How to be a Fashion Illustrator. Using pressed flowers

Hi all! I hope you've been keeping up with my newest drawings and designs, I've been working super hard lately, the good news is i'm going on Holiday in August to Portugal (Faro, The Algarve)  so that will be a nice break! I get asked a lot about my drawing techniques and the way I illustrate, so I decided I'd put together a tutorial for everyone to see, I do things my own way and I experiment a lot until i'm satisfied, the beautiful thing about illustration is that there aren't many rules, It's finished when you say it is, and you can make it how you want to, so keep that in mind, follow what I do or just use a few techniques.

Ok, so first things first, I knew I wanted to decorate this image with pressed flowers (see my blog post on how to press flowers really quickly) So I needed to draw my model in a pose which was pretty relaxed, not too formal and a little interesting, I started my illustration digitally, drawing out all of her body, you may think i've wasted time drawing all of her out and then covering her with petals but you have a lot more freedom to move your flowers around all over the body if it's all completed, if I were to leave the torso and thighs unfinished I may have regretted it if I was going for an asymmetric style.
You wont believe how much of a difference shadows make, if you're into make-up think contouring, exaggerate shadows to emphasise the highlights, I always make the roots on the hair slightly darker and add shadows under the jaw, collar bones and wrists. Once i was happy with my design I printed it out and started to add the finishing touches!

 I collected some flowers, here I've used pale pink role petals, when pressed they had a beautiful colour to them, the little yellow ends had a more saturated colour and they pastel pink was very delicate, I also a had a lot of other flowers to choose from as I pressed a lot to see what kind of look I wanted, I overlaid petals, added pressed buttercups and went through a million different kinds of flower, some looked super dramatic and a little over-whelming, others looked very delicate and feminine like this one!

The Purple flowers were too bright for me, I felt like the suffocated my drawing a little, which is a shame as I adored the colours.

The possibilities are endless with flowers, i'd love to create a range of these to frame and sell, What do you think of the tutorial? I'll be adding a video shortly to show you the process! Thanks for reading x

HOW TO QUICKLY PRESS FLOWERS USING A MICROWAVE

Hi all! I wanted to show you how you can quickly press some beautiful flowers to use in any way, in this tutorial I'll be showing you the process in pictures, there's also a quick video below if you wanted to check that out. Firstly you need to collect your flowers, get a range of colours, shapes and sizes, so you can experiment and start to understand the process and what flowers you're the most pleased with. Once you're happy with the collection of flowers you can begin to arrange them to be pressed, Cut a small square of paper to go underneath your kitchen towel and start arranging, be conscious about the placing and open petals making sure they're flat and straight. 

Place another piece of kitchen roll over your flowers, then another piece of paper over that, you can then pop them into the the microwave with a microwavable weight ( I use a dish or a few flat plates) on top to being the pressing process. If small petals such as daises and little stems then 1/2 minutes should be enough, however you can check and continue heating if they're still a little soft. When completed the petals should be brittle and straight with no bend, the colours should also be slightly darker, If you want to press using traditional methods then the colours will be even deeper than these.

Here are a few examples of petals that i've pressed, as you can see the colours are a lot darker than the above images of when i first collected them. I loved the Yellow Gerbera (I think that's the correct flower, if not then please correct me! ) That particular flower took a lot of heating due to the centre and the petals being very long. I'd say buttercups and rose petals worked the best for me. 

 I really hope you love my video i've also uploaded, I've also created an illustration with flowers and pressed petals which you can see in my new blog post and video! I'd love to know if you like the new videos that i'm making and if you find them useful, etc!
Thanks again for reading x 

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK BACK TO SEE HOW MY

NEXT TUTORIAL WHERE I SHOW HOW YOU CAN USE

THESE PETALS IN FASHION ILLUSTRATIONS.

Free Phone Case?

 I'm so excited to announce my first series of YouTube tutorials on how to illustrate, sew, design and print etc! My first video I made recently showing around my workspace and the little things around that inspire me. It got such a great response, My desk isn't to everyone's liking as it's a little minimalistic, and yes it does take an enormous amount of effort to keep it that tidy if you're as messy and forgetful as me.  So here is the first video. I really hope you enjoy it I'm currently working on a new tutorial, featuring flowers, petals and a few found objects, it's really to show how you can create interesting artwork without feeling like you need to invest in a lot of expensive equipment.





 In so many illustrations I seem to be drawn to flowers, they seem to link in perfectly with my designs.
 I'm also looking for bloggers to interact and collaborate with, I'd love to give away one of my newest pastel phone cases in exchange for a review or feature on a blog/video/instagram post. So if you're interested and think that our styles and viewers are interested in the same things then please, drop me an email at natalielines90@gmail.comnatalielines90@gmail.com or leave me a comment here, obviously i'll only be able to give a few away so please don't be upset if i can't choose you!

Thanks again.