All about lips

As you can see I've been absent for more than a few days again. Which means I've been working. There was a deadline for a an illustration competition this weekend. It was about portraits and that is still my weak spot so I've worked really hard to make something I love. I have no big expectations but it means working on my skill and you know how greedy I am about that.
Then I did some drawings for Amelia's magazine of some male fashions which actually looked great but it turned out there was a bit of a misunderstanding there so they won't be published just yet.
Add a day job on top of that, working on finishing the blog redesign, a bit of a cold and here I am, week later and just now a new post.
To compensate here is a lot of lips from my various portrait exercises and my three favorite lipsticks: Mac Nude, Chanel Charme and TopShop Rio Rio.

Kate Moss territory

I am on the lookout for my winter ankle boots. I love ankle boots.
I have a friend who lives by very strict fashion rules and she claims they fall into the Kate Moss territory*.
But as we are not in the same town at the moment I will easily lead a secret life with my new pretty booties. And skip just like the model above.
Providing I find the one's I like. And I am looking but not finding for a while now....


*Did I not mention Kate Moss territory before? Oh, sorry. Kate Moss territory is a place which contains bunch of fashion items that look good only on Kate Moss because she has this power to make anything she wears cool. Ankle boots are there because they apparently make legs look fat and no one in the world can pull them off. Except Kate Moss. And my problem is I like too many things from Kate Moss territory; for example. I like rock-chick highlights, you know the one with untouched roots. That apparently looks good and intentional only on Kate Moss. Everyone else looks like Courtney Love on a specially bad week!

Feeling sentimental

I've been listening to Ben Howard a lot lately and specially this song. Feeling very sentimental. Nothing much more to say there. 

Crazy mushrooms

This illustration is a pretty accurate description of how I feel today although I made it on Sunday with a completely different post.
Which begs the question: Am I psychic? Or were things simply brewing in my head already on Sunday and it's just surfacing now.

The mushrooms btw are from the ones my parents brought home from mushroom picking. That's one of the perks of living in the countryside: seasonal eating is still a rule not something you need to make a conscious choice to do. But when there is mushrooms, there IS mushrooms: there is an omelet for breakfast, there is a risotto, there is pasta, sauce for the meat, omelet again and on and on in different versions. Because when you pick mushrooms and don't buy them at the supermarket, there is no 250 g version.
But I really like this feeling of being a bit more connected with everything. Of not bringing food home in plastic. There is something very right about that.

Autumn colors & 50's lingerie

My favorite thing about fall is the colors. I spent the entire last week up north in the capital and I have to say continent looks much better in fall than the mediterranean. They have the right kind of trees to showcase all the golden range a leaf can achieve. And it's a right pleasure for us. Plus one day the sunset was so magnificent that it was actually trending on Instagram. One of those no FX needed kind of things. When I write things like this am reminded of how much in the future we are. How much digital and physical are entwined. If I experience digital as reality and I am almost a pre PC generation, how is it for the 20 year olds or teenagers who were practically born with a computer. But this is off subject...
Also I've been shopping for lingerie, and I would love something like this. Very 50's and vintage-y, something modest but very feminine and sensual. Grown up sexy. But, and this is a big but, it seems to me that these kind of items look good only in magazines and wonderfully styled and strategically lighted photo shoots. In real life, at least in my experience, it can look so dumpy. Specially the colors. All the champagnes and nudes and pastels can look just washed out. Specially on my white complexion with pink undertones (which I am totally into if someone asks.) On the plus side, not a trace muffin top. So I stick to the blacks and pinks and keep looking.

Also one more thing, I noticed this is the place more expensive brands do much better at. Probably because a good cut i so important here.

Perfect winter outfit

This outfit is like my perfect outfit at the moment.
Down to the last detail... tone of hair color, make up, the texture of the sweater, drawing of the owl.
It's feminine but not girly. It would look great in the office yet it's not office-y, it has a dash of hipster in it. I tell you, just yummy!
To emulate it I just need to buy the sweater, the skirt, the gloves, the belt and the shoes.

I have the tights.

In other news, I have enjoyed a fulfilling social life this week. Drinks, dinners, chats, wine, giggling, laughing. The package.
So am thinking maybe this whole get up might just work out. For 2 weeks I live down south where I work my ass off, and then on the third week I come here where I see and hang out with my lovely lovely friends and they always have time for me because I don't live here. And I stop complaining I don't have balance.
It's a win/win I tell you.

I love coats but have trouble picking a color

I am back in the capital for a few days and coat time is officially here.
Which I LOVE!
Which means  a coat post. I had a drawing I made a few weeks back and loved. so it was supposed to be easy peasy lemon squeezy. But then I decided to see how would it look on a white background.

Maybe off-white.

Darker off-white.

White...

Cream...

Off-white...

Cream...

No off-white..

White...

Off white...

I'll spare you the rest, but it goes on like this for a while until my computer starts to have tantrums. Computer just starts saying " No, I've had enough, turn me off NOW. I don't want to work anymore today and frankly I'll shoot myself if I ever have to show you another version off cream to white background". Or at least this is what I believe he/it says. It could just be that his working memory is full and I have to restart it. Which is basically the same thing if you think about it.

Point of all this being:

I love coats...

... and you once again have a slightly different tone of the background. I tell you, having numerous options is bad things sometimes.


I have to say I enjoy continental autumn much more than the mediteranian one. All the pretty colors are here. Down south where I am at the moment autumn just doesn't have a place to show it's glory.

What's brewing on the inside

 Good news or bad news first?

Good news is that I am in such a creative phase you wouldn't believe. I know that look of the blog doesn't really reflect that at the moment, but trust me it will. I am applying everything I learned in designing other people's blogs and visual identities to this blog and it's god awful hard work. Also, I am drawing so much ( I mean as much as someone with an 8 hour day job can) and just devouring fashion. Mostly in digital form as my immediate environment is not very... shall we say imaginative. I constantly work ... Even when I am not working I am working... My head is rummaging through all the images in my head putting them all together making new combinations, new connections, new ideas.
I love it. I love everything that comes out of that. I love that I am bringing back collage to my work. I forsake it at one point long time ago when I realized I used it as a crutch for my lack of skill in some areas. But this is not the issue anymore so yeah, we are together again. :-)
Bad news is that once again I have no social life to speak of. Wonderful how I keep doing this... Trust me ladies, at the moment I live of your going out, your cafe and restaurant pictures, places you see, go and do. So please, go out, Instagram, Tweet, Facebook and generally share. You never know who might be at the other side.
See you soon.