Capsule Collection: Illustration

Just because my collection's complete, doesn't mean the work stops there! The next task for me is creating some illustrations to go with the work. I'm a little bit rusty on my fashion drawings so there was no knowing what it could turn out like! =P I started on my first one tonight - the cropped shirt. The media I used were pencil, coloured pencil, oil pastel and acrylic paint.

And here's the process:

The finished illustration with close ups:

Photographer: Karen Knorr

I've just come across some amazing photography by artist, Karen Knorr. Born in Germany, raised in Puerto Rico and studied in Paris and London, Knorr is well-travelled and the influences come through in her work. 

In her series, Fables, analogue images of museums and heritage sites are mixed with digital photography of live and dead animals in museums, zoos and nature reserves to produce some beautiful imagery. Knorr rearranges classic tales from Aesop, and Ovid with popular culture such as Disney and Attenborough. 
The animals roam freely within human territory, drawing attention to the unbridged gap between nature and culture. Yet the animals seem indifferent to their surroundings, a stranger to the context in which they are inserted. This highlights the immeasurable distance between the two worlds of nature and culture and the 'against nature' character of the museum itself.

I was also impressed by another series, India Song, which was inspired by her travels through Rajasthan in 2008. In these photographs, Knorr explores Rajput and Mughal cultural heritage and its relationship to questions of feminine subjectivity and animality.

References http://www.karenknorr.com/photographs/fables/ http://www.contemporaryartsociety.org/artist-members/karen-knorr/

Where to Find Creative Design Inspiration

The internet is a BIG place. So when it comes to finding inspiration for creative projects it can seem like a daunting task and you often have to trawl through irrelevant sites before stumbling upon something really inspiring. So I thought it would be a good idea to share some of my favourite websites with you:
1. Patternity This website is one of my most recent finds and I absolutely love it! Great quality images of different patterns found around the world. As I was scrolling through I was prompted to sign up with my email address and then I was able to view the whole archive. I recommend this as I haven't been bombarded with any emails from them. http://patternity.org/

2. This Is Glamorous This is a design and lifestyle blog about the most glamourous of places and things. Beautiful photographs of luxury and exquisite design within decor, fashion, travel and food. http://www.thisisglamorous.com/

3. Trendland

Trendland delivers new ideas and style notes daily with some great imagery to go with it. Areas covered are fashion, design, photography, art, culture, music and video. I often discover new photographers and artists that I love here.

http://trendland.com/

4. Patternbank

This website gives design inspiration for print, pattern and graphics as well as supplying fashion trend forecasts.

http://patternbank.com/

5. Charlotte Audrey Owen-Meehan

This tumblr is only a recent find but if you love colour you'll love this blog too. Charlotte posts pop-culture style, brightly coloured photographs with a very contemporary feel.

http://charlotteaudreyowenmeehan.tumblr.com/

6. OBI Scrapbook Blog

If you're into vintage illustrations this site is for you. OBI brings you beautiful illustrations from old ancient books.

http://scrap.oldbookillustrations.com/

7. We Love Illustration

Another new find, this blog is a source of creative and inspiring illustrations and artwork from a range of different artists.

http://weloveillustration.tumblr.com/

8. Trend Hunter

An old favourite of mine, Trend Hunter is a great place to find even the most bizarre collection of images you could think of. A great site to use if you are searching for a particular style of photography or artwork, such as 'whimsical' or 'gothic.' It covers a large subject area from fashion and design through to technology, culture and ads. A great site to have a look through when stuck for inspiration.

http://www.trendhunter.com/

I hope you have found this post useful and have discovered new websites to find creative research on :) And if anyone else has any great sites they know of, do let me know!

Capsule Collection: Digital Prints - Making Progress!

Spent all evening today getting my print files sorted on Photoshop so I can get them sent off for production... so it's been a bit stressful. I decided to go with Bags of Love for two of my prints and found that they print on neoprene like I used for my grad collection - not a fabric seen much on the high street but designers like Balenciaga use it often and it is slowly making it's way to the regular consumer. 
Haven't been so lucky with CAT Digital though as my file doesn't seem to be uploading... Hopefully they will get back to me soon about this. Anyway, I thought I'd show you a sneak preview!

All of these designs will be available from Cagecity in the near future and I will keep you posted on how I'm getting on with my collection when my prints arrive :)

As for dealing with the stress... I've just come across this lovely quote:

Food Art: Cheeseburger Cupcakes

Make baking more fun by adding an arty twist: Cheeseburger Cupcakes

Now I cheated slightly by buying packet mixes for the fairy cakes and brownies, but for all you expert bakers out there I'm sure you could create the fairy and brownie mixes from scratch.

Ingredients

Fairy cake mix

Brownie mix

140g Icing sugar

70g Butter

1tbsp Milk

Green food colouring

Sprinkles

Method

1. Bake your plain fairy cakes and brownie mix ready to assemble once cool (if you don't wait for the cakes to cool down, the buttercream will melt and not keep its shape)

2. Slice your fairy cakes in half to create the burger bun

3. Using the bottom half of your bun as a measure, cut out your burgers from your brownie mix

4. Mix the butter, icing sugar and milk together to make buttercream. Shape some buttercream onto the top of your burger for the cheese layer

5. Add green food colouring to the rest of the buttercream to create the colour of lettuce. Spoon this mixture onto the cheese layer

6. Gently add the top of your bun to your burger

7. Separate the white sprinkles away from the others and press gently into the top bun to create the effect of sesame seeds - for a more authentic look use real sesame seeds!

8. To finish off, add a cocktail stick through the centre of the burgers and last but not least, enjoy!