Pills and Photoshop ♥

So it's been a funny couple of days, I didn't go into college on Monday (ill ill ill) and I get Tuesdays and Wednesdays of so... did someone say 5 day weekend!!!

today is set aside for college work, but to be honest... i've spent the past two days making these banner/ad things for my friends website. He helps run the Groudle Glen Railway here in the Isle of Man (for more info on the GGR check out THIS post from the summer - Super Duper Train Times)

anyway he asked me for an 'arty favour' and despite the fact I STILL have commissions to finsh not to mention a growing pile of college work... I agreed! why?! because i am a nice person... and an idiot. clearly!

Ah I don't mind helping out, I really like the railway and the more I learn about it the more I love it! Anyway, they're all done now (near enough) and are already up on the site. There's a Christmas one for the santa trains, a volunteer one... for volunteers and a general 'keep up to date' type one. 

Don't ask... they were all his ideas, I just did as I was told!

anyway you can check the website out here - GGR there you can learn more about the railway and book tickets for the Santa and Mince Pie trains etc etc

i really didn't mind making these, since it gave me a chance to play round a bit with photoshop (i still suck... but i'm learning) which i really need to practice using!

in other news... i'm anxiously awaiting my test results today from the Docs. i've been holed up in my dad's study all day (with my laptop... obviously) waiting for them to call. it's a nervous room right now, but the Glen Miller is blaring and slowly making me feel a bit better! 

edit: ok docs have JUST rung, all is well... some daft prescription for some pills that probably won't do anything! i wasted 5 capsules of blood for that... REALLY?! wtf...

i don't really have much to update you with really... i made looooads more banners for this blog (as you can see by scrolling... and scrolling) which is always a fun way to while away a Sunday! 

ok to make up for the lack on funalicious goodness... here's another artist i'd like to feature

her name is Aleksandra Marchocka and she is a totally awesome and incredibly talented  Polish graphic artist

i've been a fan of the work of Aleksandra Marchocka for quite a while. since i first joined deviantART in fact (all that time ago) and spotted one of her amazing pieces. (instantly FAVED) here it is...

isn't it adorable?! there's something so cute about her work and yet the themes she brings into it are almost always slightly dark and sinister. 

you don't always notice it at first because of the sugary candy colours and the girlyness, but then you look closer... and start to spot the darker details (like the skull sprinkles on the bunny donut above). it's really fabulous!

This is another one of my faves. Once again, it's girly and cute yet slightly disturbing! Wonderful work! she also has one of the best blog/shop headers i've seen in a long time.

i LOVE this header! the colours, the icing (or is it pink blood...) covered skull with the cherry on top, the creepy little pinup girls! everything about it is awesome! full view it and look carefully, if you think those pinups were twins... you're wrong! 

Her work is soooo amazing, and I could literally spend all day just going on and on about it but I think i've filled up this post more than enough!

here is her website (in case you missed it earlier) - Aleksandra Marchocka

I'm off to start preparing a spot of lunch now and then I genuinely do intend to get some college work done.

Whether i'll actually manage that task or not remains to be seen! But at least the sentiment is there... sort of!

That's all folks...

★ ◕‿◕ ♥ xX

ps – don't forget to leave a comment... you know, if you really want to...  

oh and if you're not a 'follower' of this blog and it just so happens that you particularly enjoyed your time on it today... 

go ahead and become a 'follower' and i will beam either a hug or a cupcake to you... 

your choice x

Cute and Girly ♥

Ok I know... i've been lazy! No new blog posts since Thursday! Oh noooes!

I don't even have a good excuse... or any excuse for that matter! Just pure old fashioned lazyness i'm afraid!

Sorry!

So to make it up to you... here's a sh*tload of pictures!!!

last night I was bored so I visited my tumblr account. Now i'm a real tumblr slacker, I always forget to post stuff so I thought i'd have a bit of a mooch about and find some bits to post.

However... I ended up on one of the most awesome and fabby dabby tumblr pages i've ever seen!

I get distracted quite easily so when I spotted a post in my news feed by the fabulous 'acrylicana' (of whom I am a massive fan) I followed the link to the tumblr account of 'Fuckyeahcuteandgirlyshit!' and to kick off the girlyness here are some gem encrusted pastel creamy macaroons... beats ‘Ladurée’ macaroons any day!

so I pretty much ended up spending a good hour and a half just trailing through the site drooling at the sheer awesomeness of the pictures in it... i mean look at these necklaces! cameos with diamantés!!! hell yes!

Like the title of the page suggests, 'Fuckyeahcuteandgirlyshit!' is full of all things girly, supercute and generally pretty amazing and down right fabulous... i mean look at this awesome old 'Polly Pocket' playset!!! 

i got far too excited over this picture mainly because when i was little i had this, i had this... I HAD THIS!!!!!

Now one of the things I like most about the 'Fuckyeahcuteandgirlyshit!' page, is the fact that it's also full of examples of gorgeous girly illustration, manga and animation. I love blogs and tumblr pages that teach me about fabulous artists that i'd never have heard about otherwise!

For example... whilst browsing the pages I spotted this beautiful piece...

seriously i recommend clicking it for a full view (since i can't full size the image in the post or else my blog will cut half of it away...) it's just gorgeous! so much detail and so god-damn girly!

anyway, the tumblr page didn't say who it was by but contained a link to someone's flickr page! so after a bit of sifting around on the flickr link i managed to find the artist. 

it's by a Japanese artist called Junko Mizuno. 

it turns out i have actually already heard of him, i've just never seen the above uber girly piece before. i know him for creating exquisitely detailed paintings that look like a mixture of modern graphic design and classic Japanese woodcuts.

i mainly know of his work from doing my picture book research for college last year. this is one of my favourite pieces by him that i still have a crappy little printed version of pinned up in my room. 

check out his site anyway (Junko Mizuno) his work really is totally super duper.

right my lovelies, on that happy and not to mention extremely colourful note i'm off now! 

it's lunch time + i need to watch the Singapore Grand Prix (yes... i AM a big F1 fan, go figure?!) so i shall bid you all adieu

enjoy the rest of your Sunday, whatever you're up to and wherever you are in the world

that's all folks...

★ ◕‿◕ ♥ xX

Flowers and Raindrops ♥

ok so we won't talk about yesterday, yesterday was not a great day! Yesterday involved a lot of frantic phone calls, emails and text messages. Yesterday involved a lot of rain and some rather annoying news + a total cock-up concerning a planned trip.

Let's talk about today. today it's raining... again! however, today when I got into college i had to go down to reception to pick up the beautiful big bouquet of flowers that had been delivered for me. They are now sitting on my desk making everything seem so much brighter and happier. I was so chuffed that there were some pink gerbera daisies in the bunch along with some gorgeous pink/red roses. I adore gerberas, red ones are my favourites but whatever their colour they're always pretty. Here's they all are prettifying up my desk space...

so today i've also been doing some more research into old ads. Had a great chat all about 'Mad Men' and 'Dick Tracy' and 'Metropolis' (the Dick Tracy/Metropolis stuff is for a commission i'm currently working on) with my tutor Ian. He's a massive 'Mad Men' fan as well so he seems to like my research so far. I also got on with some more drawings in my logbook.

 Today i'm listening to some Tchaikovsky, some French Opera (stuff from Carmen mostly, habanera, Seguedilla etc) + a bit of Vivaldi (i like classical stuff when sketching... go figure!)whilst working on some studies of pieces by Angelique Houtkamp who I spoke a little more about + posted some pictures by, in this post last week - 'Blog... à la college ♥'

so here's what i've been working on today...

it's actually finished now. i snapped this early this morning but her hair + tattoos are all drawn in now as well. it's taken me bloody ages to do! i didn't intend on drawing the tattoos but once i'd started i couldn't stop!

this photo also shows the original 1950's magazine cover that Angelique based her piece on. the pose is identical but she's really made it her own. it's one of my favourite pieces by her, so much detail in it, just gorgeous!

so yesterday... yeah it wasn't too good! the only GREAT thing about it was that my friend Jeni popped by to visit me and to collect the print of her 'Jeni in Penguinland' illustration 

(follow the link to see it if you haven't already) + a little postcard i got her during my trip to Cork over the summer. i also got the owl one for my friend Kyren. i don't know what it was about the one i chose for Jeni, it just reminded me of her for some reason and i just knew she'd find it funny.

 the owl one explains itself really + Kyren (or Kyrowl as he is more commonly known) really likes owls. inexplicably... 

anyway, the postcards are from Paperchase which is without a doubt my absolute most very favourite (thank you Charlie and Lola for reminding me how to describe things...) stationary shop in the world! especially the massive one in London! there's also a fab one in Selfridges in Birmingham which i try to go to every year. I fully love love love paperchase! 

ok dokes i'll stop rambling on and on and on now...

it's lunch time so i don't have to feel guilty about blogging today = good times

however it's nearly 1pm which is when lunch time ends = bad times

so on that happy note i'll finish this up

if you're reading this then i hope you have a truly super duper day

that's all folks...

★ ◕‿◕ ♥ xX

Giggles and Gravity ♥

So today at college I've spent the day sketching and fixing up my desk. It's looking pretty super now, I've slowly been filling up the board with pin-up pix + the desk is covered in all my other arty farty junk like books, canvases etc etc

i've tried to be good today and not use the internet too much (aka spend too much time online procrastinating) so I turned the 'airport' off on my macbook for a bit. However... I forgot to turn off the 'push notifications' on my iPod touch so every time I got a message on facebook it made a little noise telling me. 

Plan = FAIL!

I posted an envelope full of goodies to my friend mike today since the pin board in his halls room at uni is SOOOOO empty! He probably won't be very grateful though. What a gaylord. 

Ah, speaking of gaylord's... you would NOT believe what I found today whilst flicking through a big book of 40's advertisements (awesome book, I also have the 50's and 60's editions 'All American Ads' so SO good) I turned the page and BAM! This is what I saw...

now if you can't read that properly due to the crappy quality of the picture (I took it on my phone and bluetoothed it to the macbook... aren't I clever) it's an ad for a shaving kit called... GAYLORD!

Ok, I know i'm 19 and supposed to be a grown-up but COME ON! How could I not giggle at that?!

In fact I giggled so much I sent all of my pencil crayons and sketching pencils flying everywhere. Gravity obviously hates me since they all ended up clattering to the floor and the lead is most likely broken to bits now...

stupid gravity!

the ad itself says: 

'For a King on his day! (in reference to father's day)

Give dad GAYLORD for his shaving and after shaving requirements. GAYLORD is the choice of virile, immaculate men for that fit, fresh feeling. A tingling, stimulating tang - a distinctive, masculine fragrance. In dramatic, burgundy-bright horsehead containers.

GAYLORD for good grooming'

that is EXACTLY what it says! i swear...

Anyway, i've had a great day flicking through the add books. You can see the little sketch I did this morning below. It's not great but I tried my best (+ my daft iPod kept distracting me with notifications)

it's from an old Jantzen swimsuits ad. Now i'm not much of a swimmer but my golly gosh... Jantzen just made the most adorable swimwear! It's not even funny how awesome their stuff was! And their ads were even better. These were two of my particular faves from the book. I didn't attempt to photograph them on my phone so these copies are off an awesome website (one I just adore) called Plan 59. 

Plan 59 is a fabulous site chock full of mid-century ads and works like a facebook photo gallery, so you click on the image to see the next one etc. I love it, I spent about half-an-hour flicking through the files this afternoon, so great. They don't make ads like that anymore...

Check out the site here - http://www.plan59.com/main.htm

and naturally all this though of ads got me thinking about the glorious genius that is 'Mad Men'. I shan't ramble on about it too much (today...) but if you watch the show you'll understand why looking at books filled with 40's/50's/60's advertisements would make me think of 'Mad Men'

and look... a token shot of the AWESOME cast for your viewing pleasure!

and that's it i guess. i am ruddy starving since i've barely left my desk all day + still feeling a bit off.

oh oh i almost forgot... i won a bouquet of flowers last night off a show on Manx Radio!!!

i didn't even know my mum had entered me into the draw to win them... until it was announced on the air that i'd won! 

what a super mum i have! ♥

i won them off Ashlea Tracey's Sunday night connections show. check out her super duper facebook page here - Connections with Ashlea Tracey

she said they should arrive my mid-week so i'll definitely be posting a photo of them on here when they do!

better do some work now...

so... that's all folks!

 ★ ◕‿◕ ♥ xX

Friends and Fashion ♥

Before I get on with the rest of the blog I just want to tell you all about a really great 'shout out' I got earlier today off a certain delightful 'Ms Arscott'. She sent me an email with a link to a blog post and I was surprised to see that the post was all about... me!

'Every now and then I like to call out fellow global bloggers who make my heart soar when I come across their site. This morning I found Jade. 

Based in the UK, Jade is "...a 19-year old aspiring fashion and picture book illustrator/blogger/writer studying for a Higher National Diploma in Art and Design at college..."

I love her - passion and energy shines through. I hope to work with her someday in the future.'

isn't that lovely! It really cheered me up! She put a couple of my illustrations with it as well, you can read the actual post here - http://msarscott.blogspot.com/2010/09/blogger-series-jade.html

what a nice thing to do. I was grateful for the 'cheer up' as well. It's been a bit grim lately what with being ill all the time and having to go back to college while all my best friends move away to uni. But i'm starting to come to terms with it all now. I had an epic skype convo with my friend Mike last night and i've already spoken to Kyren and Jenny a bit as well.

It'll all be 'reet' as my friend (and old partner in crime) Hayley would say.

Right i'll get on with the post now.

So London Fashion Week has started at last. I watched the Topshop show yesterday (online... sadly) and have been doing my best to read up on all the shows so far. To be honest i'm more bothered about New York fashion week, which was last week. So far, between them, London and New York have served up the usual board of fare. There have been some disappointing collections (Ralph Lauren... what WERE you thinking! Wild west theme = bad times! and Hannah Marshall... is that much sheer black and nude REALLY necessary?!) and some inspired ones (Oscar De La Renta, I salute you! + Twenty8Twelve And Henry Holland... well done!) and then some in-between (PPQ, Preen, Sass & Bide, L 'Wren Scott, Topshop Unique) it's been a mixed old bunch so far, but hopefully next week will deliver some more fabby looks for S/S 2011.

so far one of my absolute fave looks has come from the London show of Twenty8Twelve, they served up a fabulous array of flirty, cute and totally girly looks. These are two of my top faves from the collection. Loving the lacy petticoats especially! i would happily wear either of these dresses...

watching some of the shows from the past few days I was beginning to lose faith in the fashion world. Then I watched the Oscar De La Renta spring 2011 show from New York and my faith was restored. (click on the pics for a better look) see for yourself...

The models breezed along the catwalk, each one sporting a more femininely gorgeous look than the last. It's just so good to see that ladylike, 50's/60's Mad Men-esque fashion will still be popular next year! here are some more of my fave looks from the show. so gorgeous!

it's definitely a bit more of a 60's theme this time. many of the collections have had a distinctly 60's-70's vibe about them. so far it seems to be either grown-up glamour or girly cuteness, but either way... it's brilliant!

Fashion just went girly again, and I am loving it!

in other news... i really need to get my arrrrrse in gear and get on with my new College project, painting Pin-up's is a tough job... but someone has to do it! 

ok i'm off to watch the rest of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' now for the umpteenth time. nothing like a bit of Jessica Rabbit cartoon magic to inspire some Pin-up paintings methinks!

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ♥ xX

Pin-ups and Printers ♥

It is officially Pin-up day here at college. Well, it is at my desk in the HND cave anyway! The printer is finally working for me again so my desk is now quite literally covered in pictures, paintings and photos of Pin-up girls! It's awesome and very super duper. And yes... I brought my laptop in with me again, but only because I had so much research to print off!

I had a go at sorting a few more of the keyrings this morning as well. They're looking pretty nifty I must say, but it's given me loooads of ideas for other keyring designs and badges, mirrors etc etc blah blah blah. I won't bore you with my merch daydreams!

Oh I also spent some time this morning on THIS (don't worry the image below should be linked to the page as well) It's a totally fabby and marvy Pin-up girl maker 'paper doll' (or digi-doll since it's all online) by one of my fave artists, Kei Phillips also known as 'Kinkei'. Check out her super blog here – Kinkei's Blog

here's a folder she made on deviantART chock full of her awesome and totally gorgeous Pin-up Girls - FOLDER

If you love all things Pin-up have a go on the digital paper doll, it is sooooo much fun! I could have spent hours on it creating pin-up girls. As it was I had to stop playing with the doll to talk to my tutor Helen about my project ideas. She also seemed to like the Pin-up idea so... success so far!

Anyway, I managed to grab a screen cap of these four little lovelies before I had to stop...

See, instant Pin-up's and hours of fun...

right i have to go now because it's nearly time for me to 'sign-on' at college. no i'm not going on the dole, it just means i'm being officially signed on as a student. for the third year in a row!

happy Friday btw, TGIF and all that jazz. i got some bad news last night/this morning but thankfully i'm at college all day so it's doing a smashing job of taking my mind off everything!

have a great weekend

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ♥ xX

Tears and Texts ♥

So I had intended on getting another ridiculously early night, but then my phone literally would not stop buzzing with messages (little miss popular... for once!) so I got out of bed and decided to get on with some logbook work instead. And no, you didn't misread that. I genuinely am sat here on the floor with some Imelda May tunes on full blast and my logbook open in front of me. and my laptop, clearly!

Bit of a slow day at the ol' college today. I may have slightly sorted my first official HND project. I'll give you a clue as to what it's about...

just in case you STILL didn't work it out from that wonderful clue... it's all things Pin-up related... ok?

so I spent the morning chatting to my tutor Ian all about the wonders of Pin-up as he sat flicking through the big Gil Elvgren book. He seemed to like my initial ideas which is a super duper sign, here's hoping I can convince the other tutors and actually deliver on the final pieces!

Ah yes, on a not so happy note, I had to go for my blood test today. Now I may have mentioned in the past that I have a teeny tiny (aka massively huge and ridiculously crazy) phobia of needles. 

So a blood test isn't exactly something i'd go strolling into with a big grin on my face. As per usual I freaked out big time with the crazy breathing and the shaking hands/knees. I wasn't exactly a pretty sight in the waiting room I can tell you that much! 

So I sat down in the chair and bam... the stupid tears started to fall. Now I know it only stings for a second and that it's all necessary blah blah blah. But let me tell you, when you have a phobia of something it doesn't make the least bit of difference how much people (mum, dad, friends, tutors, twitterers) tell you it'll all be fine, it doesn't stop you spazzing out ANY LESS!!!

it was ok though, obviously! Even if she did take 5 little capsules of my blood. 5... I mean, what the hell?! It bloody well did sting as well! I know i'm a major wimp when it comes to pain but yes... in my opinion it did hurt, it was very much an 'ouch' moment for me! The only thing that would console me was a big slice of sponge cake from the Alpine cafe at the hospital. It worked. Cake always works. FACT! thanks mum ♥

Oh oh in other news. Looooooook!

I promised you key rings and here they are! The designs aren't final yet, and i can't make my mind up between the square/circle for the shoe ones, but these will probably make up the first batch. They're not up for sale yet either since i'm having 'issues' with my etsy shop... and my mother's credit card. 

Long story. Anyway, hopefully once i've been to my bank and begged them for a card in my own name the shop will be up and running and these little dudes will go on sale along with a few other bits and bobs. As I always say in reference to the shop... 'stay tuned'

Ah, my phone is buzzing. Again. Best go.

That's all folks, tata for now

◕‿◕ ♥ xX

Blog... à la college ♥

so... third day back at college today (or second if you're me and you missed the actual second day because you were ill in bed watching 'the inbetweeners') and low and behold... I have discovered some freely available wi-fi in my HND room!

I brought my laptop in today because I had lots of things to print off but fyi... the epic colour printer in the graphics room is refusing to work for me! I tried 3 different iMacs but no, apparently it hates me.

So, sitting at my desk perusing the interweb instead. I'm probably not supposed to be on this wi-fi network but no-ones stopped me yet so I guess it's too late now! I'm going to have to limit myself to one laptop day a week or else i'll never get anything done! Saying that, I am genuinely sitting here doing some little pencil crayon colour tests on a few little sketched eyes/lips based on some images by the totally awesome artist Angelique Houtkamp. It'll all make sense soon (if i'm ever actually allowed to go ahead with this project that I intend to do) here's two of the images i've been sketching from.

supposedly some of my 'chums' are popping by to visit me today. Molly, Jenice (her name's Jeni but I call her Jenice... long story, you probably wouldn't get it), Mike and Jenny.

I really hope they do come and visit since they're all buggering off to uniland soon and I want to see them all before they go!

I've started to 'make myself at home' as well now. Dragged in a load of books and bits from my room to shove on my desk. So far we have: The Story of Art (aka my Art bible), latest issue of Vogue, Isms (awesome art history book), book on painting/drawing, big book of Gil Elvgren Pin-up paintings and a super duper book called '1000 Pin-up Girls'. So yeah, i'm starting to get a bit more settled in now. 
here are my luuuurvely booooooooks! 

My logbook is still empty though which is god awful and tragic! The tutors will not be best pleased with me but in my defence, I had three A3 contact sheets full of carefully sourced research images, all ready to print and oh... the printer's broken. Again. I'll do my best to get some stuff done at home tonight. My printer won't be up to that job but I should still be able to get some sketches done asap.

Blood tests tomorrow (oh noooooes) and they're at lunchtime as well! What a cruel twist of fate, blood tests in my lunch break. Now that's dedication to my course!!!

I probably won't post again later since i've done this sneaky one today

oh another thing, I may (or may not) be selling some little keyrings with my work on/in v soon in my etsy shop. It's not a definite thing yet but hopefully i'll have two or three of them up by the end of the week. 'watch this space dudes and dudettes'

that's all folks, lots o' luv from the Isle of Man College

♥ ◕‿◕ ♥