My journey to fashion illustration

“What drives me is the ability to create a whole character from nothing.”

My journey to fashion illustration

introduction by Karolina Barnes, words and art provided by Gill Wright

When brainstorming on this bookazine cover, I wanted to capture the beauty of the coming season, its sophistication, femininity and boldness. I was so happy when I came across Gill Wright's artwork one day and immediately thought it would be a perfect fit. Gill is a Saltburn-by-the-Sea based artist and illustrator who specialises in creating unique fashion art prints that tell captivating style stories to suit contemporary interiors. She also regularly works on commissions for a variety of clients and has done editorial and product illustrations as well as portraits and branding since her launch. Here she shares her personal journey and wisdom she picked up along the way.

Gill Wright

My trigger - The first Paris show I ever saw was as a student in the early nineties: Commes des Garçons. I think I struck lucky. That combination of collection, models and music seriously moved me to tears. I knew I was doing the right degree. Making notes, sketching shows and creating shop reports was a huge part of my daily creative process and I loved bringing all of that together with illustration. The collections that inspired me deeply were always those in which I perceived the woman as quietly confident in her style. Indeed, one of my proudest moments in showing my own degree show was when Iain R Webb described my collection as "shamelessly cool and elegant" in The Times. I really felt I’d achieved what I set out to do in portraying the women I’d admired so much on other runways.

Following this, I worked as a clothing designer for over 10 years, always enjoying the sketching and illustrating elements of my work but the industry in the North East was diminishing so, as I was working increasingly on the visual presentation and promotional side of things, I added some graphic design training and was offered a position in an agency. I worked there for fifteen years, first as Graphic Designer and Illustrator then Studio Manager.

My skills became focused on manipulation of images and finding fairly quick visual solutions to tight deadlines. For many years I felt almost guilty that I’d turned my back on my fashion roots where the swish of a brush or marker to capture a pose was what it was all about. I was missing out on something that I loved.

Becoming a mother meant that my full-time post changed to part-time and I felt that I lost my career momentum completely. When the recession hit and the agency floundered I was made redundant but after some months working for a local magazine, I was invited back. I remember telling people that it was on a consultancy basis but it was basically a zero hours contract which eventually ended up giving me exactly that. We were in the middle of a significant house renovation at the time so it seemed that things couldn’t have been worse. So in 2016, through necessity rather than an admirably bold career decision, I decided to launch independently with Gill Wright Illustration pooling my varied creative industry experience and focusing on my real passion, fashion illustration.

Red Umbrella

My original plan was to secure commissions and one of my first clients was Wayne Hemingway, MBE of Hemingway Design. I was so delighted when he called me – this was actually going to work! Further to this, I was approached by Brandon Maxwell, who had spotted one of my illustrations on Instagram, and who wanted to license it for accessories packaging. The possibilities of Instagram became more apparent when the Ellen DeGeneres Show contacted me wanting to show an illustration of Lupita N’yongo that I had shared as she was to be a guest on the show! Increasingly though, I was being asked more and more for art prints and I now have a small range of giclée prints which have been well received by individuals and interior stylists alike. This has also triggered some lovely collaborations which I am unable to share yet!

My mission - Today people often question my choice to pursue fashion as my subject as it’s quite niche and therefore not perceived as a great business plan by many. I have worked on other commissions featuring flora, fauna and architecture, but fashion is my passion and it feels right to go back to my roots. For as long as I can remember I have loved drawing people and faces and have admired fashion illustrators and photographers who capture beautifully the essence of an existence. Perhaps in the same way that artists have painted Venice! I think it’s the attraction of capturing something that won’t be the same forever. Strong and yet fragile. Something about that appeals to me.

What drives me is the ability to create a whole character from nothing. It’s more about style and the personality of the subject – how she wears the dress, rather than the dress itself. The woman could be twenty or seventy. She isn’t necessarily beautiful but is irresistibly sophisticated, relaxed and comfortable with herself. One thing I hope they all have in common is that their gaze draws in the viewer and makes them feel intrigued and empowered in some way.

Ce Soir

My process - As a result of slowly peeling back the digital deadline layers, I am now working more and more with traditional techniques, producing hand-drawn sketches in combinations of charcoal, ink and watercolour. When not working on commissions, a typical day starts with some warm-up sketches before I embark upon the idea that I’ve had bubbling away. Sometimes I just want to paint what I’ve seen in the shows or I may be inspired by an old photo or magazine image from my archives. I love to sketch and test new techniques but my finished pieces are often rounded off with digital manipulation, layering or jigsaws of various successful bits of my more traditional explorations to create a digital collage. I like the freedom of drawing loosely. When I plan an illustration intensively I can tighten up, worrying too much about perfection but collage gives me the freedom to explore with more texture and the ability to focus on the character at the centre.

I’ve always been uncomfortable about creating a lot of digital art though. I guess I’m just old school. So I try to keep a balance. My analogy is that it’s like the music industry where a raw sketch is like the intimate live performance, and the finished piece is the highly produced track that is the same music at its polished best so that it can be reproduced exactly every time. Both are desirable at different levels as long as they’re good!

And my work varies a lot. I hope there’s something for everyone. So much business advice is centred around having an instantly recognisable brand. Great advice of course, but suffocating in some ways for me as I love to experiment with different media and my style depends on my mood or even which paper I have in stock. Being versatile makes me tick. I don’t want to be pigeonholed into a style category. Sometimes I want to capture an image with the simplest of line but I also love to explore the richness of texture and pattern with inks or watercolour. My ‘Black Line’ range of giclée prints is different again, combining carefully executed digital line with loose watercolour textures. For me, submitting to producing a lot of the same would be creative suicide. And it makes sense because I admire so many illustrators with completely different styles: René Gruau, Carl Erickson, David Downton; Jason Brooks; Stina Persson to name but a few. Such amazing artists that sometimes I can hardly even look at their work, peeping out through one squinting eye!

My outlook - Since launching independently, the trickiest thing has been learning to become a businesswoman alongside being creative and the former certainly doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m sure this rings true for many creatives and I must admit that when I’m ‘inside’ one of my drawings I find it hard to see anything else! However, I hope that an awareness of my shortcomings along with a strong belief in what I do and a willingness to keep learning will be to my advantage.

This has been an enormous personal journey, where I feel quite excited that I am finally doing what I should have twenty years ago. I’ve had time to re-evaluate and absorb the world of art and fashion illustration again as I evolve into something I always should have been. me even more determined to succeed.

I feel justified in chasing and living this dream and I’ve already achieved a most important level of success as I not only have job satisfaction but am also there to walk my daughter to school each day. I feel far more fulfilled than I ever have throughout my career and the usual business start-up peaks and troughs that add a bit of spice along the way only make me even more determined to succeed.

Chanel

My style is all about bridging elegance and sophistication with confidence and individuality and I believe strongly in offering beautiful, quality art that lasts. My giclée prints use archival inks on acid-free Hahnemühle Fine Art stock so they are designed for life and I have plans to expand, enhancing the style of my discerning customers and their homes by adding to my print range to offer broader fashion and lifestyle choices. I’ve so many ideas!

Article first published in ESTILA VOLUME 7.

gillwrightdesign.com IG@gillwrightillustration