holiday planning: how to tuesday 2

heyy, today is how to Tuesday, so I'm going to teach you something. This time, it's not something you can make, but it is fashionrelated. Some girls have trouble to define their style. And if you don't know what style you have, it can be hard you choose outfits. So today I'm going to teach you how to find your style in 5 steps with a lot of pictures :)

1. Find inspiration
2. Keep a style diary
3. Don’t put yourself in a box
4. Ask yourself questions
5. Stop criticizing yourself



1. Find inspiration
Inspiration is everywhere. On the streets, in magazines, online. Try to find your source of inspiration: a celebrity who always looks good. Your best friend, who looks like she shops everyday, but actually just knows how to combine clothes. The girl you saw at the train station. Everybody could be your source of inspiration. But… use it as a source, don’t copy it. Otherwise it isn’t your style, but hers.

(last year, I used to find inspiration for drawing fashion in japanese girls)

2. Keep a style diary
Take a picture of your outfit everyday. Put it in a folder on your computer or make a real photo book. At the end of the week, you decide which outfits you like and you put them in a different folder. After two or three months, you open the folder which the outfits you like. Those outfits probably describe your style. Also, you get to see how your style grows and develops. After a year, you probably see difference between the first and last picture.


3. Don’t put yourself in a box
Online you can find over a thousand of style quizzes, but they put you in a box. They only have simple answers like: romantic, relaxed, nerdy, gothic, classy, trendy…
But a style is a combination of things. Style depends on your mood, the weather and what your plans are for the day.
Example: it is winter, I have to go to school and I am tired. My style will be relaxed, romantic and simple.
But if only one thing changes, a whole other style can come out.
Example: it is winter, I have to go to school and I am happy. Now my style will be romantic, nerdy, and trendy.
Example: summer, no plans, lazy. My style will be trendy, relaxed and simple.
So, try to find the key words (more than two) to describe your looks.
different styles (all from this year):




4. Ask yourself questions
If you dress yourself, stand in front of the mirror and look at yourself. Is this you? Or do you see someone else in the mirror? Some outfits look really cool, they fit your body, but not your personality/style. So ask yourself if it reflects you. If it doesn’t, try to change it so it will. It is important to dress like yourself.

This outfit fits me, but is too simple for my personality.

This outfit fits my personality, but it doesn't really fit me. (P.S. the tips of my hair are pink)

This outfit fits me and my personality.

5. Stop criticizing yourself
This is probably the hardest one. A lot of girls/woman criticize their self. They aren’t happy with their body, or some parts of it. I also criticize myself, so it’s kind of weird to tell you to stop while I still do it myself. I’m trying to stop, but it lessens with small steps. Don’t be hard on yourself, because you’re perfect the way you are. If you disagree, try to change that.

I hope this was useful.

bye xxx

holiday planning: how to tuesday 1

heyy, today is how to Tuesday, so I'm going to teach you something. And I thought since it is holiday, so some of you must have a lot of time. I don't know how long vacation is in other countries, but in the Netherlands, we have 7 weeks. So I thought, I can teach you something that will take time, so you'll be busy. In 5th grade, my best friend and I used to make comics. They were very simple, a little childish, and we didn't make them as we should have, but they were short and just for fun. She wrote the texts and I drew the pictures. We made three comics, one about bees, one about fish and one about butterflies. They aren't very interesting, but I still have them. They bring back memories of that friendship, because one year later, we weren't best friends anymore.

But now I'm going to teach you how to make a real comic. Sorry I don't have matching pictures to make things more clear, but today I went to the swimming pool from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM, so I didn't had any time to draw.

How to make a comic:

1. Choose your genre, subjects, and style
2. Choose your characters
3. Choose the places
4. Choose your storyline
5. Choose the texts
6. Make a sketch comic
7. And… Begin

1. Choose your genre, subjects, and style
Before you can make a comic, you have to know what kind of comic you want to make. You have to choose a genre (like action, romantic, comedy, horror), subjects (like love, war, family, friendships) and a style. With a style you can make it personal. With style I mean how you draw your comic. You can draw very simple without many details, or very detailed. You can draw manga or chibi, or your own style of drawing. When you have decided your genre, subjects and style, you can continue.

2. Choose your characters
Every story has characters, so for a comic, you need to choose yours. The main character(s), the other important characters, less important characters. You need to give them a recognizable look, something only that character has (different eyes, skin tone, a special haircut). Also, you need to make a personality for each of them (age, connection to the others, talent, abilities, fears) which makes them unique.

3. Choose the places
In a comic, you have to draw everything. If they’re in the woods, you have to draw the trees, leaves, a brown ground, so that your readers know where they are. Every picture has to have a background. It sounds obvious, but some forget it.

4. Choose your storyline
A storyline is very important. You need to write down every action in the right order, decide if you want flash forwards or flashbacks, decide how many conversations, a climax or anti-climax. It’s like making a screenplay for a movie. This will help you to plan how many pictures you need for every action, so that you can fit everything in.

5. Choose the texts
Every comic has conversations, thoughts and texts. Sometimes a picture has a text bloc above it, to introduce a person, place or situation. You don’t have to write whole conversations, only the important sentences, because than it will be more natural when you make the whole comic. Also think of some quotes, some cool reactions or thoughts. If you can’t think of anything, it’s alright, because you don’t need them that hard. But they make a story cooler.

6. Make a sketch comic
If you have your characters, places, storyline and some texts, you can make a sketch version. When you think of the happenings in your story, find some scenes that you think will be the hardest to draw. And sketch them. Try a font for the texts and see if they match your drawing style. Try colors, try different ways of coloring (pencils, ink, markers, digital). Try to find the things that match. If you have a cute drawing style, don’t choose a non-curved font. Use soft and bright colors, but not neon. Use pencils to make it look softer. But for the scary scenes you can use black pencils. When you have tested, you can go to the last step.

7. And… Begin
If you have everything you need, you can start making your comic. Try to work someplace quiet, so you can concentrate. It will take some time to finish it, but the end result will be worth it.


I hope this was useful and I like to see the end results if some of you try this.

I hope you like it!

bye xxx

Holiday/Vacation time

heyy, It's summer!!! I don't know about holiday/vacation in other countries, but I have 7 weeks without school. I don't have plans for the first weeks, I maybe go on vacation the last two weeks. But to have something to do, I thought of a program. 6 weeks long (i'm going to start next week) I'm going to post something everyday.

Every Monday I'll post something about a specific style.
Every Tuesday I'm going to post a how to ...
Every Wednesday there will be a TAG post.
Every Thursday is about jewelry.
Every Friday I'll post an outfit.
Every Saturday I'm going to teach you a language.
Every Sunday is to sum up everything of that week.

I have made a planning with all the subjects, and I hope I'll be able to write and post everything. Making and photographing everything will take a lot of time, but than at least I have something to do.

I hope you like it!
bye xxx