Bil Donovan

Just a quick post before I head off out tonight. Some remarkably beautiful illustrations by the extremely talented Bil Donovan. One of my newly discovered inspirations, Donovan's work demonstrates gestural and fluid technique in its finest form. Such pretty faces and lovely warm colours too! Be sure to check out his site to see more stunning work! x

CARL ERICKSON drawings

Recently, I've been very much admiring the work of Carl Erickson, to say the least. 


An America illustrator born in the late 1890's, Erickson has a creative flair for depicting his subjects so well. The use of colour in his work appears so effective, intense and vibrant. Bringing to life his beautiful subjects which by making them look as if they are literally jumping off the page. 

Amongst his most colourful works, his black and white illustrative sketches showcases his sensitive yet critical approach to fashion drawing, particularly of garments and accessories. I adore his fluid inky style and considered gestural mark making, that is so precise yet free. He captivates his subjects perfectly exuding their glamour, elegance and class down to a t. 

Throughout his life, Erickson illustrated many French and American publications as well as many a notorious Vogue cover.

Looking at his illustrations is making me itch, i really want to do some new drawings soon. I have lots of ideas that have been filling my head for some time now. I just need to push myself...the longer i put it off the more i want to do work...so i gotta do something at some point!

Watch this space x

STINA PERSSON

A range of some lovely fashion drawings by Swedish illustrator Stina Persson. I love her combination of colour with really interesting compositions of masked white highlights. It's nice that her work isn't typically pretty, she's not afraid to create shadows, runny lines and merge contrasting colours. Romantic raw beauties.

B E A U T I F U L work by Marianne Goldin ♥

OOoh! this week i discovered *Marianne Goldin* a new illustrator to oogle at!! I came across some of her work whilst trawling the net, and boy was i mesmerised! Her work exudes fabulous fluidity and cleverly combines unusual composition, techniques with intense hits off the colour palette. Goldin's work is so interesting as it is crisp and possesses a certain neatness to it that at the same time is completely thrown off by gestural painterly brush strokes and inky messes. I could literally stare at her work all day long so so pretty.

New Nude Drawings

Here are a few drawings I did recently whilst travelling to and in Brighton. Im quite happy with them though i think i used too much blue in the above illustration. However i really like the lady with the added crucifix, she looks downright weird!! I reworked into that image after drawing the face. The sitting nude second from the top I am going to redo on a larger scale, for a zine cover that I've been commissioned to do. But for that image i will make it much more elaborate and use some metallics and collage. x

Drawings of Nylon street style peeps

For a few days i went to stay with my granny in Fleetwood, which was super lovely!!! I'm really happy to say i was getting on the drawing when i was there.....as its been a while! It seems that whenever i go on holiday or have a change of scene my fine-liner always come out!! I did 4 fashion illustrations of cool people out of the NYLON street style book. 2 boys and 2 girls drawn in fine-liner & painted with watercolours.

Prints & character designs

Here are a series of pages that i did in my A5 moleskine watercolour sketchbook. Handrawn print designs with a character and outfit to match. I hope to work with this idea a little more maybe create more large scale work. Frida Kahlo's portrait inspired my characters. Drawings done in mixed media.

A Beautiful Lonely heart with wild flowers ♥

This is a drawing i did a few days ago. I was inspired by a fashion photograph of a model in Elle magazine. In the early stages of the drawing, the figure looked uninteresting and of lonely stature so i decided to go to town with my inks!!! & painted some gold flowers which now surround the girl like a wild mythical garden. I then gave her some facepaint, jazzed her attire up and painted a red runny heart on the back of her jacket. Drawing done in watercolours, oil pastels & ink.

Watercolour wonderland

Two watercolours that i did earlier this afternoon, fashion illustrations drawn from the trends : Double breasted tailoring & Volume (Elle magazine supplement, winter on the high street).

Old Ogden's New faces

Some new A4 drawings that I've done from photographs taken at The Special Collections Libary at MMU. Ive recently been experimenting with mixed-media and colour combinations. I am happy because my drawings are definitely getting more livelier!! Will try to do more like these, next time maybe with some added collage.