So I thought I’d post some of my stuff…I haven’t really sat down and watercolored since this summer, but I really love it. It makes me SoOoOoOoOo ridiculously happy. I hope these make you smile as much as I did when I painted them!
XoXoX
• Choubelle •
Below: A profile or a half of a face? You choose.
Above: This was a face that I found in a magazine in black and white…I sort of free styled it at the end and made the watercolors very opaque because of mixing the grays…its fun limiting colors and playing with contrast! I love painting in black and white. Its more freeing.
Last but not least my favorite to paint: Accessories!! Making up little jewel-like sized pieces like these (they are less than two inches each!) and adding colors is the icing on the cake. Bisous!
Think Aspen Colorado meets the Swiss Alps, and thats Gorsuch, one of my favorite catalogs to receive in the mail!!
With my semester off almost complete, I’ll be heading off to snow country soon, and the fuzzy furry looks look especially warm and appealing. Faux fur though, anyone??
Hope you had a lovely Christmas!! The end of my Christmas I felt like I was watching Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” on account of my aunt who gave my little cousin a remote control helicopter that actually FLIES. It zoomed EVERYWHERE in my grandparents house. Hilarity ensued, and the evening ended with my poor Nana getting bonked in head with the ‘copter. She was fine, but Blissful chaos ’twas!!
XOXOX
Choubelle
square headphones, Urban Outfitters
Thoughts??
I think they’re pretty interesting!! From an artistic P.O.V., headphones are really sculptural. And an added bonus: there’s nothing quite like a ginormous pair of headphones to make you stand out!
Aerial 7 Headphones, Urban Outfitters
Mix Style Star, Audio Cubes
My top picks for colorful tricked out headphones? Urban Outfitters, Audio Cubes, and WESC
We all know about New York Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week, London Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week, but lets take a look at the map of the world and focus on Russia:
Wow! Look! Its the biggest country in the world. golly gee!
So why haven’t I heard of any Russian fashion designers?????? I’ve heard of Yves, Chanel and Dior in Paris, Versace and Prada in London, Marc and Ralph in NYC and…*cricket sounds* who exactly, In Russia???
•
This all started when I saw (British born) John Galliano’s fall ‘09/’10 show with all of the Russian bride inspiration, painted faces and meticulous attention to detail. Then I accidentally downloaded a Russian Fashion Week video podcast, and couldn’t believe my eyes. The Russian designs were lyrical, folkloric and incredibly beautiful.
What I didn’t realize is that I hadn’t stumbled upon just any Russian designer. I had stumbled upon Slava Zaitsev.
“In a 1988 interview, Zaitsev mentioned how he had to use dress mannequins from World War two until only recently because of Soviet Regime restrictions.”
I felt like I’d come across a field of sweet flowers in the middle of the wintertime. Like fashion illustrator/designer Erté, however, Zaitsev leaves no stone unturned when it comes to detail in his designs. The result? An opulence like no other. It is truly greatness!
What is neat about Zaitsev is that more is more, but the “more” isn’t off the mark. For Zaitsev, shapes, silhouettes and pattern harmonize and land right on target!
I wikipedia-ed Mr. Zaitsev, and sadly discovered just how much Soviet Russia had stifled him from sharing his craft with the rest of the world back in the days of Pierre Cardin, Dior, and YSL. Apparently, regime restrictions on Zaitsev were suffocating. The only country which Zaitsev was allowed to work outside of and share his gifts with other than the Soviet Union was Czechoslovakia, and in a 1988 interview with the New York Times, Zaitsev mentioned how he had to use dress mannequins from World War two until only recently because of Soviet Regime restrictions.
Those are my findings of Zaitsev, nicknamed by the media as the “Red Dior.” Here are some images of one of my new favorite designer’s astonishing work!
Images courtesy of russianfashionweek.com, Coutorture and daylife.com
verry soon. ex oh.
British based designer Sacha Knight of Hyde S.K really knows her stuff when it comes to making beautiful bags.
Knight’s colorful handbags immediately caught my eye one day whilst wandering around Etsy, and when I saw how cool the tassels and detail each Hyde S.K bag had I was sold! From moc-croc scales to the adorable wooden charms, this designer’s native inspired collection is a winner through and through.
The phenom deets of Sacha Knight's designs make me want neeeed to put tassels on everything I own. Right now.
Did I mention that all of her designs are environmentally sound? She uses lorica instead of leather, because after working with leather for several seasons, she decided it really conflicted with her vegetarian lifestyle. saweet!
For more about Knight’s handbags, check out this article from Refinery 29, and Knight’s website and of course, the
Hyde S.K Etsy shop.
Now if only I could haul my notes around to class in this bag!
The other day my Mom and I tromped out through our field to pick fruit from the trees, and much to our surprise, there was lots and lots of fruit!
Pears and plums, but no apples. I think the deer got to them before we had a
chance.
Its rather amusing that we call them “organic” because the term sounds so fancy-schmancy, but its true…we didn’t do anything to the fruit all year…it just grew all by its lonesome with a bit of help from summer sunshine!
I got adventurous and climbed up into the pear tree to shake down and pull down the giant branches of fruit. We had hundreds of pears. I don’t know what to do with them all! I think I’m going my hand at making puff pastry so I can make pear danishes sometime this week. So far I’ve had a productive semester off before I head off to college this January, which will be quite exciting.
Isn’t my mommy adorable? She has really long red
hair underneath her hat, and she is super kind. I’m very,very lucky to have a mommy like her!
The weather is getting nippier and cold even from when we took these pictures! I went in to the city for two days to visit my grandparents, and when I came back, the leaves were all off the trees. So much for scenic foliage!!
I’m pretty sure this is my favorite fall outfit. All corduroy. My favorite RL brown cords, a Massimo for target jacket and my favorite red cap made by somebody I can’t remember! Corduroy is so warm and comfortable, I highly recommend it. 
As always, have a lovely day, and stay warm if you reside in cooler parts like me!
xoxo
Choubelle
…Photography is great, photography is wonderful. Photography probably moves product off of store shelves more easily than illustration, but golly, isn’t illustration lovely? I wish that mags and ads would feature more of it. The colors make me smile…especially if illustration is in watercolor!
Some of my favorite internet places to view fashion illustration??
Where to start….
The Flickr Fashion illustration pool is a great place to go to find fresh images and ideas from lesser known/seen artists.
Then there is Illustrophile, a blog which features delightful illustration and commercial art.
And last but not least Illustrationweb represents/features the portfolios of oodles of pro illustrators and graphic designers.
Every time I visit these sites, it feel like I’ve stumbled on Christmas in July (or in this case, September). There is always something good and something sweet to see!
Image courtesy of illustrophile.com, Artist: Rebecca Wetzler
bisous!
Choubelle
P.S.
-I will post some of my own fashion illustrations quite soon! I do so so many, and never seem to post them…this will change!
-I’ll also do my yo-man duty and cover more Fashion Week excitement. I love the video feature on my new iPod nano, and tune in to style.com podcasts and Mod TV for spiffy deets on S/S ’10. Lots of colors, lots of cool backstage stuff. Highly recommend it!!
