Phwl Designs: Tribal Fun

Hey hey! Great to be doing one of these again!!!

So the past week, instead of really paying attention in class like I should, I have been playing around with stone age type designs :) (Based on abstract costumes for the orcs from WoW - if they were to be played by humans...)

Design number one can clearly be seen as a man wearing a jaguar as a "cloak" with the normal pants. I usually hate working with animal-materials in my designs, but I really enjoyed playing around a bit with it for a change. The back legs of the jaguar would be removed, so that only the tail (the one you can see rather clearly) sticks through the belt. It retains the earthy Green and Brown of the orcs.

This design obviously drew some inspiration from Native American dress as well as a little feathers stolen from the costume designs of Lord of the Rings's Easterners. Again in the typical green and brown, but incorporating more of the earthy autumn red and yellow. Naturally there had to be a Feathered headpiece

Enjoy the rest of the week!!!

Peace

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Phwl Designs: Eye Designs

Okay! So it's time for a new Phwl Designs! Hip Hip hooray! Today I did something completely different. Instead of the normal fashion designs, I will be posting a bunch of designs I did that relate more to Graphic Design.

We start off the collection with "I see you..." This was the picture that started it all. I was in a meeting and really bored when I just drew an eye in manga style like I usually do when I'm bored, but I got tired of just doing what I always did, so I buzzed it up a bit. There was no plan and no motivation. Just random artsyness with the aim of beauty.

This second art in the series, named "Travel", happened when we were in a class talking about technological advances. It reminded me a lot of the ways we keep reaching for the stars and how our methods just keep changing and so do our lifestyles, travelling further and further away into the future.

Art number three is Titled "Mech" This one was just a combination of science class and a friend of mine discussing her future as an electrical engineer. I tried to work in as many mechanical and electric things I could think of, from the telephone cord, to the compass, to the rheostat on top.

This one is titled "Summer Days" and just happened in the blistering heat of a camp day. WE were having so much fun outside with Ice cream and fruits when a rainstorm appeared out of nowhere and we had to go inside and find a game to play. ended up being poker.

 AH yes, with Halloween around the bend, how could I resist the temptation of an "Old Hallows Eve" piece with all things supernaturally spooky on it. I really enjoyed it, especially since I've always loved a fantasy element more.

Finally we have "Winter Christmas", my first real commission. My friend just came back from Germany and asked me to do one about a Christmas. But after hearing her tell of the weather up there and various conversations with Canadian friends about their Christmas, this wintry surprise made its appearance.

Hope you enjoyed this collection of designs!
Peace!!

Phwl Designs: Halloween

Wow we haven't had one of these feature is AGES! Then again, I haven't been punctual in ages, now have I (naught naughty!)

This was a rather fun design challenge a friend gave me. She's having a Halloween Party and is seeing her long distance boyfriend. She wants to look sexy, but still dress up in a costume. Well that's easy enough, I mean the basic female costume is a "sexyfied" version of the male costume (don't argue... it's true). Problem ism that she's not the revealing type. So I came up with this :)

The sleeves are made to look like a mummy's wrappings as is the arm-cover. The whole dress is largely based on the original principles of goth with black and red. A black widow was the main inspiration for the dress. I really like the big brown chunky belt with the goth theme, somehow they just fit together :) And that's it. Now that's how I'd like to look at Halloween :P.

So, what are you wearing for Halloween?? Drop me a comment!

PEace

Phwl Designs: Concepts

Okay, so i'm a day late. shoot me (please don't!!! i have so much more to do in life).
For today's Phwl designs I thought I'd do something a little different. Recently a teacher approached me about designing outfits for our school play. Unfortunately she doesn't like the direction my concepts took and decided to go with another look. What this does however mean is that these designs can now be thrown up here :)

These concepts are based on humans alluding to their animal characters, focusing more on the personalities than the basic animalistic characteristics of the characters. Hope you enjoy. :)

The first design is a concept for a tortoise. She is dressed as a camper, with a huge camping/backpacking bag on her back, literally carrying her house around with her. The camo of the pants refers to the natural colours of a tortoise but also to the blending ability of the tortoise. The only animalistic aspect is the scale effect on her lids and lips.

The next concept is Magdel, the mother meerkat. I worked a lot with a concept of a stay home mom in Africa. She has the headscarf to keep her hair back. Her sleeves are rolled up as if she was washing a bundle of, well, washing. She's barefoot and fretsome. The obvious animalistic characteristics are her nose, whiskers and the tail.

Thanks to Theunisia van der Merwe for the shading!

The final concept in this collection is the concept for the twins. They're meerkats too. Basically worked with a schoolgirl outfit, trying to convey the simple and naive natures of these two characters. Again the animalistic characteristics are a tail and whiskers. Simple way to differentiate the twins are their bows.

The concepts pretty much speak for themselves (no literally, the notes already say everything that needs to be said...). So I'm not gonna babble further and point out obvious little details to you.

Hope you enjoyed something a little different this week!

Peace :)

Phwl

Phwl Designs : Dark Carnival Cocktail

So guess what!!! It's time for the second ever Phwl Designs ever! YAY! Get your bi-weekly official original fashion design dose now!!!!!! :D

Last time I asked the readers to comment whether they think I should continue. Well, I didn't get any, but at least that means no-one disliked it enough to let me know :) Hence I have created the second post!

This time I decided on a bit more of a practical wearable dress, but still verging on wacky funky feel. The spooky, but sexy Dark Carnival Cocktail dress! This also came from a friend who said she wanted to go to a party with the dark carnival theme but had no idea what to wear. The rest is, well, modern history :)

So I must admit. I unfortunately cheated. It ended up with a much more Halloween feeling than a "dark carnival". But I'm not disappointed (or sorry) in the least. The Feathers in the mask are supposed to be the ends of peacock feathers (yes my shading is horrendous). Further the silver sequins on the black mask help to create a striking contrast. The mask on a stick reminds of a renaissance effect, another era I am in love with. Purple is one of my favourite colours and I really enjoy using it, especially for a dark, dramatic or ominous effect. The glossy black sequins on the dress were inserted to work with the sequins of the mask to add more of a carnival effect, but keep it dark and shadowy. I absolutely detest spiders, but for some reason the chest piece just screamed spiderweb at me: It's almost a netted spiderweb in front but two simple chords across the back. The jack-o'-lanterns on the bottom hem of the dress add a fun and eery effect to the dress, while contrasting with the dress itself (through the clash of orange and purple). Finally the huge, leather, belt with it's prominent buckle created a wonderful focal point to the design and also helped to give it a very definite shape.

And that would be that! The inspiration behind this spooky, wacky fun dress design :)

Peace

(due to the low amount of feedback I will again be asking you what you think and whether I should continue... Please let me know what you think)

Phwl Designs : Elvin Queen

 Okay! hay Blog followers! it is now my wonderful privilege to bring to you the new bi-weekly feature to the phwlofthenow blog!!!!!!!!!!!!! Introducing.... Phwl Designs! (too much?)

Okay! so from now on, every second Friday, I will post one of my fashion designs and explaining the motivation and creative exasperation behind them.

So, to kick it off, I thought I'd start with one of my personal favourites. The design is called elfin queen since that''s exactly where the idea came from. This is actually a commission I did for a friend. She asked me what an elvin queen would wear and I said DESIGN CHALLENGE!

I love the whole medieval-feel to the long drop sleeve and the high collar.  Another fun part of this design was the linking motif of the netting closed off by the leaf, on both the dress and as a "veil". I also played around a bit with the concept of exposed vs. covered with the slit in the bottom, the sleeveless side and the white glove. I loved using all the green and brown in this one, especially with the two layers of the bottom half.

So that was the story behind the Elvin Queen dress!

Peace!

(ooh, I'd really like to know whatcha think and whether I should continue with this feature! so drop me a comment below :D)