Watercolor Fashion Illustration

Learn to paint outstanding fashion watercolours with expert guidance from a leading fashion illustrator.

Watercolour is a wonderful medium for figure and fashion as it creates loose, impressionistic results that capture the essence of a look without getting too bogged down in the details. In this complete course, professional fashion illustrator Francesco Lo Iacono shows you how to master creating delicate, beautiful fashion illustrations.

The book begins with the best tools and materials, from paints and brushes to pencils, paper and more. You'll then explore simple watercolour techniques such as washes, wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, and using the white of the paper. Francesco then goes on to teach you about lighting and shading, which can have a dramatic effect on your work. And finally in the front section, you'll learn about colour, how to create palettes, how to mix colours and achieving a range of skin tones.

Once you've covered these fundamentals, Francesco explores the key elements of illustrating fashion, with guidance on how to approach both male and female faces, a wide variety of hair types and styles, different male and female poses, and how to draw and paint garments, reflecting tailoring, drapery, volume, texture and patterns.

Twenty step-by-step projects then take these building blocks and show you how to use them to create beautiful fashion watercolors, starting with easier subjects and building in complexity as your confidence grows. You'll begin by painting handbags and shoes without models before starting to introduce figures. The range of subjects included covers all angles, from full figures front on and in profile to close-up make-up and beauty illustrations. You'll also learn how to create dynamic compositions for editorial fashion illustration. Finally, Francesco covers the best ways to digitize and retouch your work, how to incorporate other media alongside your watercolors, how to work live at fashion events and how to take everything you've learned to develop your own personal style of fashion illustration.

Francesco's clients include fashion brands Dior, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton – and with this book you'll have all the tools you need to become an A-list fashion illustrator too.

About the Author

Francesco Lo Iacono is an Italian illustrator based in London. His client list includes Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi, JW Anderson, Bottega Veneta, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ted Baker, Paul Smith, Paris Fashion Week, GQ Mexico, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and more. He also tutors a monthly Fashion Life Drawing Class at the Cass Art flagship store in Islington, London.