| fashion musings, art-inspiration and thoughts from my home studio…

Cherry blossom viewing >_<“

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Cobaltcafe

Happy Monday all! I hope you’ve had a good weekend and if you’re UK-based like me, I certainly hope you made the most of the sunshine – it seems to rain all the time at the moment.

Apologies for the radio silence (again! – a running theme for me?) but I have a new illustration to share with you today and a little story behind it. I recently came back from my cherry blossom trip in Japan (Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe – you name it I was cherry blossoming it) and felt inspired to draw something to celebrate all things sakura

I also wanted an excuse to illustrate the Louis Vuitton SS12 Woman’s RTW and nothing felt more natural than to illustrate the fairytale like dresses in a pretty, pink environment!

Please find “Cherry Blossom” below and some inspirational photos from my time in Japan. Enjoy! x

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It’s spring! At last!

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Cobaltcafe

So, apologies for the radio silence, I haven’t been able to devote much time to the good old pen and ink lately as I’ve been preoccupied with *other things*. But I’m feeling much better now and am completely back on track with a little spring illo that will hopefully brighten up your week! >_<”

(even though for some reason it’s been snowing in some parts of the UK, it’s technically supposed to be spring :p)

Crazy huh? It’s my little ode to this spring’s palette and the art of wearing prints! No I’m not a huge print wearer (actually, make that -> I tried to buy some prints and failed) but I love the idea of wearing prints head to toe. I’ve matched some floral and geometric prints together in this illo and (gasp!) added a hint of *le sporty* with her casual pants and transparent jacket and um… what’s suppose to be perspex wedges.

For more print inspiration, check out NET-A-PORTER’S Techno Tropics trend edit here. Yes, it may hurt your eyes but try it, you’ll probably be able to pull it off more than me!

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Bourjois Pop-up Boutique – photos & sketches

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Cobaltcafe

Thank you everyone who dropped by the lovely Bourjois Pop-up Boutique at the Beach Blanket Babylon Bar in Shoreditch last weekend. If I managed to do a fashion sketch of you and your friends then I hope you loved what I did and had fun!

To celebrate such a lovely event here is a round up of a few snaps and sketches for you to enjoy. Happy Wednesday all! x

Limited edition Bourjois Round-pot box set that I designed with Bourjois >_<”

Image © James Basire

With the lovely Beverley Knight!

With the lovely Stacey Solomon and her pal >_<”

And now, a few of the sketches I drew/painted over the weekend! Please note, these are photos so the quality isn’t my usual art-scan level

Thank you Bourjois for inviting me to draw live and for giving me the opportunity to work with you, I have loved every minute of it!

Posted in Cobalt Cafe on Tour, Featured! | 2 Comments

Happy Valentines day!

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Cobaltcafe

Well, the name of this post is quite self-explanatory (!) so I will just share with you this illo of my new webcomic characters, The Higgs.

The launch of this is still work in progress (or, WIP to show I’m web-wordy and in) but for now, here are the three protagonists and their names >_<”

The Higgs will be a fashion-inspired webcomic, centred around three best friends who are dolls – since Valentines is a day of love, I thought it would be great to celebrate friendship and all things sweet through this illo!

Their outfits are SS12 inspired and I have picked them to match each other. For the actual real-life pieces, look below, screenshots taken from Vogue.co.uk.

Anyway, whatever you’re up to today – let’s each loads of chocolate! Yay!

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Bourjois Pop-up Boutique – live drawing!

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Cobaltcafe

Happy Monday all! This week is going to be a very exciting and busy one for me as I will be drawing live personalised sketches at the Bourjois Pop-up Boutique to celebrate beauty and fashion, as well as the start of London Fashion Week >_<”

*My illustration for the event, which will also be printed on exclusive Bourjois box-sets of beauty pots, just for the occasion!

The Bourjois Pop-up Boutique is open from Thurs – Sun at various times and will feature makeovers, nail art, prizes, goodie bags and T4 will be there presenting too! I will be offering free personalised Bourjois-style sketches. Just come up to my area and let me sketch you and your friends!

The event is free and is based at the Beach Blanket Babylon Bar in Shoreditch, nearest tube is Old Street.

READ ON FOR MORE INFORMATION AND HOW TO GET THERE

Hope to see you there!

Posted in Cobalt Cafe on Tour, Illustration of the day! | 2 Comments

The Good Fashion Show – Art Exhibition Sat 18th Feb

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Cobaltcafe

Happy Wednesday all! I’d like to share some exciting news! I have been invited to exhibit a painting for The Good Fashion Show which takes place at London House (Holborn Tube) on Sat 18th February.

My painting “Beautiful Ensemble” will be exhibited with other artists’ work during the day market, and here’s a very little teaser of what to expect:

So if you’re in London on Sat 18th Feb, why not pop by to say hello and view the full piece? Day tickets to The Good Fashion Show are £5 each - there will be plenty of things to do with a day market of ethical and vintage clothing stalls, scented candles, organic cakes and cosmetics to browse and buy >_<. I will also be selling a very limited edition of prints and postcards of this exhibition piece, with a percentage of the proceeds going to charity.

If you’re looking for some catwalk action and live music, the evening runway show might be more your style – Omar (of this song’s fame!) will be opening the catwalk and there will be a lot of performances and fun. I will be there to soak up the ethical atmosphere!

BUY TICKETS FOR THE GOOD FASHION SHOW HERE >>

Hope to see you there!

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My ShopStyle DE illustration for Berlin Fashion Week

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Cobaltcafe

I know that I shared a photo of this a few weeks ago on my Facebook/Twitter pages but I thought it would be the perfect time now to share the full illustration that I created for ShopStyle DE.

We went for a cool, graphic style, as if she was a luxury fashion graffiti, but still with the delicate brush strokes in most of my work.

And here’s a photograph of it in use taken by Kristin Knox of The Clothes Whisperer – it was on the front of the Berlin Fashion Week program!

As always, it’s such a pleasure to work with ShopStyle and with every commission by them I feel a good challenge and also feel my work improving too (hope you to do!).

If you’d like to see more of my work with them you can win tickets to London Fashion Weekend (Feb 17th – 19th) – just enter on ShopStyle’s blog here!

Over and out x

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Peplum + Pretty Interiors

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Cobaltcafe

The SS’12 trend that I’m completely in love with at the moment is the Peplum. If you’re curious, Vogue’s trend report here gives you a mini explanation and lovely examples on the catwalk.

My take is that it’s a pretty frill that covers your shape gracefully and gives you a beautiful silhouette. Having said that, it’s freezing at the moment and I’m padded out in a funky jumper, scarves, fingerless gloves and very thick socks, so in true wishful thinking style, I have drawn a quick sketch in honour of the cute SS12 shape to come:

I hope you like it! It’s interesting what can happen when you let the inks flow and do their own thing. Apart from the pencil sketch, I just let the brush do what it wanted to do and decided not to be controlling. It needs a bit more work but for now, I’m ok with it >_<

And now on to pretty interiors…

Over the weekend I visited a friend’s flat in West Hampstead. To my utter surprise her flat was decorated beautifully around some of my art prints. I loved it all so much I thought I’d share you photos of her beautiful flat! Enjoy and see if you can spot my prints! >_<*

If you like her style why not catch on her Twitter? Or visit her Tumblr x

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Winter Brights…

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Cobaltcafe

I feel like I’m in two minds when it comes to what to wear at the moment: part of me still wants to hibernate in black and greys, trudge around in my boots, but the other part of me (mainly due to SS12 commissions) wants to go all bright and summery.

So, to pick up a happy compromise I present a super quick sketch of five fun ways to feel like summer, but dress for winter. It’s not rocket science, it’s winter brights!