by Patsyfox on May 17, 2012
For a multitude of reasons, May is not my favourite time of year. Daylight that seems to last an hour, mornings too cold to get out of bed… And now I have the departure of Jaclyn, lost indefinitely to Old Blighty. Thank god for the autumn leaves, and the fact that I’ll be joining her in New York in a month!
So while I plough through the mountain of work that stands between me and JFK, Jaclyn is already setting the world on fire, beginning with an exhibition in NY featuring one of her paintings. Some very lucky New Yorker is going to get to have this on their wall. Jealous much? Yes I am.
by Patsyfox on April 25, 2012
This was the sight a couple of Fridays ago, somewhere around 4am after 3 bottles of red (shared, natch) and many hours of spinning vinyl from JD’s very excellent collection. Aside from the warm familiar sounds of the scratches and dust, there is simply a better feeling to be had from slipping a record from its jacket and carefully placing the stylus on the correct track. It also serves as some sort of sobriety test, which was clearly ignored by both of us.
In any case I headed to Saturday’s Independent Record Store Day with renewed enthusiasm to expand my already pretty fabulous vinyl collection, armed thoughtfully with a shopping list. Alas, Polyester was pumping and filled to the brim with shoppers cooly (read: imperceptibly) grooving to the tunes supplied by the RRR Breakfasters, and when I did squeeze my way to the racks, none of my list were in stock. Egad!
With the money burning a hole in my pocket, I slipped across to Sheila Vintage to say a little hello to the hotness of Cindy and Emma, and departed Cinderella-style with a perfectly fitting pair of 1950s snakeskin heels.
Disappointment averted in record time.
by Patsyfox on April 14, 2012
Why sit around wondering where summer went when you could be learning the very fine art of Fashion Illustration?
The new term of classes at The Patsyfox Drawing Salon begin in a little over a week on the 24th April, and there a just a few spaces left – why not make one yours? Haven’t picked up a pencil since Friends was still in production? I can fix that. Used to be pretty artistic but think you may have lost it? I can tell you, you haven’t.
Check out some of the supremo work of students past and present in the brand new student gallery, and prepare to be impressed.
by Patsyfox on April 6, 2012
My history of disappointing (in the chocolate sense) Easters has been documented before, and yet I approach this one with buckets of optimism. Why? Because this time I left nothing to chance and filled my bags with self-supplied Easter treats. If the Easter bunny finds me then it’s just icing on the (chocolate) cake.
Have a great and chocolate-filled Easter, I suggest leaving a sign out for Bugs.
by Patsyfox on April 1, 2012
What is it that makes almost anything more desirable than something you have to do? Even when that must-do is something you love to do! Is it a form of rebellion on some level? God knows I hate being told what to do (insert sheepish I’m-not-that-hard-to-get-along-with-really face). I even counsel my students regularly on how to avoid procrastination! (If there was a god he’d definitely strike me dead for that hypocrisy.)
Sigh. So I have spent another weekend supposedly working up a storm but in reality have fluffed my way through 48hrs of prime productive time. Which, if it’s true that we are what we do not what we say, makes me a professional fluffer.
by Patsyfox on March 18, 2012
Doing one thing at a time was never my speciality, which is why after switching to the single track of illustration for a few years, I find myself burning the career candle at both ends again being both designer and illustrator… And did I mention teacher??
You can hear me, along with some other genuinely interesting laydees including Rebecca Gully, Pene Durston, and Nyssa Marrow, speaking on a discussion panel tomorrow night as part of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival event put together by the Hand Eye Collective. You can see some examples of our work, while we discuss our design practice and no doubt stray in every which way direction from the topic and then back again. Audience participation expected of course!
The Order of Melbourne, 6.30pm Monday 19th March. FREE.
by Patsyfox on March 14, 2012
Returning to productivity after a long weekend at Golden Plains last weekend was nothing but pain. Nothing like a bit of flower therapy then at tonight’s Drawing Salon class to keep just a little in the free-lovin’ vibe. Stay tuned for more on the weekend’s visual delights…
by Patsyfox on February 21, 2012
I’ve never cared much for the green ribbon. It goes back to my school days when I carefully chose the sporting events I entered, based on a simple criteria which merely required a complete lack of competition. Shot-put anyone? Anyone?? I’d stroll over to the far side of the oval, half-heartedly toss the ball 3 times and walk away with 1st 2nd and 3rd ribbons. That is until the day the I found myself standing in the shadow of the new girl – the female incarnate of Jaws. I suppose I should thank her for pushing me off the sporting field and into the art room. But I digress.
Allow me to present to you the artwork that secured me a Highly Commended in the 2012 Illustrators Australia awards for Australian and New Zealand Illustrators. This is the illustration I did for Gorman as an interpretation of “The Melbourne Look”, published in The M Magazine in The Sunday Age.
You can check out the rest of the gold, silver, and highly commendeds across all categories in this month’s edition of The Australian Creative magazine, or on the Illustrators Australia website.
Winning isn’t everything. No really, it’s not. I mean it. A bit.
by Patsyfox on February 10, 2012
Contrary to appearances, I’m actually drawing my fingers to the bone. I’m at the tail end of a fabulous and massive illustration project which has forced me into obscene levels of sobriety, and kept me in every night of the last 3 weeks except two.
Speaking of which, while killing time waiting for Jaclyn last Friday – time that I could have spent with a G & T in hand – I picked up a piece of chalk and scratched out this little number on my kitchen door, which is conveniently a blackboard – not that I don’t already consider all walls and surfaces to be a canvas!
Inspiration the increasingly cute Frankie.
by Patsyfox on January 31, 2012
Check out the fantabulous work of the very awesome students of the Patsyfox Drawing Salon! Exceedingly pleasant and talented, I think you’ll agree their work is wonderful.
Fashion Illustration classes at the Salon kick off for 2012 on February 14th for the Introduction to Fashion Illustration, and February 15th for Creative Fashion Illustration (the on-going advanced level). There are just a couple of places left in each course, so if you like the idea of being able to produce drawings like these, then perhaps the classes are for you… The classes are made up of all manner of peeps: People who’ve never drawn before and work in a completely unrelated field to fashion; high school students working towards a tertiary fashion course; current fashion students who want to amp up their illustration skills; fashion designers and product developers who want to improve their illustration skills; textile designers who want to learn to illustrate their designs onto garments; just people who want to have a fun and creative outlet in their lives.
Introduction to Fashion Illustration suits those with some drawing experience and skill, through to those who haven’t touched a pencil since primary school. The 8 week term covers all the most important principles of Fashion Illustration, teaches you how to get started, and inspires you with the very best examples of illustrators’ work.
Creative Fashion Illustration is a unique continuing advanced level of Fashion Illustration. Each week brings a new challenge, watch your skills grow. The most amazing work is produced, and this term will see the addition of some illustration from a live model, a la Antonio, Downton, etc etc.
Who am I to teach you? I design by day and illustrate by night, teaching Fashion Illustration at RMIT city campus, and taking Fashion Illustration workshops for the NGV International, and the Bendigo Art Gallery – as well as the very special boutique classes of The Patsyfox Drawing Salon. Learn more about the classes here, and see some of the previous gorgeous photos and student work here, or here.
Want to sign up or just know more? Email me at salon@patsyfox.com
Here’s a smattering of work from last term, and a few from terms past. I’ve been a very bad record-keeper lately and mixed up the names that go with some of the files, so in fairness I’ve left them all nameless – many apologies to the artists!
