Barely There

Last Wednesday while viewing my blog, my dear friend and classmate Kayla said to me, "Meagan stop photoshopping the **** out of your illustrations, I want to see them raw." I genuinely honor and respect my peers' opinions. But I had to explain, in my defense, that in order to eliminate the grey smog color of the paper, so many of the delicate shadows in wash are lost. Thus I have to replace them in photoshop with the brush tool.

I happen to despise when my works aren't completely white in the background, but I also dislike losing so many of the delicate subtleties that make a piece so special. Finding a balance between the two is much harder than you think. When you're using wet media on sketch paper there is always a degree of warping. So today, for one time only, here are 6 raw and unedited brush and ink illustrations from Bil Donovan's class. Enjoy!!

P.S. Love you Kayla!! Thanks for your comical, yet incredible, input as always.

Don't assume you can only afford cattle class

Like everything in this world, business travel is a tale of two halves. On one side of the story is the business traveller. And on the other, the business travel buyer. Both are driven by very different needs. Can there ever be a happy ending?

Despite being more conscious than ever of his own travel costs following two years struggling through a recession, the business traveller still wants a little luxury. The business travel buyer on the other hand is driven by cost and thinks he can’t afford to buy luxury. His budgets were battered during the recession and are showing only faint signs of a stronger pulse as we enter 2011.

So how do buyers keep standards up and travellers happy when there is so much pressure to make budgets stretch further? How do they buy luxury at affordable prices?

IF YOU DON’T ASK, YOU DON’T GET
Interestingly, the answer to maximising your budget doesn’t always lie in getting the cheapest price. In fact, there isn’t just one answer at all, which is why I’d like to suggest four.

Number one – always ask for more. Never assume you can only have what you can afford and never underestimate how far travel suppliers are prepared to bend to win business.

If you think you can only afford the 3* option, push for a 4* solution for the same price. If you have a 4* budget, then negotiate for free add-ons. For example, when booking accommodation, ask for room upgrades from standard to executive, complimentary breakfast, Wi-Fi connections, access to business lounge services and spa treatments. 

And when buying flights, instead of fighting aimlessly for seat discounts, why not try negotiating for a free upgrade? You can always stretch your pounds further by pushing for complimentary lounge access, kerbside check-in, chauffeur pick up, extra baggage allowance or travel insurance.

And don’t limit your negotiating skills to just flights and accommodation, either, many of these tricks can also be applied when booking ground transportation or conference and meeting facilities.

Number two – consider different purchasing options. To get the best price and the best deal, you may want to consider purchasing alternatives such as reverse auctions (perfect for hotel deals), consortia buying (the best option for car rental), spot buying and hedging (both better suited to airline bookings).

Number three – ask the experts. During a recession, the knee-jerk reaction from business can often be to consolidate suppliers or keep things in-house to keep costs to a minimum. But when it comes to buying travel and meetings, this can lead to a false economy. Expert suppliers, such as travel management companies, hotel booking agents and event management companies, can - through a combination of their expertise and buying power – cut your costs, get you a better deal and save you time and effort.

Number four – visit BTMS. Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I? But it’s true. At BTMS, buyers can meet the biggest gathering of world leading travel brands in Europe, access a first-class free-to-attend educational programme and connect with more than 5,200 of Europe’s most powerful travel and meetings professionals to kick-start new relationships from right across the UK and Europe – all under one roof.

Posted by David Chapple, event director, Business Travel & Meetings Show

Walking Shoes and Dragonflies

All 5 Minute Sketches From Life

Hello from Toronto everyone!! This is my very first blog post outside of New York. It feels like such a dream writing this from my family's country home. I haven't returned since August and I feel like my whole life has changed since then. Coincidentally, today's work of art is all about traveling feet, soaring dragonflies, and an unknown destination. I'm not sure there is a better work of art to illustrate the point I'm at in my life right now. In May I will be completing my studies at FIT. I'm savoring the excitement of the unknown, feeling like I could fly anywhere.

Bil Donovan assigned us this composition a week ago. After 3 hours of drawing Dayna's shoes at random, we were asked to scan them in, and create a surrealist piece by combining some sort of animal or insect. The only rules were to maintain the dimensions of 15 in x 5 in. I love the lighthearted, playful quality of this piece, especially as we are entering the dreary Winter season. Even though I initially had no idea how to put this same shoe from different angles into one composition, in the end they fit together perfectly like a puzzle. It gives me faith that my life will do the same. Happy Friday everyone and enjoy!!

And She Goes Tumbling Down...

I have a small confession to make. I always find myself waiting for friends on evenings when we are meant to go dancing. I'm not sure if I was born with the curse of punctuality or if my friends were born with the curse of tardiness ;) but I always find myself waiting. In such cases when I'm already dressed and ready to go, I pass the time with impromptu photo shoots.

The above shot is the result of one of these instances. In the spirit of disclosure, I actually love the opportunity to be creative with my camera on the opposite side of the lens. I like the excitement of not knowing what I'll get. My arrangement of these photos was deliberate. They are meant to resemble Rorschach inkblot tests used in psychology. "What do you see, when you look at me?" Enjoy!!

All Wrapped Up

All 10 Minute Sketches

Our Friday afternoon model rocked two of my most favorite Fall 2010 accessories: the turban, and faux fur jacket. I actually had an internal spastic freak-out when she walked onto the stand with her hair all wrapped up in a colored scarf. I literally could not draw fast enough. Go figure, I only got one completed sketch of her wearing the turban, but I had quite a lot of fun converting the hues in photoshop. These sketches have me singing the lyrics to Rihanna - Rude Boy over and over again lol. Red hair or no red hair, the girl has style, and so did this fabulous model. Get your shades on for these. Enjoy!!

Pixie Refined

Who knew the same Manic Pixie Dream Girl from yesterday could evoke an entirely different feeling just by converting her to black and white?! The goal of Friday's class drawings was to achieve a face worthy of a perfume ad. I decided to experiment with the color palette and opacity in order to arrive at just that. I love that this composition evokes such a feeling of old Hollywood glamour. I have a real affinity for vintage beauty. The type of demure elegance that women of the 1950's exude through their pores. Oppressive gender roles aside, I would happily spend a day absorbed in that era. Enjoy!!

Manic Pixie Dream Girl

All 10 Minute Sketches

Film critic, Nathan Rabin, coined the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl to describe a certain female character in films who encourages you to embrace life and it's infinite mysteries. While drawing Dayna the model yesterday for Joe Denaro's class, all I could think about was that illusive character, whoever she is, and the word pixie. Thus, this blog post came into fruition.

We focused on beauty heads yesterday with the intention of using them for perfume ads. All the sketches were done in ten minutes. I found that when I drew in pencil before brush and ink, I was more pleased with the results. Always learning, always a work in progress. Happy Saturday everyone and enjoy!!

The time is ripe for traditional travel buyers to learn from the meetings pros

The meetings market is not known as the final frontier in the travel industry for nothing and I’ve long held the belief that the time is ripe for travel and procurement buyers who now look after meetings to step up their game. 

Despite being viewed as the rebellious teenager for many years, meetings management is becoming more mainstream and a survey recently carried out by the show has confirmed that traditional travel and procurement buyers are beginning to understand the benefits of introducing meetings policy, strategy, evaluation and technology into their everyday processes.

The survey of 204 procurement, meetings and business travel managers revealed:

·         69% of meetings budgets have either remained static or declined in the last year

·         23% have increased, and only slightly

·         38% of companies are still without a meetings policy

·         80% of companies do not use technology to manage their meeting spend

·         65% are not involved in measuring meetings ROI

·         42% are using more travel alternatives, such as video conferencing, than they did a year ago

·         25% are managing more UK and short haul destination meetings

·         71% of those organising pre-meeting events, such as golf and spa days, are arranging fewer of them

On the flip side, this is also a great opportunity for suppliers who also need to step up the plate and realise there’s a whole new audience they should be doing business with.

Posted by David Chapple, event director, Business Travel & Meetings Show 

Disco In Repeat

"If three is better than two, then two is better than one. Come join me on the dance floor so we can have some fun." Here are some more 70's illustrations from Joe Denaro's Friday class. After a weekend of pure dancing bliss with incredible friends, these drawings help to keep the feeling alive. I love how repetition changes the illustrations entirely, sort of like music to the eye. Hope everyone is having a good week so far. Thank-you again for all your wonderful comments. Enjoy!!

Oh So 70's...

7 Minute Sketches Above

Our latest project for Joe Denaro is to design a 70's inspired poster. We have free reign on this one and have once again requested the models dress in costume for class. I've had an absolute field day scouting 70's references. FIT happens to have the most amazing book collection and I've taken total advantage of it's accessibility. I've included in this post my 7 minute drawings from this past Friday's class, along with my favorite references thus far from TASCHEN's Fashion of the 70's. These are actual vintage fashion and beauty ads from the decade. I so wish we could time travel. Enjoy!!

Gallery Girl

My reflection in MoMA glass instalation

Me next to OOF By Edward Ruscha 1962

Photo I took of bottles at MoMA and repeated four times

I'm never more at peace then when I'm in an art gallery. Particularly those great big grandiose art galleries that I can lose myself in. When I used to live in Toronto, I volunteered as a docent in the newly designed Frank Gehry AGO. I was probably the most selfish docent they ever hired; I used to spend all my volunteer hours plugged into my ipod starring at the huge Gerhard Richter paintings on the top floor. I really couldn't help myself, letting my eyes wander across the canvases, imagining my hands running through the layers of paint. The spaces there were so large, so expansive, so humbling. Today's post is devoted to my favorite photos taken, oddly enough at the MoMA, not the AGO. I reworked the colors in photoshop for fun. Enjoy!!

Where Have All The Boys Gone?

Every fashion illustration I see these days happens to be all about the girls. It begs the question, what about the boys? Where have all the boys gone? I've just finished looking through 70's fashion reference books for our next project, and I couldn't believe the number of male fashion illustrations I found. Why illustrate them then and not now?

I happen to love drawing the few male models we have at our school. I think in part it's because I can be more aggressive with the drawings. Their features are more definite, no need for delicacy. That said, today's post is dedicated to the boys. Above are my class drawings from first and second semester. I think they need a little time to shine. Enjoy!!