A Mid Summer Night's Dream

This is the exercise that I enjoyed the most! From the first group reading (even though this Shakespeare's English was very hard for me to understand, and every classmate had to explain to me something every 5 lines...) to the last drop of paint on the paper was an incredible experience.
Being inspired by an artist was the STARTING POINT to develop the style of the illustrations, I personally tried very hard to get as close as I could to the artist, but my own style always came out which made the drawings even more sparkling!!
Characters also are not easy to develop but if you squeeze the director's idea of what the story is about, and mix it with what you already know about personalities, you are going to have THE BEST COSTUME DESIGN EVER CREATED! That's what's the CHARTS are for people! Very useful!
Thanks Valerie for making us work that hard to become better and better every day!! And thanks Shakespeare for giving us such a good piece of art to work with!

Fabric Research

My research hasn't been very successful, I've walked allover the place to find the fabric I need and it seems like "Old Pink" is not available on the market...maybe couches made of a brocade on this kind of color is not in fashion anymore!!
I'm a little bit worried but for sure I'll find something, perhaps I'm missing THE STORE where there's only pink fabrics to choose from, that will be my dream come true!!!

Mr crabtree and image research

Mr. Crabtree makes part of the School for Scandal. He is about in his late 40's and he's the typical English lord, very wealthy, very good manners, very rich and sophisticated look but extremely talkative. Everything he says he turns it into a huge story, even if it's a lie, with embellished vocabulary he makes it believable to his gossip partners.
He is also Backbite's uncle, which he defends and makes him look like the best man in England.

My inspiration is based on Rococo decorated(very decorated) garments. He will be wearing a coat with pleats at the back to give a little bit of fullness and movement. Underneath he'll have a vest in a contrasting color and under that a lace collar and cuffs shirt. As bottom there is embroidered cuffs pants with opening at the front.
There will be lots and lots of embroidery on center front, pockets, cuffs, pant's cuffs (all made by me I hope...), as Mr. Crabtree wears an old French style fashion garments. Color pallet will include pastel and very rich contrasting colors for lining and embroidery as well...

Alice in Wonderland

As a Costume Designer in progress I can say that the costumes in this film were not just great, they were fantastically beautiful!!!
Collen Atwood it's been one of my favorite costume designers ever, the way she mixes fabrics, use the character's personality and reflects it in garments in incredible.
From the bigining costumes were the main subject on the film. All the guests at the party were dressed in white, Alice on her blue dress, and then when the action begins, the transformation turns into a magical world of change: shifting sizes on her dress when she grows or turned very very small, The Mad Hatter's costume also changed depending on his mood, like the lace cuffs on his shirt tuned from white to intense blue, his jacket changed from gray to deep purple, Alice gorgeous red dress when she arrives to the Red Queen's castle, and like these many details were flowing arround the story whitch made the movie even more joyful to the eye.
I think this movie is a great example for costume designers to see how garments can be transformed in a story without doing too much, just same fabric, different colors and shapes and lots of imagination!

My World's BIRDS

If I Were A Bird

If I were a bird, I'd sing a song
And fly about the whole day long
And when the night comes, go to rest,
Up in my cozy little nest.

by Jackie Silberg

Technique:

Paper Collage on Photoshop Background.

My inspiration is based on Leon Bakst, another wonderful artist form the late 1800 and early 1900, specialized in costume design.
Movement is one of his main characteristics, using all the four points of a square, that also create a magnificent sense of space, and off course fabrics flow look even greater.
This is another technique that I used on my coloring. Is photoshop 100% applied on a pencil drawing. Also, the print on the costume is created on photoshop from scratch.
I like this technique but I'll always be a fan of hand coloring with water colors, pencil crayons and all the wonderful things out there, but it's good to try different stuff and to now them all!!