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Jeddah, Samdi AraZia
A STORIED CAREER:
JULIE JOHNSON
Julie Johnson always starts a piece by painting or drawing it by hand Årst and then scanning
the drawing so she can build layers digitally. “Sometimes I like a neutral palette of earthy
colors, sometimes I like blacks, fuchsias and whites. In looking at art and nature, color is what
excites me most.”
She prefers to draw from a live model, but says she can easily work from her own photographs
or from memory. “I use the computer very little, except for layering color and line, turning a
piece into digital form for a client, or archiving my work.”
Stop drawing well before you think the
illustration is done. It remains fresher
that way, and an overworked drawing
makes the viewers less able to fill in
the details with their imagination.
Julie Johnson has been an illustrator for more than three decades. Looking back at the
start of her career she says, “There was no digital technology and no Internet. Bloom-
ingdale’s in New Aork would send over clothes by bike messenger, and I’d hire a model
to pose in them, do drawings, and send the drawings back with the clothes by bike
messenger. Within a day or two the art would appear in Bloomingdale’s ads in the New
Yo rk Ti m e s. Illustrators would walk their portfolio around to diٺerent agencies and clients
to Ånd more work.”
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THE ART OF FASHION ILLUSTRATION | PART 2: THE ICONS
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Redhead One of a series of illustrations for retailer
Filene’s Basement displayed at the Union Square
subway station, New Aork.
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Johnson has studied at the San Francisco
Art Institute, the Academy of Art Univer-
sity in San Francisco, and Parsons: The
New School for Design in New Aork. She
has won four awards from the Society of
Illustrators in New Aork for “Best of Fash-
ion Illustration,” as well as an award from
the CommuniKation Arts Illustration Annual. “It’s
nice to be formally recognized by the Åeld,
however, achievement is also measured
in the ability to make a living at what you
love to do, and I have had many long-term
contracts with clients,” she says. “I loved
seeing my work for Filene’s Basement over
a Åve-year period at the Union Square
subway station in New Aork, as well as on
city kiosks and displayed on the sides of
buildings. I feel that each year has brought
diٺerent achievements and I continually
look for more.”
Gianfranco Ferré Julie Johnson’s illustration
of a Ferru sheer and paneled blouse.
Julie Johnson
sketchbooks
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THE ART OF FASHION ILLUSTRATION | PART 2: THE ICONS
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Julie Johnsons studio space.
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