Fashion Illustration: the Golden Age of Illustration

**I’m moving!  Please visit my new blog:  Ink Epiphanies.  All the Serpents and Doves content is being moved, and any new posts will be made there.  Thank you so much for visiting**

Much of my illustration inspiration comes from the golden age of fashion illustration: approximately from 1911-1930.  Before 1911, fashion illustrations were drawn as realistically close to the human body as possible until a Parisian couturier, Paul Poiret began an innovative movement in the opposite direction.  He published Les Robes de Paul Poiretshowcasing ink drawings colored with the Pochoir process, where a monochrome drawing is colored by hand using a set of stencils layered one on top of the other).  This method became a signature style of the Art Deco era where it glorified purity of line.

Some of the illustrators you may already be familiar with: Paul Poiret, Erte, and George Barbier.  There are a couple more I admire as well, George Lepape and A E Marty.  Not long ago I participated in a research and creativity competition in which I submitted 3 hand drawn illustrations re-interpreting 3 art deco works.  The garments themselves were not changed, I just gave my interpretation of mood conveyed in the original and decided to share one with you:

The original illustration, En Plein Coeur by A E Marty, was beautifully, yet morbidly depicted:

My re-interpretation was created on watercolor paper using marker and colored pencil (my favorite medium).  Marker allows for an amazing saturation of color on paper.  If you use a blending marker (which has no pigment) to pick up colors put onto a paper that does not absorb marker well, such as vellum, you get a beautiful, more realistic effect. 

 I hope that was fun!  And yes, that blending tutorial is on the way.  For the last week I have had my face glued to ebay because I’m slightly obsessed with buying vintage clothing.