That was fun !

After completing my photo-shopped images, and all the research for the study, I can say that this unit has been my favourite since starting college.
I've seen so many friends and artists use photo-shop, I also to some extent in high school, but through this brief I have learnt to use it in different ways. For example, I only ever used the programme to edit photographs, yet now I know how to improve my drawings using simple tools within this programme.
My "Bridgets Back" piece was my favourite as I used layering effects to add a variety of textures to my piece, and it was the one piece of work I created that clearly used traditional and contemporary styles together.

Photo-shop has hundreds of tools, therefore to improve further I need to practice using it more often to further my skills, also by taking more time with the pieces I edit, I'd achieve a more professional finish.
I also really enjoyed the research part of this unit, as I was able to look into a mixture of areas in the fashion industry and see how widely used computers are in every job.
The best thing of all about this unit, was using the blog. It makes things very easy to stay on track of, and is very easy to add too. Using my blog for this unit has definitely made me see how much more practical it is as opposed to a hand kept journal. And I now want to keep on top of my blogging and post more regularly.

"About half my designs are controlled fantasy, 15 percent are total madness and the rest are bread-and-butter designs. "

After looking at all these artists who are mixing traditional with contemporary in their artwork i decided to look at someone who uses just traditional techniques, someone who not only creates amazing sketches ... but amazing shoes ... Mr Manolo Blahnik.


Since 1972 when Blahnik first started designing he created the most fantastic sketches of his design ideas. His drawing were very fine pencil lines, very angular and elongated. This style of drawing has become so iconic to Manolo, and the designs are that greatly appreciated that a book was published with a archive of his drawings. Even now at the age of 68 he continues to design fabulous shoes.

I have always been a fan of both Blahnik sketches & shoes, I really like the shape he uses for the foot with the skinny ankles and smoothly curved arcs and how because they are drawn freely by hand each foot is a slightly different shape or tone.

Carrie Bradshaw

The next image I decided to photoshop was the drawing of Sex & the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker. I chose to draw her as its in keeping with my shoe theme, as she is the Queen of Manolo's !!!

The image obviously needed cleaning up as I used a 4B and 6B pencil which smudged quite heavily . Therefore I adjusted the levels to make the image a lot clearer and brighter.The image is now a lot clearer and looks more like its been drawn in biro or fineliner I also used the Blur tool on the shoulder and bust area to make the finish a little smoother.To define the facial features more. I used the magnetic lasso tool to select both the eyes and lips. I used the water-colour technique to apply colour to the eyes to make them stand out more, I also then sharpened the eyelashes to make them more of a feature. For the lips I used the smudge stick filter tool as it just separated them from the bright white background of the face.To add colour and more texture to my piece I used a opaque water-colour paint brush. Using this effect kept a slight transparent look, and made the pencil lines still show through. I like this effect as it adds a extra layer of texture to the drawing and is the best tool i have come across ro represent hair.


Using the clone stamp I have added a background to my image. By opening the background image in a blank document I was able to clone the pattern from one screen onto the other. I chose to use the Louboutin closet image as it is iconic to the character of Carrie Bradshaw.
I'am really happy with this final image as I feel the drawing looks more professional after being edited and adding the background gives a interesting effect. I think this image would also work well with a New York theme background for my drawing as New York is also iconic to Sex and the City.

Tall, dark and handsome ... Christian Louboutin Thigh High Boots

These are the gorgeous Christian Louboutin thigh high boots a gaze longingly at all day at work... they are beautiful and frankly my TOPSHOP ones just dot measure up.
Argghh well Tabbi ... keep saving !!!

My drawing does not do them justice !!!

Again I have cleaned up the images by adjusting the contrast colour levels to make it look sharper, brighter and more defined.
The finished image this time has both pros and cons. On the positive side I think the plastic wrap effect I used gave quite a similar effect to that of a shiny leather. Therefore it is a technique I may come back to for mark making techniques on initial design ideas.
However the outline I tried to achieve to emphasise the red of the sole, actually took the attention away from the red sole and the paintbrush tool I used to draw it with didn't give a smooth enough effect.

All in all ... I prefer the real thing !

Just your average night at Gusto !

Today I have been scanning my images into photo-shop and started editing them.
I started with this image as its a piece i did free hand from my own ideas ... ( and own Louboutins).
Its the average night out with the girls to our favourite place,Gusto with plenty of cocktails and girly gossip.
The original drawing once scanned in was very dull and undefined, therefore by using photo-shop I could adjust the contrast levels, making the white background brighter and the pencil lines darker and stand out more.
I then started adding texture and colour by using tools such as liquefier and smudge stick, to achieve similar looks to the real object but slightly more interesting, by qualifying the Biro lines round the cocktail glass all the colours in the ink were picked out giving a swirly effect, almost like when a liqueur is added to a spirit.
I have now filled in the rest of the shoe using the brush stroke techniques and using a range of styles layered up to create the rough effect of glitter from my shoes.
I also used the plastic wrap tool on the glass to give a more realistic look.
When trying to achieve the glitter sugar on the lip of the glass I used the noise tool as this gives a very colourful speckled effect however it didn't look quite right. I then found out my finding a simple glitter image from the internet I could turn this into a pattern template to then be used as a fill effect in photo-shop.By highlighting the rim of the glass with the magnetic lasso I was able to fill just this area with the pattern.

I am really happy with my first image created using photo-shop as I haven't used the programme since GCSE yet still feel the textures and patterns I managed to gain really suit the image.

Dozens of screwed up balls of paper later ...

This weekend I have been gathering a few drawings ready to put into photo-shop and edit at college. Hopefully they will all look a little more interesting when its finished.

The above image sums up my life :)
Pretty women styley.


A random image I put together from looking at a image of Victoria Beckham combined with a fabulous Louboutin.


Dedicated to the Best Friend ;) xxxx


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Sarah Jessica Parker ... I apologise !