Fash'illz 1: A Tribe Called Fierce

Something new I decided to dabble in: Fashion Illustrating. Hence the birth of this new series Fash'illz (wordplay on Fash-ion Ill-ustrations ho ho). Here's a picture of my first attempt, I call it:

A TRIBE CALLED FIERCE

Last year, a friend posted a link on my Facebook wall titled "30 Fashion Illustrators You Can't Miss". I guess it was fate because at the same time, I was taking both Figure Drawing and Painting classes. One day, my Figure Drawing professor looked over my shoulder at my drawing, frowned slightly, and said: "Geo, I think you have a supermodel fetish..."

By this, she meant that I had a tendency to auto-correct the subjects' looks. Not that there was anything wrong with the subjects, it's just that something was going on with my hand eye coordination - there was an extra step in between. My personal "aesthetic filter" was on. Fortunately for my professor (and my grade for the class), I have learned to turn it off.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, one of my best friends who works at a fashion magazine asked me if I did fashion  illustrations. (Fate? Is that you again?) I said: "Well, I can try..." Luckily, I had bookmarked the page last year so I opened the link in a new tab.  Something about the fashion illustrations really got my hand itching to get drawing again. I started wondering, "There really isn't anything wrong with the filter...The filter can be turned back on, right?"

So I cleared off a work space, laid out my materials and got set to drawing. I really wanted to do something "ethnic" (Is that word PC?). I also wanted to do a bust. I decided to give this woman from A Tribe Called Fierce, who we shall name Akasha, an exaggeratedly long neck. I also went with an animal print on her head scarf (This is thanks to a friend I had spent the previous weekend with. To say that she LOVES animal print is a grave understatement). I threw in a few Padaung neck-coils and an Ancient Egyptian inspired collar and: Voila! Akasha - my first 'fashion illustration' muse!

I used pencils, charcoal and ink for this one, but I plan to do a lot of experimenting with regards to both style and media (Markers and paint? You bet!). Stay Tuned for there will be more!

<3