Auras

Another Saturday, another week gone by. Next week will be Week 5 of my semester, I honestly can't quite get my head around that fact. It seems like I've only just started by really I've been working away for weeks now! I feel I have a better grip on my time management this year though, after last years debacles which I do not want to return to! But procrastination still gets the better of me sometimes!

This week I have been designing ideas for a poster that focuses on the topic of peace. Since this is also a poster that is to be designed with the intention of being exhibited by the client as a celebration of their 25 years in operation, I'e decided to take the approach that focuses on their legacy and input into the community by creating an illustration of their key figure - Graham F. Smith. The little sketch I've done as a starting point is below.

Here's my week:

1. Beginning a sketch of a beautiful photo of a model whose name I do not know, but she has the loveliest freckles ever!
2. Progress + milky cups of tea, a typical afternoon of yours truly.
3. Finally decided to get my mitts on this little book with some birthday money I had stashed. I think it doesn't even need introducing, the cover is already so iconic I think! Anyways, I've had a brief flick through it and so far I am excited to read it.

For my inspiration this week, I've really been digging simple palettes of black and white with a dash of bright or neon colour thrown into the mix. I used to love constant colour, but right now I've just been looking at more tailored and simple approaches to my personal style. I'm still obsessed with photographic prints, mirror prints and florals, don't think i'm ever going to get over them - they are the only statement item you'll need when you're wearing them. Green is also not a colour I'm greatly fond of, but recently I've been loving a nice palette of fresh green hues to get me dreaming of tropical rainforests and exploring jungles.

Until next time! x

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White Moon

I feel like a huge burden has been lifted from my back now that I've submitted all of my assessments - the next stressful part is the anxious wait to find out if I did well or not! Crossing my fingers for positivity!

I've been deeply researching the Riot Grrrl movement of the early 90's for my Masters thesis and it's really inspiring and just moving to me - I can't really express my feelings about how wonderful I think it was. I just feel that a-lot of the ideas that emerged from it still resonate in the 21st century and it deserves more recognition as a milestone in the timeline of feminism. I just feel so connected to it, I don't know - I only learned of it through Tumblr (thank the Internet Gods for Tumblr) about 2 years ago or something and ever since I did, it's been on my mind and I knew I wanted to somehow develop a research project based around it. My particular branch of research in this movement was the importance of the zine, which I feel is largely underestimated as a tool for expression and communication between young women (as an alternative outlet away from mainstream media's gaze and perturbation), even in our modern technological world filled with ebooks and e-zines. I believe the tactility of a physical zine holds such a greater feeling of power and concreteness, which cannot truly be replicated with a digitised zine (even though I adore e-zines and PDF magazines, I'll always return to the print versions). I feel such an urge to just create things at the moment - if my hands are doing something I need to be doing something otherwise I'll become so bored! I actually want to start my own zine, just for my own personal self, but I would share it with the lovely readers of my blog, of course. But now I'm just rambling again! I have too many feels at the moment. I think it's largely due to the emotional debt through perpetual stress I've stored up over these past 14 weeks that I've been studying and now all I want to do is let it all go. I'm going to start working on some illustration ideas that I've kept shut up in my journals - now I've got some time to kill I want to put them to good, productive use!

I haven't been able to access Instagram that much as the wifi in my place has issues connecting to extraneous devices except for laptops, super weird (but I did discover a way to upload via PC so I'm using that instead, it's just a-lot more cumbersome to use). The following is a digital moodboard of sorts of things that have been keeping my imagination alive this week (I need to make pretty things for my blog!):

I'll leave you with these teasers from Lana Del Rey for the Tropic mini-film (if you don't already know about it), which I am extremely excited about! (Please release it soon Lana you are my lifeblood!) The coloured lighting effects remind me of the Aurora Borealis aka "The Northern Lights", which I'd really love to see once in my lifetime, so beautiful. Keep on dreaming. ♥

Serene Dream

I flew back home a few days ago, so I've been settling back into my old lifestyle and getting used to things again. I just finished unpacking all of the massive amounts of things I took with me, so it's quite a relief to have everything back in its old place again! Today, I am posting a few things which are keeping me inspired this week.

1. Celebrating the Chinese New Year at a restaurant. They had the most amazing banquet spread - everything was perfect, especially the strawberry fillet steak!
2. Making some drawings, cats and deer.
3. Op-shop finds, a pretty much brand new peter pan collared dress and a comfy t-shirt with a skull doily emblazoned upon it.
4. Finished a drawing of Keira Knightley in Edge of Love, she's super beautiful.
5. Collections of sea-related items.
6. Home sweet home - back again after two-and-a-half months away.

I finished an extremely belated Valentines Day illustration recently too - Valentines Day is quite useless, but cake and kitties are not.
I also completed my Boudicca illustration, finally!


I have also been a bit naughty and purchased two more things online, this glitzy black sequin tank and this polka-dotted prettiness both by Minkpink. Definitely cannot wait until they arrive at my doorstep!
I hope you enjoy this playlist I made!

Sprites in the Night from bambisvalentine on 8tracks Radio.

♡