Lucy in the Sky

When I was in high school, I went through a huge Beatles phase. I mean...it was epic. I still know pretty much all the trivia about every song they wrote and way too many details about their personal lives. So I thought it was cool that our current assignment for illustration is to design a square illustration (basically a record cover) inspired by the lyrics of a Beatles song. I picked "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite". I didn't think I could do a song from Yellow Submarine without subconsciously being overly influenced by the art from the movie. But I have always been pretty obsessed with the "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" scene. I love rotoscoping and I love the crazy brushwork in it. I'm trying to incorporate some of the ideas from this scene into my piece...we'll see if it works out or not. Here are some stills from the movie! (Poor quality from Youtube because I can't find my DVD of it, ugh).

Etsy Update

I went on a dyeing spree the other day and made some of my favorite shirts yet!









Aren't they kind of amazing? I'm not even really bragging since half of it is just luck - I guess the other half is my extreme talent for stuffing wet shirts into interesting shapes and pouring dye onto them?

If by any chance you'd like to purchase one, just go here!

Fashun

I figured I might as well incorporate my (stagnant) fashion blog into this one because two is one too many to keep up with. I haven't posted anything sartorial in a long time because my camera is dead, I've been covered in charcoal and paint since starting school, and I haven't had money for pretty things! Until last month, anyway, when it was my birthday!

I have a Topshop order that hasn't arrived yet -


This shirt is so cute! It's not in the store here.


Isn't this basically the best ever?? It's velvet! I feel so glamorous! I don't ever buy matching underwear sets but I thought the two were too great to not buy together (and I had birthday money!). Actually, Topshop's lingerie is mostly cheaper than Victoria's Secret...but I guess that's not totally surprising since VS is completely overpriced.

Anyway, yesterday I went in and was just browsing when I saw the dress that I was going to buy myself for my birthday but couldn't afford - and it was half off! I don't have any real pictures yet (camera) but here are some terrible photobooth pictures



The top buttons up the back and is really soft!

I also got these because they were on sale for $30 on Amazon and I've wanted them for a while:


Okay, done. I feel all consumer-y and gross. But luckily (?) I won't have any more money to buy things until after Christmas. I found a new Flickr group that's called What I Wore Today but it's drawings of outfits only! I'm so much more into this than taking photos of myself. Definitely going to start contributing soon.

I made a dress!

Yes, the title says it all. I made my very first dress, from a 60s pattern I got on ebay. I didn't want to use nice fabric since it was my first one, so I used this weird blue and black mini houndstooth stuff I have a million yards of that should probably really be like...suit jacket material or something. The dress should really be out of lighter weight cotton or something like that....next time!


Don't mind the open back...I don't have any buttons, so it's not totally finished.




Not only was it my first dress, it was my first time making sleeves, using interfacing, making ruffles, gathering, and only the second time making anything from a pattern. Not bad, huh? I really want to make this again in a better fabric and not mess up the things I messed up the first time...I'm bad at following directions sometimes, especially confusing patterns.

More Family

Here's my grandma...she was so adorable! She was the tiniest lady ever and a painter and a poet. I have a book of her poems that she published when she was 88...they're really witty and amazing, a lot like her paintings (that are hanging all over my apartment and both of my parents' houses)! She was so great...she always treated me like a real person, even when I was little, when most adults talk down to kids. I have a whole library of art books from her waiting for me in my dad's attic for when I have a bigger apartment someday!



I have no idea who this was but there were two photos of her in the stash. She's really pretty, though!

Family Photos

I scanned all of these old photos for my dad and this is one of my favorites:



My grandpa was 25 when he was drafted for world war II. He was a pacifist and completely against the military's involvement and I love how he's so "fuck this" in his uniform instead of being all patriotic like my other grandpa's army uniform pictures (my other grandpa was in the military his whole life). He kind of looks like Danny Kaye!

New Fabric

When I went to visit my parents, I got a million fabrics to make bows and other things!


These are from Joann's...all of them were on sale, my favorite is the pink polka dot


These were my mom's, most of them older than me. She said she never made anything out of them because they were too expensive and it was intimidating (one or more is Liberty of London, yikes).


Scraps to make bows...most of these are left over from dresses I had as a kid.


I got these to make a dress or something but when I came home I realized none of my patterns will really work with the fabric, oops.

Mini Update

I started school and I'm so excited! My professors are really cool and I can tell they're going to be really good, too. Also excited because I finally put the dyed shirts on Etsy and someone bought one already!

I'm trying to get into the habit of sketching every day even though it's discouraging since I'm kind of terrible...I guess the only way to improve is practice. I found this blog - Carving Paper - that's really inspiring. He draws every day and is so diligent about it. I want to take advantage of all the parks and people-watching places in New York before I move. Especially the park half a block from our house! I'm so spoiled.

Old Pastel Photos

All from here.

not worth scanning

Every time I'm away from the internet, even for a few days, I lose all motivation to look at it again...that's what I blame my recent lack of posting on, anyway.






Also currently into old-fashioned hot air balloons...I promise I'm not obsessed with cats or drawing cats, they're just the only things to draw in my apartment!

Etsy Additions!

Here's some of the stuff I got while thrifting yesterday (up on etsy now!)




and I might keep this for myself, I haven't decided yet:

Driving...

As I expected, my idea of simply popping over to some thrift stores on Long Island didn't exactly go as easily as planned. For whatever reason, I don't bother printing out directions from Google, I just use VZ Navigator - a program which doesn't always give the fastest or least complicated directions. Let's just say it took about 45 minutes until I got on the Belt Parkway (about 3 miles from my apartment). But! I did get to see pretty parts of Brooklyn I had only seen on street view before...actual houses with yards and driveways! Old tree-lined streets! It was like we weren't even in New York anymore. The thrift stores were really terrible compared to the ones I'm used to, but I was pretty much expecting that too. There are a lot more out there that we didn't make it to, so maybe next time I'll find a better one. Maybe farther east? I did get some new stuff for the store! Not a ton, but some cute sweaters and fallish stuff. We also stopped by the Ikea out there and they had the chairs I've wanted for so long!



The Brooklyn Ikea is always out of them but there were a million at this one...I was really happy, and now we have dining chairs so we can actually use our table and not eat on our laps! How civilized of us.

Gold Dress

You may remember this gold dress with a huge stain down the front:



Well, yesterday, I hemmed it (it took forever, the fabric is as thick as upholstery fabric...it probably is, actually) and today I received my mannequin! Everything looks a million times better on it than on the wall!



Definitely not as classy as it used to be, but at least it's not wasting away as garbage somewhere?

Now I have to spend forever uploading & editing all the pictures I retook of all my Etsy stuff on the mannequin...

60s Travel Posters

I don't think I'll ever be totally over the long-lasting obsession with the 60s I had starting in 6th grade when the Beatles were my favorite band and my dream was to live in mod London...so I guess it's not surprising that I love these posters





(all from here)

I really love how they're hand-colored/painted/drawn. I'm not the biggest fan of computer illustrations. I hate how flat and perfect they usually look. I got some gouache over the weekend and I've been messing around with it! I like it a lot...I'm terrible at watercolors and this is like a happy medium between watercolors and oils, since it's water-soluble but opaque and blends nicely. In my rush to get out of the art store before spending all my money, I forgot to buy white, oops, so I can't really do much right now.