here to stay!

So this is my final first year portfolio, which I submitted a few weeks ago and had assessed last week! It all went very well and am very happy with my grades, which means first year is over!! I plan to start a summer sketchbook later today which i will try and post a couple of times a week.

Michelle.xx

i am still alive!

Ok, so I've been really lazy these past few weeks but I finally got some motivation today and actually struggled with finding something to draw rather than actually drawing! In the end I settled with my newest purchases; a cropped sleeveless denim jacket and salmon pink tunic - both of which are way too summery for the current rainy weather (and both from Topshop of course).

This is only a very quick post to remind you I'm still here, but I promise to be back soon with something a bit more exciting (and better quality! My scanner isn't working so this photo will have to do for now, as much as it pains the perfectionist within me that it's not a perfect image).

Love Michelle.x

styling PROJECT

For this project I had to work with someone from my course and a second year photography student. We had to arrange everything, from the clothing, to scouting a model and finding a make-up artist. The shoot took place in the basement of Shoreditch town hall, which was a great location, as it fitted the concept and had lots of sets for us to choose from. I then had to lay the photo's out as a magazine which fitted the look. I am very pleased with the outcome and my tutor loved the work too!

Illustrations coming soon...

Love Michelle.x

PoP-uP project

Britain/concept moodboard

Designer/NEWGEN moodboard

'The State of Britain' poster

Architectural illustration

We were put into pairs and asked to come up with a complete concept of our own pop-up shop. Since the project was due to be handed in a week before London Fashion Week we decided to base our idea around British design talent, particularly promoting young fashion designers. We pitched the idea of associating our shop with NEWGEN, which is initiative organised by the British Fashion Council. Young designers working in London are given funding and support into creating shows or presentations at LFW. Part of the idea was to re-design the typical souvenir shop and give it a new lease of life. So we would commission each designer to re-create a traditional souvenir, whether it be a t-shirt, umbrella or push the idea with more conceptual pieces.

The store would be a piece of modern art in itself (and placed in front of Somerset House - to tie in with LFW), using the iconic phone box to create a structure, in pile form; which would both attract attention and hint to the concept also. Invites would be given to everyone attending LFW, Fashion tourists would be attracted with posters/leaflets in up-market hotels, and the general public would be targeted by posting fliers around the city in relevant locations.

Love Michelle.x

p.s next time: styling photo's - finally!

MANNEQUIN project

This project was basically designed to teach us how to scan and print to the highest resolution and some basic photoshop skills. It was a really quick project with no sketchbook work, just an initial collage and print outs.

Love Michelle.x

p.s Tomorrow's post: a project based around the Pop-Up Shop phenomenon.

STLE-A-THON

Sketchbook initial thoughts

Sketchbook location and garment drawings

Moodboard

Final photo's...

This was our first real taste of styling. Which started, as always with loads of research in sketchbook form and finally in a moodboard. We had to chose the clothes, location, and style ourselves. We could then present the photo's in any format we wanted, I chose to keep it simple with a magazine spread.

This project was really just helping us in the lead up to a photoshoot we had to organise a few weeks ago with another student from the same course and a second year photographer, which included scouting models and make-up artist, and finding a location as well as sourcing all the clothes and accessories...final photo's coming soon!

Love Michelle.x

the BAG project

Initial drawings

Bag idea

Project moodboard

The final bag...

Just a quick post to show you the work I did on our bag project. So, for this project we were asked to research anything of our choice, which had to - in a round about way - represent us. Then we had to come up with a final design and make a bag out of calico. I was a relatively quick project, which was really just to help us get to know the tutors. Despite this it was quite a challenge to come up with something unique.

Love Michelle.x

CONTINUOUS line drawing...

Created by literally squirting paint from the tube...!

'Blind' drawings (without looking at the page) and using a continuous line...

my 'VOUGE' illustrated front cover

Again, this is a project from the beginning of our first term at uni (sorry, I'm really pedantic and have to show you them chronologically!)

The project was based around creating our own 'Vouge' front cover. We started by experimenting with illustrations with, author of many fashion illustration books, Julien Seaman. Which was great fun and let us really loosen up our drawing skills. We then had to design our own classic Vogue cover, based on the research we did of previous illustrated covers. Made us all wish they still used them!

Here is my final cover, which I created with a lino print:

Love Michelle.x

My London Style HANDBOOK

As one of our first projects in October we were asked to create a style handbook, filled with photo's of interesting and stylish people from 'the four corners of London'. I chose Camden Town, Brixton, Brick Lane and Portobello Market, all of which I had visited before, but it was interesting to go there with this project in mind. It was more than a little daunting to ask people if I could take their photo but most people were lovely; and funnily enough when a group of us were in Camden Market some students from St Martin's asked to take our photo! As well as this we had to research five different 'genre's' of style; for this I chose "The Roaring 20's", "The 40's", "The New Look", "MOD" and (in contrast) "New Romantic". This research helped when comparing the people I had photographed and when concluding the project.

The actual book was hand sewn, which isn't as hard as it sounds, with handmade paper. I used my sewing machine to sew photographs and sections on text to each page and used (my new love) letraset to title and number each page; as well as illustrating each page too.

Front cover...

Love Michelle.x

p.s coming soon "Vouge" (yes I did mean to spell it wrong) lino prints and lots of illustrations!

Hello Blogging World!

Ok, well here is my very first post! It is little scary I must say... well this post is going to be a bit lame as I have just hurriedly set michelleheartsfashion up and running. I aim to post most days with illustrations and/or photo's of projects I'm currently working on. I have three deadlines this week and lots of work from my year so far at uni to share, so there will be lots to see very very soon!

As for now, and as it's London Fashion Week, it seems right to leave you with an illustration of Somerset House (the main location for the shows).

Love Michelle.x