September Favourites

September is finally over! It's like the most terrifying and annoying month for students! September has been a really successful month for me because I've settled back into school well and progressed with a lot of my art work too. I'd just like to say that suggestions are welcome since I have no idea what to blog about lately, so please drop some ideas in the comments!

BACK TO THE POINT! September Favourites.

Beauty

September has been a month of non stop school and I don't really wear makeup to school (excluding non uniform days). So I've just based this on what I was I was liking through out the summer.

 Sleek CC Cream (Dark)

It's incredibly hard to shop for makeup if you're a dark skinned person and when you tend to find it it's very expensive which is annoying because lighter shades are much cheaper which in my opinion is unfair but then that's a debate for another day lol. I have been liking this CC cream because of its smell. Most foundations have terrible smells. I have 3 of them because they were too dark for my friends and they bought the wrong colour. I couldn't use it for a while too because it was too dark for me too! Summer came and I was getting darker so it helped really and it was great. This is currently my only favourite when it comes to beauty so maybe when October is over then I'll have some new favourites.

Music

You guys know I'm a huge afrobeat fan and I absolutely love afrobeats, I have plenty of favourite artists, but I'll only list a few. These are my top five. One being the best and 5 being the least.

5. Ayo Jay


Ayo Jay has two awesome hits that I love! He's Nigerian as you can tell. I love his voice because he sounds a bit like a kid and it's cute! My two favourite songs this month have been:

Your Number (remix) ft Fetty Wap
Available





4. Wizkid - Expensive sh*t

Wizkid is my overall favourite afrobeats star but this month some songs have beat him. I personally like this song because you can hear and feel the afro and not just the beat. A lot of afrobeat artists are modernizing and westernizing and it's no more afrobeat but just 'beat'. He does a good job at keeping the Afro flow.



3. Patoranking ft Wande Coal - My woman

I have been so obsessed with this song!!! It has been on replay everyday and it won't get out of my head! It's so catchy and was produced by Ghana's sickest DJ - DJ Breezy. The mastermind behind a lot of Ghana's superstars (Joey B. D -Black etc).

2. Cynthia Morgan

To be honest, I only discovered this woman in August and it was probably the best thing I ever did. She is amazing literally - probably the African Nicki Minaj. She has the whole singing and rap thing in her own dancehall style and it's awesome, My favourite songs are:

• Come and do
• German Juice 
• Gat your back ft Stonebwoy and Harmonee
• Mc Galaxy - Go Gaga remix ft Cynthia Morgan

1. Mr Eazi

Mr Eazi is my favourite artist this month. He killed me when he dropped Skintight featuring my favourite Ghanaian soulstress - Efya. The song touches my heart and his voice is unique and his flow is really cool. I also like how he's an artist whose songs have meaning to them. My favourite songs are;

• Skintight ft Efya
• Pipi Dance ft Klu
• Jelele ft MsVee
• Bankulize ft Papi Kojo

Books

Books are not normally a thing I do but I started reading one for my history class and got really interested in it. 

The colour purple is a great book about the Deep south in America when Blacks and Whites were segregated and slavery was around, its a great read however the words are quite graphic.

Thank you guys so much for reading my post x

Song of the day: Stonebwoy - Go Higher

well - The new school year.

Well haven't I been the most terrible blogger ever? Inconsistent, short, stubby posts.

I just want you guys to know that the reason I haven't been posting is that September is a pretty busy month (as you all know). New school year. This is my last year in school so the pressure is on me to get my head down and really do some work but I will try and post as much as I can.

• Back to early mornings
• Annoying people
• Boring Classes
• Late nights 
• Not enough sleep 
• etc.

I will try and post once every week, so please watch out for that x

Copic Marker Alternative - Finecolour Markers

Hey guys! Today I'm going to be talking about a Copic Marker alternative that I've recently purchased to hopefully help those on their "perfect pen" quest.

These pens are called Finecolour markers, unheard of right? They took me by surprise as well! I found out about these pens whilst watching a video called "Copic Marker Alternatives" by Baylee Jae on YouTube and I was instantly taken away by their price and I was onto it straight away! So today I'm here to tell you guys about the pros and cons and how they work in comparison to my copics and promarkers! Let's get started! 

Disclaimer; I'm not sponsored, I just have a love for what I do so I invest a lot in it. I also don't get everything in one go, I get bits and pieces as I go along and I started collecting a few years ago that's why I have a lot of pens :). Also this is my personal opinion about these pens which is nor right or wrong!

 

So here's my brief intro in quick bullet point form:

• Cheap copic marker alternative
• Double ended tip
• Available in 180 colours
• Alcohol based markers

So, I found out about these markers from Baylee Jae on youtube. She had a video called "Copic marker alternatives". I recommend watching that very much to find about other Copic marker alternatives. Hearing about these pens was probably one of the best days ever and I ordered them from eBay immediately after watching the video.

Pros:

• Incredibly Cheap

From eBay, I got a set of 36 colours and they cost me about £14 but that was because I had a half price voucher. If you were to purchase them normally you're looking at about £25 which is still cheap to me. If you were to buy the Copic Ciao 36 set it would cost you £59.81 (and that's the eBay price).

• Alcohol based (Like Copics and Promarkers)

They are made with alcohol, so they still do the same job as Copics just with less quality.

• Blendable

They do not come with a colourless blender but if you use colours in the same colour group they do blend, you just have to layer it more to make sure all the colours blend in.

• Dual ended (Double ended)

Just like The Copic Ciao's and Sketches they're double ended with a bullet tip and a chisel tip. However Copic's have a brush tip which cleans up your drawing and the Finecolour's have a bullet tip which makes your drawing looks more rough. Whatever your drawing style, this may be a pro or a con for you.

• Rectangular Shape

This is a pro because unlike Copic Ciao's (which are round) they don't roll around the surface that you're drawing on.

• They Hold more ink than Copics

This means they will last longer, in general the round markers hold less ink than the rectangular shaped ones.

• Colour Codes

They have colour codes ontop unlike the Copic Ciao's and it is easier to pick out colours once you know them.

Cons:

• Not as bright as Copics

The ink quality is probably a 75 instead of 100 but it still does the job however they just look a bit patchy in comparison to the Copic Ciao's.

• Looks very much like a Copic Sketch copy

They didn't do very well in making it look unique, it looks exactly like a Copic Sketch which puts people off but might be a con because you can sort of tell people you bought Copic's lol.

• Available in only 112 colours

Copic Ciao's are available in 180 colours and Sketch markers have over 200 colours.

• Not refillable

Unfortunately you can't refill Finecolour markers and with Copic's you can. If a colour runs out the only way you'd find it again is to buy another set because so far where I shop (eBay) they do not sell them individually.

• Long shipping time

The delivery may take a while because they do not have these anywhere in the world but China. If You're looking for a marker made In the UK I suggest you go for Letraset.


Who are these for? -  Beginner artists who are exploring or people on a tight budget.
Worthy of their Price? - Definitely

Do they achieve their purpose?

They do the exact same thing as Copic's, it's just that the end result looks a little bit patchy and rough.

What could make it better?

• A brush tip
• Better quality ink
• A better design

The results

 

This is a drawing done with only Finecolour markers:

 

 

 

This is a drawing done with only Copic Ciao's:

 

 

Buying Advice:

Have you decided if they're for you? If they are then here's some advice for when buying them:

• The best place to buy them is eBay - no rip off just real prices
• If the Price is higher or the same as Copic's you're being ripped off.
• If you're not sure about them the best set to get is the 36 set or 12 set.

Well my Lovelies, thank you so much for reading my lengthy review and if there's anymore things you'd like to see on This Blog to do with my art and materials please comment below.

Song of the day: Fuse ODG - Only

GCSE Art: The figure

Hey loves, i'm doing this series to help anyone who's doing GCSE Art and also to track my progress. I'll be doing this in little stages and by the topics so it's easier for you guys to read and process. All pictures in here are from my own sketchbook which stay on my blog please!

The first topic is ''The figure'', I got a B on this topic so I can give some constructive advice as how to go about it. This doesn't have to be in any particular order but they're all requirements for your sketchbook to get a top end grade and when I show yu my sketchbook you'll see why the B rather than the A.

DISCLAIMER: I like to say that i'm not the best in anything I blog about so this is just some advice x

1. Dictionary/ Thesaurus description

This one of the first things you should have in your sketchbook, or somewhere at least. Try and make it a bit creative but don't take up a whole page. Art is about creativity but the examiner does realize when you waste pages to fill up your sketchbook.

This was My First page, It has a title made out of stick men and my dictionary description is in the right hand corner, I'll zoom in in the next pic. I've also done figure studies off he top of my head to decorate the page and I have done a small mindmap of artists to investigate, after I investigated them I put clouds around the ones I was interested in.

2. Figure studies

Even if you're not told to, just do heck loads of figure drawings, to decorate pages and for random pages and so on, it shows you know how to draw one and have experimented with different positions. After all the topic is the figure and there's no harm in drawing some.

3. Collages 

Collages are key for examiners and I have no Idea why, this is what got me a B instead of an A. My collage wasn't big enough and didn't have enough pictures. A good tip would also be to add annotations which I'll explain later. 

Its even called a tiny collage. 

               

This was okay too but I guess I could have done more to achieve my A! 

4. Artist Investigations

You need to show plenty of evidence that you've looked at other artists besides yourself and the best way to do this is through what I like to call Artist investigations and Art analysis (MOUTHFUL). It's basically a way of analysing art. My top tip here is too write as little as possible regarding the artist's life, their parents, where they went to school and their favourite ice cream flavour. Focus on the artwork and say what it is about it that you like and WHY. Here's a format I follow:

Describe: 

• What do you think it's about? - Could there be a story behind it, a mood? or an event? 
• What does it look like? - Colour, Texture, Tone, Composition, Scale
• How was the artwork produced? - Materials and time 
• Context: 

- What was happening around the world at the time this artwork was produced? Is there any connection? 

- Why may the artist have produced this artwork.

The artist's intent: 

• What is the focal point? (Where is the point of main attraction?) 
• Why is it the scale that it is?
• What kind of composition has the artist used? (where on the page has he placed things and why?) 

OTHER STUFF lol: 

• Colour - Bright? Bold? Vivid? Dark? 
• Line - Calm? Rough? Vertical? Horizontal?
• Tone - Dark or light? Contrast? Shadows and highlights? 
• Shapes - Simple or Complex?
• Texture - Rough? Smooth? 

Here are some of my Artist investigations: 

Artist Investigation on Kelly smith who focuses on the torso

Artist investigation of Carly Ashdown, created the background myself with watercolour.

As part of your artist investigation it is important that you show how you responded to the artist and I call the the artist response. You make an artist response by creating a piece of artwork ''in the style'' of the artist and this doesn't have to be an exact copy of their artwork, it can be just using their; theme, colour pallete, objects, ideas etc. 

For Carly Ashdown this was my response: 

I also did an artist investigation and response to Wendy Ortiz: 

Investigation

Response... ALWAYS SIGN YOUR WORK! 

5. Experimenting with media 

I'm not a fan of being an artist who uses every material under the sun but unfortunately in your sketchbook you do have to. Use loads of different medias and annotate around them. (Write about what you used, whether you like it or not and whether you might use it in your final piece.

Here I also experimented with colours and different media to show how I'm thinking about my final piece. I had interest in the watercolours, My copic colours and also using some pencil.

6. Finally plan your final piece. 

I started experimenting with the idea of a devil and an angel and doing some sketches (thumbnails of how I wanted it to look like)

The examiner is also an artist, So any copying done
will most likely be noticed. So be safe than sorry and
just mentioned what you used to help you.

I planned my final piece in my book and since we're allowed out sketchbook this was really helpful. Here I did some experiments with colour and what and where I was going to place stuff.

Thanks for watching, these are all the basic steps you need for your GCSE sketchbook :). Please comment if you liked it and share this blog post and also comment if you think I missed anything out.

The Blog Tour Award

Hey everyone, i'm back again with the blog tour award! I was nominated by my favourite blogger friend (love you all though!) - Izzy! Please visit her blog, I love her posts and videos and i'm sure you will too.

The Rules: 

• Pass the tour onto at least four other bloggers. 
• Give your nominees the rules and specify the Monday in which they should post their nomination answers
• Answer the four questions about your creative process, which allows other bloggers and visitors to understand what inspires you to do what you do. 
• Compose this one-time post on a specific Monday (date TBC by your nominator)

1. How does your work differ from others in your genre? 

I cross between so many genres so I don't even know! Here and there I dip in and out of fashion and art, I also sometimes blog about beauty and lifestyle! I don't even know, I'd say it's different because I am my own genre and I don't really have a genre.

2. How does your writing / creative process work? 

I only blog when I get an idea, which is kind of bad... I sit and wait for ideas instead of going to look for ideas. That needs to change I guess. However when I do blog, I think about the next few blog posts then write them all and then set times and dates for me to post them so that I don't fall behind.

3. Why do you write and create what you do?

I blog to find people like me, chances are if someone is reading your blog (which has a certain topic or theme) will like the same things as you. I also started blogging to get out of my Shell, I'e been blogging for a year and half now and It's brought a lot of confidence because writing down your thoughts and publishing them for the world to see isn't always that easy. I also blog to get myself known, this is partly why my blog isn't anonymous - I have a purpose and a dream and that's to be a fashion illustrator/designer therefore I have to work towards it and blogging is part of the networking I do to try and achieve this along with me turning my instagram into an art account, having a deviantart account and etc. I started off creating fashion illustrations for fun and then it turned into a hobby and now it's a must do lol! I draw everyday because that's the only way to make progress and move on with it, I do it because it's my dream.

4. What are you working on at the moment?

With artwork, I'm working on a new collection inspired by Ostrich fur and I'm also working on using different techniques and different materials. With Loveheart Doodles I am currently working on a new blog design and new types of posts. With regards to networking I'm working on getting a high amount of IG followers because everybody knows that's where you start lol and also preparing a new Youtube channel which will be ready and in full gear by January 2016.

My Nominees:

Bria Lou - http://louleecutie.blogspot.co.uk
Lilliana - http://fashionqueenbyme.blogspot.com
Peace - http://waitwhatok.blogspot.com
Harel - http://wwritingg.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading x

Technical delays!

I have been literally the worst blogger ever and there is so much I need to do on my blog and fix that's why there has been so much delays and not enough blog posts coming to you guys x 

I love this blog very much and it's a very big part of me, so if I don't post for a while it just means that I am a bit busy at the moment but I'll never abandon it and leave it forever, I'll always be back. 

I'm on a lovely summer break now and o have the chance to work on many things with you so, I actually can't wait to start them. 

I've got some new DIY tutorials to show you and some new ootd's. 

I'll be blogging this afternoon so watch out for me! 

Lauren x

New illustration: Headphones in, World out

Hi guys, so I've been going out of my horizons lately and I'm really excited about it. A lot of people think that I stick to one art which is fashion illustration but lately that's not true. Sometimes a break really helps and just doing something different is fun.

As I'm crazily obsessed with creating at art, looking at art, sharing art, being art and so on I woke up at 6am yesterday and felt the urge to start drawing. 

Now, always before I start drawing I look for reference images and inspiration. I looked on tumblr and Pinterest on the theme summer and found a lot. I was focusing on dressed but I came across a line art of a girl wearing headphones. I really liked this picture and decided to do something similar. 

I'm proud of this piece because I used watercolour and not my Copics (skin tones have ran out). Creating skin tones with watercolour has always been very scary to me because it looks like you need to be an artistic master to make all the highlights and shadows and actually mix colours to make the skin colour where as when I use my Copics the skin colours and already there and you just layer them. So I'll give a little guideline on how to do this but hopefully I can one day do a tutorial. 

I used my Reeves watercolour pan with 12 primary colours and mixed a lot to get the skin tone I got.

Thanks for reading guys! 

Song of the day: Mary J Blige ft Trey Songz - Hood Love