Since I've been back

Since I've been back, the work I created on the trip has been extremely influential! Nearly all the illustrations I created in Antwerp and Paris, I have worked on, added to and used as work for my MA project. The style I developed whilst I was away is the style I feel I will carry on with for the rest of my MA work. I have used the trip work to create all sorts of pieces, from media experiments to promotional materials. The trip was invaluable and I feel my work from now on will be much more accomplished because of it!

Premier Vision and final day

Today was the final day of the trip :(. But there was still one more place to visit before it was over. 'Premier Vision', a fashion trade show. I had never been to a fashion trade show before as I'm not a fashion student, but it was really interesting. It was great to see how many companies used illustration for print in their work. It made me feel like what I want to do in my MA project has a place, a context and that it could lead to a job. Illustrations that are quite similar to what I do are used in all sorts of print designs and I could really see myself in this sort of job. There was also lots of amazing vintage stands to look at. They were very over priced in my opinion because I know that I could find similar pieces on ebay for half the price, but it was great for inspiration. I would really like to use vintage collars in my work because I think this would appeal to my audience.
One of the most influential parts of premier vision was the book stalls. The magazines they were selling were incredible for the price and absolutely beautiful. One magazine 'We Are' was full of dress and T-shirt designs that really fit with what I want to do so I bought a copy. There were lots of books that would be relevant for what I want to do. One book 'Advance Trends 2012 Textura' really influenced me as it showed the colours that will be in trend 2012, I feel this colour pallet will really influence the colours I use.

After Premier Vision, it was sadly time to go home :(. On the ferry back I created another illustration inspired by the whole trip.
We arrived back in Notts around 1.30 am. Although it was great to be home, the trip was definitely the highlight of my MA so far and an extremely invaluable experience!

Trend Union and Fondation Cartier

This Morning I woke up feeling much better and ready for the exciting day ahead. At around 10am we made our way to an exclusive presentation at Li Edelkoort Trend Union, a trend forecasting company. Here they showed us an amazing presentation of all the trends to look forward to in winter 12/13. This is top secret insider information so we were very privileged to be there. Unfortunately because of the secrecy around the information we weren't allowed to take photos. (Although i did sneakily take a few, I wont publish them here becuase I might get in trouble!) I have always been a bit skeptical about trends, I like to think I set them not follow them, ha! However I know that in reality we are all influenced by the trends that surround us. Some of the trends they spoke of, I would really like to use in my illustrations. Trends that stood out to me were ideas on nature such as flowers, birds, leaves, the sea, fur and farmer chic. I also liked the dreamy 'wonderland' that seemed to filter threw all the trends giving everything a fantasy and surreal feel. I was extremely influenced by the younger trends 'The Key', as this is the age group I am aiming my illustrations at. The main trend that stood out was 'Creative Wonderland', a celebration of crafts, cartoons, colourful and creative fashions. I think this sort of trend would work perfectly in my MA project.
After Trend Union we all went our separate ways as it was our last opportunity to see exhibitions we hadn't yet visited.I decided to go see the 'Moebius' exhibition at the Fondation Cartier. Moebius is an illustrator, comic book author and animator who creates amazing surreal and science fiction stories. What struck me most about his work was the sheer amount of it. It was great to see how all his different experiments and quick sketches can lead to such amazing things like 3D films and wall scale murials. The exhibition definitely inspired me to think big and consider how far I could push my ideas.
After the exhibition I was feeling tired so went back to the hotel and just chilled out for the rest of the evening working on a drawing inspired by the things I had learnt today. Another awesome day in Paris!

Crepes and street wandering

I couldn't believe it, by the time I left the museum it was around 4.30. I was feeling a bit ill because I hadn't eaten since breakfast so went and got a delicious crepe. I surprised myself by ordering it all in french! I then decided to just walk the streets and see where I ended up. I knew I would be able to get back to the hotel from anywhere if I found a metro station. Along the way I saw some great shop displays which showed how fashion illustrations can be used commercially. Unfortunately after about half an hour I was feeling really sick, (I think it must have been the oysters!) so found the nearest metro and went to bed!
Despite feeling ill, it was another great day!

Musee des Arts Decoratifs

Woke up this morning still pretty exhausted from yesterdays mammoth day but excited to go visit The Musee des Arts Decoratifs. Here we saw an amazing exhibition featuring designer fashions from the 90s and early 2000s. There were some beautiful creations that I sketched trying to think in terms of my project work. My MA project focuses around the idea of bringing larger body sizes into the fashion industry, so i tried to imagine the clothes in front of me on larger women. I got lots of inspiration for creating shapes and silhouettes with clothes and started thinking about how feathers and furs could be used in my illustrations.
After visiting the fashion exhibition I decided to explore the rest of the gallery and came across lots of interesting works. I stayed in the Art Noveau room for hours taking in all the beautiful shapes and patterns. The use of line from this period is something I really want to take forward in my work.
I also spent a lot of time in the 'Animal' exhibition, which focused on works inspired by animals and nature. The collection of peacock works was really interesting to me because recently peacock feathers keep appearing in my work. An image of a tiger with people hidden in its face made me think about how I could hide figures in my work to add extra dimensions. I was also inspired by some very strange circus freak images as circus and sideshows are another theme I have been exploring lately.

Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Dinner, then BED!

It was starting to get dark so we thought it would be great to go see the Eiffel Tower. When we got there it was sparkling, it was beautiful. We stayed there for a while, just taking in the beauty of the area. It was getting pretty late, but we decided we weren't done yet, so headed over to The Notre Dame. By now we were terribly hungry so found a nice little french restaurant and had some delicious french onion soup. By the time we got back to the hotel it was getting on to 1am, that is a very long day considering we left the hotel at 9.30am, but a great day that I'll never forget!

Next stop the Louvre

Next we decided to go visit The Louvre Museum. It was so beautifully sunny outside that we almost didn't go in and sunbathed outside instead. However we decided to be good students and go educate ourselves. We all had different areas of the museum we wanted to visit, so split of in separate directions. I enjoyed walking around the galleries by myself, not thinking about where I was going and just getting lost. We were in there for hours! I found lots of amazing things that inspired me and drew a couple of sketches. I really enjoyed drawing the statue of Mary Magdalene and exploring her hair, as hair is a recurring theme in my work. I was also struck by the faces in an amazing oil painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence. They had such a beautiful innocent quality that I want to get across in my project work.

Colette

After lunch we headed to Colette, one of the most famous shops in Paris. I really loved the illustrations on the windows and walls. It really reminded me of the sorts of sketches I've been doing on this trip. The shop was an interesting mix of books, music and fashion. I found dresses that were exactly the sort of thing I want to make and made me think about how my illustrations could be placed on clothing. There was also an exhibition of an illustrator called Kevin Lyons who does cartoon like humorous work. I hope to have my illustrations exhibited in a shop like this one day!

sights, sounds and sun

After La Fayette and a failed trip to find a toy shop we went to get some lunch in a delicious Japanese restaurant. We also wondered the streets just taking in the sights, sounds and SUN! (I haven't seen the sun for 6months!) I was inspired by a few shop windows along the way that again made me think about the exposition. The architecture here is just amazing, we had a lot of fun taking pictures and just enjoying the city.

A long and lovely day- Merci

Wow today was such a long but amazing day! I will definitely have to separate it into lots of blog posts.
I will begin with the hotel dog,'Merci' and the 'Galleries Lafayette'
The hotel has the cutest dog, he is my new best friend, I might kidnap him!
This morning we visited an amazing shop called 'Merci'. Its a mixture of a clothing and home-ware, with a library and cafe as well! I was particularly inspired by the way they displayed the products. It made me again consider how I might want to display my products in the exposition. There was also a comical car stuffed with crates outside the shop that caught everyones eye.
After Merci we traveled on the metro to a shopping center called 'Galleries Lafayette'. Again it was mostly designer shopping, which isn't really what I'm interested in. However I did enjoy looking at a lot of the points of sale and found some interesting books to look at. I found a Mac P.O.S that attracted my attention because I have been using peacock feathers in my work. I think I will now try experimenting with peacock feather masks. I also found an old retro advert that might influence the way I approach the catalogue I want to make of my work.

First night in Paris

Today we left the Antwerp hotel at 9 am and arrived in Paris around mid afternoon. Most of us slept the whole way on the coach.
When we arrived we settled in and unpacked, then a group of us headed over to the famous modern art gallery The Pompedou Center. I visited this gallery a few years ago and was so excited to go again. It didn't disappoint. Before even heading inside, the building itself creates a lasting impression. You travel up to the galleries on huge escalators and the view at the top is amazing. Part of my MA project focuses on the idea of the Giantess, the cityscape would fit perfectly in some of my imagery.
The main exhibition they had on was focused on feminist art, a subject that often comes up in my own work, so extremely interesting to me! I was inspired by too many works to mention. Some ideas that came up included turning my illustrations into stuffed dolls and using expressive lines like Kandinsky.
After the Pompedou a large group us found somewhere for dinner. I decided to have oysters, as I've never tried them before. They weren't as scary as I imagined but they didn't taste of much, ha!
It had been a great first night in Paris!

Stephen Jones exhibition

This morning we visited the Stephen Jones Exhibition at the MoMu Gallery. I didn't know much about him and I've never really been into hats, but I was pleasantly surprised by how amazing the exhibition was. Stephen Jones came to fame by designing hats for Boy George, so as you can imagine the hats were pretty crazy. The exhibition really took hold of my imagination and I created quite a few sketches of the hats that inspired me the most. I was also really impressed by the curation of the exhibition, it made me think about how I might want to display my work in the MA exposition. In the MoMu we also had a quick look at some fashion students work, this made me think more about the sorts of outfits ! want to include in my project work.
After the exhibition we explored the city of Antwerp.
Antwerp is so quiet and peaceful. Every single shop seemed to be a designer fashion shop, as if like a strange fashion theme park. We wandered from shop to shop looking at beautiful clothes I will never be able to afford, ha! One shop that really stood out to me was 'RA'. It seemed more like an art gallery with surreal stuffed squirrels hiding in the corners. The skinniest dog I've ever seen that followed me around on its hind legs certainly added to the surrealism!
We also came across a small gallery called The Kunstgalerij Anarto which had a beautiful exhibition by Edwige Fouvry. The exhibition included some hand bags that had been directly painted on to with acrylic paint. My MA project involves transferring my illustrations onto fashion products, so maybe this could be a way to do it.
After the days excitement we grabbed some pizza and headed to bed ready for Paris tomorrow!
Its sad that were only here for a day, I feel like there must be so much of the city I haven't explored. One day I will come back!