Runway Central Hollywood Hills Edition

A Night Out with Marguerite Blakeney

By Toffee Warner

I’m sitting here at the lovely Café Madison, waiting for the famous designer I’m about to interview. As I sip my $19.99 tall-sized Cappuccino Whatchamaspresso, I think about what the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Éclair Glenwell-Adare might have to say about this. I can imagine her breathing that firey dragon-breath of hers if this isn’t to her satisfaction.

Shit, I wasn’t supposed to talk about that, was I?

Actually, to tell you the truth, she gave me this job. No, not as a fashion column writer, obviously she gave me that job, but the chance to meet and greet such an untouchable artist, up there with the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Monique Lhullier, Roberto Cavalli, Oscar de la Renta, and others in the top percentage of fashion elites! I’m so excited! But as I look at my watch, I observe it’s been fifteen minutes, and this biatch is l-a-t-e, LATE!

But then I see the famous ever-changing hair, the pale skin, the confident strut, and a smile on her lips as Marguerite Blakeney walks deftly through the lounge, as if she were on the runway herself, in order to greet me. I stand up, smile (oh my god, I’m such a big fan!), and she immediately apologizes for her lateness. That’s okay. I can forgive her.

MB: Margie. *sticks out her hand and shakes mine* Sorry I’m running a bit off schedule. There was just so much traffic going on in the streets. I wonder if there’s an event going on.

In a city like this, traffic happens all the time, which means you always have to leave an hour early before your scheduled appointment.

RC: It’s so nice to finally meet you. I’m Toffee. We spoke on the phone.
MB: Oh yeah, that’s right.
RC: Could I buy you something to drink? Or a snack?
MB: No, love, I’m fine. Can we start the interview? I’m on a tight schedule.

Always the diva. But then, that’s to be expected, isn’t it?

RC: Yeah, sure, no problem. So, where did you get your start?
MB: Well, I’ve been a member of this site since a while after it opened, and all I've done with my time here was roleplay, sell off used items, chat amongst you fine people, and create event threads which have long since died off!
RC: I see. Sounds wonderful. And what do you currently do?
MB: By trade, I’m a former art student whose background includes years of self-trained artwork, plus a two-year stint at a private art school. I just recently went through a costume design class at my university which taught me to simplify the drawing of the human form.
RC: Did you bring any portfolio work to share with me today? I’ve seen your creations in other magazines and fashion shows and they are just divine!
MB: Aw, I’m so flattered, Toffee, thank you. I’ve actually got two deviantArt accounts under my belt and I’m hoping to eventually launch my personal website. You can find them here chrisnele-latreia: the art school years and here isabellascott: fashion forward.
RC: That’s so great! I’m sure our readers at home will love it. Now to my next question, what do you usually charge?
MB: It's typically 100-200 gold as a base price per person, an additional 100 for backgrounds, another 100 for more complicated items, and 10 per additional simple item.
RC: Oh, that's not too bad. How long are you planning to do this?
MB: As much as I can. While I slave away on my sewing machine, I also spend time dilly-dallying on the Internet if I get bored. And I also watch movies.
RC: You're just like everyone else!
MB: Yeah, I do like to consider myself that way. *nods*
RC: Who do you draw for?
MB: Primarily females, but I'm also trying to get used to drawing the male figure. It's not that bad, once you figure out what to do. The human body is full of geometric shapes. We just freak out because it's the human body and we don't like to make mistakes.
RC: I almost forgot to ask, what's your inspiration?
MB: *sighs* The fantasy of being a princess, I guess. Each girl wants their happily-ever-after, whether they admit it or not. I also love the clothing from older time periods. It's a shame we don't have them now because our clothes have rather simplified over the decades.
RC: Is there any specific time period you love to look at?
MB: Oh yeah. *giggles* Definitely. I love a lot of things, from the Tudor/Elizabethan era, Marie Antoinette, Regency, up to Titanic. Afterwards, things just become more modernized and now we have what we have.

She ended up cutting the interview rather short, which was fine because I got all the information I needed. I wish I could have had more time to chill with her, but a fashion designer's work is never done. In fact, she had to get to the airport, to jetset off to some expensive place I could never afford to live at, to showcase more of her work.

I hope you all love her stuff as much as I do! She's a really great person and would love to work with anybody with a pleasant personality.

Runway Central Artwork Samples

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge.

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Basic sketches. They'll get cleaned up in the finished product. (in regards to the random numbering and unneeded pencil lines)



Digitized & Colored artwork via Paint Shop Pro (I don't use Photoshop).

Runway Central Pricing and Guidelines

I doubt many of you actually bothered to read the article so here’s the gist of it:

- I am Marguerite Blakeney (Margie or MarMar for short), your hostess and resident artist of this thread. You've seen me mainly on the Wallflower Thread (though I've moved to Effervescent Efflorescence) and the Roleplaying Forum.
- Toffee is my mule. If you receive your art through her, you are receiving it directly from me. She is not another person.
- Eclair Glenwell-Adare is one of my roleplaying characters. Thus, Runway Central is fake and is a parody on Vogue Magazine and The Devil Wears Prada.
- Yes, I do like designing clothes and making replica costumes in real life. I’m one of THOSE people.
- NO, I do not sew costumes for you people, I only draw artwork here!
- I generally draw females, and am not too good with the male figure but I could try.
- If you want something OTHER than your avatar drawn, give me a reference picture.
- I haven't drawn anime eyes in forever. My art style is more realistic.
- You may check out my deviantArt galleries at the URLs in the above "interview" but they are not a representation of the samples I will use.
- I do have a busy life, as I'm a college student and am struggling to find an actual real-world job, so I won't always be available.
- Pricing goes as follows (these may change as the artwork improves/thread gains popularity):

Basic Figure: Head=100 gold; Torso=150; Full-body=200 along with your basic medium-detailed clothing.

Backgrounds: While I’m loathe to do these (especially for the detail), I’ll do them for an extra 100 gold.

Additional items: Small things like teddybears, bunnies, bouquets, and such are an extra 10 gold per item. Heavier items like wings, weapons, and more largely detailed clothes (i.e. stuff in Emporio Palazzo) will go for 100 gold each.

Color: Due to the range of items, this will also cost extra and will vary based on what you want me to first sketch out. I work with colored pencil and watercolor when on paper.

Digitizing & Coloring: If you want me to digitally color your image, this takes more time, and as you guessed it, also more gold.

Runway Central Order Form

Username: (your username)
Base: (Head, Torso, or Full body)
Color/No Color: (Whichever you want, specify colored pencil, watercolor, digitizing, or none at all for black&white)
Background: (Yes or No, please include a reference picture)
Additional Items: (List which items you want drawn that are not simple clothing and accessories that go straight on your avatar's body)
Estimated gold amount: (If you want coloring and/or digitizing, do not include prices for them.  You and I will negotiate here on the thread).

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Completed

1. mewmew07 - Paid: 250
2. BlackCart29 - Paid 200
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Runway Central is officially OPEN

You step in the office of Runway Central's editor-in-chief, Éclair Glenwell-Adare. She doesn't look too happy to see you, but then again, that's the way she always looks. Lowering her glasses, she purses her lips as you pause in front of her, the tension in the air making you nervous.

"Yes, can I help you?" It is not a question, but a statement.

Username: mewmew07
Base: fullbody
Color/No Color: digital color
Background: no
Additional Items: none
Estimated gold amount: 250g

Okay, your avatar's not too difficult. Would 50 gold for coloring/digitizing seem fair?

Oh, I added 50g for the coloring in my price. Sorry if I shouldn't have done that.

Oh, well then if you did then 250 it is. : ) I'll get started right away.

Edit: Here's a progress shot so far. Sorry it's washed out (I used a 3H-grade pencil) but of course, it's gonna be digitized so it won't be a problem later on. http://i32.tinypic.com/20zobic.jpg Let me know what you think.

Rescan (this is even more washed out), but the above link for the previous example works too.

*rolls around on MarMar's thread* :D

Hee. I love you, Cookie <3

New sample, just directly scanned from my sketchbook without me holding it (usually I just let the single sheet go into the scanner while I'm holding the entire book on the outside). This washes it out even more...



Waiting on mewmew's approval for hers, though.

Marg: It looks great so far! Keep going!

Just finished the outline, now I have to color it. P.S. I'm horrible at tracing on tablet so this is gonna take a while.

Not bad, keep going!

It will be bigger in the end, right?

LOL yeah I can have it fullsized for you if you want. It just looks better resized and less awkward. Hey I put some heart stamps on there but I wasn't sure if you wanted them or not. They don't count as a bg to me today ^_^ I just wanted to be decorative but if you don't want them lemme know. It's coming along pretty good so far - need to get the buttbow done, the corset, leggings and shoes colored. Everything else is done.

Well, I have floating hearts around my avatar, so they should be fine.

And thanks. I like it big so I can resize it the way I want and stuff.

I'm really excited to see how it looks finished.

Glad to hear it! I should be done later tonight.

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Okay I'm done : ) Can you please send the money via Donations if you haven't done so already?

I think I started a trade with the payment in it.

Oh okay cool, I just accepted it. Lemme update the frontpage list.