Design Illustrations For My Patternmaking Portfolio

Here are my two illustrations for the designs I've done for my portfolio, all colored in with AdobePhotoshop,  I'm starting to really love that program.   And for all who may be interested,  I know my work is a far cry from professional,  but to get that water color wash look,  I used the "wet edges" brush option for the shape dynamicked "paint brush" I used.  Makes me wish I wouldn't have missed Ludmila Adam's free webinar tutorials for AdobePhotoshop,  you can find out about that on her Fashion Chalkboard facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/illustrator.for.fashion?sk=wall  As for my two designs,  one's lingerie and the other one is summertime outer wear.   I'm both excited and intimidated by this project "...oh so cool,  so pretty and then...oh my God,  moment of truth,   will I be able to deliver excellently?"   Hehehe,  yeah,  I'll do good.   Just wish the sewing machine I've got to work with was a little better.  I'll get around it,  I usually do.

The reason I've chosen these kinds of designs for my porfolio pieces is for several things, 

1.  they can be kind of complicated to execute
2.  they are interesting
3.  they can't be so simply made from ordinary kinds of patterns, they show that I have the skills to edit,  slash and spread and even think out of the box to design/draft a pattern

And these are all things you want prospective clients to know you can do.   After these,  I'll add some normal pieces to demonstrate that I can produce balanced and even patterns.  Think I'll do a suite and a princess style slip,  with some detailing to add interest.


If you'd like to check out my fashion or eco friendly fashion resources lenses here are their links, feel free to drop me a note if you like what you see/read, I'll be happy to hear from you:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

A Few More Set Backs But Keep On Kicking

Hey now, my computer just broke down a few days ago and business is going to be seriously slowed down for a while. I've got to redo all the the Photoshop line touch-up stuff on my collection pieces and I've got my bills to pay. Well this is a littel goods news/bad news kind of thing. The credit place gave me another chance with the situation I keep telling them (my brother skipped out on me and racked up his cell phone bill with premium calls, I've got a 900 dollar mistake on my hands) and I'm not working a regular job, yes it's no exageration it's extremely hard to keep the food on the table (I wasn't able to afford toillete paper and toothpaste okay, it's no joke) Any way though, my boss has apparently got more writting work coming my way, I hope I've got a bit of a raise coming, cross my fingers, so I'll be able to swing with, God willing. Lord knows I'm willing to work for it. One of my brothers is here helping me pay the bills so together we should be able to pull through.

Also, the folks at Lutterloh pattern making system got back to me and said that yes I can put together different patterns to come up with my own patterns! So yeah, I'm going to get that package as soon as I can and then, then, I'll be able to create my own samples! I'm so excited by the thought of this, all I have to do is get through this financial crunch and I'll get another chance.

Also, I haven't been able to get any volunteer models in so that I can do my makeup artist course, well, I had another idea I'm going to advertise it like this:

Free Elf Cosmetic High Quality Product try out/Marylin Makeover

Somebody should be interested in that, I'll see how it flies...

Any way I got to get to work here, keep you posted

Collection in Progress

Well, last night I managed to get quite a lot of work done, not only did I get my mood board done finally but I prepped all my designs for coloring on the computer. This involved opening up all the files in Adobe Photoshop 7 and...

1. Converting them to grey scale, this allows you to more efficiently 'clean up' your image later on. Basically what your doing is extracting your line work and throwing the rest away.

2. Go to brightness and contrast and increase both values to 50 and hit okay.

3. Take the magic wand and make sure it's value is at 50

4. You need to get rid of the grey background of your work so you can complete your images, with the magic wand choose a grey area that's a bit lighter than the middle tone of entire background quality and click.

5. The selection is not always perfect but you can do a light clean up after ward with a 'soft' eraser, it's better than getting rid of some of your line work, you don't want to waste time doing that.

6. Get your image back to RGB (or CMYK if you're planning to print them out after, wise choice although not my favorite because blues and greens in cmyk are a lot duller in hue and tend to be more of a challenge to use)

7. When you're ready to color them up create a layer on your image and make sure it's in 'Overlay' mode so you don't have to re-do line work as it will just show through your colors. You're done for now!

I'll keep you posted on my progress hope the info helps you all out :)

My First Digital Mood Board

Hi everybody, here is my first ever mood board period. I usually just keep the ideas all in my head, but professionally you can't do that any way so I've got to change my practices. Be sure to let me know what you think. Thanks

Ahh Life, Another day Another delay

It's alright, I've been dealing with this for years, any way a little secret I've learnt that if you perpetually think about what you're going to do to achieve your goal before you actually go through with it, it'll go smoother and faster than if you just sat down and did. Well that only goes so far. Had to catch up with some funds, my home job employer has given me some lower pay pieces of work to do so it's consumed my time and I've been feeling really worn out with my little daughter having a growing spurt while she's on the breast full time, ahhhh! Bare with me.

I've recently found out about a pattern making system (lutterloh)I want to get my hands on, for $125 I can get it and I've got my mind set on it after I email them and ask can I use the system to create my own patterns from it, give or take a few changes/modifications, and the creative such, design lines will always be a custom job, that's what it's all about, but you want your basic pattern to be somewhat conventional unless you're izzy miyaki or balenciaga, I don't even like their stuff although it is a break and a sometimes eye opening lead into creative thinking.

I prefer Alexander McQueen and John Galliano myself, LLOOVVEE THEM!

Well as for my mood board for my collection, I've managed to get all the pictures off the internet for it, and now all I have to do is put it all together in adobe and decide on some color way variations, (I apologize if I said this already in an earlier post) Also for my collection designs themselves, I've got to start working on those, first repairing the line work, you do that by first putting the photos to grey scale in adobe, then enhancing the lines. Then you convert the images back to rgb and you're set to go with your color work.

When I got my mood board finished I'll post it here.

Bye for now everybody, got to make the weekend mean something for my husband :)

Mood Board Delay

Well now, yesterday I wanted to put together a digital mood board with three color ways and everything that led to my new collection. However my brothers popped on by for a surprise visit. And my day went to hell, then I got busy with my virtual assistant job, then my house work then more VA...you get the picture. Hopefully, today will be different, only thing is, today I'm worried about one of my cats again, one took of two weeks ago and never came back, now another one has taken off last night and hasn't returned yet. I'm going to get ulcers I assure all of you. this kitty is fat too although she's obsessed with running around outside and I'm afraid she might be so fat and slow that she got hit by a car. Then again maybe she's just hiding from the rain. I really hope so. If I'm losing my cats out here though I'm going to start getting suspicious of my neighbors. Mood board, mood board, I have to think about my mood board. You know those are supposed to be put together before your collection, I know that. It's just that it was so well ingrained in my mind that I never needed to put it together for my own use and inspiration, I'm just now putting it together for the sake of my portfolio. :) I'm not showing off, I'm just talented.

Back to the Grid But With Plans

Always have your plans, gotta make some money today though, get back to my fashion collection when I've got a gap of time available. trying to develop some plans with a friend from US of Africa and take care of my kids and my sick cats. One of the kittens have swollen front paws and diarrhea and I don't even have grocery money let alone vet fees to spend on him. I'm trying some ground black seed though, it's apparently a powerful anti-microbial and immune support. And mustard seed powder, you may not know this but it contains the now coveted selenium, anti-cancer agent as well as other things. I'll start a new blog for my cats and herbal log there.

Yeahh! Got My Sketch Work Done For My Collection!

Okay, now we're talking, I've got all the sketch work done for my new collection, I've taken pictures of all of them, I have to load them up to my computer now from my camera so I can do the color work on them and other stuff, flats and so on.

The other day I went on apparel search.com and tried to find out where my collection would be well received, Europe is almost a sure shot. Well I was talking to my husband about it when he called and he was asking me afterwards "how do you know you can have a job like that? wonder if you can't keep having those wonderful ideas?" His seeming lack of faith in my imagination and ability really kicked me but I told him something really valuable I've learned over the years thanks to reading Julian Seamans books, there are no original ideas, and no such thing as artists block. When you need ideas for a new collection, you don't necessarily look for inspiration to come from your own head, ideas, concepts, nothing. What you need to do is be yourself, cultivate a love and appreciation for everything visual, art, architecture, history, all cultures, museums, landscape, past fashion, so called futuristic fashion, movies and so on, even cultivate the ability to appreciate the visual elements of things you don't like or rather be able to spot whatever there is about them that is worth something of note.

You love everything, so what next? Okay, what you've got to do now and this is where being yourself comes in, anything that speaks to you, think about it, look for what ever things you've seen you'd like to combine in different ways to produce some interesting, functional, wearable and beautiful ideas for garments, that's simply what I do. It's true you don't do this very well if you don't culture a love for visual elements everywhere from pretty much everything, but that is something you can learn. Don't forget to learn about different design elements, garment cuts for example so that you've got a variety of them as well that can be combined with your visual chemistry's.

While your putting things together like that you've also got to keep current fashion trends in mind, see if some of them can be thrown tastfully into you collection's design and also be aware of color trends to for what ever forward season you're designing for that way you're collection will be up to date. Have fun!

Every Step Brings You Closer

I watched 'Signe Chanel' again on youtube, I love french documentaries especially about fashion, got to find some more. I've got a little more than half my sketches left to do on my collection before I can get them on my computer for finishing. When I'm done I want to do three things

1. put together my fashion design/art resume
2. post my new collection on all the free portfolio/fashion portfolio sites
3. send my links over to all the Turkish and Kuwait and whatever other clothing manufacturing companies that I think may be interested in my work.

Sounds like a plan, I want to see if someone will hire me to design even without me knowing patternmaking. Also I've got to remember that I should draw up the flat images of the garments to accompany the illustrations. Those are for the patternmakers there to understand the garment better so they can make a pattern that will re-create the depiction of the illustration. See? My mind is thoroughly on my dreams.

Any way though, I've got to get back to my writing work, just had to drop in and let everyone know that I am still in the fashion design hopeful sling. I'm just stuck like the pig in the mud of life. Wait Till The Summer! Oh God, I plan to be done with my new collection way before that, and I think I'll make it the trend cast colors for this coming fall and winter navy blue and brown. Well that's a wrap, back to the grind folks.

Optimism that's not for "Optomists"

Yeah, I'll tell you like it is, you need to hold on to your dreams and not let go, ever, but on a daily basis it's hard because other than holding on to your dreams in your head you've got to sometimes have the discipline in your mind and heart to wait till you can actually take a tiny baby step toward that dream. It almost seems impossible at times but that's what it's going to take if you've got any chance at all to reach your goals that's what your going to have to do. Every time I look at that collection of mine, I love it, I miss it and I wish I had time to work on the dear thing. But life and how screwed up for time I am has me neglecting it in all ways but in my mind. In order to continue actively chasing your dreams you got to except the pain of holding on when times are tough. If you can do that, you've got a chance, by default. It's just going to take you longer unless you get lucky along the way, so just hold on.

See so far what's been going on is that I've got my writing assignments, I've gotten ripped of at the store for 38 dollars, and I'm too short of cash for anything, it's really sad. So it's important that I focus my time on work around the house for my kids and shopping for the stuff that's needed. When it's all done I've got no energy for anything else. With my teeth being broken and my knees hurting so bad it doesn't make anything easier. But I love my collection and I want to be a fashion designer, design beautiful clothes and make a lot of good money and my daughter will be able to look at me and say 'My mother is a fashion designer' and my son can admire me because I've made enough money and I don't need to whine at my husband and ask him for anything. I have control over my life and what I want to do. I'm somebody not because of what other people have done for me but because of what I fought to do for myself, because of talent I have that God gave me that I fought to hold on to use. That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm fighting to do.

The Fight For Time

Ah yes, what will I do today, everyday that I can't get to my collection I plan on doing the line work on, taking pictures of them when they're done, loading them to the computer and coloring and touching them up in Adobe Photoshop. Because right now I'm breastfeeding as I'm writing this and I've got to go get a months worth of juice for my son and that involves a long trek to the store on Fraser Hwy on foot. That's going to take a good chunk of my time and energy. I've also got to think about writting more articles than two to catch up with the money lost last week and the beginning of this week. Not enough sleep last night either, finished up at 4 am. I'm not a loser though, I'm going to fight it no matter what I do, I am going to be a fashion designer! And I'm going to make enough money to start a large agricultural movement in Africa to utilize their native food crops and the vast expanses of desert. All with the money made from my beautiful fashion collections. I'm going to put my art to work.

Slow and Steady and Steady and ....(just hold on....

Yeah, everything in my life is a lot slower than I'd like in my life, but that's okay all I have to do is remind myself that if I hold on to my dream of being a fashion designer by doing or planning something everyday that will bring me closer to that dream, it will indeed come to pass. I wrote my two articles last night, I'm getting faster and that will help me make more money. However my husband wants us to save more money for a house and kids and that's all good, just an extra challenge to face. I can meet it besides, if I didn't my conscience will bother me. Lord knows I don't want that.

I will speed up my writing, I will finish my makeup artist course and I will take a fashion design course and get a job as a fashion designer all in due time. I just have to keep focused. I'm planning to gain some ground with the ladies who put together NOMA by creating a bunch of graphics for their beautiful makeup artist course. I just feel like it's a good idea and I want to finish the line work on my new collection. I'll see if I can do some more on that tomorrow morning and tonight I'm going to see if I can improve upon a mini course I've done and write two more articles, tomorrow night I'd like to shoot for three. The faster I get at doing articles the more money I can make. More money improves both options and time.

The Drudgery of Needing to Make Money at Home

Well now, to all you artistically talented people out there be forewarned, the site 'getpaidtodraw.com' is in fact one of those not-so-dishonest scams but a scam none the less. And here's the explanation as I suffered to discover it (I've just got my refund for it this morning through click bank though) okay, the site leads you to believe that they've got the secret info that will allow you to simply scribble something on a piece of paper and sell it, somebody will actually buy it online including the companies that sell stock photography and images on the web. Okay well I've already signed up for them before 'getpaidtodraw' came out and with this purchase I gave it a chance tried to get the ball rolling on some money making. I know this isn't fashion design but I'm living in the real world where my dreams are built of hard work and supporting my kids and cats at the same time, I need money not only to survive but also to pay for some more sorely needed education in the patternmaking area. I'm thinking about getting either elitepro's fashion design course out of Madrid, Spain, or Etelestia's fashion design and patternmaking courses out of Greece or Vancouver Community College's part time fashion design course.

And I've got some major blockages to get through, I'm going to have bad credit for a whole 6 years on account of that 900 dollar cell phone bill from my younger brother. I won't be able to get a student loan. My kids aren't old enough to go to school and I can't wait till six years, stop whatever job I manage to get to take a course and then fulfill my dreams. Well I'll have to find another way. If I hang in there with my writing job I'll eventually get paid more, I just need patience and discipline. As for that God Damn GetPaidToDraw, I'll let you know, most stock image places are looking for vector art, so if you've done a bunch of computer art in a paint program like adobe photoshop or something don't think you've got it made with a bunch of ready to use inventory. You have to have work available that was created in programs like Adobe illustrator or CorelDraw okay? Now if you've got a program called CorelTrace, you may be in luck, because like me if you've got great color block art you can dump your regular, jpeg file raster art in that program and convert it all to vector based graphics and voila, just a little extra work and you've got inventory. Well I haven't had the time to get that all done yet but I'll get too it.

Just to let you know aside from my kids, cats and house, the things slowing me down are my articles I need to make money with, my fashion collection I'm working on, research on how to make more money and figuring out how to make money and what the darn requirements are to submit my artwork in the first place. It's not simple. But that's okay I'll cut through the hullabaloo eventually and make it to the top of mount Everest eventually.

Word of caution though everyone, if you see one of those god forsaken sites on how to make money easy, remember this, it's not that its a lie flat out, they couldn't stay up for a hot second if they were, no, it's that the way they're talking about making money is a little too obscure, vague and or time consuming. Don't waste your time or your money, I took the chance so you don't have too.

Too Many Directions and Not enough Focus or Money

Ahh, I've dreamt about becoming a fashion designer ever since I can remember and now I'm 30+ and haven't become one yet, I've got two kids, very beautiful kids, too many cats a $900 cell phone bill from my brother and a serious lack of money. However, I still haven't gotten my dream of becoming a fashion designer out of my head.

Instead I set a deadline for myself, I'm going to become a fashion designer before I hit 50 and that's that's.

I've done a bunch of research at my downtown library on what I have to know to become a fashion designer and with a little brush up on my sewing skills and a good patternmaking course I'll be raring to go. Right now I'm working on my new collection and writing articles to make some practical money.

Seeing if I can design a collection without actually having the samples produced and still get hired by whatever company loves my design ideas. Cross my fingers hope to die.... Any way my collection has about 21 pieces and hopefully some Turkish clothing or textile manufactury will love it. I sure do so somebody else has to.

I want to see if I can finish doing the line work for sketches so I can start putting them all together in color and what not on the computer than you'll probably see them up here as well. Also what I plan to do is post it on every free fashion and portfolio site that's free that I can find, see what happens then.