Artist 99: Michalis Christodoulou

Artist feature time now, with an up and coming illustrator from the world of fashion illustration. Michalis Christodoulou is a London based fashion inspired illustrator who aims to capture the essence of style and female beauty that makes the fashion world tick. He uses inks and watercolours to great effect giving his work a translucent almost ethereal quality. He has a light touch drawing attention to places and letting others fade into the background. His work is at its most successful when he uses his draughtsman's skill to really great effect and incorporates dark strong lines and an almost scratchy rendering. His work is fresh and I'm sure that as he grows he will push it to the next stage, there are some really nice lines and flows in his capture of pose and style. As he builds on this and embellishes his style, he will surely use this to his advantage. I would love to see him move his work forward with his inks as he has a good eye for capturing motion. I really wish him the best of luck as he establishes himself. 

Who are you:

My name is Michalis Christodoulou, I am a London based freelance fashion illustrator. 

What do you do:

My fashion illustrations are hand drawn, using distinctive mixes of inks and watercolours. My current work ranges from editorial and advertising commissions to illustrating collections from the coolest designers and catwalk shows worldwide, for a variety of fashion magazines and fashion blogs. I also illustrate my own garment and accessories designs and have recently been featured in Amelia's Magazine, Ballad Of Magazine and Un nouVeau iDEAL by Filep Motwary.

How did you start:

I started drawing fashion from a very early age and always loved illustrating style, mood, beauty and cool outfits. Having an academic background of both mathematical design and art, gives a certain special edge in my illustration work. I recently started working for online fashion technology and styling, which further inspired me to completely focus professionally on fashion illustration and fashion art.

A Personal statement about you or your work: 

I love my work and it is purely inspired by female beauty, style, mood and cool designers' collections. The ultimate goal is to capture pure style and mood on a daily basis, either in the street or via catwalk shows, parties, collections and portray it the best possible way via features, fashion advertising and collaborations with the hottest fashion labels.

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Artist 97: Christopher Morris

This illustration is originally created for Amelia's magazine

It's another wonderful artist now, with bags of talent and some serious skills. It's Christopher Morris, who is really carving a name for himself with his engagingly dark fashion illustrations. He has some really nice stylish set-ups with the classic fashion palette and structure running through his work but he also subverts the viewer and makes them travel down a slightly different path. He has a great ability to pare down the model to pure scaffolding, a Picasso like mural entertaining the idea of a face, bringing only form and flavour to her role. He makes the clothes stand out in a truly original way and this gives him great leverage to make some really stylish images using only the most anaemic of raw materials. Morris builds flavour and depth into fashion illustration and in his other work he unleashes personality, setting it up against a dark tableaux which unnervingly emphasises the character and motive behind his subject as much as their physical presence. A really good style, well thought out is going to bring in the bacon for Christopher, but we think it's worth enjoying for it's own pleasure. A pince of salt in a saccharin world, it's Christopher Morris.

Who are you:
My name is Christopher Morris, I am a recent graduate in BA(Hons) Illustration from Camberwell School of Arts.

What do you do:
I enjoy drawing and currently I am working on a series of portraits of anti-heroes. I am also producing fashion illustrations for None Magazine, Ribbed Magazine and Ballad Of...

How did you start:
I have been drawing from childhood and started higher education at Camberwell first a foundation course and then with a degree in Illustration

A Personal statement about you or your work:
My work is driven by beauty, music, films, anti-heroes, fashion, death, obsessions and the darker side of life

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Artist 96: Paul Shinn

A big warm Rally welcome to our latest artist, the magnificent Paul Shinn. Paul is one of those illustrators that can bring a smile to your face at the shortest glimpse of his work. He is instantly recognisable having both a great sense of style and a trademark wit. Paul has a great eye for good characters, and he deftly brings us celebrities, superheroes and penguins with the same irreverence and joy that shines through all his work. When looking at his work it is great that it raises smiles, but it's also worth noting, he crafts it well, and using clever composition and a bright appealing palette he can draw you in and give up something truly satisfying. Definitely one to watch, his dedication is to be admired, never giving up on drawing even after a stint in publishing, it takes guts to stand by your art and it's a great thing he did. So wishing him every success in the future, we proudly present Paul Shinn.

Who are you:
My name is Paul Shinn.I'm an illustrator living in London.

What do you do:
I draw stuff! I divide my time between working on commissioned illustrations, personal projects and drawing comic strips. My style is humorous in nature and I like to create images to make people smile.

How did you start:
I have always enjoyed drawing. When I was a child I spent lots of time drawing pictures and comics featuring my favourite cartoon characters and was always doodling in my textbooks at school. After a brief dalliance with Graphic Design, I graduated with a BA degree in Typography & Graphic Communication from The University of Reading in 2003 and then worked for four years as an in-house Designer with an art book publishers, producing page layouts and cover designs. I decided it wasn't what I wanted to continue doing, and decided to go back to drawing. I left my job in 2008 to enrol on a one year full-time MA in Illustration at Camberwell College of Art and haven't looked back!

A Personal statement about you or your work:
As I previously mentioned, humour plays a big part in my illustration work. I combine hand-drawn and digital techniques in my work, drawing by hand and then scanning and colouring in Photoshop. I enjoy including references to pop culture in my work and get inspiration from a number of sources including comics, movies, books, music, video games, overheard conversations and dreams. I've produced illustrations for Amelia's Magazine and ShellsuitZombie magazine, as well as working with the Elephant Family charity. I am about to start work on my submission for The Sketchbook Project 2012 and Creaturemag's Creature ABC as well as a few other illustration projects. I'm so pleased to be doing something that I enjoy!

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Artist 87: Matilde Sazio

All the illustrations above is created for Amelia's magazine.

It's artist feature time now and we have a real cracker for you now, Matilde Sazio. Matilde is a dynamic artist whose images burst out at you, so full of colour and life. She has a real eye for her subjects and can capture expressions with the merest hint of a line. The first thing you notice about her work is her stunning palette and how bold she is with colour. Its a real graphic style that has that instant pop art shock value that just grabs you and makes you look. Not content with this she also gives us some really good composition using vivid backgrounds and elements to bring her subject into sharper focus still. Its worth noting that with a such a pared down style it is easy to lose the character as the image becomes more distilled, but Matilde combats this with a very skilful choice of line and she excels in giving us this cheeky smile or sideways glance whilst still presenting her super sharp fashion illustration. Whilst there are many that use a graphical style like this Matilde has her own distinctiveness with a slightly softer line and her trademark bold chromatic work that pulses with opposite tones and sharp high contrast. Using a soft line but harsh colour is a great take on the style and with her good eye for her subject she is sure to win everyone over. With the best of luck for all her future success it's Matilde Sazio!

Who are you:
My name is Matilde and I am an illustrator, photographer and designer living and freelancing in London.
I studied Art & Design at Chelsea College of Art and Visual Communications at LCC (Postgrad).

What do you do:
Lately I have been illustrating for online magazines such as Amelia's Magazine and Creaturemag as well as being featured on Ballad Of. I relish the challenge of representing a story through pure imagery, whether I am illustrating an up-coming Indie band, a film review, a product, or a topical news story. I am working on a range of ideas for picture books and have also painted bespoke murals for children's bedrooms and designed my own jewellery.

How did you start:
*Scratches head* Drawing witches and the White Rabbit from about four years of age! I loved Alice in Wonderland (still obsessed) and anything mythical or other worldly has always been appealing. From Bedknobs and broomsticks to Edgar Allen Poe to Thumbelina. My imagination thrives on these stories and so it's been my life's ambition to illustrate a children's story book having grown up reading the Grimm brother's fairy tales and of course Hans Christian Anderson. I couldn't imagine a world without illustrations, it would be so dull. I have always been creative whether painting, sculpting, designing jewellery or storytelling but most of the things I created were either for friends or family. It was when I designed a mural for a friend that I realised I could go much further and consider a professional career. I bit the bullet and last November submitted my first illustration to Amelia's Magazine. Prior to that I had no formal education in illustration.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I have a huge curiosity and love of art and design and I want to use all the mediums possible to push me and test what I can create.
Above all I consider my work to be about storytelling. I want it to have an impact and leave an impression.

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Direct link to the portfolio of work for Amelia's Magazine

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Artist 83: Joana Faria

Fist five illustrations are created for Amelia's magazine.

A multi-talented creative for you now. Fresh and vibrant work pours out of illustrator and art director Joana Faria. Joana's work has a great cosmopolitan feel with her elegant fashion forms projecting both grace and humour, at once bringing back that sense of 50's chic that is prevalent currently but also having a unique flavour all of her own. Her work is not locked to any period but also has a richness to it as well. Its great to have a style that works and that can be used in multifarious ways. Her style is firmly rooted in fashion illustration and uses the deft elegance that is the trademark of really stylish work. She skilfully employs a choice of palette that not only gives her work a similar tonal range that unites it but allows her to have a good basis from which to explore. Finding something which works and then building from it is the hallmark of a great working practice and will stand her in great stead in the future. Wishing her the best of luck in the future in all she does it's Joana Faria!

Who are you: 

Joana Faria - Born in Brazil, raised in London, currently living in Portugal.

I am a self taught illustrator and have been drawing ever since I can remember. I love books, old photographs, art galleries and fine point markers. Trips to Paris are on my list of favorite things too.

What do you do:
I am a freelance illustrator but also work as an art director at an advertising agency in Lisbon.

How did you start:

I've been drawning all my life. Back in Brazil, I spent most of my childhood days drawing girls in big elaborate dresses and flowers in their hair. Some years later, my family and I moved to England and so I grew up in London, where I went to university and studied Photography at Goldsmiths College.

After uni, I went on to work as a creative in advertising. Little by little I started to drift away from illustration which made me so sad. So after a few years I made a personal decision to force myself back into drawing. I started small. Doing little scribbles here and there, whenever I had the time. I printed some t-shirts with my designs and gave them away as presents, which was fun and started doing a lot of illustration for friends and family. The more I drew, the more I loved it and the more I felt comfortable with it. I created a blog, went on twitter to meet other illustrators and started taking part in competitions and collaborations. I did a lot of assignments for Amelia's Magazine, especially during London Fashion Week, which gave me a huge confidence boost. I was published in Amelia's book of Fashion Illustration and was asked to do live fashion illustration at the launch, which I never thought I'd be able to do. The rest, as they say, is history. 

I'm currently involved in a couple of very exciting projects. It involves another book on Fashion Illustration, a website and also a Children's book, which has been a major dream of mine. It has been an very good year so far, I have to admit.

A Personal statement about you or your work:

I take inspiration from everywhere: books, photographs, a dress, a certain color, a pattern... I feel that everything is beautiful and worthy of observation. Drawing makes me incredibly happy and I am a firm believer that when you put love into your work, it really shows. 

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Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration Launch Retrospective!

It's time for another look at the fantastic launch of Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration. Featured here on IR and packed full of our contributors and friends this awesome book deserved a truly fabulous party, and that is what we got! It was a wonderful community atmosphere provided by Forward PR and featuring perhaps the most epic baking conceivable by the truly awesome Lily Vanilli. It was an extraordinary night where fashion and illustration got up close and personal in deepest darkest Shoreditch.

The venue, 123 Bethnal Green Road, was an intimate affair and with delicious free beverages and music from the phenomenal 6 Day Riot, The Pipettes and the mystery DJ, Will from the Mystery Jets!

It was great to have a night of high fashion, high hair and high times, and it was great to put names to some of the awesome talent hosted here on IR. So a massive shout out to the dynamo that was Amelia, who didn't rest for a second despite her precarious but rather stunning Nina Dolcetti platforms!

Not only that but there were party bags. Exclusive Moleskines, Dr Hauschka products and the delicate little Tatty Devine necklace it was probably the coolest party bag for illustrators and fashionistas alike.

We had an amazing time surrounded by a surreal amount of talented interesting people, plus ones and style gurus!

So to all those we met, you were ace and we hope to see you up on the Rally soon! To all those we missed we'll get you next time ;)

And finally a massive and well deserved thank you to the belle of the ball, here's to Amelia!

Photos Courtesy of Amelia's Magazine.

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Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration

 

 

Illustrations by Andrea Peterson, June Sees, Natsuki Otani, Jo Cheung, Erica Sharp, Jenny Robins, Kellie Black

News time now! This week we bring you news and sneak peeks of Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration. Amelia runs Amelia's magazine which showcases the cutting edge in ethical fashion and some of our contributors are regulars illustrating the latest trends and keeping up with the breathless world of fashion.

An unstoppable force Amelia has compiled this wonderful book with wonderful fashion designers including,

Ada Zanditon, Beautiful Soul, Christopher Raeburn, Dem Collective, Edun, Fifi Bijoux, From Somewhere, Goodone, Henrietta Ludgate, Joanna Cave, Lu Flux, Minna, Nina Dolcetti, Partimi, Prophetik, Romina Karamanea and Ute Decker to name but a few.

Its always a pleasure to see our illustrators at the forefront of the creative industries and Amelia is a real champion for our discipline so its with great appreciation that we proudly support her book.

The perfect gift for that ethical fashionista we all know and are slightly jealous of, please pick up a copy here!

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Months of the year: June

June 

By D'Andhra

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Artist 29: Faye West

For Amelia's Magazine




For Amelia's Magazine

For Amelia's Compendium Of Fashion Illustration


Its now the turn of super stylish Faye West, she has got such a skill with composition and her backgrounds are inch perfect. This combines to give a real cutting edge style which brings together lovingly painted figure work with beautifully constructed backgrounds that both support and contrast each other. Her work is a real breath of fresh air and you can always be sure of seeing something special and new. Specialising in fashion she is definitely on trend and able to bring out the best in designs with her special way of highlighting the human form against a denuded background. It is this technique that is perhaps the defining hallmark of a dedicated fashion illustrator, that can draw the eye to anywhere she wants it, and hold it for as long as you've got. Read about her here!


Who are you:

I'm 26 and graduated 5 years ago with a BA Hons in Fashion Promotion and Illustration at the University for the Creative Arts, Epsom, Surrey. I then lived and worked in London for six years whilst trying to establish myself as an illustrator.

What do you do:
After being taken on by Restless Artists agency in 2008, Topshop Boutique chose two illustrations from my portfolio for their Topshop Boutique tee shirt range. I then illustrated for Biba, Katy England and .Cent magazine and was featured in Amelia's magazine for some illustrated edible cupcakes I sent them. After a spell in London I decided to return to Devon and quite unplanned, lived on Lundy island which was populated by only 25 islanders and was only 3 miles long. I was here for a glorious summer and atmospheric winter, but by March I definitely knew the meaning of cabin fever and came back to mainland! This did give me a wonderful opportunity to concentrate on six A2 pen and ink illustrations for my first exhibition which I hope will happen next year. Now based in Devon I regurly contribute to Amelia's Magazine, have set up a blog and joined twitter which have been invaluable sources to keep me in the loop now I am away from London.

How did you start:
It has been a real learning curve since graduating. I do not feel the university I studied at gave us any kind of support or advice for illustrators trying to find submissions, contributions or work, let alone paid work. This maybe because it was a fairly new course, in comparison to LCF where there seems to be a real network of support for fashion post-graduates. I was blessed however with a new course leader and lecturers in the last two years and maybe because they were younger and new, their constructive criticism and encouragement really helped me develop my own style. And really enjoy working on my projects. 

A Personal statement about you or your work:
To be a freelance illustrator you were never going to be guarenteed a salary, or any paid work. So you do it because you really love it. And I've enjoyed figure drawing since I was a kid, had a phase in my teens where I copied antique minitures and then realised I could encorperate my love of portraiture with fashion whilst doing my A Levels. Having always chosen watercolours, pen and pencil I wouldn't say that my style has changed much since then. But it has evolved. At the moment I am out on a mission to prove myself wrong, or myself as I was a few years ago when I was adamant I'd be unable to have any work as an illustrator outside of London. Thanks to the internet, it's pretty much possible.

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Artist 17: June Sees

June Sees, mysterious beautiful and darkly attractive, her work draws you in and leaves you wanting more. She is a master of atmosphere and you can feel the rhythm and vibrancy of her work, almost lyrical in nature. This is combined with a dreamlike thread that gives her work a real depth, dreamer, painter, thinker read all about her here!

Who are you:

Hiya , I am June Chanpoomidole mostly known as June Sees (little more easier to pronounce). I am a freelance illustrator, painter, visualiser and a dreamer. A fan of creme brulee and loving way with colour.

What do you do:

I love to paint, absolutely. I primarily use traditional mediums such as acrylics, inks and pencils in my illustrations. Using techniques such as dry brushing and pencils or inks for simple details. I am regular contributor, so you might see my illustrations for Amelia's Magazine and Sketchbook Magazine.

I create fashion illustrations and figures with strong narrative and I love to be challenged and be versatile with new ideas and current trends. I get ideas whilst deep in thought, a conversation, a debate or photo recorded. Whether I see it in front of my eyes, or in my mind, I create.

How did you start:

I can't recall the catalyst point to when I started. I suppose when I was a little toddler, I admired my dad's talent when he illustrated a mermaid for me. I had a childhood obsession with mermaids, I never stopped drawing ever since. Even when mum owned the restaurant I had secret grotto, drawing underneath the display case. When I took illustration more seriously, was last year at the end of my University degree at Westminster.

I started to explore painting further during my final major project, and my first attempt was absolutely pathetic and it was shame to waste a painting. After persisting again and again, I've gotten better and realised that I actually really love acrylics and its vibrant colours. It fits with me and portrays how I visualise the illustrations to be.

From then on, I continuously practiced, on my tiny beechwood desk, trying out new techniques with my trusted brush pot and acrylics by my side. It's only been a year and I am enjoying this ride. So I look forward to the journey ahead of me.

A Personal statement about you or your work:

My work is a range of fashion, music, emotions and narrative, trying to brighten little bit of life. I want people to enjoy my work, I hope my work invokes a smile within themselves or makes them think of a story untold. Although I like that my illustrations aesthetically pleasing, it offers a surreal atmosphere transporting you into the world where (as someone had describe) 'colour explodes.' I am June, odd with hint of randomness at times nevertheless I beam when my work is glanced upon or had invoked a thought. After all I am just a girl who loves to think and paint.

www.junesees.com

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