Reason why I've not been posting

Hi guys, very sorry these last couple of days for not posting. I'm really ill at the moment and I wish I had the energy to post properly, I love all my readers and when I get better I'll post again. 

Blue Shirts, Blue Lace... Meant to be?

Hi guys, Happy/Sad Monday! I'm super happy to announce that my friend Sophie is soon having her book published and the title of it is "Blue Shirts, Blue Lace... Meant to be?"

I hope Sophie doesn't mind me saying that it is a true story. It is about two lovers that meet around the age of 11 and they're in love. However the boy has to move away and he forgets about the girl but the girl is still in love with the boy. It's called "Blue shirts, Blue lace... Meant to be?" Because the boy loves wearing blue shirts and the girl is in love with blue lace, it has a huge twist at the end but that's not going to be given away!
I am extremely happy to say that i'm illustrating the cover, along with some others and i'm so excited! Sophie is very talented and i'm convinced that her book will go a long way. Follow Sophie on instgram for book updates: @sophiadearest.

She also recently started a really cool blog:
sophiadearest.tumblr.com

Love you all, Lauren x

Calling all fashion illustrators: Collaboration video

I want to start my youtube channel this year with a bang and half so I wanted to start it off with a collaboration! I will do this with anyone who wants to do it, this is how it goes:

• We both draw a fashion illustration and fineline it. 
• We then swap them by postage
• I colour yours, whilst making a video
• You colour mine, you make a video too. 
• Collaboration done!

I would really like to do this, I will do it worldwide if your willing to post around the world. Comment below if you'd like to try this or email me: laureywilliamsfashion@gmail.com 

Thanks loves x

My promarkers: The big blog post/review

This post has been long awaited and I hope you guys enjoy it, please read even if your not an artist or don't have promarkers!

Many of you know that Letraset's incredibly successful promarkers are my favourite artist material and I can't live without them! I carry them to school every day even if I don't need them and meanwhile they make my bag heavy and weigh me down.

So this post is going to basically be a big review on them and some tips and tricks for you promarker users to use.

Some info about me and promarkers:

• I have been using promarkers for about a year and a half now 
• I first heard about them through a fashion illustration channel on Youtube called Fsketcher
• The first ever set I bought was the Promarker blending pack with 12 colours in it 
• It took me a very long time to figure out how to colour with them.
• However when I did, they absolutely changed my life because my fashion illustrations became so much more beautiful and I've fallen in love with the pens ever since. 

Promarkers are not exactly the easiest thing in the world to sort out so here are two rules that apply for them. 

1. They do not work on regular printer paper, I tried this when I first got them and you get what is known as 'bleeding'. They bleed through the paper and don't create a very nice effect. To solve this you should use Letraset's Bleedproof marker paper or any paper that's quite thick. They also bleed when you have rubbish fineliners, some fineliners run when exposed to promarkers so I use the unipin fineliners, I love them they're waterproof and handle promarkers very well. 

My camera quality isn't that good - sorry! However on the left i've used cardish type of paper. That's what gets you the best type of effect. Although you can't see it well, it's promarker - Mulberry. On the printer paper it's made the colour darker than it already is because it's bleeding. If I were to layer and add another colour on to create a 3D effect it'd totally soak through and in some cases create a hole in the paper and totally ruin everything. 

2. In the videos and pictures they look like magical pens that create the 3D realistic affect by itself however it's you who have to make that effect and this is called Layering, it's not easy to learn and took me a while. I'm going to show you how to do that soon in a separate blog post today.

The product review: 

Firstly, i'm a fashion illustrator but promarkers can be used for any type of artwork, particularly manga. It's audience is obviously artists and designers. Promarkers are made in the UK which is fortunate for me because I don't pay a heavy price to get them shipped to my house however this will cost a lot if you don't live in Britain because they'll be expensive and they'll also charge a large sum to get it sent to you. 

There are some alternatives such as copic, I can't speak much about copic's because I don't have any and have never tried using any. However I do know that promarkers do an amazing job. They are twin tipped just like copic and I find that promarkers give the exact same finish as copics and they're even cheaper than them.

It does achieve it's purpose and that's to add vibrant colour and a sense of realism to your drawings. The only thing that would make it even better was if you could refill them just like copics. 

 If your looking to buy the full Fashion illustration starter pack I suggest. 

1. Letraset promarkers

   2. Unipin fineliners

3. Bleedproof marker paper 

----PROMARKER Q&A----

1. What are your tips for blending? 

I could write this all out but it would make no sense to you whatsoever so I will put this in a video. 

2. How do you lay out colour flat?

This is something you can't do with promarkers because the minute you colour over a stroke of colour you already had it automatically becomes un-flat. 

3. What's the best type of paper to use?

Printer paper is a no. The paper of any marker brand is good or a hardish cardish kind of paper. 

Stick around! I'll try my hardest to upload my video today x

Lauren x

Fashion infographics

Hey guys, I found this really cool infographic on dress codes and I thought that you would all find it interesting.

New illustrations!

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. I'm so excited to show you my new illustrations. 

1. Dress inspired by Zyra Banez, this dress was me practicing rendering silk, i'm not to sure if I got the silk effect correct or not. Let me know below! I used Promarkers and Faber Castell polychromos. 

2. Dory - requested on IG.

This unfortunately went terribly wrong. Idk.

3. Yoshi - He's such a cutie

3. Belle - I used Faber Castell Graphite sketch pencils

5. Green Organza and Red Catwalk dress

6. Maternity wear.

Thanks for reading, comment your favourite one by number :)

Lauren x

Finished Illustration: Anna (Frozen)

Hey guys, below is my finished drawing of Anna completely made out of promarkers. This goes towards my disney illustrations. I'm yet to draw Hans.

Please comment and tell me what you think! I'd love to hear what you guys think about my artwork because it really helps. 

Lauren x

5 ways to get better Fashion illustrations

Hey guys! So, I thought up of this post because I love helping my readers and I know a lot of you're artists - Fashion illustrators.

Disclaimer: In no way at all am I calling myself the best or bragging or whatever. I've been drawing fashion for almost 6 years now so I do have quite a bit of experience. This is just some advice that you might find helpful.

1. Materials

Maybe you illustrations don't look bright enough and you can't figure out why. You may need to consider getting better artist quality materials to make your drawings look brighter and better. This will cost you quite a bit but it is definitely worth it and you'll see a change in your work and your drawings will generally be respected more because you've used artist quality materials that are known.

Some companies to consider:

• Letraset
• Faber Castell
• Prismacolor
• Reeves

2. Croquis

I had this problem for a while and I didn't know how to get out of it. All my fashion sketches were looking the same because I was using the same body position/croquis. A good way to get out of this is to just google ''fashion croquis'' print some off and just trace around them and put the clothes on top of them. You'll see that in time you'll be able to draw loads of different positions.

3. Ideas

Fashion is either a yes or a no and to me there is no maybe so. We have a lot of fashion today that is acceptable on the catwalk however not outside because its just crazy but, you have to decide what your going to draw and it can be one or the other or it can be both. Your ideas are your ideas but if you want to see if people like them ask a few people what they think and tell them to be honest with you before you stick it up on social media.

4. Inspiration

Your designs might not have the oomf or wow factor and this might be because you need inspiration. There's no better place to find artist inspiration than the internet. Consider places like:

• Pinterest
• Instagram 
• Tumblr 

and all around you to be honest!

5. Publicity 

If you draw and keep your audience small and keep it limited to friends and family you'll never be told how to improve because they don't want to hurt your feelings. Expose it to the outside world. Get a Deviant Art account, Make a blog, get a free online portfolio with any website hosts! There's a million things you can do. 

For any further advice just email me at laureywilliamsfashion@gmail.com and I can give you more tips and tricks. Have an awesome weekend <3 

Lauren x

IFFT - If this, then that.

Hi Guys! When I did the blog share tag I said I'd talk to you guys about IFFT. You can see what it stands for from the title - If this, then that.

It's a very useful tool I use for blogging and when I first found it I was so amused. I have the IFFT app but you can also go to the online version. 

It's basically you setting automatic internet prompts. Example;

If new blog post is created then post a tweet on Twitter about it. 

(If this... Then that...) 

It's so clever! And it does it every time! Let me take a few screenshots and show you guys, these screenshots are from the app version which I prefer to use.

The really nice professional looking logo.

These are a few of what they call "Recipes" You set up the application you want to work for you and pair it with another application and select the recipes you want it to do, in other words the instructions of what you want it to do. For example, I've instructed IFFT to post to twitter, Facebook and tumblr whenever a new blog post is published on Blogger. Awesome right? I think you guys should really try this out because it'd save you a lot of time. 

If anyone needs help with getting it done, I am here! 

Love, Lauren x

Blogging routine!

Hi everyone! I've mentioned it a lot this month and I've made a blogging routine. It just makes life easier for me and for you guys so you know which day to expect posts and which days not to. 

I've decided to Blog on Mondays, Tuesday's, Friday's, Saturday's and Sunday's. The reason I left Wednesday's and Thursday's out is because I get a lot of school work on those days. 

I hope I can stick to this and things go well! Thanks for reading xo

Lauren x

14,000 pageviews + Blog share tag x

Hello everyone and welcome to a very special post! Today I logged into blogger and found out that my blog had hit 14,000 views. You guys have no idea how much this means to me since a few months ago I hit 10,000... it's rapidly increasing and I just want to give my thanks to everyone who takes time to open my blog links or type my blog into google to find it and follows my blog on GFC and Bloglovin'. You guys are amazing and just know that every time you read what I write and add a pageviews your making me smile and helping me get one step further to my dream!

January the 1st was my blog's birthday, so to celebrate i'm doing the blog share tag. I nominate anyone who would like to do this post x

THE BLOG SHARE TAG! 

Where did you find this tag?

I found this tag whilst looking through a great Beau Blogger's blog - Lou's World. Visit that blog, I love it: http://louleecutie.blogspot.co.uk/. This tag was however made by another awesome blogger (Chloe) and you can find her blog here - Professional daydreamer

What's your blog about?

I'd say my blog isn't about one thing only and it explores quite a few things. I'd say my blog is mainly about art and fashion but then sometimes I have blogged about real life issues, beauty and just what's on my mind really.

Why did you start your blog?

Exactly a year ago this month, I thought that I needed some way of expressing my artwork and my thoughts and that I had a talent that shouldn't be hidden from the rest of the world... so I set it free!

What's your favourite topic to write about?

Easy. Art. I like showing you guys new illustrations, making tutorials and reviewing art materials. I also like to do ootd's.

Do you have a blogging routine?

I plan to make a blogging routine but don't yet have one. At the moment I blog whenever I can, I check blogger everyday just to check on the pageviews and comments however do not blog everyday as this year in school is very important.

What bloggers inspire you?

I know there are a lot of famous bloggers out there but the truth is I don't know many. She doesn't blog everyday and she has a lot on her plate but Zoe Sugg (Zoella) inspires me because she's amazing. Klaire Dely's also inspires me and I am a huge Eleventh Gorgeous fan.

What bloggers have you been aware of since you first started your blog?

I have come across a lot of blogs but the first blog I ever did any kind of collaboration post with was Bella at BellaBoo which was a huge success! Since then I have made loads of friends and I am so very grateful for coming across the wonderful Izzy K whom I created Beau Bloggers with! I also love reading the following blogs daily:

Lou's world - http://louleecutie.blogspot.co.uk/
Professional daydreamer - http://professionaldaydreamerx.blogspot.co.uk/
Eve - http://evelyntalks.blogspot.co.uk/

What resources do you use to promote your blog?

As soon as a post has been posted I post the post on my blogging group (Beau Bloggers). I use IFFT to automatically post tweets, google posts and tumblr posts. I'm going to do a post on that so you can see how it works because it's so awesome and really will help your blog grow. Also does anyone know of those people you can tweet your blog link to and then they retweet?

Do you see any improvement on your blog since you started it?

Oh yessssss (Churchill voice) especially in the presentation, I love the way it looks. I've also learnt to keep checking on my Blog because as well as my art it's become a passion of mine and I just can't help but check on it everyday.

What type of blog posts do you like to read?

I like to read posts on real life issues, I love ootd posts. I like posts where there's less fact and more opinion.

That's the blog share tag! Thank you to Chloe for creating it because it's a lovely tag, thank you all for reading this post!

Lauren x

New illustration - Hair

Sorry for being away for a few days everyone, my school work takes over a lot of things. Today i'm going to be showing you guys one of my latest illustrations and that's a collection of hairstyles inspired by Kristina Webb. I used a simple 4B pencil and 2B pencil from my Faber Castell sketch set.

Sorry for making you guys tilt your head but this is the finished illustration(s). If you would like me to go through drawing hair or any part of my pencil techniques I can easily create a short video and stick it up on my Youtube. 

Thanks for reading this post, lately I don't know what to blog about... please comment below if you have any ideas on some posts that you guys would like to read.

Arts Heroes: Hayden Williams, 20 - British Fashion illustrator/designer

Hey everyone, this is a new post that I'm starting every Thursday and it's about my arts heroes! I don't often talk about my arts heroes so I decided that i'd do one every week.

I'm honored to make the first one I talk about on this blog Mr Hayden Williams! 99.9% of fashion illustrators know who he is because he is just simply amazing,

 Hayden Williams is a British fashion illustrator, designer and blogger living in London with a unique fashion illustration talent, I really love his drawing style and they really inspire me. They're really detailed and so exact. His label is called Hayden Williams Illustrations, which consists of many different styles, garments and celebrity appearances.

Below is an example of his work:



He's just so wow! I want to be able to draw like this lol. He's on tumblr, instagram and a lot of places if you just look him up by his name. He's pretty awesome and also has a lot of fanpages, thanks for reading x

Lauren x

My first watercolor portrait thing!

Hey guys! Been super busy this week with school but i'm wonder woman! So I slot everything in. This week as part of my arts award silver I tried to experiment with different media and the first one I did was watercolor.

So I took a picture reference and this picture reference was Rated R - Rihanna. I drew the drawing first and then colored it in with watercolor.

I started off by doing quite thick strokes for her hair and leaving some spaces white to represent space and light. Her lips look rather weird and I ended up not liking them so I then drew her with her tongue sticking out.

I continued here by finishing the hair. I started off with intense black strokes and then went over some white areas with grey strokes. I coloured the eyebrows with grey watercolour. I also used black watercolour and added a lot of water and that made a light grey wash across her face and rendered the face with grey and black pencil. 

Finally I used my 0.1 and 0.3 fineliners for the eye, iris, pupil and also the eyeliner.

Lastly I added detail with black and white pencils to create shadows and highlights: below is the final image, it didn't end up looking like Rihanna but the photo was just a reference for me to master facial proportion for portraits.

Thank you guys so much for watching this video, comment below if you like it! Once I master watercolor i'll do a tutorial for you guys. Watch out for the "Colouring with promarkers" video tutorial coming soon requested by Lilliana x

Love you guys! - I'm out!

Beau Bloggers post of the month: Inspiration

This months theme in Beau Bloggers (the blogging group that I created) is Inspiration. I wanted to tell you guys a few things about it and who inspires me to do what I do.

I have two main hobbies, one is more prominent than the other. The first one you all know of is art, I love to draw and to continue doing it I need inspiration. 

Sometimes it does get boring and I do run out of ideas but certain people inspire me to carry on doing what I do. Yesterday I mentioned Kristina Webb, she's an Artist in New Zealand and she inspires me to keep drawing because good things come out of it. She was recently sponsored by Faber Castell and was given loads of freebies, things that would take me months to save for. I want to work as hard as she does and get those kind of rewards. 

I also sing, singing wasn't really developed... It's just always been there and I love that if art isn't working out I can just go off and have a good sing song. Lol, nobody really inspires me to sing. There are amazing artists out there with amazing voices however I think it's how it is with all industries... You've got to know someone who knows someone that knows someone to get you noticed lol.

Anyway, great people inspire me... people who worked hard for what they have, not people who shot up to fame because of someone they knew or something irrelevant that was done. When I blog, certain bloggers inspire me... Zoe Sugg/Zoella inspires me. She went from being something like me (A girl who blogs and puts videos online for the fun of it) to a world known internet sensation. She inspires me to keep going, she inspired me especially this time last year when I began blogging, for bloggers like myself and some of you guys reading haven't quite made it into the blogging world, where you get a million views per minute. Some new bloggers can relate to me when I say, you don't even know that anyone has read your blog and was interested in it... sure you got a couple page views but are those your friends and family who you've specifically told to go and visit your blog? or are they people who find your blog interesting? The answer to this is it's a mix, everyone starts up from the ground up - one day Zoella was like us, writing to an imaginary audience and trying to get pageviews. It just means we're yet to make it and we're on our way there and trust me, someone will one day write a post about how you inspire them.

Comment down below, who inspires you?

Lauren x

Instagram accounts I couldn't live without

Hiya everyone! So today I'm going to be showing you guys the best accounts in my opinion across instagram. Of course these will be mostly artistic accounts just because, well I'm an artist and I love art.

1. @colour_me_creative and @Kristinawebb

Kristina Webb inspires me so much, she just never stops drawing and I love her artwork because her head is full of creative inspirational ideas and they just never stop flowing. Here art is amazing and she's from New Zealand. If your an artist then check her out because she's really good and she's also hosting a giveaway at the moment.

2. @becreativei

I came across this account whilst hunting for other art accounts and her account really stood out to me because of the amount of colour that was attached to it. Her drawings are nice and her and a group of artists host competitions where you can win things like 350k shoutouts which is crazy!


3. @zyrarrr

I've always been a fan of Zyra Banez ever since my fashion illustration journey begun. She's inspire me so much and almost everything I know today about fashion illustration came from her and I owe her a big one because it's not everyone that would be so kind to share their tricks and tips with you.

4. @funny_african_pics

I check this account daily, mostly when i'm done with my school work and i'm about to sleep... it ends my day positively because the things they post on there are really funny and I relate to them because I am African and it is absolutely hilarious.

5. @zozeebo

I haven't been a big fan of Zoella's for long because I know of some of her fans from the very beginning at school and they all complain like ''omg, now that she's famous you all wanna like Zoella when nobody knew who she was before blah bla bl b...'' but like, if she wasn't famous then how would we find out about her? I love Zoella and I thhink she's a lovely person, love all her vlogs and blog posts.

6. @efyalaurenxox

Lastly of course is my own, Instagram has become my online portfolio and it's the first place I direct people when they would like to see my designs. I think it's my most interesting social network, my account is a mix of my artwork and my selfies. To see purely art work follow @fashionartbylauren - that's my art account.
Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope you follow all of these accounts because they all are pretty amazing, if you would like a follow from me drop your instagram below.

Lauren x

Human Eye tutorial

Happy new year everyone, you guys already know that i'm three days late so I won't bother explaining! Lol today will be a drawing tutorial. Lately I've discovered that I'm a natural wiz at drawing the human eye so I thought I'd show you guys how I do it. As usual, photo tutorial because I've not gotten too familiar with videos yet but I soon will! Drawing the human eye is trial and error so be patient and you'll get it I also recommend watching youtube tutorials because that's how I learnt.

You don't need many special tools but I recommend a range of pencils, ranging from B to 6B. I'm using my Faber Castell Sketch set and Derwent Sketch pencils. 

You will also need something to blend the different shades of pencil with. I have a pencil stumper and its job is to blend pencils, however an alternative would be a cotton bud. Pencil stumpers are really cheap, I got a pack of 3 for a pound at Hobbycraft and Hobbycraft is an overpriced shop so it means they are cheap everywhere then. 

Of course you will make mistakes so having a rubber is a wise idea too. Let's begin! 

1. Draw the basic shape of the eye. This is based around a leaf shape but has certain dips and concaves that make the shape change and not so much look like a leaf anymore. 

As well as drawing your basic leaf shape also draw your tear duct in the corner of your eye and a light line on the side of the eye to show skin, making your eye a little 3D. Also depending on which eye you tend to draw there will most likely be an eyelid. In some cases when drawing oriental eyes there is hardly an eyelid but you can always add a small line or something. 

2. Darken the iris and the pupil just to show what your working with. Do not darken with the same pencil you sketched the basic shape with. For darkening and shading in the pupil use a 4B or 6B. I used a 4B but I would of like to of used my 6B however I couldn't find it. If you are using one pencil just press harder to make sure you get a darker effect. 

3. Add lines from the iris towards the pupil and lines from the pupil towards the iris. 

Notice that my lines are incredibly fine and detailed. I took my time to do individual strokes. Don't bunch them all up together. That will make a strange connection between the lines. 

4. Draw small lines shooting up from the lines you've drawn already and darken your lines made from the iris to the pupil. 

5. Join the lines up with more lines! Remember to leave your highlight free though. 

6. Shade some areas. Shading is seriously over thought of. Just use the side of your pencil and you'll get an even tone. Shade on the eyelid, inner eye, outside the tear duct on both sides. Here I have added a bottom eyelid and also shaded that. 

7. Using your pencil stumper or cotton bud, blend all this shading together. Inside the eye you want to make a smooth transition from the shading into the White paper so use the pencil stumper to keep the dark parts of the shading in the top and corners of the eye. 

 You should end up with something like this. 

8. Darken some lines and add some shading near the tear duct to create depth. 

9. Draw lashes. Use a sharp 6B or 4B for this and make dark, bold, thick, confident strokes. 

Draw bottom lashes too and then your done!

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial, love you all! If you would like any specific tutorial please comment down below.

Bye! X