An Illustrated Fashion Blog by Angie Réhe

I know what you’re thinking – shouldn’t I have treated the self-portrait I created for a recent (and ultimately unpublished) press article in the same way I treat sketches of other people? You know – elongate the legs, slim down the figure, iron out the wrinkles, etc..

Nah, I wanted to be true-to-life for a change.

Concluding my incredible 7 days was an afternoon spent in the Michael Kors store at Emporium in Melbourne. I painted handbags of the customer’s choice onto canvas totes and personalised them with their name. Not a bad place to spend a Sunday afternoon, even if it was Mother’s Day and I really should have been at my Mother’s… As live sketching gigs go, it was something different, to say the least!

Live sketchy number two for the week was for the delightful folk of Reiss in their St Collins Lane store in Melbourne. One of the things I love most about working with them is their incredible english politeness and enthusiasm – no one stepped through that door without having a glass of prosecco thrust into their hand. Happy 1st birthday in Australia, Reiss!

There are two opportunities for you to dip your tootsie in the warm waters of fashion illustration this month. Just this Wednesday  17th May I will be teaching an introductory workshop at Work-Shop Melbourne, from 6.00pm – 9.00pm. It is relaxed, fun, and there is wine!

If you want to dip a little deeper and spend a day with me at The Drawing Salon, learning from the absolute basics up to rather fabulous, then consider the Fashion Illustration Bootcamp on June 3rd. You will leave with a set of notes, a head full of information, and drawings that will surprise you. Bookings and info here.

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…