fashion illustration
Drawing in different mediums…
I’ve loved drawing people since I was a little girl, and particularly drawing girly fashion pictures. I can actually remember the first time I drew a fashion girl - what they called a “dolly bird” in the sixties, who had fashionable clothes, a floppy hat and a union jack carrier bag. It was 1968 (I was 11) and Swinging London was huge. I had a set of felt pens, which had just been invented a few years earlier and you could see the ink flowing inside the pen. They bled all over my fingers, but I didn’t care - they were so much brighter to use that ordinary coloured pencils.
When I began art college in London to study fashion for 3 years, it wasn’t as easy as I thought to find a style of drawing that I liked. It seemed like most of my fellow class-mates had already developed a distinctive style and although I could draw, my style was too ‘careful’ and not the least bit dynamic. My wonderful tutor, Elisabeth Suter helped me by suggesting I try many different kinds of pens, crayons, pastels and pencils. Finally at the end of the term I had begun to produce drawings I was pleased with, and felt more confident.
Over the years I have naturally developed several different styles, using different materials, and I go through periods of having favourites - my watercolour period, my pastel period, my crayon period… and I really like working in old books. I look for second-hand books and then paint the pages with Clear Gesso to strengthen them before I work into them. Sometimes I use acrylics (GOLDEN Fluid acrylics) as a base, like foundation, then when it’s dry I add another layer of Clear Gesso. Working onto Clear Gesso with both watercolour or coloured pencils is very satisfying. The gesso feels like working onto fine sandpaper and the pencils turn into pastels as the gesso almost grates them to dust which you can rub with your finger for a soft pastel effect. Watercolour works well too, on top of Clear Gesso and the surface receives the paint like watercolour paper.
Last summer, 2019 whilst travelling though Northern Germany, I bought a set of gouache paints, really cheap but great fun! I always take way too many art materials with me, but since we were driving down from our home in Sweden I felt I could take more than when we fly. I love sitting in hotel rooms at night when we arrive back after a long day, and sitting drawing at the desk in the room. The picture here is drawn on grey coloured paper, using gouache, and different water-soluble pencils, pens and crayons. I found a brochure in the reception and used it to draw from.
If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s that, if you are trying to find a style you like and can call your own, you have to keep trying different materials until you draw something you’re satisfied with. If you’re used to drawing with a graphite pencil, it can be a bit scary to paint with a brush, but maybe that’s just the freedom you need to “let go”.
I encourage you to try out some materials you haven’t tried before and see what happens!/jacqui xxx