Keep your heels and your standards high

Good Morning everyone! Thank-you for the increase in new followers, if you're reading now, Hello! 

 I wanted to let you know about a little task i've set myself, in the name of creating new content, in a fast and interesting way, I'm creating new illustrations everyday from yesterday to the 22nd July (My Birthday) So i'm excited to show you my first drawing, I've been wanting to draw some stunning high heels on top of my favourite books for a while now, A print which would look beautiful in the room of any fashion and shoe lover, Chanel is an enormous inspiration of mine so I had to sneak that book in too.

Prints are available for a cheeky £10 so get it here

Congratulations Olivia Palermo

My favourite lady in fashion Olivia has gotten married in a wonderfully quiet ceremony to her partner of 6 years, Johannes. I've always loved Olivia's style, she's always been able to pul off the most gorgeous outfits in an effortless way. something i've always been envious of, She really reminds me of Audrey Hepburn in some of her outfit choices. If you've been on Olivia's website you can see some of the official photographs released by her, in the most beautiful tule skirt with floral detailing, and a round neck jumper with three quarter length sleeves, A lot of people has expressed their concerns with her wedding dress, but I adore it, it's simple, stylish and a little different, She also chose to wear blue Manolo's as her "something blue" which is a really unique touch. As soon as i saw the photos I had to draw it,  I used little flecks of glitter and fresh flowers as props to add on top of my drawing, the photos had such a fresh natural look I wanted to add to that and use the glitter as textured confetti, I love drawing 2 dimensionally on photoshop but lately I've loved adding extra 3d props to make the illustration a little more interesting,

You can see the lovely article about Oliva's dress here, Photograph reference taken by Johannes Huebl

What do you think of Olivia's dress and my illustration?

I added a small floral circle

I played with some glitter to make some confetti

Want a personalised wedding Illustration? I charge £100 for any size up to A3 printed and posted. You can purchase it HERE

ENTER "SUMMERWEDDING" AT THE CHECKOUT FOR 10% OFF

Company Magazine July

Hello! My new illustrations for company magazine have just been released in their July Issue, it's about amazing festival make-up, featuring my illustrations, I worked so hard on these and wanted to make sure all the colours were bright, and popped.  I loved this project, lately I've felt that my work has taken a big leap and i've definitely made a conscious effort to spend a lot more time to get that extra detail in, At the time it's hard to see the difference but comparing it to old work makes me feel a lot better!

Do you see a difference in my work? I've uploaded a high-res Gif of the new illustrations so you can see some details, i based the different looks over one eye so you can really see the affect different shapes and colours have on an eye. My favourite is the orange and purple look, the colours are so punchy! 

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.

New Items added to the shop!

Hey Everyone!

 Thank-you for the new followers, I hope that I'm creating interesting posts to keep you reading, I wanted to tell you all about what i've been up to lately, there's a lot going on which i'm really excited about, I'm trying to build up a lot of my physical work, printing onto fabrics to make cushions and other things. I've built up more stock for my iphone cases 4/5 which are £10 each and can be purchased off my brand new website shop.natalielines.co.uk

 It's so exciting to start selling these again, as I print them myself I had a lot of learning to do in terms of working out how to get the best print, choosing the best colours, tweaking certain settings, and of course printing them onto the case. As always there are a few teething problems but I'm so proud to say that I think I've ironed them all out now and they're the best quality they can be, I've also had interest in some shops stocking them! (if you're someone who's interesting in stocking the cases then please email me)

I've also been building up more cushions, finally getting the nature set printed, in a stunning slate grey too, it's limited stock as I want to see how they sell! and my absolute favourite are my new sunglasses cases, I have them in the kitty print, feathers and some more brighter and bolder fabrics. I'm always losing my favourite sunglasses so now I've got something to put them in (although I'm a little spoilt for choice) I also have them as little bags which can be used for change, jewellery, etc. I was going to make a few tote bags however I think the market it saturated with them unfortunately.