Text and Fashion
Who doesn't like a bit of text and illustration combination? Maybe not everyone but I definitely do. With the idea of collage in mind I put this together on a cold rainy day.

A few other things to mention:

Blackbird Market - @ the Workers Club. This market is brilliant. Within walking distance for me, maybe a bit long for some, about 45 mins, most people would probably take the tram. Anyway, the market has loads of vintage clothes at very affordable prices. I bought a jumper which is now my favourite jumper ever for only $10! So you have some cool clothes, what more do you need, how about live bands and great food, done and done. A very cool experience indeed. They also have a great website which gives you an idea of their whole ethos www.blackbirdmarket.com, and watch the vimeo video, it's very informative and entertaining.


That same weekend I also went to the Finders Keepers market but they do pretty well at promoting themselves so I'll just mention two illustrators that I think deserve a bit of praise.

Firstly: Nikki Catalano is an extremely talented designer and illustrator with a focus on very cute animal and child related compositions. Nikki has a great use of collage and fine lines. I would say that her world seems like a very magical place to be. I browsed through endless cards and prints while a young girl, maybe 6-7 years tried to work out which print was her favourite. I think she chose an owl print, and received two free cards, what a sweet deal! Nikki seems nice.

Secondly: Amy Eating Apples caught my attention with her illustrations of bands like The Smiths, Arcade Fire, The Knife and White Stripes. Amy uses very fine detail and what I'm guessing is watercolour to produce a very elegant and endearing style.
Well that's about all from me. Oh, and I also went to a short film festival, but I'd rather not talk about it. Bye for now.

In relation to my moving... here's some furniture.

Ikea furniture, it's affordable, fits where it needs to and does what it should. Sure, it would be nice to be all quaint and have antiques and vintage stuff but for now, this will do.

Half Photo / Half Illustration, just a thought.

I was drawing a picture from a magazine and when I put it down on my desk I noticed that the photo had been folded in half and where it finished my drawing below almost continued in perfect scale. This gave me the idea of photo/illustration combo. Above is my first attempt. It's freezing cold today and my hands are like ice, can't wait for the weather to warm up. I don't think I could handle frostbite... just saying.

Just some stuff which is the same but different

Fashion Illustration, Election Day, Nicholas Building & Fixies

Photo : Nylon Magazine

Three weeks into my Fashion Illustration course and I'm really enjoying it. I'm becoming reacquainted with the old pencil, rather than the click click. Erasing by hand, rather than clicking 'undo'. Despite all of this old fashioned skills revision, I've been working on applying the use of water colour and ink to figures in Illustrator and I think it's a nice halfway point. I'm also adding some texture to clothing which is fun.

Photo: The SF Style

Photo: Sportsgirl Style Snaps

Photo: LookBook.nu

Election Day in Australia, no biggie. Had to vote which was considerably painless, not particularly time consuming which was great. I'm not that into politics and last time I tried to vote in this country (2007) they acted like I didn't even exist, no longer on their lists after being out of the country for 2 years. Whatever. So this time I played my part in the great election game, the result - A Hung Parliment. So the saga continues. My main focus was on Prime Minister Julia Guillard's hair. In the run up to the election her hair always seemed to be a different tone of red. So I've made a little visual to mark the occassion with an Andy Warhol inspired dedication to our lady PM... for now anyway. It's so very Australian, moving forward and all that.

Nicholas Building - Open Studio Night. What a fun little evening. I had never even noticed the Nicholas Building until I heard about it on the radio one morning, so I googled it. After googling it, I clicked on some links and ended up on their blog, then I signed up for the their mailing list, easy. The next day there's an invitation to their open night in my inbox, cool, thanks internet. So we went and were very inspired by all the art that was going on up in the skies of Melbourne. I must admit, the main highlight for me was the view from the 9th floor, amazing! I spent a little too much time gazing out the window, should have been looking at the paintings, which were ok. I think the guy with the awesome view was a little too distracted which was much to the detriment of his art. There was wine, cheese, crackers and cool music. See you next year!

Fixies - a bicycle that has a constant fixed gear. I've been interested in this hipster phenomenon for quite some time. On fashion blogs they are constantly featured in photos with cool kids, almost like a handbag or pair of sunglasses. I'm not taking the piss, I honestly like the visual, so much so that I made some fixie art. I might even get a bike one day! I'll just add it to the list....

Seabear, Trainers & Cupcakes

I recently discovered Seabear, a band from Reykjavik, Iceland. I have since decided I like a lot of things from Reykjavik, Facehunter always finds great fashion and Jonsi's from there too! So while walking home from the train station listening to Seabear, I imagine this image of a bear at sea. Not a massive creative leap, I know, but it's peaceful and cute like their music. If they ever wanted it as their cover art, I would not say no.

Trainers: Well I don't really wear trainers anymore but am still pretty into the design and colours of trainers. After adding some old screenprinting work to my folio featuring bags printed with trainer stencils, I did a few more, for old time sake... Inspiration sourced from Sneaker Freaker site.



Cupcakes for Charity: Last Saturday I went to check this out. Cupcakes, I love and charity makes cupcakes even better. To my surprise there were also cookies, cake, brownies etc. Oh and some cool art too! Click for more info. The two girls who organised the event were both lovely and so I gave them lots of gold coins, more than I could afford. But hey, that sort of kind-hearted, charity stuff should be encouraged.

Some art from the cupcake exhibition. Melbourne artist Caitlin Rigby.

Paper Heart, Master Chef & Gemma Correll

Paper Heart: Sometimes, when you least expect it, you find yourself watching a film that's actually quite good. This happened to me last night with Paper Heart.

The film is mockumentary about Charlene Li who claims she has never been in love and worries that she never will be in love, ever. It starts with Charlene interviewing random people and experts on love. A little dry to begin with, if not for the awesome little handmade animations which illustrate the love stories of the randoms she interviews. Charlene then goes to a party and meets Michael Cera! That's when the story takes on an ultimate cuteness. At first Charlene is not interested in Michael (Mike) at all, walks away while he's talking to her, ha! Then they start instant messaging, love is on it's way. Imagine the sweetest and most awkward couple and that is them. I won't tell you what happens in hopes that maybe you might watch it. Totally lovely.


Master Chef: So along with 2 million other Australians, I watched Master Chef. It was somewhat of a social addiction. You see someone out and about, conversation normally leads to, 'sooo, you been watching Master Chef?'. The answer is most likely 'yes!'. Insert jargon of 'pressure tests', 'what I love about this dish', 'in this competition', 'fresh produce', 'keep it simple' etc. What I learnt from this program was if you want to make a 'dish' taste good add lots of - oil, butter and sugar. This is hardly what we should be promoting to a country which is suffering from all sorts of obesity related illnesses. WTF?

This inspired me to illustrate the point.



Gemma Correll: While dancing around in the web I stumbled across some illustrations from Gemma Correll. I highly recommend you check out her site - www.gemmacorrell.com. This one made me laugh a little this morning.