creep creep

Oh, hello blog. I've missed you. What have I been doing during my time away? Not much, I confess. I've been working on knitting Christmas gifts, and sending out Christmas cards, and doing some writing, and doing some drawing, but mostly for other projects like my animated movie. The other drawings I've done have been...eh. But I like this one:



I've been enjoying playing around with brush pens, and sketching more with pen. When I work with pencil, sometimes I get too caught up in the details and lose the flow. So, while this is rough, I'm happy with it. I think that this is kind of about insecurity or something, as inspired by Katy Perry? Don't ask. Anyway, wish me luck on finishing holiday-things before the holidays.

stuff

More lonely days at home, more drawings! Life is awesome. Here's a weird pirate girl I drew.



This was kind of an offshoot of being inspired by that Vogue Italy fashion spread, except I have her boobs showing, cos, you know, boobs. Here's a weird nun-ish religious girl I drew:



This came from me being totally obsessed with Gothic Lolita. I can't help but have secret fantasies of dressing like those girls, and pretending that I'm living at Versailles, drinking tea and doing embroidery and ignoring all of the poor people dying of starvation outside...I mean, pretty dresses!




(All from Victorian Maiden.)

Sigh. Someday!

variations on a theme

Whew, it's been a while since I've updated! I was in New York for ten days, visiting my boyfriend and seeing friends and family and generally having a good time. Now I'm back to the real world, where I have way too much free time. Thus, new drawings!

A subject I think I'm always going to be obsessed with is Marie Antoinette. I'm not really sure why; I hate the movie, and I barely know anything about the actual human being. However, that didn't curb my compulsion to visit Versailles when I was in Paris, and it certainly doesn't stop me from drawing her (or people in that style) all the time. Today I was searching for drawing inspiration, and in a file of inspiration pictures on my computer I found this image:



I think it's from Vogue Italy; I can't remember where I found the scan from otherwise I would credit! I found the image hauntingly beautiful. I love the juxtaposition of the young face and the fancy dress with the round, pregnant belly. I love how she looks innocent and knowing at the same time. So I attempted my own version. Here's the sketch:



Here's the final:



Click on the images to see them bigger! I'm not sure whether I like the sketch or the final version better. I think this image hit upon why I love drawing Marie Antoinette-style things. I like contrasting the ornate dresses and finery with the sad, angsty girls wearing it. Something about it being a facade, commenting on girls being judged by looks instead of what's really going on ~inside~, etc etc blah blah blah. Or maybe I just like drawing pretty things.

Halloween, a few days late.

Fall is by far my favorite season. I love wearing coats, and knitting huge scarves and hats to wear in the cold. I love sitting inside, watching 30 Rock and drinking tea while the wind rattles the windows. And, God damnit, I love Halloween! I'm kind of a strange Halloween-lover: I hate scary movies, or scary anything really. Gore and getting chased around by malevolent ghosts aren't really my thing. But I just enjoy trick or treating, and fun home-made haunted houses, and gothic stuff, and CANDY, and stylish little witches sitting in trees. So I made a drawing:



It's kind of rough, but I kept starting over and over and over trying to do something perfect and realistic and it wasn't going anywhere. I figured I just needed to get something out and have a little fun with it, even if it wasn't perfect. In that vein, I signed up for NaNoWriMo this month. NaNoWriMo is short for "National Novel Writing Month," where you have to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of November. God forgive me for my arrogance! I thought it might be a good way to break out of my writer's block, right now it just seems terrifying...Wish me luck! I'm only about 200 words in. Heh.

rodarte warrior

So, yesterday I did another one of these fashion-y inspired things, and took a look from Rodarte and made it into an Irish Warrior Princess. Or something.



Whatever it is, I like it! My inspiration for this was Brave, formerly known as The Bear and the Bow, formerly known as the first female directed/female oriented film Pixar was going to release, until they booted Brenda Chapman off the production. This is really depressing news to me...among the sea of sequels Pixar is now releasing, this was the only film I was actually looking forward to. As a person of the female persuasion who also wants to direct someday, this is very disheartening. Sigh.

On a lighter note: when I was searching "celtic crowns" to find visual inspiration for the little thing she's wearing on her head, pretty much all that came up were bride websites for people obsessed with Renaissance Faires and Lord of the Rings. Kind of amazing.

chanel succubus

So, I'm starting a new blog...woohoo. I've been looking at the SS2010 collections lately, and as usual, I love love love Chanel. Even when it's quirky and weird, it still has this classic vibe that makes me think of princesses...and monsters, apparently. Because I drew this:



My dad said, "Hey, I like that Victorian vampire you're drawing!" It's not Victorian OR a vampire, Dad. Jeez. Clearly it is a succubus, which, according to wikipedia, is "a female demon who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse." Chanel, demon, sexual intercourse...it all makes sense, really.

Now I want to go through all of my favorite SS2010 looks and put them in different contexts. I think that's what I love about fashion so much--they're like costumes that are portals to different worlds. I can put on an outfit to make me feel like anyone or anything in the world. Does that make sense? I hope so.