a little place to call my own (art and fashion blog)

Lately I've been working hard on improving my art skills. I've been drawing and painting my days away you could say. I also did a lot of retouching, changing things I'm not happy with, trying to 'fix' some of my art. I already wrote about how this can be a difficult subject at best of times ( here ), but maybe this dilemma is something we need to do to practice balance.  Being critical of one's work, constantly reevaluating and questioning everything is obviously stressful, but it is probably inevitable if you want to keep creating. Perhaps it is how we learn.  Still, this 'should we redo/retouch our art or leave it as it is' is an never ending dilemma for me. Sometimes it seems better to start a new drawing inspired by the old one and 'redo' it in this way, and sometimes I can't resist making changes on the painting/drawing itself.  As I explain some time ago, it can be very tempting to constantly make changes, to keep retouching our ...

Happy (Easter) Monday everyone! If you want to find out how to make decoupage Easter eggs with paper napkins or how to cook eggs in wine to dye them in a natural way, you've come to the right place. Today I'm going to share with you my decoupage Easter eggs technique & more, so scroll down and let's get this party started. My Easter outfit isn't terribly original, I'm afraid. It turned out cute enough for my liking, but to be honest, I didn't think much about what I'm going to wear for Easter. In the end, I opted for a vintage dress and a vintage sweater to match.  I must have worn this vintage dress at least a dozen times. Lately, I often find myself reaching for vintage clothes. If you want, you can check out some of my old outfits featuring this lovely vintage dress  here , here and here . Being that it was still cold, I wore a leather jacket over this ensemble, but you won't see it in this post. I did take some outdoor photographs, but th...

Easter weekend is upon us, so I'll keep this post short and sweet. These five designs are just something I came up with lately. To be honest, I'm not sure will I be able to make any of them. My sewing skills are pretty basic, but I did manage to make a few dresses in the past. However, until I buy myself a sewing machine, I probably won't do that much sewing as sewing by hand takes forever. However, one never knows. It is not completely out of the question. I might find time to transfer some of my designs from paper to real life.  It would be lovely to make my fashion illustrations come to life. Fingers crossed. The inspiration for this mini collection was ultra violet. The medium is watercolour and markers on paper. First I applied a layer of watercolour and then I added the finishing touches using a purple and pink markers. If you scroll down, you'll be able to see how it went (and you can see how the painting had looked before I added the finishing touches). My ...

This yellow checkered skirt used to belong to my mother. Obviously, that makes it a vintage item and one to cherish. I had originally considered making an outfit proposal post with my old outfits, but then I realized that I have actually worn this yellow skirt at least three times this March. So, instead of sharing old outfits, I'm going to share new ones. Here are the three ways in which I wore this yellow skirt. If you have a similar item in your closet, let me know how you like to style it. Do you have any checkered items? Do you have any checkered items in yellow? Would you wear a yellow checkered skirt? 1. Wear it with a black leather jacket and biker boots If you want to go easy with the colour, why not opt for black clothing items to go along your yellow skirt. You know what they say, black is always a good idea. Black and yellow colour combos have been popular lately, and I have actually illustrated 3 runaways looks in this colour sheme (you can see them  ...

Today just a quick post, as I'm only going to share my fashion illustration with you. The painting process was fairly simple. First I sketched this girl with a pencil, then I filled it in with watercolours. I added the finishing touches with markers and then I added another layer of watercolour to blend the watercolour and markers. You'll be able to see a part of the painting process, if you choose to scroll down. In addition, I made a tutorial collage explaining this painting in 4 steps, just in case that you would like to copy this design of mine or make your own fashion illustration in a similar style.  I'm not a professional fashion illustrator so I can't teach you how to make professional fashion illustrations, but as a hobby artist I can (and will) share my painting process with you. Why not? As long as I'm on this subject, I'll also say a few words about my motivation for this illustration. I wasn't motivated by anything in particular, just spring in...