For all love

Beneath.....

2010-10-02T19:18:00.004+02:00

A bit of pin-up flavour ;-)

The ingénue

2010-08-27T09:17:00.001+02:00

French Twist

2010-08-27T09:09:00.004+02:00

Illustration Friday - Breakfast......

2010-07-19T12:16:00.004+02:00

.........at Tiffany's

Rescue

2010-03-29T13:15:00.003+02:00

A bit of pop culture for this weeks challenge.... Dr. Gregory House from the TV show House MD.
Cause there quite a few ways that rescue could apply to that show, and I don't draw enough guys:)

Subterranean

2010-03-16T10:20:00.003+02:00

Persephone the queen on the underworld in Greek mythology. The is drawing straight from my sketchbook.... don't have time for anything more this week, but maybe I'll come back to it later as I love drawing her....check her out in her previous fashionable incarnation.

A Tribute

2010-03-10T09:28:00.002+02:00

So I know this is pretty late and everybody has said their bit about it, but rather late than never. This is my tribute to Alexander Mcqueen......one of my very favorite designers. The image is from the fall 2008 collection, go and have a look at the show here. You'll see why he was so great and why it's so sad to loose him so early.....who is going to give us the magic and the fantasy now?

Brave

2010-03-08T14:39:00.003+02:00

Be brave enough to dress the way your heart desires without wondering what other people might think!

or in the words of e.e cummings
"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. "

Perspective

2010-03-01T14:11:00.003+02:00

Adrift

2010-02-18T08:40:00.002+02:00

Creepy Chic

2010-02-17T09:35:00.005+02:00

Done for A Fashionable Challenge.....the prompt was creepy chic and since I'm busy reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels a vampire was the obvious choice!

Mood Boards

2010-02-17T09:18:00.002+02:00

Colour me happy

2009-10-29T12:07:00.003+02:00

This was done for A Fashionable Challenge, the inspiration was She's like a Rainbow from the Rolling Stones.
Here is some more colour inspiration.......

1. Shadow picado, 2. colorful homes, 3. Jodhpur Home, 4. Colorful Homes - Burano, 5. Crayola Homes, 6. Colorful Homes., 7. two little boys in front of their home in the colorful Bo Kapp C, 8. Colorful houses - Mexico, 9. Colourful buildings, 10. Colorful historic buildings in port of Callao, Peru, 11. La Boca, Buenos Aires, 12. Colorful buildings, 13. Colorful Downtown, 14. Blast of Color, 15. Farola verde, 16. The "Lizard"

Colour me happy by danettemaree featuring kate spade bags

What I Wore Today

2009-10-01T11:30:00.002+02:00

I'm a bit of a Flickr addict and one of my newest obsessions over there is the awesome What I wore Today(drawings only) group. It's packed with absolutely gorgeous illustrations and great fashion inspiration. It's so fascinating checking out what the members from all over the world is wearing and what they have to say about their clothing and the day their having, and the BEST part is that it's all drawings....which I think is so much more evocative than taking a piccie of yourself in the bathroom mirror. You can really create a mood/feeling in a drawing that's hard to capture in a photograph when your not a professional photographer and have only yourself and your limited wardrobe to work with.

Also I have never in my life been able to keep a journal or diary, I just struggle to keep to a routine like that.....but I find this is working for me so far. It combines two of my passions - drawing and clothing, and I think it will be interesting to page through the book in the future and look back at what you wore.

Pattern

2009-09-28T12:51:00.005+02:00

This just proves that I'll use any excuse to draw a girl with loads of hair;)

Austere vs Party Girl

2009-09-08T15:53:00.004+02:00

Two polar opposites.....both done for A Fashionable Challenge

Austere by

I went for a bit of revolutionary chic with the Austere prompt....he he he

nothing bad by danettemaree featuring

and a bit of frothy pink fun for the Party Girl prompt.

Magnify

2009-09-02T12:16:00.002+02:00

Done for Illustration Friday, the theme is Magnify......which gives me a brilliant excuse to draw a pirate chick with a spyglass;)

Goddess

2009-08-26T11:40:00.002+02:00

A modern Persephone striding from the underworld in skin tight pants and killer heels;) Done a few weeks back for the Goddess prompt on A fashionable Challenge.

Caution

2009-08-23T15:53:00.003+02:00

Sailors have caution......

The scanner kinda messed up her nice gold and silver jewellery.... ah well

The Little Black Dress

2009-08-07T11:26:00.004+02:00

Done for A Fashionable Challenge. I think the little black dress is such an enduring favorite because of it's amazing versatility. You can dress it up diffrently each time you wear it.

Work in Progress

2009-08-05T09:12:00.005+02:00

I'm trying my best to catch up on the challenges over at A fashionable Challenge. The last month have been sooo hectic but it's a bit better now and I'm trying to squeeze some drawing time in. So here is what I'm busy with at the moment......I've scanned the drawings in their rough state, before I start to neaten it up to colour. I love to have a copy of the drawings before I start erasing all the rough lines and guides that I use when plotting the figure....I think there is often something very dynamic about them cause they're done so quickly.

I also found a few rough sketches I scanned a while ago. These where for previous drawing challenges and mostly done on pieces of scrap paper. I always tend to loose these little sketches so I thought I'd save them before they made their bid for freedom. It's fun to look at them and then see the final product........ these where for the Tote Bag challenge on Everyday Matters.

This was for the Love prompt on A fashionable Challenge

This was for the Artist also on A Fashionable Challenge

The Dancer

2009-07-29T15:24:00.004+02:00

Done for A Fashionable Challenge..... it's inspired by the female characters from the ballet Swan Lake, the white swan Odette and the magicians daughter Odile.

While looking for inspiration for this prompt I checked out Polyvore on recommendation of a fellow blogger.......and fell hook line and sinker, oh I spent hours over there putting together sets. It a great place to get some inspiration for the fashion illustration challenges that I take part in. If you are in any way into fashion.....go and check it out. I promise you'll waste a few hours playing around there!!

Here is the set that I created as inspiration for the illo.............

Tango for Illustration Friday

2009-07-21T12:35:00.003+02:00

Red, White and Blue

2009-07-08T12:10:00.003+02:00

The theme for the week over at A fashionable Challenge is Red, White and Blue. Possibly one of my favorite colour combo's......EVER. Can't really say why I'm so in love with it, but my inspiration scrap book is full of red, white and blue pages...

......and this is just the highlights package, there actually more, a lot more;)

and this is how the drawing was born.......first a doodle on a piece of office scrap paper....then a pencil sketch......and finally the finished product, coloured in Photoshop.

I made the old pages in Photoshop using this awesome tutorial from PSHero.

Shaky for Illustration Friday

2009-07-06T10:00:00.004+02:00

I'm very shaky on high heels....and sometimes even supermodels get a bit shaky, just ask Naomi Campbell her thoughts on these Vivienne Westwood platforms. They made her catwalk roadkill in Westwood's 1993 Autumn/Winter show;)

EDM 229_Draw a summer joy

2009-06-30T17:07:00.003+02:00

Okay so maybe not......I'm in the middle of the S.hemisphere winter, so no ice cream, cold beer, flip flops, peaches or any of the other wonderful summer joys everybody have been drawing.

So here is my WINTER joy.......wait for it......scarfs!!! I have loads, I wear one every day, I knit them myself. I'm NOT a winter person.....hate being cold, but scarfs take the edge of the suckiest season of the year.

The drawing was coloured in Photoshop.....I had a quiet afternoon at work;)

the pencil drawing.....before I made it purty!

Worn

2009-06-29T11:07:00.002+02:00

A lace jacket worn by my gran to her wedding (I just changed the colour for the illustration). She and my grandpa eloped so she didn't wear a traditional white full length wedding dress, but a smart little lace dress with this jacket over. I still have the jacket and wear it occasionally:)

The Artist

2009-06-29T10:48:00.003+02:00

An illustration done for A Fashionable Challenge. The prompt went something like this; 'This week we're looking at creative types, creative dress sense - eccentric, colourful, crazy or strong statements!'
I found inspiration from one of my favourite artists, Frida Kahlo. I recently bought a book about Frida's clothes called Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress. It is a gorgeous book specifically about her clothes......lots of beautiful full colour photos, showing the amazing colours and detail like weaving, lace and embroidery.

EDM 227_ Draw a Tote Bag

2009-06-23T17:24:00.004+02:00

I'm a bit tired of my own bags and wishing I could splash out on a gorgeous new one......for example the fab Eep Bag from Skinny la Minx . It's nice and big with all kinds of nifty pockets on the inside.....perfect for my sketch books, story books, stationery and all the other random stuff I lug around every day.

Drifting

2009-06-20T21:13:00.004+02:00

Flash back to the 80's

2009-06-19T11:42:00.005+02:00

Another prompt from A fashionable Challenge, this one was a lot of fun to draw. Fashion in the 80's was so over the top and out there, you can really go crazy when illustrating it. This look was inspired by Madonna's look in Desperately Seeking Susan. I know the clothing in that movie is more black, but for some reason I struggle when colouring some thing black..... it's either to light and ends up looking grey or this to dark and it just looks flat. I also drew a little ra-ra skirt instead of those horrible men's style 80's pants........and I did some white lace tights for fun, although you can't really see the lace pattern on the computer screen. I remember my Barbie doll had a pair of pink lace tights that I loved!!

More Craving

2009-06-09T11:38:00.002+02:00

the inspiration

the rough sketches

the final product

Craving

2009-06-08T13:57:00.003+02:00

When I read this weeks prompt, the first thing that came to mind was cake, then I thought of Marie Antoinette and that led me to all the things that she craved. I suppose she got a lot of the things she craved for......diamonds, shoes, dresses. But I also imagine she craved some things that she could never have... privacy for example. I can't even begin to imagine giving birth in a room so full of people that you pass out from lack of air.

EDM_1 Draw a shoe

2009-06-05T09:03:00.003+02:00

My first go at a Every Day Matters challenge and I started right at the beginning. Actually I just really wanted to draw these beautiful shoes. It's not something I'll ever wear. I'll a flip flop or converse sneaker kinda gal, these towering heels terrify me.........but they sure are pretty :) oh yes they are for Louis Vuitton should anybody want to rush to the shops!

College Girl

2009-06-04T15:27:00.003+02:00

Done for A fashionable Challenge. My college girl is an art student, if that explains the slightly
eccentric get up. I was lucky enough to go to an art collage after high school and the dress code was very much "everything goes". Some days it felt like you've stumbled into a fancy dress party or a mass escape from the set of Hair...........I LOVED it!!

Romance

2009-06-03T10:58:00.003+02:00

Adapt

2009-06-01T15:02:00.004+02:00

A while back the Internet was buzzing about a new adaptation of a favorite
Jane Austen novel.....Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Haven't read the book yet, but it looks hilarious. Apparently it is "unladylike" to carry a musket, but when there are zombies roaming the country side moaning for brains I think caution must be thrown to the wind. I loved the idea of Lizzie kicking some zombie butt and was looking for an excuse to draw her ever since. Here she is with the butchers knife and Mr Bennet's musket.

Preppy Girl

2009-05-29T12:18:00.002+02:00

I LOVE preppy stuff......or actually I love uniforms, specially school ones. Blazers, tie's, pleated skirts, black tights.....I'd dress like that everyday given the chance.

Cracked

2009-05-27T17:16:00.002+02:00

Orange Inspiration

2009-05-27T12:12:00.002+02:00

Carnival

2009-05-21T12:34:00.004+02:00

We had a great theme this week on A Fashionable Challenge.....carnival!! In the end I decided to go with the Venice Carnival cause the costumes are so elaborate and to quote Anne, there's so much scope for the imagination! But then there's also Rio's fab carnival and my personal favourite the small town carnival.........slightly seedy and run down, with big wheel's, cotton candy, freaky mirrors, fortune tellers and all the other cool stuff that goes with that. Think I'll have to do a illustration based on that to!!

I love colour

2009-05-18T14:06:00.006+02:00

Done for a challenge on A Fashionable Challenge. The theme was love...and I love colour!

I heart Shweshwe

2009-05-16T17:12:00.005+02:00

I was busy this week with a drawing for A Fashionable Challenge with the theme 'home girl'. The prompt was to draw something that represent your town/neighbourhood. Well of course I had to draw some Shweshwe....... the perfect fabric to represent South Africa.

Photo from Da Gama Textiles

Shweshwe has a looong history in South Africa, it was first brought here by European missionaries some where in the 1800's and has been popular with ordinary South Africans for about just as long.

It's still made in much the same way, only the indigo dye has since become synthetic. The distinctive delicate patterns are produced through an acid discharge method. The fabric is fed through copper rollers with the design etched onto it. These allow a weak acid solution to seep into the fabric and bleach out the design.

Another of the fabrics distinctive characteristics also dates form it's early travels to our shores. Shweshwe is the only fabric I can identify just by smell! To protect the bolts of fabric on the long sea passages to Africa it was heavily starched, giving it the smell that we know it by. Today it is manufactured in South Africa but for traditional reasons it is still starched. Cause that's how we know and love it!

A few years back it South African fashion designers suddenly noticed it and it had it's 15 minutes on catwalks around the country. But it's vintage production methods means it can only be produced in a very narrow width, making it unsuitable for mass production in clothing factories. Which means it remains kinda under the radar only being made into fab outfits by loving hands.

I've made my fare share of shweshwe skirts and I LOVE the fabric. After washing the starch out it is a lovely soft cotton, perfect for summer skirts. Which brings me to it's name........it comes from the sound of the skirt swishing around your legs. Gotta love that.

Da Gama Textile is the biggest manufacturer of traditional Shweshwe fabrics in South Africa, for more on the fabric check out their website here. And check out this cool blog for South Africans wearing their fav fabric.

How I draw....

2009-05-13T09:00:00.004+02:00

I love reading of and looking at different people's creative processes. I LOVE to seen how every body's brain works in a different manner and how their process influence their work. When I draw I almost always start with a VERY rough thumbnail. It helps me pin down the ideas that float around inside me head and try out different possibilities without worrying about how its looking. These drawings I do on any scrap of paper that has the misfortune of crossing my path at that moment, most often pieces of scrap paper doing the rounds on my desk at the office. I also lose these drawings almost as soon as I am done with them. (I should do it in a sketchbook, but I hate having to page around to find what I'm looking for, if they are on bits of paper I can spread them around me when I start the final drawing).

Here is the first rough thumbnail I did for the Parade prompt on Illustration Friday

And here is the finished drawing........miles apart hmn!!

Parade

2009-05-12T17:14:00.005+02:00

Done for Illustration Friday

Red

2009-05-07T15:22:00.004+02:00

I've had a bit of time on my hands so far this week, and I've been using it to catch up on the A Fashionable Challenge challenges. This is the first of them. The theme was Red, I did a flamenco inspired illo..... but only coloured the background. Its in a lovely new sketch book that I got on my trip last week. It has brown paper (actually card stock) pages and I am LOVING drawing on it. The colour and texture is just perfect! I include a close up of the face cause I quite pleased with the line quality and it gets a bit lost in the big picture.

Holiday

2009-05-05T09:15:00.005+02:00

I'm slowly recovering from a wonderful holiday with my awesome friends in Pretoria. We did the rounds of all the museums in the capital (we're just nerdy like that) and did some major shopping. I'm still struggling to fit all the loot from Joburg's fab second hand book stores onto my bookcase. I just can't believe that a week can fly by so quickly!!

High Society

2009-05-04T20:23:00.003+02:00

Finally finished the drawing for the High Society challenge on A Fashionable Challenge. I'm not sure if I like the finished product, maybe I was a bit to ambitious? The problem is I get bored to quickly with large images.... wish I had a bit more patience!!

Holiday..... celebrate!

2009-04-23T14:11:00.003+02:00

From Friday I'm of on a bit of a holiday. Going to visit some friends in Pretoria and then we're of to Durbs for a few days by the sea. All ready filled the car up, and going to do some major packing tonight. So tomorrow after work I'm hitting the road! Jay!!!

High Society

2009-04-16T12:39:00.011+02:00

So.... I'm busy sketching some ideas for a challenge at A Fashionable Challenge. The theme is High Society. My initial idea was to have girls in evening dresses playing croquet while sipping on champers..... you know very decadent. Playing and boozing while the rest of us have to work for our daily bread.

That kinda let me to secret societies and masked balls where the guests are anonymous so I started drawing masks on all of them...........a high society, secret society masked ball!

Roll up, Roll up!!

2009-04-14T13:29:00.017+02:00

Hurrah! for the first post! I think some colourful balloons are in order. I did this drawing especially to celebrate the occasion ;)