Fashion From Day Into Evening

This might be the most successful of my sketches for the session. Which isn't saying much but better luck next time, I suppose.

This was an awkward pose from the views I had available to me, so it became more about painting and getting it down regardless.

 

 

Today was an exciting day. I had the monthly Fashion Model Meetup to attend which was particularly fun this time. Not only were there fewer people for some reason (and more room to move around as a result), but the model had the most amazing hair (great for wet on wet bleeds in watercolor) and we had a visiting professor from Otis in L.A., Miguel Angel, as a special guest. So the energy was decidedly different. I really took more risks with my watercolors and while I didn't feel like anything was perfect, I did feel like I made some strides forward from the last time I did watercolors for fashion illustrations. I'm waiting for one of the moderators, Christopher, to send me the shots he took of my pieces, because he has a better camera than I do and they always turn out better than when I take them. This is a preview of one of the pieces that I used markers on after I painted, an experiment since I never ever used markers after painting something (I usually use a Chinese brush to outline things).

After, I hung out with Miguel, Christopher and Geoffry, the other moderator, and we talked about illustration and how they teach at their respective. It was such a high that I decided to attend another fashion illustration session up at F.I.T. that evening with Miguel and the the group of Steven B.I was in an experimental mood and definitely just played with techniques and just laying down color without fear, which is a really good thing to learn (and apparently decades in the making, for me). But it's about learning to trust that you can make something of a painting even if things go awry, and perhaps you actually want that imperfection.

I hate how the legs turned out on this one, but it was the experiment with the markers so at least I have an idea what to do with them now.

Anyhow, I didn't stay long as I had to meet a friend that evening, but I haven't had a chance to photograph everything, so I'll upload more when I shoot them all and/or get them from Christopher. But I was doing fashion illustrations basically all day until the evening, and it couldn't be more enjoyable. Well, okay, if I got some pieces I was really in love with, that would be better. ;)

2 minute contour sketches

Ugh, of course now that I've uploaded the shots all I can see are the mistakes, but hey, I'll hopefully get something right next time with more practice!