Hey everyone! I am back with a new video and this is going
to be the last video for my Queen Couture collection! It makes me sad that I didn’t
get to complete the 10 illustrations that I had planned, but I am also glad to finally
be uploading this video to end this series and hopefully to start on other things. I
feel like this was something that I really needed to get over and done with so I could
move forward now. With that said, let’s get started!
So for this one, I only managed to film the colouring, so there will be no sketching or
inking process, and hopefully that’s okay. But anyway, the concept behind this dress
was to play with the idea of purity being this expectation society has on women - or
what women are supposed to be like. But we are a little bit rebellious at heart, so I
wanted to include a hint of that in this design. I don’t know if you guys watched the sketchbook
flip-though for this collection, but if you did and you remember the pages inside the
sketchbook, the designing process actually became divided into two parts. The first part
was inspired by a lot of gold and mostly armour and combining the idea of masculinity and
femininity. Then eventually I ran out of ideas for that, so I approached the theme through
a different perspective. And that was actually the play on modesty – something that I guess
a lot of women such as myself are expected to be. There’s the pressure to stay silenced,
to stay put, and to stay pure, such as when we’re told to “act like a lady”.
That’s why there are two main elements that I use in this collection, which I vaguely
remember I mentioned in the first video I think: armours and flowers. Anyway, that’s
kind of how the collection became divided up. Whenever there were scroll patterns on
the dress, those designs were made during the first half of the process, when I was
inspired by contrasting, and combining male, and female elements. And whenever there are
flower embellishments on the dress, it’s part of the second half of the design process,
when I’m inspired by social expectations on women.
I actually really like the theme of this collection, and like I said, it makes me sad to think
that only a small part of this really broad theme was explored, but perhaps in the future,
when I know more, or gained more knowledge and experience, I can revisit this theme with
a fresh new perspective. But, that’s so far ahead in the future though.
So yeah! For this design, I opted for a white colour for the dress since that’s also a
symbol for purity, and I also had flowers that stretch across the bodice looking like
it’s eating away the dress to reveal the undergarment. Though it’s not the undergarment,
since I imagined it to be attached to the dress. But then again it could be the undergarment,
and the dress has a sheer fabric that matches the skin tone to create the illusion that
the flowers are like tattoos on the body. Kind of like those sheer lace dresses by Elie
Saab. Anyway, to keep with the white colour of the
dress, I chose classic red roses for the flowers, not only for the background, but also for
the dress. I don’t know, but red can also be associated with something promiscuous,
or maybe something evil. Maybe evil’s not the right word, but I imagined a blood splatter
on a white surface. It’s very dramatic. And because I had that in mind, I had a spontaneous
idea to make it look like as if the flowers are bleeding onto the white fabric. It may
seem overkill, but I ended up liking it. And to me it kind of looked like the final touch.
This was also the drawing when I tried to apply some of the techniques you guys mentioned
in one of the videos for this collection. Since I mentioned that I struggled with colouring
in leaves and making them look realistic or less fake, I tried some of the tips before
I coloured this one, and I decided that the one I really liked was laying down a peachy
colour before laying down the green colour. I don’t know if you noticed that in the
video, but I really like it compared to the previous illustrations.
The colour also reminded me of the tree outside my bedroom window, which is actually my neighbour’s
tree. It’s cool cause the leaves are a nice yellow green colour, and during spring when
the sun still sets early, it casts a warm orange-y yellow light on the leaves, and the
colour is very beautiful. I have absolutely no idea how to properly describe the colour
and give it justice, but I’ve wanted to recreate the colour since. And the peach with
the green is close to the real thing, but it’s still missing something. So I’ll
still have to experiment with that. Anyway, that is all I have to say about the
illustration. I know it’s short, mostly because I don’t know what happened to the
sketching and the inking footage. I probably didn’t film it, or maybe it got corrupted.
I don’t remember since I filmed this back in July. And I was also planning to film the
remaining around that time, but June/July was not my best month in terms of making art.
And I had to force myself to draw this one for the collection. I do like how this turned
out, but I definitely wish I still had the motivation to complete this. Like I said,
I am both happy and sad that this is the last one for the Queen Couture Collection.
I hope you enjoyed this video and this collection. I know that some of you are a bit upset when
I mentioned that I was going to take a break from fashion illustrations since I know that
it’s how my channel started – actually that’s not really how it started, but I’m
not about to tell anyone how this actually started, unless you were here from the very
beginning. Anyway, all I know is it’s only an indefinite break. And also thank you to
everyone who’s been supportive. It really means a lot that you’re willing to stick
around and see where this art journey thing is going.
And that is it! If you did enjoy this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe if
you haven’t already. Please check out the links in the description box below for my
other social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. Thank you so
much for watching and I will see you in my next one!