An Illustrated Fashion Blog by Angie Réhe

I’m still riding the brandy train since my voice is yet to recover from a week of laryngitis – explain that if you will, grrr. So in the spirit of making lemonade, I bring to Fri-yay drinks another brandy (or preferably, cognac) cocktail. Meet the Sidecar!

Did you know one of the legends about the birth of the Sidecar has it set at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in the 1910s, mixed up by a patron who arrived in a motorcycle sidecar? True that. Well maybe anyway, I like it enough.

How to do it:

This one’s going to take you: 5 mins

It’s going to make you: 1 drink

You’ll need to have:

• 3 tbsp cognac (or brandy, Armagnac, or bourbon
• 1tbsp triple sec (such as Cointreau)
• 3 tsp fresh lemon juice
• Lemon or orange twist, for garnish 

You’ll need to do:

1. Get your shit together
2. If you like the glass with a rim of sugar do that now by wetting around the rim with citrus juice, dip or roll it in the sugar, shake of excess and allow to dry and chill before pouring the drink.
3. Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice cubes and shake well.
4. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass
5. Garnish with a lemon or orange twist

And in keeping with tradition, I give you variations of my Sidecar illustration that I could not decide between – santé!

This week’s Fri-yay cocktail comes to you courtesy of laryngitis, so the Sidecar was bumped to next week and enter the Hot Toddy – a cocktail I love drinking as much for its name as its taste – so saucy! Not just saucy but my favourite type of saucy – simple & saucy. Cos I like my cocktails simple, like my men.

This one’s going to take you: 5 mins-ish

It’s going to make you: 1 drink

You’ll need to have:

• 3 tbsp brandy (or whisky or bourbon if you prefer)
• 1tbsp honey
• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)
• 1 slice and 1 generous squeeze of lemon (appx 2tsp)
• ½ cup hot water

You’ll need to do:

1. Heat the water
2. While the water is heating, put brandy, honey, and lemon juice in your choice of glass/mug.
3. Pour in the hot water and stir to dissolve honey
4. Garnish with a cinnamon stick (in the glass)
5. Serve hot, cos no-one likes a cold Toddy.

Being Friday and all, it’s cocktail o’ clock at Chez Patsyfox. So, I thought I’d start a brand-new, instant-classic tradition and share some of my favourite cocktails with you. Illustrated pour vous, naturally. Fashion be damned, one of my favourite things to do is to illustrate cocktails – draw ’em, then drink ’em. Santé!

This one’s going to take you: 5 mins

It’s going to make you: 1 drink

You’ll need to have:

• 1(ish)measure Gin
• 150ml Cranberry Juice
• 10ml Lemon Juice
• Ice Cubes
• Fresh Cranberries
• Mint Leaves

You’ll need to do:

1. Fill your glass of choice with ice cubes
2. Add gin and lemon juice.
3. Top with cranberry juice and stir.
4. Taste and tweak
5. Garnish with fresh cranberries and mint leaves.
6. Drink.
7. Repeat steps 1-6

Did I mention I love a variation on an illustration? I have edited this down to 3 but there were many. So how about this one?

Or of course there’s…

Cocktail illustrations by Angie Réhe, obvs.

If you’re down with the structural work that underpins fashion illustration (or not!) then you may like the Exploring Media / Intermediate Fashion Illustration live online course, because it picks up where that left off.

While taking bodies and faces to new angles and positions, it explores media techniques of indian ink and watercolour paints to create artistic images, and then uses them to create specific effects of textiles such as fur, shine, and patterns. In four sessions! Yes! Skills can then be taken in a purely emotive art direction, or utilised for visualising fashion collections. The art and fashion worlds are your oysters.

I currently have a special deal on for people who may wish to spend an entire Sunday drawing (who wouldn’t!) – if you would like to do both this course and the Drawing Architecture and Streetscapes course, then the second course is half price. Half! Just use I’LLHAVEHALF at checkout for the second course.

You can check out some of the demonstration drawings from this course below, and book/see more info here.

It’s taken me a while, and when I say “a while” I mean several years, to finally respond to the requests for me to create a course all about drawing buildings, streetscapes, and architecture. But it is here!

It started as travel sketchbook sketches which begat my first commercial job illustrating key locations around the Melbourne CBD, which begat more freelance commissions…you get it. Don’t tell anyone, but I kind of just a little bit like drawing all these buildings etc more than fashion…kind of.

This is a four week LIVE online drawing course, which means we do it in real time and I’m right in there with you and your drawings, giving feedback as you go, and doing demonstrations which you get to see with a perfect bird’s eye perspective. Nothing not to love. And did I mention you can do it from anywhere in the world? Even your bed, if that’s how you roll.

If you’d like to learn more you’ll get a pretty good idea by looking below, or you can check out the full package on the website. Olé!

Happy Easter to all! Are you finding it joyful? Or are the inconsistencies of the world weighing you down? Or like me is it a bit of both? Over the years  since I left my jobs in fashion and embraced the uncertain world of freelance illustration, I’ve developed a patchy mastery (is there such a thing?) of compartmentalisation, and never has it been more useful than in our current times!

So set aside the question marks and focus on the chocolate. You’re welcome.

In this week’s “Chocolate Box” Creative Fashion Illustration class, I thought I’d present the challenge of drawing a face from a more challenging angle, but not just in one way – in two ways plus let’s throw in some distracting reflections on some big glasses! Our work was cut out for us but of course the students pulled off amazing work. I began with a warm-up exercise where we drew the image, line only, in a completely different different way to how we normally draw. The only way to do it was to switch on the right side of the brain and OBSERVE, be present, and see the plains. The planes! What did they find when they got to the main drawing and were free to approach it in their usual way? The results of the warm-up were better.

My work here is done.

Many people learn the basics of a skill but not so many take it further. The possibilities for images that you can create are endless, and it’s beyond your usual boundaries that the interesting things start. However the number of possibilities can be what stunts us – how to choose? How would you do them anyway?

Chocolate Box is a series of 4 x 3hr fashion illustration classes which presents entirely different and unexpected challenges every week. The idea is to stretch yourself in directions you wouldn’t normally go, whether it’s media, approaches, styles, or design.

Level up, and spend some virtual time with some like-minded illustration lovers and be inspired by the results of what they do with the same challenge.
These sessions are a live online version of what used to be Creative Fashion Illustration in the old face-to-face classes, where people who had done other courses could keep going and improving, some moving onto professional work. The classes are geared towards people with drawing experience but I love it when less experienced people dive in head first – they give the rest a run for their money, trust me!

Classes run for 3 hours on a Tuesday evening from 6.30pm – 9.30pm.

When: Tuesdays 6.30pm – 9.30pm Four weeks from March 22nd
Where: Anywhere
Price: $350 inc. gst
More here:

See here for just some of the types of challenges these sessions might have:

I took a whole year off my live online classes (let’s not speak of 2021) but they are back with a vengeance, after which I will take another spell to work on my fully online school. So get in while you can!

Fashion Illustration Fundamentals is a series of four x 3hr classes covering all the key principles and fundamentals of fashion illustration – What is it? Are there rules? How do I get that figure down on paper simply and easily? What is the S-curve and how to I make the figure Fashion? How do I draw a walking catwalk figure? Then learn how to bring the sketches to life with vibrant colour, including how to use Copic and Tombow marker pens to create artful fashion images.

If this is entirely new to you that’s great – the classes presume no knowledge or experience. However, if you actually do have existing skills that is great too – I will push you from that level and give you more advanced feedback. As with my face-to-face classes, my online classes are kept small so you get all the personal attention you need: class size is capped at 10 people.

Classes run for 3 hours on a Sunday morning from 9am – 12pm.

When: Sundays 9am – 12pm Four weeks from March 20^th

Where: Anywhere

Price: $450 inc. gst Includes a full set of notes emailed to you along with picture references for the course and extra (optional) between-class activities and mid-week feedback on this work.

What you will learn:

o   What is fashion illustration? Understand the scope of this wonderful art form.

o   Key principles of fashion illustration.

• Understanding the fashion figure: Proportions, characteristics, how it is altered from the actual human figure.

o   Pose structure – The balance line and the S-curve in fashion illustration: How to understand this figure pose and sketch it quickly and easily.

• How to draw the walking catwalk figure.

o   How to draw the face, and then simplify it for fashion sketches.

• How to apply light and shade to the figure.

o   How to use vibrant colour to bring your sketch to life.

o   How to use marker pens without spending a fortune. The best types of markers for varied effects, including Copic and Tombow markers.

What will you get?

o   A full set of original reference notes, including all reference pictures to be used in the classes, plus extra images to use for (optional) homework tasks – yes, I encourage homework! 

o   Personal one-on-one help and feedback during each class.

• Homework tasks and ideas for in-between classes. Including for the first time, feedback on your homework mid-week.

o   Access to re-watch the class demonstrations as often as you like for one month after the class finishes.

o   Enjoyment and relaxation – three hours of escape each week into the creative realm.

o   Solid and lasting art skills which you can take forward into a drawing practice either of fashion, or fine art.

o   Inspiration, and an introduction to the world’s best past and current fashion illustrators.

Sound interesting? You can find out more or book a spot here, and see below the types of things you will learn.