Eduard Erlikh

A worldwide Vogue favourite and supreme master of fluid lines and dynamic figurative posture, it truly surprises me that I don't see Erlikh's work across more of the other fashion illustration blogs online.

Eduard studied painting, sculpture and theater design in Moscow, Russia, and illustration in New York where he now lives. For anyone who hasn't seen his work at all before, it could almost be forgiven than some of his simpler silhouettes could be mistaken for the style of Mats Gustafson. However, there are many differences in these alone, and to compare an illustrators style so much without pointing out the differences would be unforgivable.

First and foremost, the posture of all his models. Constantly dynamic, his men and women stretch out, pose, bend, strut and recline with great strength and character. On his website (which nearly all of these images are taken from, make sure you look at the rest) Erlikh showcases his life drawing studio work just as much as his client work.
Maybe it's because I'm an illustrator myself that I actually prefer looking at his simple line works, the power in just a few simple strokes is an effect that most illustrators dream of achieving.
His women are powerful with their presence and their stature, demure attitude and long limbs but his studio men are powerful sexual beings, often erect, with strong brows, muscles and contorted in sexually alluring stances. Tattoos, cigarettes and hoop earrings are regular accessories. And I love them.

Again, with my love of illustrators such as Rene Gruau, David Downton and Bernadette Pascua, there's that use of basic line. It's something that is taught to anyone who has ever even been to a life-drawing class, or any higher education art class at all, that the power of the line and it's ability to describe with such little information is not to be forgotten. I feel like it's a point I drum out in nearly every blog post to the point of lunacy / tiresomeness, and regular readers are probably bored of me pointing out the obvious. But for anyone looking at his studio series, it will immediately bring back memories of being taught this.

Vivid deep colours play a particurlarly strong role, you'd be hard pushed to find any pastille tones here. It works in total sync with the confident individuals he is portraying. Bold, enigmatic and bursting out of the page. A great aspect of his work is the use of basic background elements to conjure up a scene. With adding just one or two elements, perhaps a cocktail glass, a boat silhouette, a curtain outline or the silhouette of a certain style of elegant sofa, he is able to create these illusions of glamour that describe a scene without ever actually really showing it, letting the clothes take dominance of the composition.

more information:

Mr Erlikh is internationally renowned for creating editorials for publications including:
Vogue USA, Vogue Germany, Vogue Japan, Vogue Sposa Italy, Bazaar Japan,Marie Clair France, Elle Germany, Madame Figaro Paris, W, Wallpaper, FrauJapan, Town&Country, NK Stil, Domino, and Tush.
Commercial clients include: Tiffany&Co, The Limited, Ann Taylor,Bloomingdales, Talbots, Holt Renfrew, 9 West, Coach, Van Cleef and Arpel, Royalton, Clinique, Cinzano.

Continue Reading . . .

Artaksiniya

While Russian illustrator Artaksiniya has been on my radar for a while, I hadn't realised just how much new work had been pouring out of her these last few months. It's an intimidatingly consistent portfolio of beautiful characters and graphical prints, all fleshed out in biro and pencil. Both quality and quantity!

Artaksiniya, who will also be in the LCF's exhibition on fashion illustration (see the recent post on the blog) had this to say to Decoy about her style. 

"I have a journalistic backround with MA of Russian Literature (since I studied Journalism and Literature). But everybody in my family draws well, so I`m not an exception. A few years ago I gave up my journalistic job for the illustration thing (which I've always loved). I started with pictures for newspapers (and I`m still true to this style, as you can see at the-dose.com), *ED: make sure you check these out* but my personal works were always about women and men, clothes and all things fashion, and I`ve always been nuts over patterns and ornaments.

I`d define my style as eclectic, since I love balancing between clear lines,bold colours and excess graphic elements.

I`m in love with modernism, and unconsciously revert to the decadent  imagery quite often, with all those green-skinned peoples, flowers, etc. Being a child I loved Beardsley and Klimt, it had a massive impact on me apparently, and I`m a huge lover of traditional Chinese art, I have an obvious creative clutter in my head"

Her penmanship and appreciation for line and proportion quite clearly show a great passion for what she does, as well as her choice of designers and outfits in her illustrations. Simply, the girl knows fashion. If you check out her blog (which is updated constantly) you'll see that Artaksiniya is just as adept at modelling as she is drawing, and it's wonderful to see her interaction with fashion isn't just with pen and paper. 

Her style also reminds me of two of my personal favourites (who I know I always go on about), Mel Odom and Richard Gray. 

 I love coming across an illustrator whose work is truly blossoming and Artaksiniya is totally there right now. Her illustrations for The Dose show that she is able to interpret and focus on illustration not just fashion related (something I struggle with myself), and that she's extremely driven by beautiful clothing and art alike. A big agency would be stupid not to snap her up immediately.

Website: www.artaksiniya.com

Blog: http://artaksiniya.blogspot.com

Go Figure: New Fashion Illustration

Go Figure: New Fashion Illustration

Showing from 11 May – 14 July 2012 at Fashion Space Gallery, London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes Street, London W1.

Nearest Tube:  Oxford Circus

Opening Hours: 

Monday – Friday: 10.00 am – 6.00 pm

Saturday: 10.00 am – 4.00 pm

Sunday: CLOSED

Website:  www.fashionspacegallery.com

I'm pleased to say that I'll be featured alongside other talented fashion illustrators at the London College of Fashion's new exhibition 'Go Figure: New Fashion Illustration', featuring over 60 original pieces of work by new / rising illustrators (8 from myself). It'll be great to see all of the illustrations up close and first hand. I haven't been able to see which pieces will be included by the others yet, although I managed to get a sneak peak at Tara Dougans' originals when delivering the work, and they are INCREDIBLE. Thankyou so much to Ligaya and Polona for asking me to take part in what will easily be a great showcasing. Below is the press release and some examples of the illustrators work.




The full list of Illustrators:

Myself (Richard Kilroy).
Artaksiniya.
Tara Dougans.
Zoya Smirnova
Laura Laine
Hannah Mueller
Jarno Kettunen
Rosie Mcguinness
Lesley Barnes
Cristian Grossi
Ingela Och Vi
Eugenia Alejos
Sabine Pieper




Myself





Artaksiniya

Tara Dougans





Zoya Smirnova






Sabine Pieper





Hannah Mueller





Laura Laine





Jarno Kettunen





Lesley Barnes






Press Release:

Fashion Space Gallery at London College of Fashion is proud to announce its next exhibition Go Figure: New Fashion Illustration; the second in a series which showcases the brightest young talent across fashion design and illustration.
This exhibition brings together more than 60 works from thirteen international fashion illustrators who work in a variety of media, from the digital to the hand-drawn via the physical. By showing works by artists who work not only in fashion illustration, but bring influences from their backgrounds in fashion design, graphic design, photography and film into their practice, the exhibition aims to provide an insight into this multi-faceted field.

What binds this group together is the level of attention to detail, craftsmanship and execution, demonstrated through traditional and innovative approaches to materials and process. Work on display has been selected from recent years, both from the illustrator’s professional and personal portfolios to give a sense of each illustrator’s personal creative vision. The illustrations in the exhibition depict menswear and womenswear collections almost equally and provide both a glimpse of London’s creative fashion design talent and more established international names.

Featured illustrators include:

Richard Kilroy’s exquisite hand-drawn menswear illustrations show a keen eye for detail as well a sense of minimalism and space. The London-based illustrator has worked for clients including VMan and Christian Dior; he also publishes his own fashion illustration fanzine called Decoy.

Artaksiniya is a Hong Kong-based Russian illustrator, whose unique approach to figure and stance produces arresting results. Through her elaborate use of felt-tips, ball-point pens and three-dimensional layers, she creates a set of distinctive fashionable characters. This sense of individuality is also visible in London-based art director and illustrator Tara Dougans’ painstakingly crafted works, which have a haunting and deeply personal quality. Her process includes intricately detailed pencil drawings of sartorial minutiae, but also bold felt-tip strokes and digital techniques. Hanna Mueller is a young Gothenburg-based illustrator who combines ink and aquarelle techniques to create striking portraits that convey a more youthfully defiant attitude.

Brussels and Atlanta-based Finnish illustrator Jarno Kettunen’s live action drawings are created backstage at high fashion shows. He uses line drawing and colours effortlessly and with only a few strokes and blurs of colour invokes human forms and shapes of garments. Similarly, young London-based Rosie McGuinness croquis-style line drawings intuitively capture movement of fabric and silhouette. Fashion designer and illustrator Zoya Smirnova’s ‘straight-up’ drawings of street-style menswear displayed outside London Fashion Week are a beautiful take on individual style.
Glasgow-based Lesley Barnes’ illustrations reveal a keen sense of visual movement, pattern and colour, which point to her background in film and animation. Her pieces often depict the work of young designers through a playful mixture of digital collage and patterns. Cristian Grossi is an Italian graphic designer and illustrator based in Parma who cleverly contrasts organic patterns and bold colour planes. His 'Insecta' series takes it a step further and the illustrated image literally comes alive through the use of animated gifs. This insinuation of movement through the digital is also visible in the Finnish illustrator Laura Laine’s work. Her rigorously detailed and delicate illustrations gain a sense of dynamism through her use of posture and styling. Recent clients include the New York Times, Elle magazine and Zara.

Ingela Och Vi is the Swedish duo of Elisabeth Månsson, an illustrator and graphic designer, and Peter Turkalj, photographer, based in Malmø Sweden. Together they create what they call ‘illustration photography’, a mixture of set design, fabric swatches and illustration that is then photographed. Madrid-based designer and illustrator Eugenia Alejos also uses photography in her work. She playfully refers to her 3D collages as 'organised chaos', combining texture, fabrics and bold brush-strokes to achieve a multi-dimensional effect. Sabine Pieper who is based in Berlin and is also a photographer brings out different textures in her work by combining scans of actual fabrics that she folds into the right garment shapes with digital treatments of her line drawings.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an in-conversation looking at the field of contemporary fashion illustration, which will include emerging and established illustrators, writers and journalists. For full details please contact the press office (details listed below).

Go Figure has been curated by Ligaya Salazar, Curator of Contemporary Programmes at the V&A and Polona Dolžan, independent curator.

Through this series of exhibitions devised by creative director, Magdalene Keaney, the Fashion Space Gallery aims to showcase the role of innovation and creativity in the fashion industry, as a testament to the continued rejuvenation of fashion by a new generation of makers.

ANTONIO LOPEZ, Fashion, Art, Sex and Disco.

Publishers Rizzoli will be releasing a new book on Antonio later this year, titled ANTONIO LOPEZ, Fashion, Art, Sex and Disco, by Mauricio and Roger Padilha.




The only two other books on his work that I know of are the 2004 book Antonio's People, which chronicled not only his illustration work but his career, his story, the people he met and his journey (note; some amazon reviewers dispute that there isn't enough illustration), the illustrated erotic novel Antonio's Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, and then the considerably rarer Antonio's Girls, published back in 1983.





I've been following the facebook page for the book here, which gives out some fantastic and regular information on the development, which mentions the book will include interviews with the likes of Rene Russo, Claude Montana and Janice Dickinson, and help has come from Lopez's long term partner Juan Ramos, Anna Sui and Andre Leon Talley.
Antonio's importance and influence as an illustrator are not to be underestimated. He is considered by some to be one of the last big time prolific fashion illustrators, working on countless fashion campaigns and editorials before the fashion industry resigned illustration to being the 'alternative' in favour of photography. His strength lied in the ability to produce varying styles of imagery and illustration in different materials, as opposed to having one key identifiable style.

I've pondered on whether to do a large blog post on Lopez much like all the others, but it would need more consideration, out of all the illustrators I research, Lopez seems to have the largest body of work, and it would need some serious editing due to the scope and volume of his career, so maybe it's best to wait for the book . . .

Jason Lear

I recently discovered one of newcomer Jason Lear's illustrations on the AnotherLoves blog which prompted me to seek out more of his work. His most recent commission for Disorder Magazine saw him interpret looks from London Fashion Week, some of which I've posted here.

There's no doubt that Jason understands and utilises markmaking with his quick lines and choice of materials. A strong sense of energy and speed is present in his drawings that remind me of the styles of current illustrators Francesca Waddell and Lovissa Burfitt. His style of blending energetic pen lines and scribbled lines alongside more fully realized details fall inline perfectly with the classically favored illustrators that convey more with less, ala Rene Bouche, Downton etc. Lear is definitely one to watch.
Visit his website here.