Watercolor Fashion Illustration: Step-by-step techniques for illustrating fashion and figures in watercolors

by Francesco Lo Iacono

Overview

Learn to paint clothes and models with expert guidance from an A-list fashion illustrator, whose clients include Dior, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton.
 
In this complete course, professional fashion illustrator Francesco Lo Iacono shows you how to master creating delicate, beautiful fashion illustrations in the wonderful medium of watercolor.
 
The book begins with the best tools and materials and moves on to simple watercolor techniques. Francesco then teaches you about lighting and shading, color, how to create palettes, how to mix colors, and how to achieve a range of skin tones. 
 
Once you’ve covered these fundamentals, Francesco explores the key elements of illustrating fashion, with guidance on how to approach both male and female faces, a wide variety of hair types and styles, different male and female poses, and how to draw and paint garments, reflecting tailoring, drapery, volume, texture and patterns. 
 
Twenty step-by-step projects then take these building blocks and show you how to use them to create beautiful fashion watercolors, starting with easier subjects and building in complexity as your confidence grows. You’ll begin by painting handbags and shoes without models before starting to introduce figures. The range of subjects included covers all angles, from full figures front on and in profile to close-up make-up and beauty illustrations. You’ll also learn how to create dynamic compositions for editorial fashion illustration. Finally, Francesco covers the best ways to digitize and retouch your work, how to incorporate other media alongside your watercolors, how to work live at fashion events and how to take everything you’ve learned to develop your own personal style of fashion illustration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781446380826
Publisher:	David & Charles
Publication date:	05/25/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	143
File size:	148 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Francesco Lo Iacono is an Italian illustrator based in London. His client list includes Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi, JW Anderson, Bottega Veneta, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ted Baker, Paul Smith, Paris Fashion Week, GQ Mexico, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and more. He also tutors a monthly Fashion Life Drawing Class at the Cass Art flagship store in Islington, London.

Trained at the Royal College of Art, Patrick Morgan has worked as a commercial artist for over 20 years receiving commissions from famous designers and exclusive patrons including Yves Saint Laurent, Tom Ford, Chanel, Fendi, Christian Dior, Schiaperilli and more. He is a regular contributor to The Financial Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker and The Observer. Major works created in collaboration with Tom Ford for the English National Ballet, Ballet Russe’s ‘The Firebird’, were reused to represent Art and Culture at The Mayor of London’s Office for the 2012 Olympics.

Table of Contents

Foreword       4

INTRODUCTION         5

Using this book          6

Tools and materials   8

EXPLORING WATERCOLOR    12

Approaching the blank page 12

Mixing your paints     13

Practice exercises      14

Understanding lighting and shading. 16

Understanding color  19

ILLUSTRATING FASHION        24

Working in the fashion industry        24

CREATING A CHARACTER       26

General features        26

Women’s faces          30

Men’s faces    31

Hair    32

Painting beautiful hair 33

POSES 34

The body        35

Examples        38

RENDERING FABRICS AND PRINTS    40

Exploring fabrics and textures           41

Prints and patterns    43

TUTORIALS     44

Canvas tote bag         46

Wedge platform shoe 48

Gown on mannequin 50

Womenswear head to toe     54

Menswear head to toe          58

Girl with bag  62

Eye makeup   66

Girl with hat   70

Woman in print dress 76

Boy with hat   80

Perfumes       84

Focus on beauty        86

Girl with sunglasses   92

Man in print shirt       96

Vintage jewelry          100

Menswear composition         102

Catwalk moment       108

Close-up beauty look 112

Womenswear composition   118

Editorial with background     126

READY FOR BUSINESS 132

Digitizing your work   132

Mixed media  136

Working live   138

Developing personal style     141

About the author and acknowledgements   142

Index  143

Preface

When I tell people that I work as an illustrator, it’s not always easy to describe my job or explain what I do. It has been— and still is—an exciting journey, and for me, one of the perks of being an illustrator is that it’s an ever-challenging and constantly new experience. Drawing is, of course, at the core of my work. I’ve always loved drawing. Like many, I started when I was still a child. I vividly remember drawing in my primary school books, filling them with sketches and impressions, and I feel like I’ve never stopped. Of course, my practice has evolved since then. During my academic studies back in Italy, I fell in love with watercolor, which has become my favorite artistic technique by far, and I started to explore photography as well. Photography eventually led me to fashion, and not long after, I decided to move to Paris, where I briefly worked in the womenswear department of a trend-forecasting agency. During that time, I felt like all of my interests could be combined in fashion illustration, and from that moment on I’ve worked hard to make this my full-time job. Over the years I’ve also trained as a teacher, led some classes in Italy, and, more recently, tutored a monthly fashion life-drawing class for over two years in London. It has been a very enriching experience, and I see this book as the natural following step.

Editorial Reviews

"This book is packed with handy tips and tricks that are worth their weight in gold, the kind of instructions that only someone who has a lot of experience in the medium can give."

"As in the arts, fashion illustration has had its master watercolour artisans, including the infamous David Downton, an avid watercolour and ink draftsman, Antonio Lopez and Kenneth Block, who captured the fashion figure with the most direct and considered brush strokes. Francesco is bringing this medium into a modern era, combining the skills of watercolour and technology to edit and refine his final outcomes. His rich, vivid tones always delight, leaving the viewer with a taste in the mouth for more after every sitting. Like Francesco as a young boy, revealing the rainbow palette of his first watercolour set, this book will give you the possibility to make your own marks and tell your own story."

"This book is packed with handy tips and tricks that are worth their weight in gold, the kind of instructions that only someone who has a lot of experience in the medium can give."

From the Publisher