ready to start designing! There's lots of things you can do inside your personalised book. You could try:

• designing a fashion collection for a season or with a theme
• displaying your fashion styling photos
• practising drawing fashion figures
• creating moodboards
• working on new drawing techniques
• analysing other designers and stylists work

I hope you enjoyed this week's post! I has lots of fun thinking up ideas of how to fill up fashion sketchbooks/portfolios! The reason I decided to start using a book like this is so I can practice creating something a bit like a portfolio. Whenever I apply to a fashion course, I'll need to show a fashion portfolio. I wouldn't show this portfolio (because the portfolio I show would be created with the course's requirements in mind) but it will be useful to practice developing design ideas right now.

Over to you...

Let me know in the comments if you tried out this project and if it went well! Also, do you have any other ideas of what to do inside this book?

PS: Do you like the new background of my blog? I drew the pineapple pattern myself! If you don't know already, I like to change up the look of my blog every now and then (normally when the season changes but I missed changing it for Summer so I might make a new Autumnal one soon)! 

Halloween Costume Ideas 2015

If you haven't already decided on a costume for Halloween (either because you have no clue or because you like to go last minute), then I've got your back! Today I'll be giving you some slightly creepy costume ideas which can be put together with some of the items you have at home and some cheap props from a quick shopping trip! This post is a mixture of my ideas from last year (but with extra tips on how to wear it) and some new ideas.

.Coraline- a blue wig, yellow coat, red top, jeans and wellies are all you need to be Coraline for Halloween! You can get cheap wigs from pound stores at this time of year or you can purchase a blue coloured hairspray to go on your own hair! You'll probably already have a red top, jeans and wellies (they don't HAVE to be yellow, people will still get the idea). Hopefully you'll have a yellow coat like Coraline, but if you don't you could either buy one or just wear a yellow jumper/cardigan instead! Why not get your Mum or friend to dress up as the Other Mother or a different character from the film too?

.Broken Doll-This year I'm dressing up as a broken doll! What's great about this costume is that  can easily be changed and look just as good even if you don't have all of the clothes/makeup listed! For the outfit you should have any dress, preferably one that reminds you of strange dolls (perhaps a floaty of frilly one). For the hair you can either do 2 plaits or ringlets (for an obvious look) or slightly messy hair that you leave down (for an easy hairstyle). For the makeup, either use pale foundation or face paint to look like a porcelain doll then use pink blush and lipgloss to add a girly look. Apply lots of mascara/fake eyelashes and use white eyeliner on the bottom of your eye to make the appear bigger. At this stage, if you really want to look scary, you can put red eye shadow under your eyes and then use drops of fake blood over it, to make the doll look like it is crying blood (this stage is not necessary, it just depends on the look you are going for). The main stage for makeup is to draw a crack on the cheek so that people know you are a BROKEN porcelain doll. You can do this using black eyeliner and filling it in with black face paint. Remember you can miss out some stages and add in your won ideas depending on how much time/materials you have. To top of the look draw some joints on your shoulders, neck and knees with eyeliner and make it look realistic with brown eye shadow to create shadows!


.Zombie-To create a last minute zombie look first start by putting cuts in old or cheap clothes that you won't want to wear again. You can also put fake blood on these clothes if you have it (remember to choose the right one for fabrics). For the makeup use pale foundation/facepaint, like in the broken doll costume, and contour your cheek bones with green/brown toned eye shadows. You should also use the same makeup to create large dark circles under the eyes for the undead look. You can also put fake blood around the mouth (use a different one than the one you used on your clothes) for a gruesome feel. Remember to make your hair messy and don't do any special hairstyles, you could backcomb it instead!

.Sugar skull- To be a Mexican sugar skull, you'll need lots of face paint, you can buy this from pound shops or costume shops for small prices! Look up designs online for inspiration however, sugar skull designs are all unique so there isn't one way to do it. But typically, there are flower petal designs around the eyes and teeth lines on the mouth along with swirly patterns on other areas of the face. The outfits can really be anything, a great accessory for he outfit is a flower crown (preferably ones with marigolds on them, but you don't have to). I was a sugar skull last year and it was very fun, however isn't as scary as other costumes, which is good if you don't enjoy horrific outfits. This look is very trendy too!

.The Joker- All you need for the Joker costume is face paint/makeup, a green wig/hairspray, and purple and green clothes! The joker may be a male character, but you can still dress up as him if you are a girl! This twisted villain is a great costume for Halloween that shouldn't take you too long to put together! For the makeup you should use white paint or extremely pale foundation for the base colour (you don't need to put it on the neck, just the face) then black face paint or black eyeliner and eye shadow for around the eyes and creases in the forehead. For the lips you can either use red face paint or lipstick depending on what is available to go on the lips and to be smeared along the cheeks. The real joker wears a green and purple suit, but if you don't have this already (mos people won't) then you can just wear any purple and green clothes (such as a purple dress/top and green leggings). To top off the look wear a green wig or spray your own hair green.

I hope I've helped you decide on what you'll be wearing this year (or given you inspiration for next year). Still need ideas? Check out this post then with some extra ideas,! Let me know what you're dressing up as for Halloween this year in the comments below! I'd love to here what you're going to be and how you're creating the look! It may help other people to decide on theirs! Have a great Halloween!

PS: I've dressed up as all of these costumes from the post (apart from Coraline who I'm planning on dressing up as next year, or perhaps the other mother instead).

PPS: I hope you like the new look of my blog! Also, please vote in the poll that is going on at the moment! I'vce already done several seasonal posts because people requested it!

Back to the Future vs Reality

Today is the FUTURE! Well, according to the film Back to the Future 2. So be excited, by the end of today we should be seeing hover boards, flying cars and self-tying shoelaces everywhere. As a bit of fun I decided to draw a fashion design based around the fashions of this year that the movie predicted and the actual fashions of the year. I took about 2 hours on this design so I thought I would share it with you! 

    To see the labels then click on the picture and it will zoom in. I compared the 2 outfits by describing each element. I used one of the TopModel template books to start me off but I drew everything from clothes to hair. I don't often label designs but for this particular project, I thought it benefited the drawings.

The future may not be as the film intended, but I hope you have a great day anyway! Why don't you watch the Back to the Future films (there is 3) as a celebration? I know this was just a short post but I just wanted to make you aware of the special day and share my design with you! Tell me in the comments what your predictions for the future are-I'll enjoy seeing what you think! :D

I Won!!!

Last month I entered the TopModel Fashion Poser competition which is part of the monthly Topmodel magazine. The fashion poser contest is a designing comp where you are given a brief telling you what you have to design (it also gives you a few ideas for what you could draw). You always have to draw your design for a particular occasion, this time the occasion was a rainbow party! You can see my entry on the left! You are given a plain template to draw on and colour in. There are no clothes on the model already, you have to draw all of that yourself. The model (Liv) is wearing a sprinkle patterned tee, a light blue skater skirt, multi-coloured bangles and chunky black ankle boots. The top part of Liv's hair was already printed on but I drew the side braid/plait myself (it has taken me years to figure out how to draw these and so I'm really proud of this one) and I left gaps to make it look like light was reflecting off of her jet black hair. I used a purple pencil and a TopModel natural pink coloured pencil to create her makeup look! I used Caran d'Ache coloured pencils for most of this design but I also used stabilo coloured fineliners and pinline balck fineliners for small details of this outfit.

Recently, after sending off my rainbow party design, a mysterious parcel arrived in the post. It was massive and I was so excited to see it because I had no idea what it was at the time! I tore open the box and then I saw the TopModel bag that was inside! I quickly took the envelope off of the front of the box and opened it up, ready for a big surprise! This is the letter that arrived (photo on the right)! It was from TopModel and it was saying that I had won their recent contest! I was overjoyed! I love entering this
contest every month so this was an
awesome surprise to receive in the post!

When I opened the parcel I saw a gorgeous bright TopModel branded bag which just caught my eye straight away! The contents were even better than the bag itself though...a stationary set and creative set were inside the bag! I absolutely love both of the TopModel products! If you were to buy these items, you would have to pay £26.99 for the stationary set and would have to pay £8.99 for the creative set! You can buy them online or in local shops.



You can make a phone pouch with the creative set. I love this kit because it is quite hard to find phone cases for my phone (I mean they're out there but you would have to buy them online unlike iphone cases which can be found pretty much anywhere). Everything you need is in the kit (even the needle is included). I'm really looking forward to making the phone pouch at some point in my Summer holiday, this creative set is a perfect boredom buster and there are lots of other creative sets on offer from TopModel if you want to buy your own!

                                                                          

Everything about this stationary set is awesome (from the obvious down to the labels). Seriously the labels are gorgeous. the price tag says I 'heart' TopModel and looks greats amongst the other labels. The fabric labels say things like catwalk, high heels and TopModel. There is also a glitzy heart charm which is so awesome.Anyway, the ACTUAL product is cool too (xD)! The outside is glittery and has a drawing of one of the models on it. This product is actually quite big for a stationary set but I like the folder size of it. There is a reason for the size too, this set contains SO much stationary! This will be perfect for school! When you first unzip the folder, you can see loads of bright felt tips, a gluestick and scissors. What I love about this first layer is the mirror and blank timetable, this will be so handy! When you fold back the right section, you can see a set of coloured pencils, a rubber, a sharpener, 2 pencils and maths equipment. There is also a pouch for whatever you want and a place for your pen to go. 

Thank you so much to TopModel for choosing me as one of the ten winners for this fashion poser-I love my prizes (and it's not quite over yet...)! If you want to see my winning entry again then make sure you check out the next few issues of TopModel magazine (its's a great magazine and is sold every month in Sainsburys and other stores), it would be great if you guys could see it! I wonder which winning design will be 'Liv's favourite'?!?

Fashionable Fruits

This Summer, many of us are swapping the florals in our wardrobe for fruit! It's a big trend this year (especially pineapple and watermelon outfits)! So today I'll be showing you how to wear these fashionable fruits!

The first piece I want to show you is a gorgeous watermelon clutch from New Look. It is bright, juicy red and green so it pops! I love because it can transform a plain outfit into a Summer statement. It is £12.99 at the moment.



Now I'll show you a lemon patterned cardie. I like this piece however it looks a bit old fashioned so I would pair it with some sneakers,black skinny jeans and some edgy gold jewelry to make it more modern. You can buy this for £20-£2.





This awesome, exotic-looking phone sticker is covered in pineapples! You can buy it from Accessorize for £4! I love the way the colours complement each other-ocean turquoise, sunny yellow and  dark green. It looks great for a beach look! (I'm not sure which phone it will fit the size of)

This cute necklace is only £3 from Claire's right now. I think it would look cute with a pink and white striped t-shirt, a small brown leather bag and blue jeans. The price may go up again because it used to be £4.50.






These shoes are from Bluezoo section of Debenhams. They are just so cute covered in cherries! It says you are my sunshine all along the bottom. I can imagine these shows paired with quite a plain black dress and some thin gold bangles or decorative gold rings.

I really hope you loved today's post (it took me absolutely ages-seriously)! Tell me in the comments which is your favourite fruity fashion item and let me know if you think I should do more fashion posts! Any suggestions for fashion trend posts (or similar)?

PS: sorry that there are a few typos today, I'm having some problems with the editing.

Taylor Swift fashion designs

 Recently I had to present a talk in my English class with an Introduction and 4 sections, about any subject I wanted. I chose fashion design. One of the sections was all about where to find inspiration for your designs so, one of the pages was about style icons. Basically, a style icon is a celeb that you look up to for ideas of what to wear (or in my talk's case, what to design). I chose Taylor Swift as an example of a style icon. These are the designs that I came up with. I explained that if you were to be inspired my a style icon you would only take 1 or 2 elements that you liked from the design whereas I have just copied the pictures onto a model template, this was just to show how you would go about drawing the designs.
I hope you like my drawings of Taylor swift's outfits. I used a mixture of 'TopModel' pencils in natural shades, coloured 'stabilo' fineliners and black 'pinline' fineliners to create them. You can see the original photo of Taylor on the left and my drawing on the right, to compare. Take a look at the full view and profile view of the double model design which are below.


PS: I drew on the hair on both of them, the signature and eyeliner.
PPS: Sorry about the layout, it messed up when the post uploaded :(

Finished Fashion Collection

For several months now I have been working on this one piece of art. It is a dress collection that I created using a fashion book. The page I used had simple templates of dresses that had noting on them, the brief was to make them into prom dresses but I kind of ignored that bit, instead I created zentangle style dresses. Zentangle is a form of drawing. It was first created in India by a man and his wife who relaxed regularly (i.e meditation etc.). As you can tell by the name it is a form of zen (a japanese word for meditation) so it is meant to be relaxing to complete. The second part of the word 'tangle' is like doodling which is exactly what you do in zentangle-very detailed and intricate doodles! As I said before, it's supposed to be a calming and relaxing art form similar to meditation but a bit different, however I didn't really see it like that, it may of been relaxing, yes, but I just used it as a way to draw if you see what I mean. I used black fineliners of different sizes to create my collection. Take a look below at the picture (click on it to see it full size)! I hope you like it!

TopModel Fashion Poser Entries

My dream job is to be a fashion designer so in the meantime, I keep practicing and practicing over and over again different design ideas. My favorite company of clothes deigning books is called TopModel and a few years ago they started a magazine with the same name. Each month there is a fashion poser competition where they give you a brief on what to design and then you must draw your own outfit on the model template. I enter almost every month and recently I took some photos to show you.
   The picture on the left is my entry to the circus fashion poser. The story behind the competition that month was that the model was doing a shoot with an elephant. Animals were only allowed in the circus many years ago so, inspired, I decided to go for a whole vintage themed outfit. To give me some ideas I searched up vintage circus outfits and used some of the images features to create my own unique design. I saw lots of top hats on the ring leaders, but as the page stopped just above the models head, I figured I could only fit on a mini accessory hat. I used tiger stripes for the t-shirt and added a giant flower posy brooch (lots of the images had this). The skirt is a very
detailed piece, I used my black fine liners to draw a dream-catcher (I came up with that idea), a large bow-reoccurs on most pictures, stars and some curved stripes. I then drew frilled long sleeved gloves because there were tons of frills on the inspiration pics. I thought it would look very circus-y if I drew net mesh tights on her legs because lots of staged productions use these type of tights so I thought circus' would too. The jewelry I drew was a vintage headpiece with gems all around it, a choker with frill string along the bottom of it, feather earrings (there were lots of feathers) and 2 star shaped eye stickers. To top off the look I added a striped hula-hoop in her hand, some black patent leather high heels, the elephant little outfit with a father boa on the head and some glitter paint on the top and tights.

    The picture on  the right is of my entry to a sleepover outfit fashion poser. I chose pastel shades for this outfit because they are more subtle and relaxing colours to use for pyjmas. This is an overall cosy look that would be great in the spring range of a clothes shop. I thought I would leave the makeup quite natural because at sleepovers you're just with your friends and you don't need to get all made up for them. However, I used natural coloured eye-shadow and pale pink lip-gloss for the lips. On the the top of the ensemble I created a peach coloured tee with a cream peter pan collar. I put nerd glasses (which are quite fashionable at the moment) over sleeping eyes with eye-shadow on. There is a frilled trim at the bottom also in a cream colour. Just below, she is modelling soft high-waisted shorts in a dusky pink colour with small cream polka dots on it. She is pairing it with some beige bed socks in a cute bear design along with little suckers on the bottom. The outfit is topped off with a cute friendship bracelet in various hues of pink and purple.

   I hope you liked the little taster of my TopModel deigns. I don't just do deigns in the magazines, I mainly draw them in the drawing books (from several companies including TopModel) however, the designs that I enter into competitions are often the best because I use a range of media to create them and I also have a brief to fulfill so I have more ideas and inspiration before I start designing. If you would like to see more fashion designing posts, please leave a nice comment on this post. :D