We purchase fashion magazines for work. International and Domestic, and we pour through them for inspiration. We tear out the pages that help us put together our themes. Once we have our themes, we put together our mood boards that the sales team then utilizes to showcase our collection and sortof explain our inspiration. And we design our lines featuring said inspiration. For example this past season we chose for our Spring/Summer 07 themes; Very Metal, Jungle, Cruise, Pretty Lady, and Brights. Because I now have to do this for work, it’s sortof taken the leisurely enjoyment out of magazine perusal. As much as I try to just enjoy reading magazines, like on the airplane, let’s say, I find myself searching for fashion themes, noting details and always looking at the shoes. I find myself working, not just reading or browsing. So this trained mind of mine has a different attitude about magazine perusal as a hobbie now. However I still devour the catalogs that come in the mail. Specifically, the Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Bloomingdale catalogs. I also like the International magazines (specifically the Japanese/Asian Accessories mags and the Italian fashion magazines) because i can’t read them so it’s a totally visual experience. And also because they seem to have more creative layouts. But there are also a lot of exposed nipples to deal with. Does that sound prudish? I’m not a prude, but hey when I’m looking for cool textures, I’m not talking about body textures okay.

Anyway, when I look at these catalogs and INL mag’s I can easily look at the nice fashion styling and photography, and not care that I won’t be buying any of it. I’ve found another purpose. I tear out the pages that grab me because of an interesting texture, pattern, detail or overall silhouette. Then I draw from these pages. Sometimes I just draw a piece of lace or only the outline of something. I’m doing homework in a way, but it doesn’t feel like mandated homework because nobody is telling me what to do and nobody is checking it the next day! I definitely need to continually practice my drawing, I need to be good at it for work. I need to be efficient at it so that I can easily and accurately communicate visual ideas, personally and professionally. And it’s just a personal goal I have. I want to be proficent at drawing because I’ve always been scared of it, yet admired it. Most people say you need to draw every day to get good and stay good. Ideally, over time, I hope to master line control, proportion and detail. I get sick of drawing shoes, and I am bored with landscapes and portraits. I’m not big into realistic artwork. It’s nice, but it doesn’t motivate me personally. I like drawing details, like fabric trims, jewlery, and print patterns, and nice silhouttes in which case I usually forego most of the details and focus on the overall shape. I like shapes. I like details. Mostly I don’t care about trying to represent anything specific or realistic.

So here are some random textures and patterns I found in the Mothers Day Bloomingdales catalog. And a woman wearing pearls. I much prefered drawing the pearls to drawing the woman, really, she’s just there so that the pearls are not floating in space. A holder, if you will. Often when somebody at work has a shoe that has some irregular, organic detail they need, they see me. I love drawing sparkle glitter fabric. My co-worker Lydia (Happy Bday Lyd!) loves the symmetrical projects (she’s such a Virgo… they like order!) I love the random textures found in a cork wedge, or a laser-cut lacey leather strap. In drawing class in college, I think I was the only one who actually liked doing the exercise where you draw the entire still life or model without lifting up your pencil. I think because it almost created a pattern and stylistic look of what we were drawing. It was not the most realistic rendition, but it had a certain distinct style. So anyways, take another look at those catalogs in your mailbox, anything good to draw?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 20th, 2006 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Art & Design, Drawin', Footwear, Sketchbook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.