So much has happened this month, I’m going to pull it all together right here!

Welcome to my new Subscribers! I’m very pleased to have met lots of new people at various events this month, as well as to add my beloved old pals to my mailing list.

Life has been very exciting lately, with different events hurtling in from all angles and raising more questions than answers. Perhaps my Mercury is rising in my Venus Half-Return or something.

Anyway… my last two blogs were about the Daisy Diary (incorporating a brief mention of female fashion illustrator/designers Mary Quant, Barbara Hulanicki (Biba) and Zandra Rhodes) and about my own aspirations to become a fashion illustrator.

Here I’m going to put the two together, starting with this exciting pic of an ACTUAL DAISY DOLL :

My friend Fiona’s actual Daisy Doll that she received as a Christmas present!

This belongs to my friend Fiona, who brought her out of hibernation after seeing my tributes on Substack. This is my sketchbook drawing of a whole bunch of Daisies!

My drawing of a bunch of Daisies from the Daisy Diary by Mary Quant

And, all the more poignant because Mary Quant (Daisy’s creator) went to Fiona’s old school- Fiona even used MQ’s science book! Remember the days when text books were handed down to you and you had to write your name and the school year on a label at the front? It was always interesting (for me!) to see the names of former custodians.

If you’re a fan of Mary Quant you might also be interested in this tribute to her, printed in her old school magazine (again, big thanks to Fiona for sending this through to me):

School Magazine tribute to “old girl” Mary Quant

Having looked to the influential designers and illustrators of the past, I wondered at the relevance of fashion illustration today. I explored this at greater length in my last newsletter/blog so I won’t re-hash that here, but as a result I decided to try some “contemporary” fashion illustrations. I had a look at some models in recent editions of Elle magazine, and I drew them in the setting of my local high street. Here they are, the first 3 in my occasional series, Models on London Road:

(Emily Ratajkowski, Marina Ontanaya and Dakota Johnson frequenting my local shops)

These take quite a long time to do- and they are quite self-indulgent- so I’m just going to keep them as my personal passion project for now (unless there is a sudden clamour for illustrations of glamourous women clambering over shops).

I also had the absolute pleasure of ascending to the rooftops of Croydon myself, to draw guests at event hosted by NatWest at their wonderful rooftop terrace. This was a great experience and I received loads of positive feedback! Here are some of the quick sketches that I made, in ten minutes, with marker pens:

The roof terrace at the Park Lane Building, Croydon for Croydon Professionals Summer Drinks Event.

Following that, I also drew friends at a birthday party. Again, these are illustrated with marker pen- there is a little more detail and these took 15 minutes each:

Fashion Illustration Portraits of friends at a birthday celebration. You might spot the portrait of me by special guest illustrator “Fred” :)

I will end this newsletter with my latest undertaking, as I am following a course in Live Wedding Illustration, which is very helpful- you can probably see improvements to my drawings already. Here are some bridal illustrations that I have been creating, and if you have an event (wedding, party, corporate, whatever!) that you would like illustrating then please do get in touch. I love drawing people!