Tuesday, November 30, 2010

the cleverness of me!







As I was working on a project on this Tuesday morning, still in my pjs, a particularly useful idea suddenly came to me (looking back, it wasn't really that big of a deal) and suddenly I heard a little voice say, "Oh the cleverness of me!"  I replied, Oh, Peter you silly boy.  I took that as my cue and decided to dress up Pan-inspired.  Hooray!  All ready to fight pirates!

Monday, November 29, 2010

grumpy girl









I woke up and realized I didn't care even a little bit what I wore, so I wore a sweater that I didn't care about.  I think this outfit is nice in theory—I like the colours together, the texture, etc, but it just made me grumpy all day wearing it.  The sleeves were loose and baggy and would get in my way.  The skirt had one of those hook-eyelet clasps above the zipper on the side, and it poked my skin and annoyed me.  Only my tabi socks and loved-to-pieces grey jeans could cheer me up.  Blerg. It might be time to move on from this sweater.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

improvised lace













For various reasons, I ended up sleeping over at my parents'. I hadn't planned on this, so I only had yesterday's outfit and one recently-laundered lace shirt to throw in the mix! Oh no! Same is boring, so I did my best! to make up something new. Mum generously shared her belt with me, and it turns out I liked it so much she let me keep it and I wore it again for the next two days.

Wearing a scarf around my head turned out to be really cozy.  I'm considering adopting a 50s(?) movie star look, except I don't really like wearing sunglasses...

Saturday, November 27, 2010

bossy princess




Oh, oh!  An excuse to dress up!  My littlest brother's birthday was Sunday but he was headed back to school that day, so we all got together Saturday night and had Chinese food.  I ordered Princess Chicken!  It's a good thing that dish is so delicious (despite all the green peppers, which I eat first to get rid of), because I can never resist it when I see that name.

(meep... just barely fit everything in the tags field)

Friday, November 26, 2010

cool friday








These light blue drawstring pants are another item of clothing that frequently stumps me—I can't decide if I like the crinkly-bunchy look of the drawn up pants or if I think it's excessive (the drawstrings go most of the way up, from ankle to the side-pockets).  This time I spiced up the look by making the drawstrings into multi-loopy bows, like little pom-poms!  Tada!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

thanksgiving dreams






I am a fickle lass.  I couldn't bring myself to post more plain old black and white sketches—it's so booooring!  I need colour.  So I did my best to colour these all fast-fast.

So, belatedly, Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrated it!  I hope you had lots of yummy food and a pleasant break from the normal routines!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

red-orange-yellow-yellow









I don't remember what I was fretting about when I drew this picture... hmm.  Anyway, I'd just done my laundry (at my parents' house) the day before and came back with some of my favourite items.  So I wore them all at once :D  Skinny jeans, yellow tshirt, tabi socks...

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

second grade self






Last day of my temporary job!  I wore this outfit in honour of my 7 year old self, whose most favourite ever colours were fuchsia, violet and blue-green.  I still remember sitting at an elementary school table colouring a picture of flowers with my treasured crayons in those three colours.  While I was working in the design room, the young daughter of one of the designers came to meet her mum, and she too was decked out in pinks and purples.  We matched!

Monday, November 22, 2010

stepping on roses





I went and coloured this one after all (really quickly, like in 10 minutes), because I liiiiike it.  I went back to helping out as a designer, and they put me to work cleaning the lower leaves and outer petals from the roses.  By the time I finished the job, I found myself standing in a crimson and green sea of rose petals and leaves.  So dramatic!

Also, one thing I appreciate about glasses is being able to tuck a flower between the frame and my head, just above my ear.  Flowers are nice accessories.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

dramatic colourless lys








I am trying out posting just the sketches, no colour.  It's not as exciting, but at least I can keep up this way.  If you feel inclined to colour them yourselves, go ahead! (and let me see too :D)  At this point I think most of the things I wear have been worn in previous posts, but if you're unsure about the colours, just make it up however you like!

[jan 2011 edit: i couldn't stand it; the lack of colour was making me sad.  so now it's in colour, along with the others I originally posted in b/w.]

Saturday, November 20, 2010

curry flurries










Working on catch-up, still.  Maybe I need to go back to just posting these as b/w sketches and worry about colour when I have an endless supply of free time again.  Hmm.


Anyway, I got a little dressed up to go out for lunch with my dad at an Indian restaurant down the street from me.  This past... spring? I discovered an Indian curry cookbook (660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer) at the library, and I've been in love with Indian food ever since.  But so far I'd only ever made it myself, so I was curious about what the food at a restaurant would be like!  They had a lunch buffet, so we got to sample a bunch of dishes.  It was all tasty, but I think next time I'll try ordering off the menu to experience the food at its best.  Now I'm even more determined to try making paneer with goat milk someday...

Friday, November 19, 2010

christmas elfin





I was called in to work in my mum's department at work, helping them design floral arrangements while one of the regular designers was out with a broken arm (of course it would happen at the busiest time of year for them). Mum had talked to me the previous week about possibly helping out, but it wasn't until 10pm Thursday night that she actually called me and asked if I'd be willing to come in on Friday. Of course, I agreed :D

Afterwards, I went to see Scott Pilgrim (for the third time) with friends!

I realized while colouring this drawing that I'd forgotten to write in what all I was wearing, so I had to search my memory for the colour of the shirt and the rose earrings (I have two pairs of rose earrings, in pink and in red). That's the danger of getting behind on these. But I recalled the purple shirt that almost-matched the bandana, and I figured I would have worn red roses since I was dressing in Christmas colours (for which purple totally counts—it's an advent colour!)

Thursday, November 18, 2010

moss forest




In my internet browsing and wandering, I came across a mention of "mori girl," one of many (manymany) fashion trends in Japan.  Mori means forest, so the trend aims for a natural, woodsy, fairy-ish look (or something like that).  I thought it sounded just lovely :D

This outfit doesn't exactly fit that image (the fairies I know prefer skirts), but it's got the forest part, anyway.  You can imagine I'm a moss-covered tree in the middle of deep woods. Maybe it's the morning of an early frost...

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

elegance




I had to start a new layer in Photoshop for nearly every item of clothing in this outfit, what with all the sheer layered items.  Gotta keep it exciting!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

piratical



This is exciting, right!?  Look how awesome I am!!

In high school, or rather right after graduating high school, I went through a pirate phase (try and guess what year that was and what movie hit theaters that summer and it'll all make entirely too much sense).  But I suspect even before that I had a soft spot for them, as a fan of Peter Pan and his wonderful, exciting battles with Hook.  I asked my brother while wearing this outfit what he thought my theme was, and he was initially stumped.  Maybe the red-green christmas colour combo threw him off, but when I told him "I'm a pirate!" he said, "Oh yeah, Disney style with all the stripes."  I never really thought about Disney being the one to popularize stripes on pirates before... but they also seem to have established the "Alice is blonde and wears a blue dress" rule.  So apparently Disney's depiction of pirates have made lasting impressions on me.

Monday, November 15, 2010

bored nostyle








This is Bored Lys: "who cares if anything matches" edition (although maybe the socks and orange shirt are close). I was actually going to wear a red-white striped shirt with this too, but I changed my mind.

I can't be awesome every single day... but I'll try to make up for it with the next day's outfit.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

un poco rococo





There! See, I have not abandoned you! An update... an outfit over a week old, but it's colourful and lacy and pretty, so you'll forgive me? :D

I have many more drawings of outfits to post, I just have to scan them and make them nice and colourful. But I will do that in the coming days! Maybe not tomorrow, as tomorrow is Thanksgiving (despite the date on this post—it's backdated to correspond to the day the outfit was worn, not the day I post) and I'll be spending it with my family.  But look for more soon!

In any case, I like wearing (and making) knit scarves, but dressy-type scarves can be nice too (in other words, I'm thinking I need to acquire a couple more for this winter). They keep my neck warm, which is good because most of my shirts have wider or more open necklines. And they can be worn so many different ways! When I wore this outfit, I seriously considered wrapping the scarf around my head in a piratesque-fashion... but I decided my neck needed the warmth more, and my hair was too cute to cover up. Next time, though...

Saturday, November 13, 2010

slapjack happy












It's the night of the (annual?) Escanaba in da Moonlight-watching party at my friends' place!  I attempted to dress up like a Yooper, but I'm not sure anyone caught on without me pointing it out.  Oh well, it amused me anyway.

The plaid shirt and boots both came from my brother.  I felt like some kind of bizarre godzilla clomping around in the boots :D  But they stayed on as long as I kept the shoelaces tied tight!  And I discovered that flannel shirts are soooooooooo waaaaaaaaarm.  I think I want a couple (in my size, though).

Friday, November 12, 2010

stepping on pearls



















So I put together this fancy monochromatic outfit and then was disappointed because I didn't have anywhere to go to show it off. But then I ended up going to the library and the grocery store after all. I'm sure they appreciated my snazzy hat and super-cute heels.


You appreciate them, right?

Thursday, November 11, 2010

maize and blue plus green









Happy lucky 11-11 day!!  Somehow, whenever I decide to wear one yellow item, it turns into wearing a bunch of yellow.  I've also picked up a tendency to pair it with shades of blue.  Oh no!  Is it because they're the colours of my little brother's school?  My mum is always going on about "maize and blue" and I admit the colours do look quite nice together.  But I'm wearing green too, so I guess I'm still okay...

Oh, that reminds me!  I think it was in fourth grade; I had this navy blue cardigan/sweatshirt (with navy print sweatpants?? I can't quite remember) that I liked to wear with a mustard-gold turtleneck.  But then!  I found out my teacher was a State-fan, and bitterly opposed to those colours.  And he was like the awesomest teacher ever, so I trusted his judgement of college sports teams whole-heartedly.  I never wore that outfit again :(

Oh well.  It sounds like a kinda dorky outfit anyway, now that I think about it.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

the princess swoons



My landlady said I looked like a princess when she saw me wearing this outfit!  Hee!!  I really, really (reallyreallyreally) love the red lace over yellow tights.  It's so lovely~  Also, I seem to have gotten stuck on the yellow-purple colour scheme.  But I love it, so...

The book in this drawing is the last volume of my favourite manga (世界でいちばん大嫌い, or I Hate You More Than Anyone), which I read last night.  It's a wonderful series :D  (and much more full of love and happy and adorableness than the title might imply!)

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

nice guy pose!












For this and the next day's drawing, I let a bit of my geekiness out.  Heh heh...

Here I drew myself sort-of like a certain character from a certain manga (Japanese comic) series, simply because I happened to be looking at a picture of him when I opened my sketchbook to start drawing. Sometimes I just need to draw in a different style than the usual.  If you don't know who the character is, don't worry about it :D  If you do... hurrah!

Monday, November 8, 2010

fancy girl












I have been waiting for the right moment to wear this necklace—I ordered it from Forever21's website a couple weeks ago and when it arrived it was even more glitzy than it looked online.  So it was a little harder to integrate into my everyday-wear...

My aunt's church put together an "Iron Chef"-style baking competition and had it filmed at a local TV studio.  My mum and I got to watch and cheer my aunt on!!  They called themselves "Dueling Divas" and the chefs all wore sparkly tiaras and crowns.  So my sparkle wasn't so out of place!  One of the teams even wore feather boas... until the competition started, of course.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

winter patterns








So many patterns!  I love that about winter—I start piling on the layers and end up with a combination of all kinds of things I never would've thought to put together.  Makes me feel warm and happy!

Being a pattern-lover, of course I am also quite fond of ties.  I can't get enough of the paisley and the intricate designs and fancy colours!!  They're too delicious.  I am slowly building up a necktie collection from relatives who don't wear theirs and department store clearance/sale shelves.  I have been told thrift stores are another good source for ties, but I never remember to look when I am at one.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

sweater and sundress












Catching up... I did something different for this drawing, can you tell?  I scanned in a section of my dress and warped it and ran it through a filter :D  Does it look okay?  I don't intend for it to perfectly match my usual simple colouring style, but I think a collage-y multimedia look is alright... and using the warp tool in Photoshop was pretty fun! Trying to replicate that pattern by myself would be rather tedious, and would keep me from working on more of these drawings!! So I might do something like this again with future pattern-heavy clothes :D

Friday, November 5, 2010

hurrah!





I'm getting behind on posting! Oh no! I tend to get busy on weekends, and I've been wearing outfits with a bunch of silly patterns (which take more time to colour)... and sometimes I just wanna be lazy. I'll try to get all caught up tomorrow!

In the meantime, I like this outfit and this drawing, so it can stay on top of the page for a while.  Purple and yellow are my faaaavourite complementary colour pair.  Throw in a tinge of pink and I'm in love-love. I knitted the scarf last winter and it's my current favourite.  It's so soft and warm!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

reach for your dreams






















I started this with the thought, "I want to do a drawing from behind..." It's really fun to draw feet from the back—that's the entire reason I like drawing people facing away.  But I didn't have anything specific in mind beyond the feet, so the rest was just whatever happened to happen on the paper.  And that was this.

I cheated on the light pink shirt and used Photoshop's butterfly brush to do the pattern.  But you can hardly see it anyway, under all that lace!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

let's play!


















Oh, this drawing happened so easily! That seems to be increasingly rare these days.

I help in my church's nursery every other week (on Wednesdays), and this was one of my nights.  I spent a good portion of the evening shielding myself with a giant stuffed (foam?) block as toddlers attacked me with more giant stuffed blocks.  One of the kids seemed to enjoy charging at me and then falling over dramatically as I pushed back lightly with my block.  I worked up a sweat battling the tiny people!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

runnin' boots!







































Boots!  Lys, how are you not tipping over, running like that?

This is probably the most accurate drawing/colouring of these boots, of the three I've posted so far. Sometimes I refer to the original item of clothing as I'm colouring but sometimes I don't.  This time they were still sitting right behind me, but if they're in my closet or by the front door, you see what my brain thinks the boots (or any other item of clothing) look like when I'm not actually looking at them.  It's kind of fascinating, actually (at least I think so).

I also wore my pink fuzzy scarf for most of the day (indoors!) but I forgot to draw it!!  Too bad.

Monday, November 1, 2010

a million sweaters












Happy November!!

When I wake up on a wintery Michigan morning and I'm coldcoldcold, all I want to do is wear like a million sweaters.  And then I end up like this.  Warm and cozy all day long!!  Sweater dresses are pretty awesome. This one has big floppy pockets, which makes it the awesomest sweater dress ever