Please follow my new blog!

A very long and overdue hello. I had taken a break from the blogosphere for quite a long time but I've recently decided to start it back up again. I have started a new page as I wanted a fresh start from my old blog (and life). Here's the link to my new blog. I shall be posting about my art and illustration, fashion designs and handmade crafts, also some of the adventures I undertake :-)

I wont delete this account as it'll be nice to look back and see how things have changed.

Thank you kittens!

Queen Viv

One of my favourite designers is Vivienne Westwood, and this illustration of mine is based on one of her designs. It was the panda style warrior make-up, and doll like puppet stance of the image that attracted me to draw it.

 

Illustration by clare and the bear

David Sims: Grunge

Illustration by clareandthebear.

Inspired by a photograph in the Grunge style section of Luella's Guide To English Style book, taken by her photographer partner David Sims in the 1980s. I love the grunge era, the rawness of it. The simplicity of the nude makeup and scrawny limp hair with the "thrown together without a care in the world" style. Its very in again this season. Inspiring celebrities from Kirsten Stewart to Pixie Geldolf.

MR MEN FASHION EDITORIAL

Bonjour! Yes I know, there's been big lack of posts recently, but here as my come back post are finally images of my project with my friend Lacey, the MR MEN fashion editorial.

Photography: Lacey Jayne Clements. 

Styling: Me (Clare and the Bear). 

Hair: Chris Dennis and Karen Dennis. 

Makeup: Katie Standen.

Costume Designers: Clare and the Bear and Judy Clements.

Illustrations/Graphics: Clare and the Bear.

Models: 

Laura Medhurst as Naughty

Ben Lux as Bump

Katie Standen as Chatterbox

Danielle Parker-Thomas as Magic

Steven Dennis as Impossible

Sarah Marks as Sunshine

Pat Hurley as Messy

Charlotte Rayment as Splendid

Brad Parrott as Topsy Turvy 

Vicky Rayment as Scatterbrain

Little Miss Naughty 

Mr Bump 

Little Miss Chatterbox

  Little Miss Magic

Mr Impossible

Little Miss Sunshine

Mr Messy

Little Miss Splendid

Mr Topsy Turvy

Little Miss Scatterbrain

Laura Marling: REPRODUCED

The effortlessly beautiful Laura Marling is another of my loves and icons. Here's my illustration of her taken from The Mystery Jets song 'Young Love' which she features in.

And here is the super groovy song itself;

Here's my illustration of LA ROUX. Now I'm not much of a fan of her music, but I do find her face fascinating, with her tomboy, androgynous and simplistic features. Though she dapples with futuristic stylings I quite feel she has a very 60s/70s vibe about her.

I like this remix version of 'In for The Kill' I found on youtube. It's eeriely ethereal and her vocals are more hauntingly.

DAISY CHAINSAW illustration

A huge HUGE love and inspiration to me is the beautifully ethereal Katie Jane Garside. Oh my wow, she is sensational! In style, music and mere presence; she steals my heart and hypotizes me. I adore her in all her music ventures; Daisy Chainsaw, Queen Adreena and Ruby Throat. I'm completely in love with her poetic sensual vulnerability. She is like a child of the earth, a nymph, who has somehow stumbled into fame and television, although amazingly gifted, she doesn't seem to belong there, and is solemnly awaiting to return home to a magical river or wood.


Below is my illustration of Katie, inspired by a photograph of her back in her Daisy Chainsaw days.

To Daisy, with love X

TOPSHOP: HAIR illustration

Hello kats and kittens and general folk. Haven't posted any artwork for a muchos long time so **tar darr** here's one for ya!
Its titled TOPSHOP: HAIR and is by me clare and the bear

Inspired by an image in a Topshop magazine of a girl with her head held down and depicting just her hair, I do adore lank messy hair! There was summat about having her face completely hidden by her hair that captured me. Surprisingly I found it more challenging to draw someone without a face than with one.   

Why hello there twenty//eleven

So now its the start of a new year; I thought it fetching to have a new blog header, consisting of one of my new illustrations. I know, I get so easily bored, but hey that's an arty airhead for you. Below is the actual illustration my new blog header came from. The illustration is of Topshops promo image for their "Love to Love" t-shirt tribrute to Fashion Targets Breast Cancer. The photo and the cause behind it spurred a reaction of inspiration in me and so the dedication of this illustration.

The tale of Tony and the Badger

Once upon a time, in a land far far away there lived a boy called Tony who had long curly hair. Tony loved his curly hair and thought his hair was the best in all the land. But Tony would become very jealous if anyone had hair that rivalled his. 

One day when coming back from The Cribs gig he spotted a badger strolling along the pathway. But this was no ordinary badger. This badger had amazing hair! Tony became so jealous. He could not stand that this badger with his fandabby doobie hair was cooler than him. So he grabbed a chupa chub lolly pop out of his pocket gave it a mighty lick and threw the strawberry and cream lolly, where it landed right on the badgers back! The badger started to cry as Tony pointed and laughed. The badger called for help and a pigeon came to his aid and helped peck the lolly out of the badgers hair. 

But the badgers fur had become all sticky and had to go and ask a duck to help him wash it out. The duck was very good at cleaning but in return for his help wanted a loaf of bread. So the badger had to travel far and wide to track down a unicorn who could help him repay the duck. So the magical unicorn searched for Tony and found him staring at his reflection in the back of a tea spoon. The unicorn snuck up behind Tony and poked him up his bottom which made him squeal and squeak in shock. The unicorn told Tony off for being very, very naughty and to stop bullying the woodland creatures for having better hair than him. 

Tony felt very sorry for upsetting the badger and ran to his kitchen and baked 7 loafs of bread to give to the duck. He apologised to badger for being mean and begged for his forgiveness and gave badger a life long supply of hairspray. The badger was very kind and forgave him and asked Tony to be his friend, and from that day Tony and the badger became the best of friends. They both had many adventures together and became known as the pair with the most stylish swishy hair.

The end.

I am on Folksy

Hello kats. Just a quicky to let you know I'm selling a selected few of my illustration prints on folksy.com. Please do go check them out! You may find something you'll love for yourself or a gift for a friend this christmas.
Here's the link to my folksy shop.

Have you seen the petals fall?

Meows and hi's, this week has been full of migrains :( its been awful! I've felt so sick all week :( hence my lack in posts. 
I was gonna post one of my new illustrations but they're all on my other laptop and I'm too idle to go find it and switch it on. But I found some of my collection work here on Betty (Betty is my Mac) and decided to post some selected pages from my collection book. 
My collection was based on a girl's first period and tried to capture a girl transforming from a child into a woman, embracing innocence, subtle sexuality and awkwardness.

 Poem by me Clare and the Bear

 Illustrations by me Clare and the Bear (aka Clare Heart)

Ethereal Wonderland

Hello there! I've changed my blog header (again) as I fancied a change. I've used another cropped illustration of mine but this time merged it with prettyful flowers which I feel suits my style a wee more as I love all that is ethereal and floral. 

Which reminds me of some of the beautiful pieces I have found recently, like this stunning rabbit wall hanging which I've turned into a necklace:

Isn't it simply divine! and only cost me 40p! I've had loads of people commenting on it when I've worn it saying pretty it is and how it reminds them of Alice in Wonderland. It reminds me more so of the ultimately sad cartoon Watership Down.


And this delightful Moss coloured suede handbag with ornate detailing:

I absolutely love the colour, and cost £3.25. It matches the bunny necklace quite sweetly.

This stunning cameo brooch:

I found this beaut in my local charity shop for 95p. I really like cameo's and have a small collection of them, I espechially like how this lady here though looks young and a little like a Greek Goddess.

And I simply love these granny shoesies:

I know they're not everyone's taste but I LOVE them! They're a dark navy blue suede and they're sooo comfy as well as being granny chic. Plus they were only £1.95 a shere B.A.R.G.I.N. if I do say so myself. Also I've just noticed how they do quite match the cameo brooch above. 

(All items found in various charity shops around Birmingham)


And to end my ethereal post-y-ma-jig with a lovely song by the marvelous band Fleetwood Mac:

Ziggy Lost

Hallo, see I kept my promise and I'm back :)
I've been working on some new illustrations but I thought I'd post about a past project I did whilst in my third year at university. The project was to design a range of mens shirts for a River Island competition. 
My collection was called ZIGGY LOST and was based upon androgyny and the blurring of sexuality. Below is the collection statement expressing the concept behind the designs.

"Girls can wear jeans, And cut their hair short, Wear shirts and boots, 'Cause it's ok to be a boy, But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading. 'Cause you think that being a girl is degrading, But secretly you'd love to know what it's like, Wouldn't you? What it feels like for a girl." 

Madonna "What It Feels Like For A Girl" song April 2001.

The boys of today's world wear make-up and feminine clothes, have big hair and the freedom of expression.

They walk in the footsteps of their legends Ziggy, Bolan, Freddie and Jagger. 

Iconic's that helped blur sexuality and androgyny. 

Confidence is key. 

They strutt around resembling exotic plumed feathery birds flirting with all they encounter. With their fo-femininity masking their raging testosterone they entice and intoxicate their maiden admirers, who are fascinated by their feminine allurement. 

Boys are expected to act and dress and behave like boys, and girls are meant to resemble girls, but 'nothing is just black and white - there is always shades of grey'. 

The monochrome colouration of 'Ziggy Lost' represents the set ways of sexuality, and within the cut and shaping of the garments the 'shades of grey,' entwining feminine and masculine will be portrayed. 

Fragmented. 

Trying to discover themselves in a stable environment of acceptance. 

Capturing this essence of uncertainty, disorientation and disorder the labyrinth portrays the puzzlement of life.

Escapism from a confused and entanglement state. 

This is ZIGGY LOST.

moodboard

illustration line up

 

working drawings of the Range

 

Inspirational photoshoot shot by Lacey Layne Clements, styled and edited by me Clare And The Bear (aka Clare Heart)

 model: Blane Anthony Chapman

Golly it seems such a long time ago when I was doing this project! Although I still remember the migrain rendering stress of creating what seemed like a million techincal drawings! I definately don't miss those!

WOWIES!

So wow! its been an awful long time since my last post! The last few months I've been quite distracted with my personal life which has lead to my absence here. Anyho I'm gonna try and be more pro-active with my blog from now on. 

So a quick update on what's going on in Clare-land:

I'm now a red head again woooo, although it has drastically faded to a washed out pinky red colour now which actually I do kinda like, and random people keep coming up to me saying they love my hair colour and I look like a mermaid or fairy which undoubtedly makes me smile LOTS!

My Mr Men and Little Misses photoshoot with my photographer friend Lacey is almost complete. Just need to finish of some editing and we're maybe thinking of doing a few extra shots of other characters as the original shoot went swimmingly! Then its off to the printers and then to London we go :) check out Lacey's new website here

I am now offically a fully fledged vegetarian. No more meat for this kitten. I realised I actually didn't even like eating meat and the thought of a poor wee animal dying in order for me to eat it made me wanna cry and be sick so I decided that's it I'm not eating meat ever again!

I am desperately searching for a new job!! As my current one is awful and I super need something stimulating where I can apply my skills and most importantly get some job satisfaction! Oh and a pay rise obviously!

My health is STILL rotten :( today I feel like someone has hit me with a hammer, thrown soggy tea bags at me till I've gathered a million bruises all living on top of the other, and dropped bags of marbles on top of my head. 

Oh and I'm deleting my facebook page. Golly I'm super tired of facebook and I never use it any more. So if you need to get hold of me just email or text me or pick up a biro and write a letter, I miss receiving hand written letters.

Soo I shall leave you here kittens with a little illustration of mine.
Chow.

Why, hello there!

So as you can see my blog header is now brand spanking new! Also with a new name, and blog address: CLARE AND THE BEAR
ok ok I do admit I get rather bored and tiresome with stuff, but I'll try and promise that this one is a keeper!

So the main reason for la change is actually a business reason. I now have a vintage stall which is called
CLARE AND THE BEAR VINTAGE WEAR
which will start on bank holiday Monday 31st May at The Stein Bar in Walsall (times yet to be arranged). Obviously I'll be selling beautiful vintage pieces including vintage dresses, coats, skirts, blouses, knits, hand bags, shoesies, jewellery, trinkets, mens wear yardy yardy yarda... and also my illustrations will be availble to purchase.
Here are a few photos of the treasures for sale to you kittens:

Tania

Another illustration for you kittens today, this one is of my delightful friend Tania.

My scribble of Tania reminds me of 'Enid' from the film 'Ghost World'. Now that is a truely awesome film!!!

If you've never seen it you must go check it out! Here's the trailer:

Coco the Clown

Here is my illustration of the beautiful Coco Rocha from the stunning clown/mime/harlequin inspired photoshoot in Numero Magazine's October 2007 issue.

Green-rated

Meow here's an illustration of mine based on the cover of I ♥ FAKE 
magazine the grunge issue#17. 

JOJOHONTAS, POKEMYHONTAS

So I've been drawing again and this time my muse is my dear friend; the beautifully ethereal, awe inspiring Joanne Billingham.

This illustration is based upon a truly awesome photograph of Jo dressed as Pocahontas for a fancy dress party. With her awkward stance and adorable pairing of native Indian dress, cute headband, with socks and heels - well OH MY why wouldn't I fall in love and feel inspired!