QUICK ILLUSTRATIONS: A 99p worth inspiration

Noun The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative: "flashes of inspiration". The quality of having been so stimulated, esp. when evident in something: "a moment of inspiration in an otherwise dull display".

(Source: dictionary.com)

Inspiration can be derived from absolutely anything and everything. I personally find that the things I'm most inspired by are the littlest things I wouldn't have originally given a second thought to, so you can imagine my surprise when I found this cheap little thrill in Sports Direct! I do believe the words I uttered to explain this purchase was in aid to compare them to Christmas...

I remember a time when shopping channels became a regular for me - not for the usual reasons but mainly because there was nothing better on Nickelodeon at the time and I had just recently discovered that Art could consist of media other than pencils and paint. One of the items that was always on my wishlist was the Magic Pens! I couldn't decide whether it was the use of the neon-bright colours, the rainbows and butterfly doodles or the actors/salespeople who slept with coat hangers in their mouths...or perhaps it was a mixture of all of them. However, you can imagine my excitement when I finally got my hands on these after almost ten years and with a price tag of £0.99, I just could not resist!

Anyway, after having a quick scribble with the pens, I wanted to see if I could create anything. Although it didn't take me long to get bored of them as the nibs were very thick, the colours were limited and the quality; lacking... 

Despite all of this, I didn't want to give up on the pens just yet, especially after having such high expectations of them. So my hand continued its lazy doodling and I realised that I had been creating patches of patterns; the simplest of lines and waves, an arrangement of squares and triangles and circles and dots and suddenly I didn't seem to want to stop! I wanted to make more, I wanted to create different patterns, use different colours, use more, use less, I just wanted to create more!

To me, they started to resemble the Aztec prints have been popping up in the fashion trends lately...So I couldn't wait to use the drawings as prints and apply them to some fashion illustration.

It was only a matter of time and a few scribbles before I finally got these. I can't decide whether I think I needed to spend more time on these or roughen them up slightly to get a more distinct look, however, considering the time taken to draw these up, i don't think I could have done much more to them.