Anne Sanger's fashion illustrations
My friend Anne Sanger was trained as a fashion designer, but these she days helps fashion companies integrate digital technology into the design process. (That occurs much less frequently than you might think.) Anne is also a talented illustrator, and as long as I've known her she's taken visual notes of things in the fashion world that she finds inspiring or interesting. I was thrilled when I found out she's started a blog, titled Le Parapluie, to share some of her sketches and fashion commentary with friends. I don't know much about fashion, but I do know that her illustrations are beautiful. (The drawing above on the right depicts my wife. Oddly enough, it looks just like her.) Link (Thanks, Kelly Sparks!)
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The one on the left looks like she had a date with Wolverine and he got fresh.
Friends are a good thing. They ease life's difficult passages and help one to maintain perspective.
Well then I'd love to see your sketches Yankeeknowhow. Care to share? Fashion sketches are a form of jargon and they fulfill a very specific need. There is no pretense to fine art here. Just well executed drawings given a little extra umpf by someone that knows what she's doing.
These are great! If you like 'em, you'll find more good ones here:
http://www.fashionillustrationgallery.com/
As a graphic designer I'm supposed to be able to do this kind of thing, but the truth is, I can't sketch for toffee. So I stand back in admiration at anybody who can slap ink on paper and have it look like a human being. If they can make it look stylish as well, my admiration knows no bounds.
The best combination I've found, having tested ALL ink-dip nibs and ALL papers (literally dozens each) and most available india inks is:
Brause 511 "crow quill" (meaning smallest size so needs a small holder) nib (hard to find so order quite a few for a buck a piece when you find one of the dozen Google hits for them). They don't dig into the paper when you draw a circle.
"Ragcote" archival slightly clay-coated paper (NY Central Art Supply). Canson airbrush paper is good too, even better, but not archival.
Ink: Higgens Black Magic ink. It is a true India Ink but is washable from the hands for several minutes in case of spills.
One trick is to buy those "white out" pens and use acetone or other solvent to clean them of their original contents (often the cap unscrews backwards of normal caps), and fill it with ink, so instead of using a dip bottle, you just let the metal plunger tip deliver another few minutes of ink to your nib.
Salvador Dali was one of the last guys I know of who could really draw. I talked to a couple of his "archivists" and they had no information about what type of nib or paper (sizing etc.) he used to draw with. His book "50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship" is all about painting, not drawing. Says a wasp once flew into his painting medium, and made it work ten times as smoothly, the theory being that wasps contain blood thinners that also work in linsead oil. He was also a master of "wash" which is when you dilute India Ink or water colors to touch up dried India Ink drawings with a paint brush.
http://www.poynter.org/resource/117521/Dali.jpg
http://vsted.com/Coppermine/displayimage.php?pid=616&fullsize=1
Another replacement of a metal nib is in fact a very thin tipped paint brush, but that's much more difficult to control the line widths of, since you get zero physical pressure feedback, only visual. You can buy India Ink pens that take cartridges that have brush tips. Made in Japan, basically.
"I would be perfectly capable of allowing my left hand to be cut off, but this under the most interesting circumstances imaginable: on the condition, namely, that I might for ten minutes be able to observe Vermeer of Delft seated before his easel as he was painting." - Salvador Dali ("50 Secrets Of Magic Craftsmanship" 1948)
Those are really artistic designs there.
You might find this site interesting, too. Also a young (and very talented) artist's sketch blog.
http://missalie.net/
Those are pretty cool!
I really like this one:
calvinklein1-color.jpg
It's amazing that with just black ink she's able to give an impression of the texture and shininess of the fabric.