Dolores Park on a Sunday

Although you're never too far from water in San Francisco, the city doesn't compete for beaches in California (what it lacks in sand, it makes up for in everything else) So the locals who fall into one of the 'H' categories: Hipster, Hobos, Hippies, and Homo's  (or "legal aliens"like ourselves) go on a pilgrimage to Dolores Park at the weekend. Located in the Mission District, it's basically a 7 mile stretch of green grass which reminds me of that lumpy landscape on Teletubbies, except it has a huge marijuana cloud over it. On a bright, sunny day it's the perfect place to grab a couple of tins.. (we chose 'Four Loco', an unforgiving 12 % Vol beer/energy drink hybrid) and chill out on the mountainous stretch of grass to watch the crowds go by. This is a drawing I did on our first visit (on our second I only managed to draw one tree cos I'd already half-way drunk my can of 'Loco') and you can see some of Mission's buildings in the background. Bethany (the one with purple hair) is sitting in the foreground!

Kate's Birthday Meal

For those of you that know Kate, you'll realize that her birthday was actually two weeks ago... to celebrate we went to Fog City Diner for a slap-up meal for 7! It was a great night, and the food was amazing. I didn't feel as morbidly full as I'd mentally prepared myself for though. Next time I hope I won't wimp out from getting a MASSIVE choc desert with all the trimmings and a malt milkshake to wash it down.

Helen Riches

If I could blame anyone for my fingers that constantly itch to draw it would probably be my mother. I was going to join her on trip to Marrakech, Morrocco last weekend with some friends (definitely one of our favourite cities to sketch!) But I'm in San Francisco until September,  I will be careful not to complain..

She just sent me a couple of quick biro and water colour drawings she did out there, which I love so much I thought I'd put them up on here!

Just to provide some background info: My mum (Helen) works as a Garden Designer and Writer, and contributes to Gardener's World as well as running her own Garden Design business, formerly known as Front Door Flora. She's previously worked as a Graphic Designer and Freelance Illustrator.. Oh and did I mention be a full-time mother?!

Needless to say she's a big inspiration, but I'd like to think she copies me too ;)

Character of The Day Part 2

Character of The Day

As I've mentioned probably too many times already, I am working as a Design Intern at Old Navy in San Francisco, California this Summer! The department where I'm based is Babies and Toddlers which I'm having a fantastic time at. Over the weeks I've been here, I've been developing characters to inform some design concepts for 2012. Without revealing too much I thought I'd post a couple of the characters I invented!

Japanese Fashion Stories Part 3

I often find that the colours may vary from their original source when I'm doing an illustration. Incidently, this man has blue hair... not deliberately, but because I was drinking while drawing.

Emma

I couldn't resist drawing my house-mate Emma while she watched TV on our sofa. I've been told I always 'perch' instead of sit down like a normal person, but Emma takes the meaning of perching to a whole new level! Here's a sketch I did of her after work the other day.

Japanese Fashion Stories Part 2

Japanese Fashion Stories Part 1

I needed to get a commission finished for Friday and my mentor, Kate Macawber at Old Navy kindly lent me a couple of Japanese Fashion Magazines to refer to! I loved the photoshoots so much I did my own interpretations of some of my fave looks, which I'll post over the course of this week!

Simo

Another addition to the series of illustrations I did for Laura Fantacci's Wedding... Simo the groom before the service!

Kate With A Fork

I drew this of Kate when we stopped for breakfast about 5 metres away from the apartment, there's a labrador in the background.

By The Pool

Everyone keeps telling us how freakish the weather has been since we arrived in San Francisco. It's not meant to be all that hot but there was a heat wave in our first week! Needless to say our hours were spent by the pool and sprawled out on the balcony. (Currently wind and fog has made a come-back... we're experiencing San Fran in it's true grey colours.) However! Here's a colourful sketch of a sunny day spent by the pool-side. The meat-heads opposite us were causing havoc with their red plastic cups and bucks fizz. They did propose that we played 'chicken' with them in the pool but they were politely declined.

View from a Californian Window

FINALLY after buying and returning 3 scanners I've managed to suss out American technology and can continue posting a steady(ish) flow of illustrations from San Francisco! This is one of the first drawings from my travels... my house-mate Beth is catching the rays on our apartment balcony. The view is totally real! I am still struggling to believe it myself. We are currently watching Ab Fab after drinking wine in the jacuzzi. Whuuuut.

Kingston at Graduate Fashion Week

One of my favourite kinds of illustrations to do are of the catwalk... you have no time to think about what you're drawing and have no recollection about what you just saw in the show because you're in auto-pilot. A few weeks ago (very late post, I know...) I illustrated the catwalk for the Kingston Graduates at Graduate Fashion Week (being a 2nd Yr Fashion Student myself) I loved the show and personal highlights were Patricia Pereira da Costa (view earlier posts to see full illustrated collection) and Bethany Borough (pictured second from bottom) to view all the graduate's Final Collections, Arts Thread has a beautiful archive of all of their portfolios!

Petro's Wedding

Since I illustrated for Laura Fantacci of Red Magazine's wedding, I have been offered a number of wedding illustration assignments! It's lovely to be asked to capture something so personal and I'm really looking forward to future wedding commissions for this year. Last week I was privately commissioned for Petro of Look Magazine to do an illustration of him and his wife for their 1st anniversary which is pictured above! From the photos I gather it must have been another beautiful day.