Fashion Illustrator 4- Niki Pilkington

Niki Pilkington is a Welsh illustrator based in New York, who is currently back in London working for MTV. She studied GCSE, A Level and Art Foundation in Wales, then received a first class honours degree in Fashion Promotion and Illustration from Ravensbourne, London.

Specialising in trend inspired fashion portraits with great details; she got her inspirations from people she sees every day, focusing on the clothes that they wear and also places that she visits.

She also likes to combine phrases, idioms, and quotes into her pieces to tell a story each time she produce an artwork. She draws the main illustration mostly made out of line drawings, first using pencil to draft, which takes about a few hours, and going through it again with harder lines, then add colour, prints and lastly, adding 3D elements so that her artwork will stay fresh. 

She uses pencils, felt-tip fluorescent markers and pens. 

Since 2011 she's been sponsored by Derwent pencils and she also manage to draw for the covers of Derwent pencils’ pencil covers!

Her contemporary aesthetic adorns the walls of private collectors’ homes and galleries, and she also exhibits her artwork at local exhibition centres to showcase her art work. She also had them up on pages of numerous books and magazines with client list of TOPSHOP, Ted Baker, Sir Paul McCartney & MTV.

She also sells her artwork online via her own online shopping site, and also customized phone cases, pencil cases, pillow cases and all, using her art pieces. She also sell post cards and tote bags.  And frequently, she will have giveaways for her loyal subscribers and customers!

In addition, she also opens workshop for kids to teach them how to draw like her.

Niki takes in portraits requests from customers who wished to have them drawn by her, but at a high price.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT:

Not all illustrations have to be in 2D forms. Adding 3D elements to it can actually help in the appearance and also the effect of the drawing.

Fashion Illustrator 3- Sarah Hankinson

Sarah Hankinson is a 30 year old Australian who initially studied graphic design then changed to fine arts and finally illustration. She finished in 2004 with a Diploma and worked during weekends on her illustration before being a full time freelance illustrator.



Her drawings are of modern style, which pair light splashes of colors and clear lines which create elegant illustrations using pencils, charcoals, pastels, color pencils, watercolors and photoshop. Her inspiration comes from blogs, fashion, beauty sites, fashion photography, exhibitions, colors, cultures, movies and music.  
She usually just go straight to her final drawing without rendering, and she will always carry her watercolor palet and pencils everywhere she go to jot down ideas or to have a quick sketch.

Her first big break was with Girlfriend Magazine, then slowly, it includes Be Magazine of Paris, David Jones, Famous, Habbot, Inside Out and even Made in Chelsea and Harpers Bazaar!

She is also featured in magazines such as Canadian fashion publication 1968; an upscale fashion and art magazine, Shop till you drop magazine and Hello May magazine.
And she also exhibited at ‘Chapel off Chapel’ and ‘Design A Space’ galleries in Prahran, Melbourne

In 2012 Sarah co-founded The Windsor Workshop, a co-working studio space which is also a half of creative services agency Santiago Sunbird. She also has an online store which she sells her artwork of self-painted dairy covers, calendars, or just random drawings.

 

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT:

Personally, I really like her style of drawings as they look very elegant and they are of great details. So therefore, my takeaways from her is that, to experiment with different materials, and to find inspirations from anywhere and everywhere as there are no restrictions. And like what she said, “Work hard! Don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t happen straight away it takes time and commitment. If you are passionate you can make it happen.” So we need to be passionate about what we do!

 

 

 

Credits: Jackiemagpie.com
sketchbookmagazine.com
sarahhankinson.com