You are in your 4th lesson on the Learn to Draw Like a Fashion Illustrator. Congratulations! The hardest parts are actually over and now we concentrate on presenting your work to your audience, preserving it and protecting it. Here are the past lessons in case you missed it!

Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3

These links in this post are sponsored links, As always, thank you for using the links below. The links help me continue to give you this type of content.

Part 4: Your Work Ready for The World

Once you’ve created your illustrations, it’s important to preserve them properly:

• Fixatives: Use workable fixative sprays to protect your drawings and paintings.
• Portfolio: Create a professional portfolio to showcase your best work.
• Scanning: Learn how to scan your artwork for digital preservation and sharing.
• Poisoning: Protect your artwork against AI theft.
• Finding Your Tribe: Tell a story through your art that allows you to connect with other artists and illustrators through social media, potential clients and fans as well as local art groups to share your work and gain feedback.

Fixatives-Preserving Your Work While you Learn to Draw Like a Fashion Illustrator

I understand that not everyone will draw on paper. Though I prefer this over digital, digital is still a huge part of my portfolio. Specially if you have a website and social media, you are probably scanning or photographing your artwork and preserving it digitally.

Either way, preserving makes sure your artwork becomes the legacy you leave behind. Crystal Clear is a spray you apply to your paper once you’re done drawing. However, if you’re in the middle of drawing and you need to take a pause, Workable Fixatif is your answer. It places a protective layer or fixative that allows you to continue working on your art. This is not an option if you spray your art with Crystal Clear.

Workable Fixatif allows for your paper and media layers to be protected from light and humidity yet remain ‘workable, so you can continue to working on your piece at a different time.

Scanning-Make Your Artwork Portable in a Digital Vault

I have a scanner, but I don’t use it. Mostly because of two things. One, I am from an era where we had no scanners, but rather high quality cameras to photograph the artwork and two, phone cameras are such great quality, I haven’t had a need for that. Plus I like the app Turbo Scan and it is available for Apple and Google Play store. When you learn to draw like a fashion illustrator, you have to prioritize preserving your work.

For color illustrations, I use the camera app in my iPhone, then edit the edges, fix colors and sharpen it with an app called Snapseed, and it’s free. It is available for both Apple and Android. As a matter of fact, I do all of my color illustration scanning this way, with the exception of commercial work. Any client work I do on paper, I usually send to them, properly preserved after I photograph it. I only scan if asked. Any scanner with capabilities of 300dpi or higher, in full color will suffice.

More important than what scanner I use, is the hard drive I save my files in. Because if the drive fails, you have no work to show. G-Drive are portable and almost never fail. I have two and they can be dropped and they stay in one piece. I have two as I have two laptops and travel often. Another option is having your files in a cloud service. I have some cloud services and I use them for some things. Collect by WeTransfer is one of them. Use your judgement based on your own needs.

Portfolio-Look professional and Attract Customers

I will admit, my digital portfolio is a living portfolio in Instagram. I don’t really have it on my site, as I have had my content stolen by AI aggregators. Having a portfolio in your site is perfectly fine, just protect it, and I have some suggestions below, under poisoning.

Whenever possible, add a watermark. Make sure it is not too obtrusive as to make your piece poorly visible. Mine is my signature I created using my Wacom Cintic and saved it as a transparent PNG. Then when I want to watermark a image, I open the image with Photopea,com. Then I select the ‘open and place’ option and place the signature on your piece. A example of that is the image at the top of this article.

I apologize if I seem to prioritize protecting your artwork. Some seem to think that once you put your artwork on the internet, It is no longer yours. Any attorney will disagree with this claim and a simple search engine query will confirm that. Remember the statement below when you see someone displaying your artwork like it is theirs. Always consult a qualified attorney in copyright law and visit copyright.gov to register your work.

Displaying a portfolio that attracts clients is very important. Please note that I am not a very good example of what an artist should have as a portfolio, and you should evaluate your own needs before deciding what is best for you. I like the app “Collect” by We Transfer, as it allows me to control who sees my portfolio, categorize it and only show those categories to clients. This can be a protective measure if the viewer has nefarious intentions.

The science of Arranging Your Artwork in Your Portfolio: Learn to Draw Like a Fashion Illustrator

Arranging your fashion illustration portfolio involves a few key steps to create a cohesive and professional presentation. First, choose a central theme or style that ties your illustrations together, such as a specific fashion era, color palette, or technique. Include a diverse array of illustrations that show off your different skills, like figure poses, textile draping, and garment details, aiming for around 10-15 pieces to keep it brief. Organize the artwork in a way that makes sense, starting with a strong piece to grab attention. Follow that with showing your work in a way that tells a story or highlights your your style versatility.

Take stock of how the image is displayed, clean scans, use high-quality prints or digital formats with consistent sizing and clean layouts. Make sure that there is enough white space framing each piece to enhance focus. Try adding a small description with titles for each illustration to provide information and show your process. Lastly, if your portfolio is physical, opt for a high-quality binder or portfolio case; for a digital format, use a clean website with a slideshow widget or PDF layout. Focusing on these tips, you can create a professional looking fashion illustration portfolio.

This portfolio is close to the one I use for my paper artwork, but you can certainly find bigger and better with this link.

Poisoning-Protect Your Artwork Against AI Theft

There are many ways to poison your artwork against AI theft. I realize this can be a polarizing opinion. I believe that if you didn’t make it, it isn’t yours, location of where the artwork is found does not negate the original owner’s rights. Someone other than the owner taking it, it is theft. AI takes it, theft. Specially because AI stolen art goes into a type of sausage grinder when the derivative work has no attribution or way to trace the source of “inspiration”.

Examples of AI Poisoned images. from MIT.

AI will never posses the nuances humans add to their artwork such as inspiration stories, techniques learned, exploration of color palettes based on mood and inspiration boards that add soul and help you arrive at the masterpiece that eventually goes in your portfolio. Anyone with a differing opinion, you are entitled to it. I, on the other hand, am not entitled to it. I am standing firm on that and I won’t be taking any questions at this time. You are encouraged to argue with Google.

Finding Your Tribe: Tell a story through art and connect with fans, other artists and potential clients

Once you’ve created account in social media, follow artists that you admire. Not because you’re going to copy them but because you’re going to learn the trends that they follow. Show them appreciation by commenting and thank them for inspiring you. You will be pleasantly surprised when one of them reciprocates. I also recommend following museum accounts, the accounts of teachers who teach art or art techniques, and any tribute account to an artist that is currently not alive.

The best advice I was ever given, is to make heroes of artist are no longer with us. Why? Because meeting your heroes can be disappointing. They are human, and they make mistakes. They might belong to a political party you do not agree with. Or you may find them offensive in a different way. Either way, study the greats that are no longer with us.

If you plan to be in fashion illustration, find brands the best align with your ideals and follow them. Whenever possible sketch some of their new fashion pieces and post them in social media. Don’t forget to tag them!

Telling a story

When you learn to draw like a fashion illustrator, telling a story can be a bit difficult. Telling a story usually involves combining visual elements with narrative techniques. It’s gonna be a accomplished in different ways. You can create characters with unique styles and clothing choices that reflect personality, emotion, and even a life story .

My favorite is setting a scene; I usually place my fashion figures in front of a New York skyline. This is my illustrations, a touch of romanticism while setting the piece in a stylish city. I often pair this with deep, elegant colors. This helps set the mood of my piece. The city of Paris is depicted in the image to the left.

Poses can communicate attitude, while facial expressions will communicate feelings this adds a layer of depth to your story and engages the viewer. You can actually do the opposite of this, by giving your figures, neutral facial expressions. This allows the viewer to superimpose their own feelings onto the piece.

A bit of a neutral facial expression… If you don’t count her eyebrows! :)

If you could take this step further by adding symbolism and motifs that carry cultural meaning, thus making your story relatable. This invites the viewer to interpret the work. This can be on the way of historical references, cultural elements, and personal symbols added to make a virtually rich illustration.

My favorite motif? Necklaces close to the neck. Also big hair!!

We are one lesson away for the end! But don’t worry! The next lesson is not really a lesson, per say. It is more or less tips you will want to adopt when starting your professional career. See you then!