For Thoses Who Like This Kind of Stuff.

I don't know if this kind of stuff interested yawl, but i know for myself i always loved to learn techniques and methods, and still do. Also i'm a wrestling coach so i find in everything, i love to teach, so i wanted to do a post breakdown of how i work on creating a picture. i hope this isn't too boring. ;)

The illustration I'm going to break down is the one i did of Christian Dior Collection.this process is the same method i used on the chanel glasses one. I start out with the poses and composition first, like below.
(Also, there are times where i start with the clothes first, and then develop the pose around it like in the AAU lookbook i did last year.)

Note: i draw them with nothing on but a grid suite. this is so i can know where the body is at and then build the garment off of that.
With this drawing i actually liked the arrangement of the figures so much i put it away for 6 months, and i didn't want to use it till there was the perfect collection for it. Then last year i was putting together my Fashion illustration portfolio, and Christian Dior's Fall 2007 Couture collection came out. It felt like the perfect fit for the poses. So the next part of the process is to pick out the outfits and assign them to a pose. so i just went on to style.com and looked through the runway pictures to get a garment reference and then a details reference. Once that is down what i like to do is do my own "Casting Call". haha. i try to assign each pose a model. so i just try to find references of models who have the right looks that complement the way i draw and also fit the picture. It is a fun little change, to try build a picture that doesn't exist.

For this outfit/pose i picked Gemma Ward. i thought that the pose just felt like a good pose for her.


For this outfit/pose i picked Lily Cole


For this outfit/pose i picked Cintia Dicker. I wanted her and lily to be diagonal from each other so there would be a nice balance with the touches of red...


For this outfit/pose i picked Jessica Stam. there was this picture of her which just felt like the perfect profile for it.




and for this last one outfit/pose i picked Ali Michael. She has a a really calm subdued look to her.

After i redraft those, i have the pre Final Draft.

i get that image sized up to the size it will be for the final version. For this picture i sized it to 40" by 30".
and then i will copy it on to the final paper and go for it.

welp that's it. hope you liked it.
:)

The Two Versions of Dior.

About a year ago I drew a thumbnail sketch of 5 girls laying on their backs.
The concept for the picture was that I wanted it to have dynamic composition and be interesting from every angle.
Once I finished the thumbnail, I set it aside for another time. Then a few months ago, I decided to illustrate Christian Dior's couture collection, and that thumbnail sketch was the perfect framework for the clothes. For three days straight I worked on the picture. It was 30" X 40" on illustration board. I used brushed ink and ink pens. I know I have already posted this picture in my Fashion Book, but I actually have 2 versions of this illustration. The original version is almost completely black and white, and the final is colored digitally. I actually mailed the original to Paris to The House of Dior two days after I finished. Still haven't heard anything back from them... maybe someday. haha



Original Version





Digital Color Version