The Art of Fashion Illustration

Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

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London, England

Box Taylor Ånds it diٻcult to describe her technique. ¹It eventually emerges instinctively for

everyone if you do enough drawing,º she says. Taylor’s work can be identiÅed by her frequent

use of pastels—she prefers chalky ones such as charcoal and uses them to create contrast,

incorporating the duality of very light strokes and stronger lines throughout an image—and by

her detailed background drawings. These two characteristics are not often seen in fashion il-

lustration. Unlike other illustrators who create their fashion silhouettes on a blank background,

Taylor’s work always sets a scene. She attributes this to the fact that she didn’t train as a fashion

illustrator. Her illustrations have a sense of drama and narrative and capture a scene the way

fashion photographs do. The setting suggests something beyond the clothing, and the models

in her illustrations become characters. ¹I sketch out the whole composition and then focus on

the person’s face, building the elements of the drawing together—a mark on the dress here, a

shadow on the tree there—like a painter, I guess.º

DEVELOPING HER OWN VISUAL

LANGUAGE: ZOË TAYLOR

Pastels An illustration

of a Louis Vuitton SS12

outÅt for an article in the

column ¹In the Cutº for

Anothermag.com.

Fashion illustration has somehow

become this distinct category, but I just

see it as another form of illustration.

Zoë Taylor’s work has appeared in various publications including the New Guardian, the

Independent, Dazed and Confused, and Le Gun. She has been commissioned to design a series

of images to be printed on T-shirts, tote bags, and dresses for the Marc 2acobs fashion

line, and has collaborated on a number of projects with fashion designer Luella Bartley.

Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

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Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

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THE ART OF FASHION ILLUSTRATION | PART 1: THE EMERGING MASTERS

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Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

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42056 - Art of Fashion Illustration_int.indd 11 10/31/14 3:26 PM

Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

DTP: LY Page: 12

42056 - Art of Fashion Illustration_int.indd 12 10/31/14 4:23 PM 42056 - Art

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¹I draw full scenes and the drawings

are tonal so the eٺect is a bit like look-

ing at photos or Ålm stills.º

She says the hardest part is to make

the drawings look spontaneous after

all the planning and the stress of a

deadline. ¹I sometimes draw things

thirty times over to try to get it right,

and I usually start with the eyes.º

She believes spontaneity is important

in an illustration because if you can

see where an artist has struggled or

labored with a drawing it brings atten-

tion to that and takes away from the

overall eٺect of the image.

Over the years Taylor’s work has

evolved to include more color, and

often the clothing dictates her color

choices—although she likes using very

bright, intense colors in small patches.

¹When I’m constructing scenes, I

think about the colors I want in the

background and how that would

contrast with and complement the

colors of the clothes; occasionally

that’s given me ideas about the kind

of landscape or interior I choose for

the illustration.º

Taylor’s home studio space, where she often works late into the night.

Job: 10-42056 Title: RP - Art of Fashion Illustration

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