Fashion illustration project

I like trying fashion illustration pieces once in a while, and the opportunity came up recently for an event I was invited to, to draw a young woman who is quite photogenic and fashionable. She owns a tiny adorable Yorkie who fit beautifully into a scene of her striding along in one of her favorite gowns.

This was a combination of hand-drawn and digital work. The figure drawing was done with a brush pen, and after I scanned that I inserted some flat color on it thru the computer. I printed that image out and added shading with chalk pastels and details with a finer point pen. I wanted a wash background with an indication of some buildings in Washington DC, so I painted a loose wash on watercolor paper, scanned it, and drew a rough silhouette of the Capitol in black ink and used that as a digital stencil over the wash, to create the building outline behind her.

The

Sketch for a portrait illustration

A client in England has requested a drawing of her father, who is a writer of biographies, in his sunroom overlooking the woods.  She asked for his charming dachshund at his feet and some deer peeking through the woodland. She sent some headshots of her dad, but I filled in the rest of his figure and the scene. With a few more details added in – she says the dog can be ‘pudgier’ – I can go on to a color sketch. My initial sketch is below.