The One Hundred and Fourteenth Doodle - Valentines Day

'Love', a new commissioned piece about relationships, passion, sex and desire.

This latest commission I've been working on (with a love theme) was a little different to my usual work, but I really ruddy enjoyed it. And sometimes you have to shimmy out of your comfort zone right and just see what flippin' happens. And I liked what happened here.

Love ey. What the sodding hell is it all about. You think you're in it, then you find your beloved locking lips with another. And you split up. And then you realise you don't actually miss them. So why did you ever think you loved them? Or you gaze adoringly at your other half while simultaneously wishing they dressed differently and wore those shoes you picked for them and had different friends and earned more money. 

What a pickle we put ourselves in ey.

Now perhaps I don't know much about love right, but I have a thought or two on Valentines Day. The cold hard fact of the matter is that it's horrendous whether you're loved up or not. It's a competition between the lovers as to who has the most romantic partner -

Git 1: 'Jerry got me flowers and a necklace and took me to dinner.' 

 Bigger Git 2: 'Oh how splendid, Martin blind-folded me and took me to Paris as a surprise and bought me a diamond ring and a puppy and a milkshake that never ends. And a unicorn. But oh, hey, those flowers sound quite....it's the thought that counts after all isn't it...yeh..'

What bollocks. What horrible, horrible bollocks. If your true love spoils you rotten on V Day, that's nice, but perhaps don't be an obnoxious git and rub peoples faces in it. Because believe it or not, that makes you a not very nice person. And it isn't just because some people might be single, or others may feel lonely. What about those who have lost their true love to sickness or an accident? What about those who are trapped in a destructive or abusive relationship? If you feel you need to share how many gifts you got from your lover on Valentines Day with the world, then it isn't worth shit.

So what am I doing today? Well I've seen Valentines Day from all sorts of sides; as a singleton, as someone in an unhappy relationship. But right now, I confess that I am with a wonderful chap who I am very thankful for. And we're going to the pub, same as every other Friday. And we'll get pissed together and talk nonsense and...well, you know.

Do you know what Valentines Day should actually be about? Just a day that reminds you to actually tell those special people you love them. Not just your other half; your family and your mates too. And if you buy any of that useless crap from an overpriced gift shop to show the monetary value of your feelings rather than just saying 'Look, I fucking love the shit out of you and want you to stick with me for bloody ages you amazing girl/boy/cat/shrubbery', then I am judging you hard.

X

The Eighty Sixth Doodle

You may have guessed by now people: I LOVE DRAWING BODIES.

 

I mean like, live bodies, as in, well...people being all humanesque and stuff. And clothes. I love drawing clothing. And hair. And muscle tone.

 

Well, you get the blimmin' drift.

 

So I created some pretty sick (even if I do say so myself) illustrations for a new London clothing company Drop 'n' Roll, and above is the main header image encompassing drawings of their range of t-shirts for men and women.

 

If you're a small clothing company get in touch about creating some unique one off illustrations for your site. Photos are great to show off individual pieces but if you want something truly different, then hit me up.

 

(Can't believe I just said hit me up. I cannot pull that off.)

The Eighty Third Doodle

Ok, I am not scared to admit it. I have no fashion. I am not fashionable or stylish. Or cool. (LOL joking, I so am cool). 

But on the other hand, I wear clothes don't I? I go out and pick what I want to wear and use it to express who and what I am yeah? So, I must be fashionable; even if it is only in my own little head. Well that's what I believe and I'm sticking with it :p

Berlin Fashion Week

Anyway, even if I myself don't don the lastest trends and always be bang up to date with my accessories (honestly, I don't have the dollar for that) I bloody love creating fashion illustrations. The poses, the fabric, the drama - ARG, I love it. I enjoy forging up-and-coming trends or looks with my own gritty style, and creating something fierce and vibrant. So check out my work for fashionglobalblog.com - I'm sure there will be plenty more to come too....

Spring Trends

The Eightieth Doodle

 

 I am not a fashionable person. I know right, you are shocked. 'But you are so super trendy Ruth,' I hear you cry, well you can stop that weeping right now. I'm not. I just wear stuff I like, often stuff that 'aint cool.

That doesn't mean I don't like fashion though; I am fascinated by clothing design, structure and influence. Fashion illustration is a large portion of what I do, whether it be quite simple images of mainstream styles or slightly more off the wall alternative get ups. I love it all. Drawing the folds and drapes of fabric, how the light plays over it, how the form underneath affects it - HEAVEN.

I created the image above for Amelia's Magazine, a site all about fashion, art, music, design and basically anything rad. You can see it featured on the site here along with a write up about the Raw Talent University of the Arts Graduate Fashion Show - a good read for anyone interested in up and coming talent!

A Doodle Interlude

A Doodle Interlude, or 'The mad fashion ramblings of a girl who had an(other) operation on her back last week'.

Ok, so I am appealing to all you other lads and lasses out there who may have on-going illnesses or injuries that mean you are in and out of hospitals/doctors/pharmacies more often than MRSA. Seriously, it's a drag isn't it. And I don't even think I have anything too bad, just irritatingly non-getting better-er (phrase? MEH).

So today, a week since my back operation (of which this is the fifth) I went out for a little walk with me ma. It took an hour to go on a 15minute walk, and I slept for 2 hours afterwards. HARDCORE. But before I left I looked in the mirror and totally LOLED at myself; here's me, still LOLING-

 

Really, I look like a demented retro 70's throwback. BUT, ummm, I still am clearly awesome so it's fine. Plus, as you other regular hospital attendees may agree, it's all about mixing comfort with feeling good. Yep, I could throw on some skinny jeans and a crop top but I would:

a) cry with agony as my injury is at the base of my back

and 

b) look and feel disgusting

 HA.

So here's my post-operation outfit breakdown peeps, 'cause I am super trendy.

1) Hilarious granny print 'pants' (you cannot call those trousers) from Peacocks - I implore you to get these, they are not only the most comfortable things in the world, they also make you roar with laughter everytime you see your reflection. What's not to love? FYI, I tried some similar Dorothy Perkins ones on - horrid. Sometimes cheaper is better.

2) 'Mehzen Own the Night vest - support the little guys guys, 'cause then you aren't wearing what every other sod on the planet has. This loose fit vest is also good for post-op, as apparenty being trapped lying in bed for weeks means you put weight on- CHEERS! Just what we need right?!! Humpf.

3) Yellow low rise Converse. No explaination needed, they're just amazeballs.

4) Super pretty TWO Face London flat peak hat - umm, yeah so the sun has come out?! Ahh! Well, as lovely as that is, when you're on the ridiculous cocktail of drugs I am on currently, you have a hallucinatingly permanent headache. Need to protect that wee head from the rays and look fab at the same time- totally nailed it.

5) Yellow Camden sunnies - because I love yellow, and see number 4 re: the sun.

6) Jewels from the boyf - like, not actual jewels, but me cute necklace (Chelsea Girl) and watch (ASOS) that have become my sort of 'lucky charms'. Plus they remind me of him - BARF, I know, soz. They aint doing so well with the whole keeping me out of hospital yet but lets see if they up their game ey.

7) General awesomeness and blue tipped ginger hair - self explanatory yeah? 

So, I shant lie, when you come out of hospital and you need help getting out of bed and you nearly faint trying to have a shower, you feel pretty low. Your self esteem (what self esteem?) has disappeared (cheeky bastard, talk about bad timing), you often put on weight as you can't move much (as mentioned, but I bring it up again to remind you how IRRITATING it is) and the drugs you're on make me feel sick/be sick/fuck up your head/stomach/general life. You're stuck at home exposed to the annoyance of Facebook, where you watch how everyone else is having normal amazing fun without you going out and getting plastered (seriously, are they having more fun on purpose just to razz you off?) while you watch the tenth episode of Poirot with your mum and a cup of tea. And fall alseep, because you fall asleep about every half hour.

So, to put it mildly, you don't feel your best.

But then this is the time you have to remind yourself that you are in fact awesome and cool, and proper hardcore 'cause you've been through stuff man, you've seen some thiiiings (said in a cowboy drawl). And you deserve to be spoilt rotten by your family and friends, and to get better too. Hopefully.

The Seventy Sixth Doodle

We all know I love doing sports illustration, but I also love fashion illustration too. Sketching out the clothes and studying the form of the figure is something I really enjoy!

I recently created this fashion image above for a feature on Fashion Truffles- a great site run by a smashing lady called Viviana in New York. It's full of tips, trends and style - non of which I really have but oh well haha.

I created this image with pen and watercolours, using mainly greys and blacks with a strong blue as the highlight colour. I wanted the illustration to ooze style and sophistication, but to be fun and cute too - basically to reflect Viv herself!

Check out the blog post with my illustration on Viv's site here!

The Seventy First Doodle

I do love colourdy pens. Very often I find myself drawing something in pencil, sitting back and looking at it for a mo, then redrawing it with coloured pens or markers.

 Take this lady here. As a pencil sketch it was nice, but she didn't really pop till I redrew her with coloured pens. You can also use the colour to imply certain areas rather than stick to solid outlines, overlapping and mingling. Basically, you can go a bit nuts!

 

The Sixty Seventh Doodle

The tube is an amazing place. (Before we go any further, I of course mean the London Underground, not like a tube of cardboard from the middle of loo roll.) You see all walks of life down there, it is quite marvellous. Mwahahaha.

This illustration came from a girl I saw on the tube who was pretty funky. Now, she didn't actually have a weird blue aura and I am certain her real life face had an outline - I used artistic lisence 'o course. But she was a hellova lotta fun. Trying to capture that nonchalant, effortlessly cool way she hung from the pole, her funky outfit and hair, her general groovy vibe. 

I mean, I don't know, maybe she is actually a total cow in real life, and I'd find that I'd rather chew glass than draw her. But in my head, and on the tube, she seemed funky. May as well draw funky people when you see 'em ey?

The Sixty Third Doodle and a Happy New Year!

 

I am not a big fan of New Year's resolutions, as, well, I am rubbish and I never keep 'em. ROFLCOPTER.

HOWEVER. My 2013 resolution is something which seems silly to not do, as it is something which brings me endless joy. Draw more and experiment more. UMM< YES PLEASE.

Soz for the capitals. I've drank a lot of coffee today, and yesterday I ate some Skittles. Bad move.

Anyway my attention span is failing me. Today is, the, um, 2nd January? Yes. I have drawn up 3 illustrations so far today. That is cool. The lady above was a sketch after flipping through some trashy ladies mags (how good is YOUR orgasm? I don't have any sort of scale system so I do not know shiney magazine, but I'll be sure to get back to you on that one). Ignoring the nonsense (of which there is a lot. Like, a lot) I looked at the photos and models and fashions. I am not fashionable or even remotely cool, except in my head, but I am interested in it, and in portraying it in my own unique way.

So I doodled this lady and thought 'She's funky. She needs tattoos.' So I added a few and had a look at her. Boom. Lets paint.

Now I blimmin' love watercolours and I am a faithful lover usually, but for her, I wanted the intensity of ink-

 

My personal fave is Windsor and Newton Black Indian Ink as it rocks my socks, and their stuff is on a whole other planet. Put the ink on the paper and it goes 'WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, I'LL DO IT, I'LL DO IT SO DAMN WELL YOU SILLY WENCH.' And then it gives me a slap. JOKING. 

Basically, the ink is well good.

So kids, here is my final illustration. A mixture of hard black lines, watercolours for tattoos, a bit of scruffy pencil and a big dollop of style. If 2013 holds more of this fun stuff, come on then mate, let's get started.

The Nineteeth Doodle

I really like the idea of doing fashion type illustrations, but with my own edge. I don't know if you've noticed (HA) but my style is rather messy, gritty and pretty grungy. But I still feel it can go with pretty much any subject matter!

This lady just sort of popped out of my head from a rough sketch, she is very bohemian! I love the layering of watercolours, they literally rock my world. Acrylic can be fun, but watercolour is my true love. Always and forever. Gosh, how emo.

The Fourteenth Doodle

If this lady decided to step on your face, you'd be DEAD. Don't piss her off.

(I'm talking about the imaginative lady who own these feet, not me. I can barely walk in trainers, never mind huge killer heels)

Heels do genuinely intrigue and scare me at the same time. I think they can be super fierce, and tres sexy (yep, I am well multicultural). Yet seeing ladies totter through the tube and wobble down the street in the rain makes me think, 'oh love, just wear flats. You look like a loony'. Who are we trying to impress? Men? Each other?

I, thankfully, wear either trainers (obvs cool ones, like Vans or Cons), flip flops or pumps. Or boots. Heels - a) make me feel too tall against my ridiculously small friends, b) make me walk like a transvestite, and lets be honest, I aint the most girly girl so someone may actually think I'm a tranny in training, and c) they are way more effort than it's worth.

Also, this 'oh, they elongate your legs and make them look thinner and longer' is total balls. They do not do this when you have annoyingly muscular legs like mine - they accentuate it. Hideous.

As the legendary Caitlin Moran said, what else totters along looking like high heels? A pigs trotters.

The Fourth Doodle

So I have never done anything even remotely fashion orientated (including in my wardrobe), so this is very good practise! I did some research on catwalks and models and clothes (all stuff I am clueless on up to now) and developed this fairly usual pose for my own drawing. I then added some Ruthie crazy to it, keeping the lines ragged and free, and the colours wild and imperfect. I quite liked the end result, something in the 'norm' camp, but with my big messy stamp all over it. Bon!

The second Doodle

A quicky pen doodle, more on the fashion side of things. I really enjoy trying to draw the whole image without taking the pen off the paper, makes you think really hard about where you go! I like that even though fashion is a subject matter I've never really tried before, it still has my stamp all over it. It's cute, but not too cute.