Wednesday 26 January 2011

GRAND PLUMAGE



As much as I am amazed and inspired by fashion designers' collections every season, I try not to let that inspiration translate too literally in my personal illustrations. It's much more interesting for me to choose various elements that I like and find a way to incorporate them into my work. This illustration draws loose inspiration of the retro hair and makeup styling from the Louis Vuitton SS11 show and the colours and textures from the Alexander McQueen SS11 collection.

I have also decided to use this image on the home page of my new website. I've been working on it for quite a while but I was never really happy with how it looked so I hesitated in sharing it. Now that I've done a massive revamp, I'm really pleased with it and I finally feel comfortable enough to share it with everyone!

Please take a look and tell me what you think - Danielle Shepherd Fashion Illustration.

I've also set up a Danielle Shepherd Fashion Illustration page on Facebook to connect with anyone who is interested in my work. You can go here to 'like' this page or you can also connect through the widget in this blog's sidebar. Looking forward to connecting with all of you!  xx


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Thursday 20 January 2011

AUTUMNSONG



This is an illustration I did for Amelia's Magazine to accompany an article on Herefordshire-based ethical fashion designers, Pretty Rubbish.

According to their website, "Pretty Rubbish is a partnership between Victoria Geary and Rebecca Griffiths, two textile designers who are passionate about the influence of sustainability on design and fashion. They focus on recycling old textiles into funky new clothing, accessories and objects of beauty."

I've been a fan of Amelia's Magazine for a long time and I jumped at the opportunity to do an illustration for them. For this illustration, I wanted to convey the mood of a windy autumn day with the colours of the leaves in the background mirroring the colour of the Pretty Rubbish jacket.

This is the first time an illustration of mine has been featured anywhere so I'm really excited about it!

Check out the Amelia's Magazine article here and have a look at the Pretty Rubbish website here.


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MUSIC INSPIRATION - "STRONGER" BY INDRANI

This song didn't inspire any piece in particular but I always feel good when I listen to it, and when I feel good, creativity flows. I'm from Barbados originally and I'm proud to say this song is by a Barbadian singer named Indrani. I'm not usually a fan of reggae music but this song is so soft, beautiful and atmospheric, I can't help listening to it over and over! Enjoy! xx

Btw, the Avatar AMV was done by a friend of mine, who also introduced me to the song (thanks Delvin, stealing your vid! :P)





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Thursday 13 January 2011

LA MUSE ANGELIQUE



Don't you just hate it when you're trying to remember the name of someone you've heard of before and you just keep drawing a blank? Well that's what happened to me last week when I was trying to remember the name of Renee Perle. For some reason I thought her name was something like Cecile or Celia (nooo I idea how I got that!) and all I could remember about her was that she wore T-shirts and stacks of bangles. The name search yielded no results (as it was so fantastically off the mark), so I decided to search for '1930s stacked bangles' and lo and behold, there was a photo of Renee Perle. Cue sigh of relief.


Renee Perle was the Romanian muse of Jacques Henri Lartigue, a prominent French photographer in the 20th century. I first found out about her when I came across a photo spread in Vogue Germany that was inspired by her sense of style. With her T-shirts, armfuls of bangles, wide legged trousers and large hats, she had a unique style which was very modern for its time. After finding out about Renee Perle again and going through numerous photos of her, I decided to create this piece which is inspired by her dark, mysterious features and beautiful clothing style.


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Tuesday 4 January 2011

COFFIE



Happy New Year everyone! I hope you've all enjoyed Christmas and you're having a wonderful start to 2011.


This is the first illustration I've done for the year and it can take some effort to start new work after a period of no creative activity. A friend of mine recently asked me how I start my illustrations - whether they begin as a concrete idea or with a more spontaneous freeform approach. The truth is, it's somewhere in the middle. I do tend to start with fairly vague concept in mind but most of the details are built up as I work.

For this illustration, all I knew before I began was that I wanted to create a strong image of a black woman with distinctive ethnic features as I hadn't really done that in any of my work before. I also wanted her to have a braided hairstyle. All details such as her pose, the gold ear/hair piece and the background were thought of and included as the work progressed.

There's something really special about starting with just a rough idea and the process of developing that idea into the final artwork.


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Also, a little while ago, I was asked to donate some of my artwork to be auctioned off at a charity fashion event coming up later this month. I hastily agreed before realizing that I have no prints of my work to offer and I have no idea where to start. If anyone can offer any advice on professionally printing and packaging artwork, I would be very grateful! Thank you :)