Softies for The Johnston Collection

Here's a product board that I did for one of my subjects. This time around, I've decided to not include any existing images from websites but rather illustrate everything myself, which was hard work, but it's one of the boards that I must say I quite enjoyed making.

What made me really excited about this idea is that the softies could be personalised by the kids as they PAINT on the softie! This idea was inspired by the softies that Mirka Mora did back in the 1950s onwards. I thought this idea would be amazing for kids since they'd like painting and this is like an artwork that they could colour in and carry around.

Presentation date has been postponed to next week. Hopefully everything turns out good.

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.