10/10/10 ♥

so apparently it's a pretty special day today?!

10th of the 10th of 2010

yeah yeah yeah... so it's unusual and all that but to be honest the day hasn't been any more amazing than any other normal sunday!

i've spent the day in my pj's editing photos and working on logo commissions, chatting on skype and watching a bit of 'Mad Men'

all in all it's been a nice day

so... relatively short post tonight (well it IS a Sunday after all...)

i guess this post will act as the first official grand unveilling of my Creepalicious slightly Halloween inspired Pin-up Girl illustration!

so about a week and a half ago i made a few photo-copies of some of my old Pin-up Girls, i messed around with some acrylic and a bit of watercolour before settling on some good old fashioned coloured pencil crayons

so aaaages ago using THIS photo of the gorgeous Amanday Seyfried from the Vanity Fair 'vanities' Pin-up series...

i drew THIS illustration...

and using a grayscale photocopy of THIS girl... i ended up colouring it like THIS...

she's supposed to be coloured in the style of Angelique Houtkamp (more info in THIS post - 

Patterns and Pinafores ♥) but it wasn't easy since the image i was working on was an A3 photo copy AND i have rubbish pencil crayons, however i did my best and with a little bit (aka A HELL OF A LOT) of photoshop editing i ended up with this...

so yeah... you can see why she's a Halloween inspired Pin-up i think! i did my best though, i definitely wanted her to be a tattooed pin-up. initially she was supposed to be a sort of witchy pin-up (what with the wicked witch of the West green for the bikini) but i hadn't planned on how i was going to do the tattoos. 

to begin with i downloaded some basic tattoo photoshop brushes but they were a bit naff so i had a better idea...

i scoured Angelique's website (Salon Serpent) and using screencaps from her prints and paintings i painstakingly turned 30 of her tattoo designs into tattoo brushes for this illustration.

you see... i TOLD you it was taking me a while! now you know why! 

i guess since so much has been done to the original scan you could call this a sort of digital painting but either way, i'm happy with how she's turned out. 

it took FOREVER to edit... but it's done now!

***

that's it really, i've been so busy tonight working on logo re-designs i forgot to make anything to eat!

so... off to microwave some popcorn and flick through the latest issues of Vogue and Elle and maybe pop on a DVD, i'm thinking Hot Fuzz since i have pretty much spent the last hour and a half quoting it with Mike on skype!

so i guess

that's all folks...

arrivederci mia amicos e amicas

♥ ◕‿◕ ♥ xX

EDIT: oh i almoooost forgot about the whole '300th facebook fan' shout out malarkey!!!


ok so after much deliberation and checking of the fan page (HERE - Jade Boylan Illustration) it seems that the 300th fan was... Judith Vernon


now this is extra coolio and merveilleux because it JUST so turns out... that Judith is one of my old teachers from Primary school!


she was my form tutor when i was 5-6 so will forever be 'Mrs Vernon' to me!


anyway, a big THANK YOU to her for being my 300th fan on facebook and thank you to everyone else who has 'liked' the page since as well


thank yoooouuuu ◕‿◕ xX

Patterns and Pinafores ♥

Today has been another busy busy day

I didn't post yesterday simply because... I was SO busy!!!

I literally didn't stop all day!

Anyway today i've had great fun messing around with some photoshop brushes. I'm toying with the idea of drawing/painting some tattooed Pin-up girls but before I sit down and have a go at drawing some of my own tattoo designs (a la Angelique Houtkamp) I used some brushes instead.

Here's a cute photo of the fabulous Bernie Dexter that I... tattooed

yes I also darkened her swim suit as well, I did it to match the flower in her hair. and yes... i know the tattoos don't look real THAT WAS THE POINT!!! thank you photoshop police!

I also finished another test piece today. 

As i've mentioned before (several times) i'm a big fan of the artwork of Angelique Houtkamp (check out her website here – Salon Serpent) and i've been having a go at imitating her style, only i'm using pencil crayons instead of paints. 

so using this sketch... i tried to have a go at her super duper style!

This is one of my main test pieces. There are a few more smaller ones but this one turned out the best. It's tricky getting the crayons to blend, I mean I don't have any of these fancy pants artists pencils that blend like pastels etc blah blah blah

i'm using a box of 36 colouring pencils that cost me a whopping £3.99 (WHSmith's... bargain!) so they're ruddy difficult to blend with!

It took a long time to work into and it's only colour on a photocopy of the big sketch I did last week (hence the non-blue tattoos) but it's stuck in the logbook now... which makes it an official test piece!

So this has inspired me to do a new pin-up Girl of my own! she isn't quite ready yet but I can tell you this much... she is a green eyed beauty, had long black hair and is kind of spooky looking... so will definitely be a Halloween themed illustration!

That's it for now, stay tuned as i'll be posting her as soon as she's finished!

In other news...

the delightful Annie, who is a fellow HNDer at college, brought me in the most fabulous book to look at today! Now she's already a star because last week she brought me in not one but two massive fashion magazines to keep and is always super duper pleasant and lovely. 

She's also the mum of someone I went to High School with but that isn't important! Anyway, she brought this book in and i've pretty much spent the whole afternoon just flicking through it slowly falling in love with the pictures and wishing verrrry hard that I could travel back in time to when it first came out!

Sadly the front cover is missing (and has been for a while apparently) but most of the pages are intact and every one is filled with gorgeous illustrations and patterns. It's a pattern catalogue essentially, Annie told me that she used to sit and flick through it with her Grandma and they would pick out the ones they liked from the pages.

We tried to work out what year it was published but it doesn't say anywhere! However... in the children's section of the book there is a big article all about Snow White with costumes and dress patterns based on the Disney film. 

Now it doesn't say the year but the way it talks about the film suggests it was the latest Disney film out at the time... which puts the date somewhere between 1937-1939. the film itself was released in December 1937. 


However. there is an add on the back of the catalogue for the 'winter collection 1938-39 so i'm guessing that means this catalogue in question was brought out in1938 to be precise... and we all know I like to be precise!

it's the most wonderful book though! The patterns and the prices (averaging 35 cents for a whole set of dress patterns with transfers and stencils etc) are just divine.

This has to be my absolute favourite page from the book. And no... it's NOT because it says 'In a very gay mood' in big letters! It's the aprons and the pinnies! Aren't they fabulous!!!

Pinafore aprons covered in hand embroidered flowers and hearts... I would literally die for an apron like one of these! I can't decided between the pink polka-dot one with the heart shaped pockets or the black and white one with red ribbons and padded cherry applique! Love, love, L-O-V-E!

I am so pleased she brought it in for me! It is just gorgeous, so, soooo lovely!  

***

edit: 11:49pm ok i'm back from the theatre now! i should have explained at the start but i didn't... tonight was my cousin's big dance show at the Gaiety Theatre in Douglas, this years show was called 'Celtic Infusion' and it was soooo awesome! 

i'm helping backstage for tomorrows performance but she had enough helpers tonight so i got to watch it from the stalls instead. woooow! so epic and my god-daughter Bonnie was soooo good! i was one proud god-mother i can tell you! if you live in the Isle of Man and are stuck for something to do on Saturday... get yourself down to the Gaiety and watch the show! 

***

Edit... again!: 02/10/10 2:48pm ok i'm FINALLY finishing this blog now! all the pictures are scanned and i'm just about to post it before grabbing some lunch

hope you all enjoy the scans from the pattern catalogue, i tried to pick out my faves though to be honest i could have scanned the whole thing! every page is brilliant!

anyway, 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