I "heart" Hans Christian Andersen

I received few packages recently, all from myself..... ha... but it still feels good to get something in my mailbox. And I actually ordered books for myself and this is one them...  It is only in French but is my favorite one.

La Petite Sirène, Poucette & La Reine des Neiges

I am a huge fan of Hans Andersen. This book contains The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina and The Snow Queen. I haven't read it but I'll soon. I already know all three stories so I hoped it to be an easy read and a good practice for my French... but I got discouraged by the book's wordiness.

The fun part of reading the stories of Andersen is that most of them contain nice illustrations or re-created in different medias- usually animations and sometimes a musical.

Got two images (top) by Googling and screen-captured the actual scene (bottom)

Ariel! The Disney version of the Little Mermaid. I personally like the original ending better than the fairy tale styled happy ending. But I love that scene from the first movie of the Little Mermaid. "La-lalala-lala-lalala~ Kiss the girl~" Sebastian is my favorite character.

Left image from the Encyclopedia page of Thumbelina (1994 film) and two right images from Googling.

I never knew that Thumbelina existed in animation. They are not from the Disney and I've never watched it so I can't really say anything about it. It was directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman from a screenplay by Bluth.

Illustrations of the Little Mermaid by Christian Birmingham.

Illustrations of The Snow Queen by Christian Birmingham.

Illustrations by Birmingham:

http://www.booksillustrated.com/en-UK/home

I tried..

I took a fashion illustration class over the summer for two months. I haven't done any since August.. I tried to recall my memory, and sketched one (one of Balmain 2011 s/s collection) today. It is just a basic of fashion illustration sketch. I haven't colored it yet.. and I don't know if I'll ever color it. I drew it on a croquis/sketch book and I doubt that it would handle an intense use of color pencils..

 (I don't have a scanner..)

Balmain 2011 S/S collection

As I was drawing it (or when I was looking at the collection), I wished Balmain had tried something different this time. It's been a while since Balmain focused on "street-funk" style. I guess the public is still happy with Decarnin's "revolutionary" collections in the world of high fashion while the fashion people are getting sick of his repetitive collections.

photos from: www.style.co.kr

melancholy

I am not sure if it's appropriate to title the first post of our blog 'melancholy.' But I couldn't find anything better to fit Laura Laine's works.

Laura Laine is a Finnish fashion illustrator whose works are characterized by melancholy faces and curved body lines. She keeps her drawings in monotone which adds to the melancholiness. The first thing I said when I first saw Laine's works was 'wow'; I couldn't say anything more because she perfectly combined unusual factors in her illustration and solved them out into fascinating drawings. Monotone for fashion illustration, and melancholiness to appeal to the costumers are certainly unusual choices. Also, look closely to the details she put in the hair of her drawings. It is just amazing.

These drawings are from Elle Russia that was issued in March 2010.

From www.lauralaine.net