Robert Best- Illustrations

Simply classic, stunning and downright beautiful illustrations by Robert Best.


Love his techniques and skill. So impressed! The way the hair appear soft, romantic, make-up done perfect and how shades and tones give such strong suggestion on fabric type is really something. By far the best watercolour illustrations of fashionable girls I've ever seen.


Compare the last illustration to the very first Barbie ever made! Though I suspect the Barbie below might have been remade as the real vintage one made in 1959 had really pale and porcelain looking skin.

Vintage Barbie Illustrations

Have just been so busy with assignments and all that. Kept wanting to post some of the research I've done for my uni projects but time just did not allow :(. Some of my findings have had pretty awesome sources. 

This project I'm working on is a project using Illustrator, pretty exciting! Our project is to create paper dolls! But first and foremost we had to research on a doll that we could base our illustration on and I knew I wanted to create a fashion paper doll. Barbie was the first doll that came in mind.

Above are some images I've compiled for my research from Devolange's flickr, linked from google. She's got a pretty amazing collection of vintage barbies. I absolutely love the illustration style of the dolls. The make up and outfits are a reflection of the fashion back in the 50's and 60's. Note the thick eyeliners and make-up. Love it!

Did you know that Barbie's predecessor was Bild Lilli? A German originated fashion doll around 1950's that was targeted at the male market. Instead of buying romantic gifts, flowers and chocolates, apparently some men would buy a Bild Lilli for their girlfriends instead. Some of the Bild Lilli outfits are pretty scandalous I'd say. Thank God the creator of Barbie bought the rights to Lilli and gave the new doll a more tasteful twist.

Some Lilli dolls from here. Her lips and legs, specially the heavier calves and smaller feet, remind me of Betty Boop.

Seeing Red

That I underestimated my workload this weekend. Ugh!

I absolutely love my new red lipstick from Revlon's matte range that I got two days ago. I didn't know that a red lippy could look this good :D

The NGV

Had an excursion to the NGV this morning for a subject. We were looking into a couple of exhibitions and 'Drape' was particularly interesting. I love how the NGV constantly changes the items or subjects to keep people coming back. Previously there was an exhibition on the Jane Austen era costumes in the same space, under fashion and textiles section on the 1st floor.

So here are just a few photos of the new items from 'Drape' I took that I fancied.

 

Vivienne Westwood. Not surprised that she created this beautiful dress. Pretty cool elevation at the rear I say, probably could even hold a couple of drinks up.

 

Left: A day dress made in England c1883 using silk, cotton lace and metal buttons. It was mandatory in those days to have corsets but due to ill-health effects on the wearer, as proven by scientists, the custom of wearing one soon faded. 

Gruaur Evening Dress by Dior, 1949. I love 50s fashion. Pretty phenomenal and historical what Christian Dior did in reclaiming feminity in fashion against styles during the war.

L-R: Sorbet Pink Evening Dress by Jean Desses, 1954; Ball gown by Christian Dior, 1953

Giambattista Valli's creation for Kylie Minogue, 2003. Very grecian statue-esque and elegant.

 Kylie Minogue's outfit that she wore on 50 different occasions. Dolce & Gabbana I think. 

Another exhibition we went to was Chinoiserie (pronounced shin-noo-ah-se-ri). Many european pieces of homewares displayed had distinct oriental inspirations. Some motifs common to the East were copied with or without knowledge of the symbolisms that they reflect, apparently. They were just simply borrowed. I've taken just a few photos from here but I love the plates below. Imagine eating your sandwich or nasi lemak on them. Hah. 

Japanese porcelain dish from Edo period, 1720-40

Chinese plate from Qing dynasty, Qianlong period in 19th Century

Some European male clothing that was oriental inspired. Worn at home whilst welcoming guests. 

Okay if you'd like to see more just go NGV one day. Kinda tired of uploading photos for now. Chinoiserie will be on till this Sunday I think. 

Admission's free! :) 

 

My first Converse

Just a quick post to soothe my procrastination from my report and also my guilt from leaving this blog unupdated for more than a week! Eek! Has it been that long?

A perfect opportunity to reveal my very first Converse to the world :). This may be quite last (few?) season, but it is good coz it’s so bling!

I love it!

Heading off to discipleship now!

The sweetest Valentine's Day gift

The best Valentine's Day gift I've received so far was the flat, red 'Love' book that Jon took lots of time writing and answering many of the hard questions that it posted. Questions like when we first met, what he liked about me and what he wishes to see in the future. Though it cost him $25, that was still the best thing I ever got from him, material-wise. But that was last year. 

If there was a prize for the best and sweetest Valentine's Day gift, this has got to be it.  This totally kicked my little red book's backside (though I still love it). Sometimes it's not the most expensive gifts we've received that we hold closest to our hearts, but those that have been personally crafted with much effort, care and time invested with solely you in mind. This year the best gift had been made by using just a little flour, sugar and water (I'd think, I'm actually not sure at all). With lots of pink icing and all those girly toppings. I absolutely LOVED IT! 

Jon keeps getting better at getting me gifts, not to mentioned that they get cheaper  as well by the year :P. In the first year, he hid behind a tree at my front porch and surprised me with a bouquet of red roses. He then took me out for a movie and lunch, I think. The flowers would have cost quite a bit. Second year, picnic in Sorrento with the lovely red book. Cheapo style coz we both wanted to save money. Third year, these home made cookies! Meaning they're sort-of FREE or cost the least. What cost him was two cards enveloped in this red cover (told you he's getting cheaper). Maybe next year I'd only get half a card, the next year a hug, and the year after that just a high-5! Haha. But I absolutely adoooore these cookies coz they're so beautifully handmade! 

And you know what's the best part? He didn't make them. It was, in fact, Mrs. Ngan. Yes, Jon's mother made these for me.  When he told me that I was like "What!! You asked your mum to make cookies for your gf for VD???", only to learn that his mum suggested to do it. *aww* So thanks so much for these cookies, Auntie, if you're reading this :). I don't mean to bag your son out on the WWW but in his own words, to bag and tease is to love, what I learned when I first met him. He's an absolutely legend and I love him for being who he is. 

 

  

  

 

Pretty, aren't they?! :D

On a separate note, I, on the other hand, didn't get him anything at all this year! Not even a lousy card. So I admit the cheapo here is ME! Haha!! Yes yes boos and rotten cabbages at me. But I'll make up for it by baking him a chocolate cake, as requested by his mum :). 

(P/s: - Sorry for the absence btw! Was away in M'sia longer than expected and just got back.

         - I've decided to keep this blog! Trial period's over!

         - Is it just me or does the last pic appear to be cropped off on the right? can't seem to fix it tho' it looks centralised in the draft Fixed!)

Miss Ruby Eugenia

Ugh what's wrong with blogspot! I can't seem to enlarge the image without having it really pixelated though it's definitely saved at the best quality and size. Same goes with my other posts' photos. Can anyone please enlighten me if you know how to deal with this? (P/S: I just solved it hehe)

Anyway yes about this piece, basically just edited it on photoshop and added things here and there, for example her pearl ring, ribbon and her olive clutch, which in actual fact is a yo-yo I made last sem. Changed her lippie colour for a nice contrast with her green eyes, which I've also highlighted further. Her skirt design is composed of my previous pattern design coupled with a piece of black netting I scanned in last year, resulting in a meshed, laced effect on the corseted skirt's surface.

I guess you could say that somewhat the corset concept of the skirt was inspired from an image I had in my head since ages ago of Gisele Bündchen wearing this figure-hugging, light pink Dolce & Gabbana dress from like, Spring 2003 RTW collection. I managed to find an image of it on style.com. It looks like this.

I know it's ages ago but I wanted to fill the skirt with some details so that was what I could think of!

Colour choice came from my favourites: Nude, Black & Grey. Here's something that's a little more recent:

Alexander Wang's pre-Fall 2009 corset dress in nude & black! Soo nice and look, Paris Hilton's wearing the YSL pumps I made Ruby wear, just that hers was in grey.

YSL black tribute pumps

I used to think that these heels are just plain ridiculous, for practical reasons and also I thought they were kinda ugly...a little unrefined due to the really thick platform. However, I kinda change my mind now. They actually do look really good and can look really feminine. Though I can't afford luxury items like that, it was still pure fun drawing and painting them :)

Isn't she just preeeetty? :D Kinda wished I've got hair like hers.


Click on the image above so you can see greater details of Ruby!


This will be my last illo post before I leave for M'sia in just two days. So...till next time! God bless!

Sneak Peak

Trying out different lip & eye colours for this little diva

...of currently what I'm illustrating. I love her hair and eyes...and lips! Maybe needs just a little adjusting with the lips as I had to have really steady hands when I painted them, which didn't happen of course. Haha. But good enough I guess :)

Can't wait to paint her little shoes!!

The other Gingerbread Man Maker

Here I present to you the other half of the gingerbread-making old lady from a couple of posts before :)

OKTAPODI

Just stumbled accross Julien Bocabeille's blog and found that this awesome animation was co-directed by himself and produced along with his team mates as their 3rd year project in Character Animation in the Parisian visual arts school named Gobelins. It has claimed many awards and even nominated for the 2009 Academy Awards for the Best Animated Short film.

The film is basically about two octupuses that were in love and about their adventure saving each other from the grasp of the evil restaurant cook that was threatening to butcher the pink one into some yummy culinary. I just watched it and it was soooo cute!!

You too could watch it here!! I love everything about this film, even from the sketches and the digital paintings to the final product. My favourite part would have to be them jumping from pool to pool in attempt to outrun the persistent pursuit of the cook.

Most of the photos were taken from Oktapodi's official website.

Enjoy!