Fashion Illustration: 101 London Art Portfolio

One of the hottest careers in the fashion industry today is Fashion Illustration. With new Fashion Illustrators making an average of £37K their first year, and experienced illustrators making in excess of £64K annually, there is a lot of room for professional growth. Just what is Fashion Illustration and what does a Fashion Illustrator do? Let’s take a look:

What Is Fashion Illustration?

Fashion Illustration can be defined as ‘the art of communicating fashion ideas in a visual form that originates with illustration, drawing and painting.’ Now let’s see an example of fashion illustration in action with a few simple tutorials that will walk you through some basic fashion illustration techniques.

Kisses in Colour Lips Tutorial

     To create an illustration depicting a wide variety of lipstick shades, grab your Caran D’ache paint palette and a sketch pad. You will be using the Gouache painting method for this tutorial.

1. Prime a wide tip brush with Caran D’ache water colours.
2. Next, paint the top, then the bottom portion of the lips.
3. This should be done in as few strokes as possible to achieve the desired ‘full lips’ look.
4. Rinse your brush and prime it with another colour from your water colour tray.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 until you have filled your page or until you have the desired number of lipstick shades.
6. Then, with a fine line UniPin, draw a line separating the upper and lower lips.

Fashion Illustration Of Model In Yellow Dress

For this tutorial, you will need your Koh-i-noor or Caran D’ache water colour set, a fine line UniPin and you will be using the Gouache painting method.

1. Begin by creating a full body outline of your model using your fine line UniPin. Capture as much detail as possible as this will add depth to the finished project.
2. Then, wet your brush, load it with paint and apply the lip colour.
3. Using quick brush strokes, apply a wash of colour to the dress, filling in the empty areas with flowing, deliberate brush strokes.
4. Finally, apply the skin tone, finishing your illustration.

Eye Scans From Marc Jacobs FW 2016

For this tutorial, you will use water colours and Marc Jacobs Beauty makeup to create a stunning look from the Marc Jacobs Fall Winter 2016 Fashion Show at New York Fashion Week.

1. First, load your brush with water and your favourite water colour.
2. Then, create the famous Marc Jacobs sultry eye look by adding paint or ink to your pad.
3. Optional: Using Marc Jacobs Beauty makeup, apply brush to create dramatic eye and eyeliner shape.

Contact London Art Portfolio

To learn more about Fashion Illustration or any of the above tutorials, contact London Art Portfolio today!

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