An Illustrated Fashion Blog by Angie Réhe

Technically this last crazy 7 days started Sunday 2.30am when I was hosing the f*$&@&g neighbours who were concluding 12 months of excruciating neighbourly behaviour with the party of all parties – whoever knew hosing down arseholes could be so enjoyable!

Just a few hours later my first drawing gig of the week began, sketching staff and clients of Priceline at their national conference at Melbourne’s Exhibition centre. Imagine my confusion when (completely sleep deprived) I got out of the lift on the wrong floor and took a good five minutes of wandering around to realise I was at a comics convention.  Haha, really.

Faces can be tricky at the best of times, but when they’re on all those crazy angles – you know, the ones that give you drama and great expressions?…Hmm. If you feel like you have a handle on drawing faces but struggle when they’re not the straightforward angles, then this workshop may be what you need. We will check in on the structure of the face and the individual features, then look at what’s really happening when you view it, and draw it, from a different viewpoint – and do it in style. The workshop is in Melbourne on Sunday May 21st 10.30am – 4.30pm, details here.

I hate to brag* but I have done two illustration projects for Vogue Japan this year, just sayin’. Not the obvious briefs though – this one was for illustrations to go with an article on breast health and the importance of having regular health checks. As reigning Queen of planet hypochondria I am at least well qualified!

*lie

Of all the things my dear old Mum can’t remember these days, there is one thing she apparently can’t forget – the year I told her “No Mum, really, I’m off sugar, please, no Easter eggs this year”. Jesus wept! As if that was going to be more than a passing phase! But no, I’ve just been told as I take aim for her comfy couch, that “like you requested, no chocolate eggs”. Curse and damn that attempt at clean living – I will not make that mistake again.

I’ve never (yet) entered into the world of fake lashes – firstly the old style nearly blinded me when I glued my eyeball to my eyelid, and secondly a friend and former devotee of the new/fabulous/professionally-applied ones scared the bejezus out of me when she told me how she lost all her lashes when she stopped getting new fakies and  removed the last of the old ones. No eyelashes?! No thanks.

But draw them? Absofuckenlutely. That’s not exactly how I said it but close, when no less than the Washington Post contacted me last week to create an animated illustration for them for their style section, in both print and web. Excited much? I sure was – enough to not blink my lashes at working all weekend to get it done for a Monday deadline. It’s already online and in print! Check it out here. And of course here…

One of my favourite expressions, which I find funny because it’s absolutely true, is There are only two certainties in life – that I’m going to get a coffee, and I’m going to drink that coffee. Honestly, I don’t do addictions but each time I get a new boyfriend (that makes it sound much more frequent than it really is…kind of..) I have to sit them down and explain the importance of me getting a coffee very, very soon after waking up. But you know, they never appreciate the gravitas of that teaching until they see for themselves the she-devil I am when the caffeine withdrawal headache kicks in. It only happens once per relationship, because either they don’t let it happen again, or I don’t let them happen again.

Which brings me to these illustrations which I painted for the lovely folk at Gilano Coffee. Venice anyone?

My love of Art-meets-life started way back with A-Ha’s fimclip for Take On Me – god, the hours I spent sketching pictures of Morten Harley hoping he’d come to life for me! Sigh.

So when I was asked to collaborate with The South China Morning Post’s Style magazine, reacting to their fab photo shoot, it took me about 3 seconds to say YES! The interesting styling and rich colour were my favourite things about this set of pics, and it was truly fun to create. Some post-production effects were applied (not by me!) to the in-print version which I don’t like, so I’m showing you the director’s cut, so-to-speak…

Playing with ink is one of the most fun things to do, provided you  A) have learned some basic techniques, and B) are not wearing white. These murky silhouettes were painted in one of my Ink Technique workshops, showing just a sample of some of the effects you can achieve. Dynamic, strong, soft beautiful, washy-washy- it’s almost like I’m describing myself!

The next Ink Techniques for Fashion Illustration workshop will be held on April 22nd, and if you’d like to find out a little more you can check it here, and hey-ho you can also book it on my brand new (and not quite finished) website store here – and did-I-mention-no-booking-fees! You’re welcome.

I haven’t had a whole lot of freelance jobs drawing interiors but they are increasing, and note to all: I would love more! I created the above sketch for Emma & Roe, featuring their classic store design.

Previously, my most noteable interior sketches were of my dressing room, when I created an “artist’s impression” of what my dream closet would look like then presented it to an array of scared-looking carpenters, and a store sketch I whipped up pretty much on a napkin to show my then-boss how our flagship retail store could look (back in my designer-life), which he then handed to a builder and said “Make it so”. I’m pretty sure that builder wanted to strangle me, but what can I say – at that moment in time in that boss’s eyes I could do no wrong.  That napkin went on to become the blueprint design for a string of retail stores. Scary? I should at least have been paid an interior designer’s fee!