Blog Post #2 – Keer Nika Li
My chosen and assigned project for Better Lives unit is Fashion Illustration: View from the Catwalk. My lecturer, Sue Dray herself is a well-respected fashion illustrator, hence I’ve got to understand more what fashion illustration means to the industry from her own perspectives while she’s teaching.
First of all, I’ve got to know a wider range of fashion illustrators and their work during classes. Fashion Illustration is one of my very own personal interests, and that’s why I’ve chosen this topic as my Better lives project. I once thought that fashion illustrator is a niche occupation since the fashion industry is a place that relies on photography very much. When an industry’s visual presentation had built its dependent on realistic recordings like photography, it seems that there’s not much platform for fashion illustrations to perform, besides the inspiration sketching of fashion design pieces when one’s creating a collection of garments.
Out of my surprises, fashion illustration was actually very widely used in the industry, and being widely ignored too – I’ve seen many of the art pieces before and amazed by the illustrators’ talents but never seem to care to look for the provenance. A picture tells a thousand words, even though many fashion illustrators always do not get enough attention and appreciation that they deserved as other creative contributors in the industry, what they’ve created are still powerful – diverse and convincing.
The fashion illustration pieces were presented with different feelings, vibes, and effects due to the diverse background of each illustrator – era, country, and cultural background, the use of media. And the difference in the presentation had made each of them and their work to stand out and shined as an individual. These specialties were made used in different regions in the fashion industry, brought this industry a more diverse way of presenting visuals.
I have had spent some quality time while watching Sue’s Online Tutorial. I got to try many different styles of drawing and experiment illustrations using different media and methods – pastels, chalk, oil paints, drawing while standing up and drawing freely on the cardboards of our delivery parcels during the quarantine.