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Art

DIY DOC’S: ROSIE FODEN

Illustrator of the month has returned with up and coming student artist Rosie Foden customising a pair of 1461s. Dr. Martens spoke with Rosie to find out more about her artistic practice and the inspiration behind her designs.

Rosie Foden's customised 1461s
Rosie Foden’s customised 1461s

Introduce yourself – who are you, and what do you do?
My name is Rosie Foden and I’m and Illustrator studying Illustration and Visual Media at LCC, UAL. My disciplines include illustration, design, animation and textiles. My work is very mixed media as I like exploring many different mediums and styles, often incorporating collage and textiles. What stays constant in my style is my use for bold colour and line work. 
 
Who or what do you take inspiration from?
Random lightbulb moments inspired by things around me and my art books. Especially my art book on the illustrator Jonny Hannah, I’m a huge fan of his work. 
 
Do you have an illustration or project you’re most proud of?
I’ve recently become an in-house designer for a country wear start-up company called Bhoid after creating two scarf designs for them a couple of months ago. Last week my two scarf designs were posted to me, and I got to meet them in the flesh! It was a huge treat to see months of work finally come to life, and I got a big sense of achievement from that. 
 
Talk us through your customised Dr. Martens, was it a challenge working on a pair of shoes?
My design was a result of lots of experimentation with shapes, patterns and colour. I had a lot of fun playing around with colour and shapes, and in the end I decided to go for a vibrant 80’s geometric design. The hardest part was choosing one of the many patterns I had created and where to place it on the shoe. I had a practice on an old pair of Dr. Marten’s beforehand which was very helpful and made me a bit more confident when it came to painting onto the new Dr. Marten’s. I was quite surprised just how nice it was to paint on the shoes, they absorbed the paint just as I wanted which was great. 
 
Name three tracks you can’t hear enough of right now:
I Like It Like That – Pete Rodriguez
Roberto Roena & Apollo Sound – Que Se Sepa
Groove Is In The Heart – Deee-Lite 
 

Rosie Foden - Illustrator
Rosie Foden – Illustrator
 
 
If you could have any super-power for a day, what would it be?
The power to be anywhere at once, I could get up to so much in a day it could be great. I would also like my power to include being able to take people with me on my adventure, that would result in the say best day ever. 
 
If you could draw anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
I’d like to paint Lucian Freud. I’m a huge fan of his bold brush stroke style, I would love recreate a similar technique with my own personal touches. Plus getting to chat to him would be great. 
 
Tell us your favourite thing about the city you live in:
My favourite thing about London is the tube, thank god for the tube. I love the fact that within half an hour I can be in the buzzing city centre or I can be in Richmond Park, forgetting that I’m in London completely.
Plus the endless exhibitions, cocktail bars and street food aren’t too shabby either! 
 
Tell us about your first pair of Dr. Martens:
My first pair of Dr. Marten’s were second hand purple metallic 10 hole boots from eBay. And they were beautiful. I probably didn’t take them off for over a year until fate came along. At a festival last summer they sadly came to their fabulous end. I was in a shisha tent were you had to take your shoes off before entering, when I came to put my docs back on I realised someone had taken one of my boots and left one of theirs (black Made in England Docs to be exact). So I ended up with odd docs for the rest of the festival! Hopefully nobody thought I was trying to make a trendy fashion statement. 
 
And finally, what do you stand for?
Optimism. 
 
Follow Rosie on instagram – @rdf_illustration 

Customised 1461s
Customised 1461s