Illustration Rally

The lovely people over at Illustration Rally have written a lovely feature on me! The piece is so sweet, I'm so pleased!

Go and check out their website! They feature all sorts of illustration goodness that will inspire you, you won't be disappointed! 

David Downton/Vogue

So, my dissertation is focusing on Vogue, discussing illustration and photography. I knew David Downton, as one of my favourite illustrators, would be great to look at in this case. I knew he had done work for Vogue China and some for British Vogue.

When I discovered the covers he did for Vogue Australia I was in love. For Vogue Australia's 50th anniversary, the magazine celebrated with a commemorative issue, illustrated by David Downton. He designed four different covers, featuring Cate Blanchett, in vintage styles linking back to the days before photography.

Take a look, they're beautiful!

My next mission- get hold of one of these!! They were limited edition, but fingers crossed. I think it's vital for my dissertation!

While i'm here, take a look at some of his Vogue China work!

   

I really do love his work!

Hello!

I should have some new work to share tomorrow or over the weekend. Until then I just wanted to share some online profiles i've had put up! :)

Over on Amelia's Magazine I have a little contributor's profile! I think it looks great and i'm very proud to be up there! I love working for them!

I also have lookbook over on the Creative Boom website! Have a look, I'm sitting there proudly in their Yorkshire region hub! :)

I may share another inspiration post later! In the meantime, don't forget to take a look at the Tea&Crayon blog! We have some exciting projects coming up!

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration

Well, after much consideration, Amelia has decided to change the cover of the Compendium of Fashion Illustration! I loved the original but i'm super excited by the new version! It's by three same artist, and is super sexy and sophisticated! You can read my original post on it, here.

Hope you love it also! Don't forget to pre-order your copy now!!

Johnny Flynn

I looked up Johnny Flynn after Helen Martin tweeted about doing an interview with him last week. I love his music - he has an amazing voice - and he's a very handsome fellow, I knew he'd be great to draw! Helen gave me the go ahead to do an illustration and now it is up on the Suit Yourself Magazine website :)

Here it is:

I'm really happy with the result!

Portrait Piece

I still have nothing new to share because they haven't gone live yet! I'm details away from finishing an illustration for a printed magazine that is handed out in Bristol. I'll let you know more about this when it's done! :)

Anyway, here is an illustration I did a month or so ago for my sister. She wanted an illustration of herself doing. It was nice doing some personal work, enjoy!

David Foldvari

I was told by my tutor, Mark Wigan, to look at the work of David Foldvari, who uses a lot of splashes of colour and added elements in his illustrations,  something which I am interested in exploring more in my own work! I love his work so thought i'd share a few pieces!

I think the colour works wonderfully. Added elements, such as screen printed pieces really add something special. Next week I will be going into the printing room to produce some mono prints that can be placed into my work, so I'm really excited about what I can achieve :)

I'm going away for the evening, so have a nice weekend everyone! :)

Inspiration

Since I have no new work to share just yet (there are a couple that I will post when they go live!), I've decided to have a post of inspirational illustrators I've recently discovered. I will be doing a few of these posts from now on - I find this is a great place to share my thoughts with others. (It's also good to be able to get my thoughts written down!)

The first illustrator is Sandra Suy. She studied fashion design, but because drawing was her biggest love, she decided to combine both and become a fashion illustrator.

I love the dark pink against the dull tones in the rest of the image!

The tonal difference between the black charcoal-like hair and the light, delicate top is striking!

I really like the detail across the eye in this piece!

The lips in this piece really stand out, as does the texture of the clothing.

One thing I particularly like about her work is the fact she works predominantly with line, then adds in subtle colour and hints of light and dark. I like the fact she doesn't work on white paper, but toned paper. The subtle tones work perfectly against the dark line work in her models' faces.

The next illustrator I'm going to show you is Hannah Muller.

I love the subtle colour touches- the lips and the cheeks! ♥

Again, the lovely detail on the cheeks is divine. The clothing textures are great too.

What I really love about this image are the people- so beautifully depicted. The shade versus light is fantastic.

Hannah's work is so delicate and beautiful. From the fantastic detail in the ladies' faces to the subtle addition of colour, shadow and light is all so perfect. Very inspiring stuff!

Next up is Kelly Smith, an Australian illustrator who studied fine art, but now concentrates on fashion and portrait illustration.

I completely love the fantastic flashes of red in this piece, it really brings the work alive! This, along with the very black and very white is perfect.

The colour along with the grey tones works well.

I love the striking black against the subtle tonal work.

 I certainly love Kelly Smith's work. She combines beautiful and detailed pencil drawings with injections of colour and striking light and dark elements. I love the addition of animals too, looks fab!

Finally is Cedric Rivrain, French fashion illustrator with a fantastic style.

I love the drama of this piece! The yellow injected into it is fantastic!

I like the study of the face here, and the great detail of her attire.

I like that this piece is predominantly grey-scale,  with some really fine colour details!

I like that he has variety in his work. And the use of colour is really fabulous- he incorporates the background into the foreground and I think this works wonderfully!

Well, that's the first four illustrators that have really stood out to me this week. They're fabulous and so inspiring, I hope you will agree! I will be showing more of the people and places that inspire me here on my blog, as it's nice to share with you all!

Have a nice weekend! :)

♥ illustration

I've been thinking about all the hard things i've had to deal with over the last couple of years. I've had my ups and downs, and times were everything seems too much. Throughout it all, however, my love for illustration has never left.

It was two weeks after starting my degree that my dad suddenly and shockingly passed away. It was the worst time of my life but I knew if I didn't return straight away I would fall further and further behind, so I went on. That year was hard, but now i'm in my third year and love it completely. I have never stopped loving what I do, and I know if I fight as I have over these last few years, I will get a career doing what I love!!

Thank you all for your great support and comments on my illustrations, it really means so much ♥

Colour Experimenting

Hello everyone! Well, after my illustration using only one colour, I thought i'd experiment with another old illustration, introducing one colour again. (I think I may do a few like this-I like the way it looks!) So below is my yellow piece and a new orange one! :)

There's also been a lot of posts over on the Tea&Crayons blog! We're having a great time so far and very thankful for all the support! 

 

I hope you're all having a good evening! :)

Finished Illustration

Well after a couple of changes and tweaks I think the illustration I posted about earlier is finished! See what you think :)

I'm going to post some working progress pictures too! :)

 And the final piece :)

Exhibition Fudraising

Hello! At uni we're working hard trying to organise fund-raising ideas for our final exhibitions! We plan to run fund-raising nights; selling t-shirts, prints, merchandise and maybe even including some live painting.

One idea we have is to make an illustrated calender with work from each of us (there's only 13 in our year- and one person is tackling the text!) It was decided that each of us should have a colour (the work would be black and white but contain a given colour). My colour is yellow, and despite moaning about it at first, i'm very happy with it!

I decided to re-vamp a previous illustration of mine (it's one of my favourite pieces, so seemed a good choice!). It isn't finished yet, but here it is so far!

I'll share the finished piece later today hopefully! :)

Tea&Crayons

Hello everyone! It's a new week and I'm sure that means lots of new illustrations to show!

You may remember me mentioning Tea & Crayons a while ago. Well, it has finally launched over on the blog. Today's post is introducing the first member: Rachel Lewis.

Tea & Crayons is an illustration collective combining the talents of me and five other ladies who met through twitter. We enjoy talking silliness, drinking tea (most of us) and illustrating! For now we'll be using the blog to share ideas, work and inspiring stuff. We have big hopes for the future so we'll keep you posted!

The collective includes the following lovely ladies, all of which you should definitely follow:

Tigerlilly (Fritha)

Natasha 

Kayleigh

Rachel Clare Price

Rachel Lewis

As well as this, I was I am a featured illustrator over on Handmade by Emily's blog! The piece is wonderful and I feel very proud that she wanted me as one of her featured illustrators. Natasha and Fritha have also been up there! She always has interesting articles and beautiful creations, so you must go and follow her blog! :) She also has sweetest things available to buy on her Folksy sight.

Craft Guerrilla

So, as you can see with Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration coming out very soon, I have been hard doing five extra, yet to be seen images for the book. You won't be able to see them until the book is released, so what a better reason to buy the book and see them first! So many of my lovely illustration friends are involved too! 

You may remember me mentioning Tea & Crayons a while back. Well, it will be launching very soon. So why not get ready and start following  Tea&Crayons on twitter now? You won't regret it!

Now down to more news! A while ago I heard Craft Guerrilla were looking for contributors for their new zine. I let them know I was interested and got an email back a couple of days ago asking if i'd like to do the cover! I was delighted. I'll post another blog when its ready, so you can check out my illustration and all other creative things inside too!

Have a nice weekend all :)

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration is now available to pre-order here at an amazing price! If you order soon it will be with you in time for Christmas too!

Doesn't it look amazing? It features the work of 30 illustrators (one of which I am so ecstatic to say is me!!), whose work you have probably seen over at Amelia's Magazine. Their work is brilliant and I cannot wait to see it all together!

The illustrations showcase some of the best new ethical designers around at the moment. 

It's a must buy for any illustrators, artists, designers or anybody who really appreciates illustration and ethical fashion design :)

Foale & Tuffin

I have just finished this illustration for Amelia's Magazine. It was for an interview with Marion Foale of Foale and Tuffin, a legendary Sixties knitwear label.

The article is great and you should definitely go and read it here!

I really enjoyed this piece. The clothing was quite simple so I worked with the accent colours in the dress to produce quite a bold piece. I think it works well because the dress really stands out against the bold colour of the background. Here it is!

I've also just finished another piece for Amelia's Magazine, which is yet to go live. When it is I will be sure to post it here!

As well as this, I have emailing various ethical designers to see if i could do an interview with them and do some illustrations of their work to use in my final year work. So far, I have had positive responses from 5 of the 10 I contacted! I am so pleased, some even sent me photos to work from and asked if they could use the images in return when I have finished.

I had another designer, who found me through Amelia's Magazine, ask me if I would like to illustrate some of their pieces. Exciting stuff! :)

Lots going on! Today I am finishing an illustration to go on the front cover of Craft Guerrilla's zine. I've been given a lot of freedom, with the only restriction being it must be based on winter in some way.

I'm looking forward to sharing all these things when they are done! :)

Abby xx