new blog . . .

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Flora Pettitt

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I am not ashamed to say that I love a bit of stationery.

Today I started getting my act together and gathered all the arty bits and bobs I think I might need at university -which is really quite close now- and this is what they looked like.

 I admit I didn't necessarily need to line it all up like this but I am a master of procrastination!

When I did finally do something useful it was to carry on drawing designs that are being screen printed on bags and t-shirts, more on these can be found on our Vacant Echo facebook page and lookbook

plus I'll probably do a more comprehensive post on here soon.

my little matchboxes . . .

Making match box cameras has become my new obsession. 

It's so easy and satisfying to take pictures with your own camera that I'm proud of even the rubbish ones that went wrong and came out as dark blurs. I used the instructions from here and you can see photos from my first try in this post.

My first camera looking all forlorn and torn up, and stuff I used for the new one.

 I'll admit that the first one wasn't much of a looker but it produced two very good rolls of film and I felt rather like I had betrayed it when I ripped it open to reuse the piece of aluminium inside!

However, pinhole camera mark two has had a makeover and is much sleeker and updated (actually to be honest the only change I have made is to make the pin hole a little smaller for a sharper image) but at least people might actually believe me when I say that yes, it is really a camera!

foundation work . . .

I've recently been going through a load of my Art Foundation work (in the view to throwing most of it away) and I thought I'd post bits from a few of my favourite projects, also because I'm not doing anything new at the moment.

A project that started with us choosing a piece of art or design or architecture that is completely different from our own style. I decided to go for skyscrapers as my work usually tends to be more curved and flowing but straight away shoved a load of colour in there to bring it back to the norm!

 Fashion illustration week which taught me that water colours and layout paper are hateful together.

summer clothes . . .

Just a quick picture from a recent trip to the beach where I wore a light top I made from muslin leftover from my final major project and a pair of high-waisted gingham shorts I made a little while ago and now wear constantly! (when it's not raining at least)

love a bit of negative space . . .

Acrylic paint and fine liner.

(I think this might have been inspired by a Specsavers advert)

a sketch a day backlog . . . .

 felt-tip pen.

pencil.

a sketch a day backlog . . .

I started my 'a sketch a day' project way back when I was getting my portfolio ready for interviews but since getting a place at Westminster and what with all the hassle of the final major project . . . Well, lets just say that I let it slip. I've just realised that I hardly uploaded any of the drawings from that project so I'll keep posting them.

Here are a few of my favourite fashion illustrations:

All illustrations done in pencil, black fineliner and water colour.

galaxy t-shirts . . .

There has been a recent trend for galaxy print clothing and as most of it is extortionatelyly priced, we  -that's I, my sister and Damien- have decided to make and sell our own. We've named our clothing company and Vacant Echo and our galaxy t-shirts will hopefully go on sale sometime next week.

Colette and Damien spledidly modelling our red and blue galaxy t-shirts

I was a bit bored this morning and did what started out as a doodle and tuned into quite a nice little illustration.

I'm really not sure why but I have a disproportionate amount of trouble drawing feet and shoes -they make me so mad!

final major project (part 3) . . .

Right, so here is the last of my final major project posts! All the work has been marked and the exhibition has been open for a few days already. I was given a corner space in which to show my work but I was quite worried that I didn't have enough work to fill it as I chose to make a film rather than do photographs, in the end though I think it turned out nicely.

 I combined designing a collection with pretty collaged illustrations.

home made photography . .

These photos were taken with a machbox pinhole camera I made myself a little while ago and I absolutely love the results! It was so easy to make and the only downside is that somewhere along the line I messed up the spacing so that when the film was developed the people in Boots cut most of the pictures in half which is a shame, next time I'll make sure to be more precise.

The red and white streaks down the side of the photos are the product of a light leak somewhere in the camera, although I actually quite like this effect I'll try and find the gap and tape it up for the next roll of film.

lovely little creatures . . .

Here are a few little drawings of mine, I can just draw animals for hours on end and now that college is pretty much finished I can sketch away to my heart's content.



I am thinking of using these drawings as screen printing designs for bags and t-shirts.

paper cuts . . .

A paper cut out I did yesterday as a present for my cousin.

I love the delicate simplicity paper cut outs have, and the challenge of figuring out which bits to cut out, which to leave in and how all the pieces are connected so that the whole thing stays together.

insects. . .

A few drawings I did for Phoebe's birthday (or maybe Christmas) present.

final major project (part 2) . . .

Just a little update on the current project.