The Parts of a Men’s Fashion Illustration

Here is a visual insight into the process of one of the men’s fashion illustrations. Not everything is revealed, but study the images and you will get the gist of it all goes down. Let me know what you think.

This men’s fashion illustration is a part of the Illustration Weekly Series and was featuring the Milan’s Men Fashion Week at the beginning of 2013.

Sunflowerman and Sam Flax- Illustration Tutorial

It is true! The rumors, or lack of rumors suggesting the collaboration between Sunflowerman and Sam Flax Atlanta can now be confirmed.

The ‘Watercolor for Illustrators’ shorts series will be released for free in a couple weeks. I have had the immense pleasure to partner with Sam Flax in presenting this information, free of charge to anyone and everyone.

Here is a video from the last Sunflowerman, Sam Flax experience.

London Collections Men, Hackett

London Fashion Week kicked off the new year and the new look at fashion for 2013.

I have taken a look at several of the collections and illustrated them on recycled Sherlock Holmes Short Story Book Pages and are available at the shop

This first look is at the Hackett Collection. The WWD review provides a great rundown of the runway.

Jeremy Hackett took to the crypt of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in east London for his show that was all about the snazzy English gent — the sort who wears a bowler hat to work. Hackett played with traditional men’s wear patterns such as Prince of Wales and windowpane checks, and mixed and layered tailored pieces with patterned knitwear in the form of sweater vests, V-neck pullovers and scarves.

The Chap

Sold.

The Rake

The Rake at the shop

The Dapper

The Dapper at the shop

The Dandy

The Dandy at the shop

Fashion Illustration Web Headers

I began developing some Web-Header illustrations a while back that never were used. Hope is still strong within me that they will find a purpose one day. Today though, these fine illustrations are nice enough to share themselves as examples of my process.

When I am illustrating there is an overall process that guides the work I do. Not everything is done the same way, but almost always there is a similar strategy to them. The Web-Headers have been the most straight-forward and will hopefully provide a bit of knowledge and maybe a bit of joy as well.

With this controlled style I start with a pencil sketch and follow it with an ink outline (I use a round brush from sizes 1-6 and black india ink, usually Dr. Ph. Martins).

When the ink dries I do a heavy wash of base colors in watercolor to cover most of the work space (This is mostly water and a little bit of watercolor to create a unique ethereal background).

Finally all that’s left is filling in the details of lights and darks to pull the form of the figures from off the page (personally I feel that it is ok to use white gouache over watercolor to create some highlights and not to just leave the white of the background, where many watercolor purists would smack me in the face at the mention of it).

Milan Men’s Fashion Week… Illustration Weekly 4

Milan Men’s Fashion Week ended early last week. It came bracing the heels of the London Collections: Men but quickly slowed its pace to saunter as the first collections took to the runway. In, what appeared to be a stiffened gaze on the acceptable and conservative dress, Milan began showing the colors of slumping sales.

The evident gray tones throughout the collections were a nod to winter and perhaps a suggestion that the economy takes creative license at times. Missing Missoni founders weighted the grays even more to all who were present.

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But in fashion a show without pizazz is no show at all. As the days lengthened and the collections began growing in number the bold and beautiful emerged. The controversial Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas designed a fantastic set for Prada, lacy men’s lingerie was premiered by Versace and while many collections featured hand-bags Gucci stole eyes with gold-chained handcuff portfolios. Among the more implicitly traditional yet awesome in beauty were Canali, DSquared2, Burberry and Diesel Black Gold. (See the collections on Vogue)

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The Autumn/Winter 2013 collections in Milan did not turn out to be strikingly exotic or outrageous but once again the power house families and houses did not cease to amaze. Perhaps this year will see a respect for tradition and the burden of sales will give way to the freedom of creativity.

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-Sunflowerman

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