Elle Newman

After looking into Pelissero I wanted to find a watercolour artist that specialised in fashion illustration to see how they used watercolour. I came across freelance illustrator Jessica Durrant and really liked her style. Durrant mainly uses watercolour along with other materials to create her work. Durrant has featured in publications such as Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar Elle and even illustrated three books for L’Oreal Paris Kerastase. She was also named fashion illustrator to follow in 2014 and 2015 by Harpers Bazaar. I love the way she uses watercolour to add to her drawings rather than make them the sole focus of her art.

The main reason I was interested in Jessica Durrant’s work was her commercial work, the effect of watercolour on an advertisement is quite unusual so stands out when it’s on a page of normal text. This has given me inspiration for how I may use watercolour in my own work and how I could incorporate it into my brand book.

  I then tried out some of Jessica’s techniques in my own drawings, I first started to practice the techniques that Durrant uses such as the wet on wet technique and blending. I tried this out by practising and then creating a few practice pieces such as a leafs, lips and a Jellyfish. When I was happy with them I then moved on to my main drawings.

I then tried with fashion illustration, I first tried doing a side profile but with the background being the blue making the face, I then tried doing faces with the clothing using the watercolour which I really liked.

    
I then tried just doing the clothing, which I think was the best I really enjoyed doing it and think it would be interesting as I can’t make the adaptable clothing if I illustrated them by using watercolour. I think this would look really nice, on a website and a unique way of showing the clothing. It is something I definitely want to take forward and explore more.