A Marchesa Moment

Back in April I decided to give fashion illustration a whirl.  I started with a couple looks from Marchesa.  The first one pictured below is from the Marchesa Spring Summer 2016 collection.  

This next look is from the Marchesa Fall Winter 2016 collection. 

This week Georgina Chapman Marchesa, founder of Marchesa, posted one of my illustrations on her personal Instagram page.  Then, last night, to my surprise, 3 photos of my illustrations were posted on the official Marchesa Instagram page! To have the designer of the dresses I was drawing recognize my work in this way was surreal and quite an honor!  I was so touched that they appreciated my art just as much as I have appreciated their art!  Their gowns are so inspired and artfully crafted, I just want them all.  

Prints of these two prints are now available for purchase on my Etsy page!  I am so excited to get them in homes all across America so that everyone can enjoy a Marchesa gown.  If you can't own one for your body, at least hang one on your wall!  Prints can be purchased HERE.

Fashion Illustration: A Relic Revisited

Recently I had a friend suggest the idea of fashion illustration to me.  When I was a little girl I used to copy pictures of fashion models out of magazines and make my own books out of them.  I kept a lot of my old art work from when I was young and I found this little book of my fashion drawings which makes me laugh so hard!  I don't know what is funnier, the weird title I gave my book, the 80's clothing the women are wearing, or the quirky face (top left)!  I literally hadn't thought about the idea of fashion illustration since I was probably 10 years old until now!  The thought of combining two of my loves, fashion and drawing, got me excited.  

I quickly set out to try my hand at it as an adult and bought some fresh new art supplies to really get me jazzed up.  I just LOVE brand new art supplies, there is nothing better!!  I thought a lot about how I wanted my illustrations to look before I started.  Then I looked for an inspirational photo to work from and found a beautiful Marchesa gown that I wanted to draw.  I loved all that was going on in the dress and the styling of the model.

I first did a pencil drawing of the model, scanned it, and then I printed it out several times and experimented with how I was going to do the background before I committed to anything on my good paper.  Unlike working digitally on photoshop, if you mess up, you might just ruin your entire piece so its always a good idea to do some trial runs first.  

This is where I landed.  Since her dress was so detailed with so much going on in it, I went with a more simple background.  I can't escape gold these days (or birds, for that matter), and I also find the circular shape surrounding a subject so comforting so these things were once again incorporated in the background. I used guache, acrylic, and pen and ink to complete the design and frame her face. 

I had SO much fun doing this illustration and I will continue to explore fashion illustration and see where it takes me.  I think its good to sometimes revisit an old idea in a new decade, you may find that you've dug up an old treasure thats been buried with years and time, but once its dusted off, it feels new and wonderful!!