SS12

These are some of  the photos from SS12 fashion week I saved under inspirations. Breathtaking designs from Haider Ackerman and Sarah Burton (for McQueen), as well as some other photos.

The inspirations from McQueen was the sea, the corals. The pastel orange and pinks really do remind me of the beautiful coral I saw at the Great Barrier Reef. Nature is certainly the biggest inspiration source for some. The garments show that there are still true innovative designers out there and not just fashion stylists for maisons.

Givenchhy ss12

Celine ss12

Kenzo ss12

McQueen ss12 detail

Above via self service blog, photos by Morgan O'Donovan, I love the tone of these photos, desaturated and on the cool side. It seems as if the models were taken out of the the chaotic surroundings of backstage.

via style.com

Haider Ackerman ss12 via style.com

beautiful presentation for furfur from Tokyo fashion week.
More photos via Igor + André

Illustration Project - After Dark

Recently Nowness.com, a website which I frequent for the latest in fashion, art and culture has posted a drawing competition. Participants will submit a 2D artwork whether illustration, photogrpahy or digital art based on author Murakami's novel or shortstories.

I was very excited about this because I've been a fan of Haruki Murakami, and he's a well known author in China. So I revisited his novel After Dark, which describe a series of events happened between 11:59 pm to 6:52 the next morning. I was touched by the characters and felt very much related to them - different people all have their own stories and their own way in dealing with troubles or confusions, however those who don't know you well, or even those who do, in this case the sisters, will not completely understand, in this way, everyone is quite lonely and alienated.

When I was reading the final part of the novel, I imagined the sister Mari, lying in bed with Eri, and when I flipped to the next page, she did exactly what I had imagined, and I knew this is the scene I will depict.

I looked for some inspirations - particularly Aubrey Beardsley's drawings and also came across with these. So awesome. I really enjoy Yamamoto's grotesque illustrations, and the max amount of detail is simply breathtaking.Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any good resolution ones.

A.Beardsley

Takato Yamamoto

I started with a rough sketch, and then a full-sized pencil drawing - constantly refining the figures and composition. I have a lot of difficulty drawing from my mind, so I had to look up many stock photos for furniture or patterns. This process took about one day.  Next, I traced the drawing on to illustration board. I used Frisket to mask the white areas of the pattern and went to bed.

The Second day, using ink with different brushes I filled in the lines and patterns. It took about 5 hours.

masking fluid not removed yet

Final illustration

The cherry blossom pattern is an strange force that is sort of protecting the two girls and hopefully everyone of us. It is the sense of optimism the novel ended with, after all, dawn is here and the new day begins. I feel that the digital translation is not quite there, the texture of the paper and ink is lost which is a bit of shame, I should take a better photo next time.

overlapping gives the work another dimension

via booooooom

some other nice illustrations

Ruben Ireland

Riikka Sormunen