Nicole B: Textile Designer Boden

As a textile designer, your job heavily relies on computer software. For Example CAD, illustrator etc. Below is a youtube video of Nicola B who is a textile designer at Boden and throughout the video you can see her using computer software to manipulate and develop textile prints and designs. As you can see this is very helpful in the modern world as you can change and develop designs with a click of a button, as apposed to re-drawing ideas out over and over again.
I feel that this job role would be good for me as I like the idea of exhausting ideas for textile prints and creating garments with these prints on them, also using global inspiration to create these designs, however I feel that I would not be creative enough to create a design. 

Final Design for Fashion Illustration Project

Above is my final design for the last project that I have done in my studies. I created this using illustrator and have shown a front and back view of the garment in which I have decided to make.

To make this I have used the pen tool to create the outline and the face, but to create the gingham crosses I clicked on show guides, and show rulers and used the line tool to create some lines which were equally spaced.

Overall I feel that this has worked really well and shows that my drawing is improving, it took me slightly longer to draw this one and I think that shows in the work that I have produced.

Photoshop; What is it Capable of in the Fashion industry

Below are two videos illustrating what the process is in the fashion industry to make a model look good, and also how it may not even have to be a real life model in order to make a good picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUF2zbgBXwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j656_RiO0k

Below is an image that I edited myself. The picture on the left is an unedited image of me, the image on the right is my edit on the picture. As you can see I am not a professional and doesn't look as up to standard as a professionals edit would, but this illustrates how much work goes into each edit.
Firstly I edited the eyes, lips, and hair using the brush tool and overlaying the layer in which I was changing the colour on. I then airbrushed my face and neck to get and even tone. I then took it a step further and removed flaws in my skin (such as moles), using the spot healing tool. Finally i tanned my skin more so I didn't look so pale using the adjustments tool in the image drop down menu. 

Original Image

Edited Image

In the fashion industry, models have to look tall, thin and have what is classed as 'beautiful features', such as straight white teeth, high cheek bones and big bright eyes. However, models are not perfect so once a photo shoot has taken place, it is then edited to make the models features more like this cliché. Most people are against the look of models in images and this has raised issues in the media due to the pressure of looking like these models. I feel that the videos I have posted have allowed the public to realise that even models need editing. So why as a business do we edit our models? Well, I feel that this is due to the idea of clothes looking better on an elongated model. As a fashion student I agree with this, in order to sell garments, they need to be shown on a tall model, this doesn't have to pressure people to look that way, it just a business choice. The choice of model is a tool of marketing to show the garment in its best light, this image does not have to reflect the everyday customer.

I feel that photoshop is a great tool for making this possible and is used daily in the fashion business. 

Alyana Cazalet Illustrator

Alyana Cazalet

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/AlyanaCazalet/view

Above I have attempted to draw in the style of Alyana Cazalet. I found that her style is very interesting and cartoon-like. I think it looks really good and portrays images in a very artistic manner. However I do not think that this style suits me. 

Alyana Cazalet has previously done illustrations for Sainsbury's, Cafe Rouge, and BBC Children's Magazines. She was born and educated in Russia, currently living in London woking as a freelance artist and illustrator.

Overall I have found that I have experimented with this style and tried it but I do not feel that I can pull it off in an artistic manner, however, if I were to use a similar style and customise it to my strengths in drawing I feel that it could work really well. 

Illustrator Pen Tool Experiment

This is my first experiment with a pen tool on illustrator. Using a range of techniques I was able to create a range of patterns.

In order to create the first pattern I made guides to follow using the ruler. Once I had made those, I clicked on corners in order to make a zigzag pattern.

The second one was made using a similar process. But in order to make a separate pattern I had to press the pen tool so I could stop the line I was doing and start a new one.

The third pattern was made using handles on the pen tool. Which means that I could make a curve.
This method was also used when making the forth, but in order to stop the curve and deselect the handle, I had to hold down alt and click on the last point in order to cancel that handle.

The fifth ones were made using the same technique as above but to add detail to the outside I used a different brush.