FASHION GIVEAWAY WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT AND A SPRING OUTFIT PROPOSAL

Hello! My fashion illustration giveaway has been closed and now it's time for me to announce the winner. It's a fellow blogger Julia from The Velvet Runaway blog. I'm happy that a fellow blogger won! You can see the giveaway here (the giveaway was powered by rafflecopter and the winner was randomly selected). There were actually only two participants in the giveaway, a fact that I will have to take in consideration when planning future giveaways. I probably won't do an art giveaway any time soon, taken that the interest in this one was so extremely low. Today's post won't be terribly long. It's almost the end of the term and since I work in the educational sector that means that things are a bit busy. I'll probably be looking for another job during the summer, so if I go MIA, that's the most likely reason. How do you feel about the approaching summer? I'm absolutely thrilled!

My outfit proposal of the day is a very simple one. It's the perfect example of shopping one's closet, something I greatly enjoy doing. I had all of these clothing items for a while, but I never wore them together. Anyhow, for this spring styling I paired a striped dress with a striped cardi and layered with leggings. I finished the outfit with a straw hat and black stilettos. I rolled up the leggings to make this outfit more spring appropriate but also more flattering. Cropped leggings paired with heels, now that's a combo that can make you look taller and leaner. Taken that this dress has horizontal stripes (that make one look wider), I figured that cropped leggings were the way to go. A fun tip: I never actually buy cropped or capri leggings, I just role up the ordinary ones. What do you think about this striped styling? Do let me know in the comments. The weather has finally improved here, so you may expect to see more spring and summer appropriate outfits soon. If I don't go MIA that is. 

As an adult, it is not easy to make time for hobbies that are complex or time consuming, but I'm so glad I not only tried my hand at fashion illustration but also stuck with it over the years. Fashion illustration was always something I enjoyed, but I only took it more seriously a few years ago. With a lot of work, I got to the place where I'm happy with my illustrations. I especially like the artistic ones. Today I own many fashion illustrations. I love experimenting with different styles and mediums. If you want to see more of my art and read a bit more about my art journey, here are links to my old posts: 

- 10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR FASHION ILLUSTRATION SKILLS

- FASHION ILLUSTRATION 2016 

- SHE IS COOLER THAN COOL

- FASHION AND LOCATION ILLUSTRATION

- MAKING OF A FASHION ILLUSTRATION

- ILLUSTRATING A RUNAWAY LOOK

- HOW I LEARNED TO ENJOY DRAWING MORE

- FASHION ILLUSTRATION TIP: NO PAIN, NO GAIN

In one of my old fashion illustration posts,  I talked about how that fashion illustrating was something I always enjoyed doing. Since I was doing it for myself, I figured that it doesn’t really matter if my illustration don’t look professional, stylized or specialized. There was also this thing -I actually didn’t want them to look like other (industrialized) fashion sketches and illustration. I wasn't going for the professional fashion sketch look,  rather I wanted them to feel like my own.  I wanted my fashion sketches to be unique, and I didn’t want to imitate prevalent styles of illustrating. That is where I was mistaken. I suppose that what I originally wanted (but was doing it the wrong way) was to develop my own style of fashion illustration. I was obviously making a mistake, though. You cannot get better at something, without working on it. You have to learn the rules to be able to break them. I realized that I had to work on it, and this time working on it meant not simply drawing more but getting back to basics, learning more about fashion illustration and trying to find a way to do them that I would feel comfortable with. I suppose this applies to other art forms as well, not just to fashion illustration. Moreover, I think people often assume they're not talented enough when in fact all they need is more work. We live in 'instant' times when we (most often) only get to see the finished result. People are losing patience, and that is problematic because without work and patience you can't really get anywhere. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes there is no shortcut to getting what you need or work. You just have to work for it. That's why I often wrote about this whole 'fashion illustration and art as a hobby thing'.  You get better with time, nobody is really born with painting and art skills. Some of us are perhaps born with a tendency to love art and desire to do it, but every skill takes time and effort to develop.  That is why I include links to old posts and fashion illustrations, to show it is a process. Speaking of that, here are some other links that include fun DIY projects (just to prove you can have fun with fashion illustrations)., photo collages and links to redbubble products I created:

-CUSTOMIZING A NOTEBOOK WITH A FASHION ILLUSTRATION

- HOW TO CREATE A 3D FASHION ILLUSTRATION DRESS WITH SCRAPS?

-SUMMER DRESSES FASHION ILLUSTRATIONS

 - NEW ART AND FASHION ILLUSTRATIONS

Thank you so much for reading & visiting. Have a lovely day!