Commercial Fashion-illustration.
Online course by Alyona Lavdovskaya.
Hi, dear friends! My name is Alyona Lavdovskaya and I’m a fashion illustrator. I work for the creative department of TsUM (Central Universal Department Store) and draw for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Glamour magazines as well as for web-sites, like “Vogue” for example.
I’ve been in fashion business for more than 12 years already. Studied in Sаn Francisco Art Colleges и NABA in Milan. I started from Gucci, then joined the TsUM’s creative department, where I work now. I make illustrations for the magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Glamour, Snc, along with Vogue и dochkimateri websites.
During our online-course I will teach you to create trendy fashion illustrations, help you reveal and accentuate your style. These days the editors and art-directors of major brands use the format of illustration more and more often, while the illustrators, skilled in fashion are becoming more and more popular.
What we will learn
Why some illustrators work successfully for glossy magazines, while for others it remains nothing but a hobby? How to become an illustrator in demand?
Our online course will give you some practical answers for these and many other questions.
Let us start with the inspiring theory:
- You will see some classical illustrating campaigns of fashion magazines of the XX century.
- I will show you historical photos of the great illustrators, such as Gruau, Antonio and Leyendecker.
- You will learn classical patterns and methods of hand-made illustration with the best images as examples.
- I will show and analyze my own illustration projects meant for different clients, and share my creative method with you. We’ll talk about Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, Lancome campaigns. We’ll study contemporary projects with such examples as the world’s famous brands: Lancome, Jimmy Choo, Prada, Valentino, Mac, Bvlgari, TsUM, Nordstrom, Selfriges.
- We’ll talk about the profession of fashion illustrator, bringing on some practical aspects.
And, of course, we will practice a lot:
- We'll start with anatomy and some basic methods of drawing a human figure, using a lot of photo references. Doing your home tasks, you will draw a lot from life – your family and friends.
- You will get a big set of varied techniques, patterns, which appear most trendy in today’s fashion illustration.
- You will reveal your individual style; see how you can evolve.
- I will ask each student to show me their works, so I can estimate their level and give advice about what exactly has to be paid attention to. How to keep your original style, at the same time making the picture more fashionable and lively
What to expect at the online-course?
During the course we will cover the following topics:
- The history of fashion-illustration. Iconic figures. Historic materials.
- Fashion illustration today. European and American market review.
- The prospect of the profession’s development in Russia. Today’s trending projects.
- Plastic anatomy. Basic patterns of drawing human figure and face.
- Creating a basic image of a model for clothes designers.
- Drawing a figure: full-face, side-face, three quarter and from the back.
- How to place a model for posing: different basic positions of a model for designers.
- The main principles of preparing drawn look-books for designers.
- Fashion-portrait. Creating a portrait illustration with the help of a photo-reference.
- Face-chart. Creating a basic image for make-up sketching for professional make-up artists.
- Event illustration. How to draw beautiful fashion-portraits at events.
- Coverage illustration – working at fashion shows, behind the stage and front-row.
- Editorial. Glamorous illustration.
- Advertising. Some specific features of making advertising illustrations.
- Working with photo-references.
- Drawing from life. Why is it important to practice with a professional model, idea and styling.
- Trend-reports. Working with forecast resources (wgsn, stylesight, beautystreams).
- Creative illustration: developing your own unique style.
- Basic principles of making a portfolio.
- Basic ideas of promotion: social networks, online, offline.
My Illustrations
My main profession has always been connected with fashion business. I studied at Sаn Francisco Art Colleges, Textile University of Moscow and NABA in Milan. I started at Gucci, that passed to TsUM’s creative department where I still work. It was more than 10 years ago, at that time nobody in Russia worked with shop-windows or knew anything about the profession of fashion illustrator, so we had to learn everything on our ownJ
Today I make illustrations for Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Glamour, Snc magazines. Vogue and dochkimateri websites. I have worked at fashion-weeks in Moscow and made some illustrated coverage from the Paris, Milan, London, New York fashion weeks. The latest work was Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture show in Saint-Petersburg. I also presented Russia in the Lancome “The little black bottle: 20 artists, 1 icon” international project.
Two formats of my online course.
You will be able to choose between two formats: Classic and VIP.
Classic format is video classes, completing the tasks, my comments and answering questions.
VIP-format (besides the access to video classes and communicating with me) is:
- Preparing your portfolio under my guidance.
- Tutorial on some special features of creating illustrations for different editions: glossy magazines, internet sites.
- Tutorial on how to present your ideas to a client, magazine, agency, private individual.
Who I expect at my online-course
If fashion is your life, you cannot imagine yourself doing a different thing and want to make stunning illustrations – I am sure, my online course will help you to advance a great deal.
I’m expecting you at my course if you are:
- An illustrator working in fashion and not only.
- A clothes designer who wants to adequately show your ideas on paper.
- A stylist who wants to illustrate your ideas and images.
- An art student who would like to get some extra non-academic experience from a working professional.
- An artist, a graphic artist, an illustrator, who wants to improve your skills of drawing a human being.
I still remember my studying in Milan. Our teachers were really professional, they told the stories of their real projects, which we later could see in magazines. That indeed was motivating!
My online course is based on my practical skills and experience. This is not just a theory, but some aspects and intricacies of the way a fashion illustrator really does the job.
Learning format
This course cannot be just watched, as a TV-show. You will definitely have to work. Although the tasks will be easy, one will have to complete them and show the results all the time in order to get critics, comments, as well as some energy and motivation for new challenges.
What makes this course different from any other is that I never just leave you there with the video files. This is a full-scale distance learning.
During the whole month you’ll be getting my comments, while I will be monitoring the results of every student.
List of materials needed for the course
- Paper. You will need usual office paper, technical drawing paper (А4, А3 formats), paper for printer, Lomond matt, Watercolor classic, tracing paper, color paper.
- Faber Castell mechanical pencil (lead diameter 0,3 — 0,5 — 0,7 — 1).
- Bruynzeel pencils (2В, 3В, 5В),
- Thick color pencils.
- Brush pens with a sharp flexible end of the PITTARTIST PEN BRUSH (Faber Castell).
- COPIC SKETCH markers: basic rainbow colors, 2 shades of beige, 3 shades of gray, black.
- Also will need some almost used up markers that barely have any color left.
- Color ink.
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