Happy Easter to all! Are you finding it joyful? Or are the inconsistencies of the world weighing you down? Or like me is it a bit of both? Over the years since I left my jobs in fashion and embraced the uncertain world of freelance illustration, I’ve developed a patchy mastery (is there such a thing?) of compartmentalisation, and never has it been more useful than in our current times!
So set aside the question marks and focus on the chocolate. You’re welcome.
In this week’s “Chocolate Box” Creative Fashion Illustration class, I thought I’d present the challenge of drawing a face from a more challenging angle, but not just in one way – in two ways plus let’s throw in some distracting reflections on some big glasses! Our work was cut out for us but of course the students pulled off amazing work. I began with a warm-up exercise where we drew the image, line only, in a completely different different way to how we normally draw. The only way to do it was to switch on the right side of the brain and OBSERVE, be present, and see the plains. The planes! What did they find when they got to the main drawing and were free to approach it in their usual way? The results of the warm-up were better.
My work here is done.
Many people learn the basics of a skill but not so many take it further. The possibilities for images that you can create are endless, and it’s beyond your usual boundaries that the interesting things start. However the number of possibilities can be what stunts us – how to choose? How would you do them anyway?
Chocolate Box is a series of 4 x 3hr fashion illustration classes which presents entirely different and unexpected challenges every week. The idea is to stretch yourself in directions you wouldn’t normally go, whether it’s media, approaches, styles, or design.
Level up, and spend some virtual time with some like-minded illustration lovers and be inspired by the results of what they do with the same challenge.
These sessions are a live online version of what used to be Creative Fashion Illustration in the old face-to-face classes, where people who had done other courses could keep going and improving, some moving onto professional work. The classes are geared towards people with drawing experience but I love it when less experienced people dive in head first – they give the rest a run for their money, trust me!
Classes run for 3 hours on a Tuesday evening from 6.30pm – 9.30pm.
When: Tuesdays 6.30pm – 9.30pm Four weeks from March 22nd
Where: Anywhere
Price: $350 inc. gst
More here:
See here for just some of the types of challenges these sessions might have:
I took a whole year off my live online classes (let’s not speak of 2021) but they are back with a vengeance, after which I will take another spell to work on my fully online school. So get in while you can!
Fashion Illustration Fundamentals is a series of four x 3hr classes covering all the key principles and fundamentals of fashion illustration – What is it? Are there rules? How do I get that figure down on paper simply and easily? What is the S-curve and how to I make the figure Fashion? How do I draw a walking catwalk figure? Then learn how to bring the sketches to life with vibrant colour, including how to use Copic and Tombow marker pens to create artful fashion images.
If this is entirely new to you that’s great – the classes presume no knowledge or experience. However, if you actually do have existing skills that is great too – I will push you from that level and give you more advanced feedback. As with my face-to-face classes, my online classes are kept small so you get all the personal attention you need: class size is capped at 10 people.
Classes run for 3 hours on a Sunday morning from 9am – 12pm.
When: Sundays 9am – 12pm Four weeks from March 20th
Where: Anywhere
Price: $450 inc. gst Includes a full set of notes emailed to you along with picture references for the course and extra (optional) between-class activities and mid-week feedback on this work.
What you will learn:
o What is fashion illustration? Understand the scope of this wonderful art form.
o Key principles of fashion illustration.
o Pose structure – The balance line and the S-curve in fashion illustration: How to understand this figure pose and sketch it quickly and easily.
o How to draw the face, and then simplify it for fashion sketches.
o How to use vibrant colour to bring your sketch to life.
o How to use marker pens without spending a fortune. The best types of markers for varied effects, including Copic and Tombow markers.
What will you get?
o A full set of original reference notes, including all reference pictures to be used in the classes, plus extra images to use for (optional) homework tasks – yes, I encourage homework!
o Personal one-on-one help and feedback during each class.
o Access to re-watch the class demonstrations as often as you like for one month after the class finishes.
o Enjoyment and relaxation – three hours of escape each week into the creative realm.
o Solid and lasting art skills which you can take forward into a drawing practice either of fashion, or fine art.
o Inspiration, and an introduction to the world’s best past and current fashion illustrators.
Sound interesting? You can find out more or book a spot here, and see below the types of things you will learn.
I have a box full of letters going back to my teenage years. There was a time when pen-pals were arranged across the globe and I even have one of those – Nina in West Berlin. She sent me the german single of 99 Luftballons by Nena, not knowing it was already number 1 on Countdown and readily available. I loved her for it though. I think I was nothing but a disappointment to her however, as her first question was about “the animals”, as in do I have any? I talked about my cat and dog, but later realised she was more interested in kangaroos… But I digress.
Just out two weeks ago was a drawing I did to accompany a story about the romance of letter writing, by Rachelle Unreich, published in The Age Good Weekend magazine. It was a truly enjoyable commission where I got to read the story and conjure up my own images and submit them. To balance out all the jobs that don’t go smoothly, it’s pure delight when they do, and Rachelle seems absolutely lovely and a good writer. Hazar!
Of course this wasn’t my first time in print for Good Weekend – my art has graced the cover no less, back a few years ago when I did a charcoal portrait of Adani. You’d forgotten? Here it is again then! You’re welcome. Massive thank you to my agent Katie at The Illustration Room for managing both of these commissions.
The full sketch, before the attack of the page layout!
Apart from the masterclass with the fabulous Bil Donovan last year, I took the entire year off from my live online classes. New house and studio! University work! Freelance work! Etc. But no more – I have just released a slew of live online classes which begin this weekend – you can check out the full offering with full information here.
First up, a prequel course, created as a response to student feedback. My beginners fashion illustration classes start with the fashion figure – proportions and pose structure, immediately exaggerating and ‘fashionising’ it. This can be overwhelming for people who don’t have much figure drawing experience, hence the prequel…
Foundations of Figure Drawing is perfect for those who do any type of figure drawing, from life drawing to fashion illustration – the proportions may change but the theory of the pose structure and importance of the balance line, is the same. This is a two-session live online course and will focus entirely on the figure and pose structure, in real-to-life proportions. If you were to follow it on with the Fashion Illustration Fundamentals course, you would pick up from here and start fashioning the figure.
This is a course where you learn the proportions of the human figure, why the balance line is so important in the pose, and how you can simplify a figure to get the structure down on paper easily, providing your sketch with a solid foundation (Foundation, get it?).
The two sessions will run on Sundays 9am – 12pm, March 6th and 13th – remember, this is Melbourne time!
Live online classes: These 3hr-sessions are “live” on Zoom, and operate as a virtual classroom, with informative instruction, perfect-view “bird’s eye” demonstrations, and real-time feedback and corrections on work throughout the class. This method offers a surprising intimacy which can be advantageous to the face-to-face experience. Students have access to re-watch all demonstrations and class recordings for one month after the course finishes and will receive by email an extensive set of class notes, drawing references, and optional homework suggestions.
Check out the full course info or book a spot here.
And lest you forget, I am a fully qualified teacher and professional artist / illustrator. I have over 20 years teaching and drawing experience, teaching at Universities, galleries, and in my own classes. More important than that? I LOVE TEACHING! So come on, let’s draw!
Am I excited that it’s Xmas or am I just excited for 2020 to be drawing to a close? Tough question! Certainly this year has taught me that I need just a few simple things to be happy – to be able to see my mother, to be able to jump in my car and drive the distance longer than 5km to buy the food I like, and to be able to make art. Simples! Oh and friends!
However this year has been for you, I hope it’s ending well and you are able to do something nice for Xmas day, whatever it means to you.
Happy everything to you. X
The success of my LIVE online fashion illustration classes has been the absolute light in the murky tunnel of 2020. I have been planning for several years to create fully online versions of my classes, so nothing like a pandemic to force your hand, right! The fully online classes are still in work, but what I did launch after testing out my ideas and methods with some of my sessional RMIT University teaching, was a series of live online fashion illustration classes. The first up was the Fashion Illustration Fundamentals course. This course is for absolute beginners, but also for those who can draw, have done classes before (including some of my own), or for those who just want to brush up, get some advice about improving their drawings. My class size is capped any 10 people – less than half the university classes I teach – so that everyone gets the one-on-one help they need when they need it. Classes are live over zoom, with real-time on-screen feedback, bird’s eye view demonstration videos, and the best part? The class is recorded so you can watch it again as much as you like until after the course finishes. All for $350 (including GST) for a 4-week course. Yes I know, and don’t worry, prices are increasing in 2021 so get in while you can! 2 spots left, check out more info or book one of those spots here.
Rebranded as Fashion Illustration Masterclass, this is the third run of the Fundamentals course as people wrote to me lamenting that they’d missed out. It will be my last classes for 2020. Over summer I’ll be filming my online classes and restructuring all my courses. 2021 is going to be fab-u-lous.
So what do we learn? We learn the fashion figure proportions, and how to nail a pose:
How to capture the catwalk strut and what you need to be aware of:
How to draw perfect legs, how to use Copic marker pens for shading, colouring, with dynamic colour effects – and inexpensively:
How to draw a face – what are the proportions, the golden rules, and how do you draw the features, then simplify them for your fashion figure – no more blank faces!
The absolute most surprising thing about these classes is the fact that of the many students who had actually done my in-person classes before, pretty much ALL of them preferred this online method, and were blown away by how well it worked. Make no mistake, while my classes are light-hearted and fun, I take them very seriously. I am a fully qualified teacher and am passionate about teaching people to draw. (In particular I’m passionate about giving them a truly enjoyable experience that is uplifting and increases their sense of wellbeing and happiness.) I have thought long and deeply about my concepts and methods and honed them each time around. My classes are the real deal – we draw from scratch, we don’t just colour in – you can do it, you just need to be taught well. By me! x
In my fashion illustration classes I often speak to my students about the dangers of working from photographs, which allow us to drill down and agonise over details and pose. A live model will never be completely still or for long so the artist is forced to make decisions and work fast. This creates an energy in the work which elevates the drawing far above any imperfections. When I look at the work of Kenneth Paul Block, I am immediately reminded of this principle. An in-house artist for Fairchild Publications (Women’s Wear Daily, W) for almost forty years, American fashion illustrator Kenneth Paul Block helped transform the previously dowdy WWD into the bible of the jet set throughout the 1960s and 70s.
His beautiful loose and graceful lines illustrated collections by Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Coco Chanel, Givenchy, Bill Blass, Halston, amongst many others, and the line up of society women who posed for him was impressive – Gloria Vanderbilt, Babe Paley, The Duchess of Windsor, et al.
There is a beautiful book of his illustrations, “Drawing Fashion: The Art of Kenneth Paul Block” (published in 2008), and in the introduction Isaac Mizrahi wrote: “More than any single designer, he gave New York fashion its sophistication. Because he drew Babe Paley and Jackie Kennedy a certain way, they became what he had envisioned.”
Graduating from Parsons School of Design in 1945, he joined Fairchild Publications in the mid 1950s, where he stayed until 1992, when all the company’s artists were let go on the same day.
“Gesture to me is everything in fashion.” Indeed.
The effectiveness of taking my face-to-face classes into the online realm has been the one shining light in this ridiculous year – why didn’t I do it sooner?! I have put out a few courses to launch the LIVE online fashion illustration classes that are Fashion Illustration Masterclass. The next one starting is Drawing Faces for Portraiture and Fashion, and it begins this Sunday 20th September.
It will suit those who are interested in fashion illustration, or those more about Art and portraiture. I’ll be starting with the structure of the head, the features, and looking at the different view of the head, as well as some trickier angles. We’ll learn how to get a likeness, and how to flatter the subject – important! Sound interesting? More info here. Classes are live over Zoom, with feedback on your work in progress as you draw it – this is not a pre-recorded video – this is a live, virtual class.
Fashion Illustration Masterclass offers boutique Fashion Illustration classes for beginners as well as those with experience. Taught by Angie Réhe - illustrator and University lecturer, class sizes are small, both in face-to-face classes and online.
LIVE ONLINE CLASSES are up and running!
Gift certificates! The gift that keeps on giving, you can purchase gift certificates for specific classes and workshops, or just as a value to contribute to any Drawing Salon workshops. Valid for 12 months.
Limited class sizes - at Fashion Illustration Masterclass size DOES matter. Email me for details. Let me teach you to draw!
Fashion Illustration portraiture of the bride, Designer Illustrations, and personalised wedding stationery. For the bride who has everything...else.
Error: There is no connected account for the user 524073350 Feed will not update.
