Fashion Illustration at Cass Art with Francesco Lo Iacono

I attended the last of Francesco's fashion illustration classes at Cass Art, Islington for the summer season. I have previously been to his classes here and here and here. As ever, it was a fantastic class and I invited my sewing and craft buddy Clea along to join in the fun. The striking model was wearing Lili Eva Bartha clothes that were full of bold graphic colours and interesting silhouettes. I used a combination of coloured pencil crayons, watercolours, felt-tips and water, marker pens and inks for the studies ranging from five to fifteen-minute poses.

Clea sketching away!

15-minute study: coloured pencil crayon & marker pen

20-minute study: watercolours, coloured pencil crayon, & marker pen

5-minute study: coloured pencil crayons

20-minute study: felt-tip, water, watercolours coloured pencil crayon & marker pen

10-minute study: coloured pencil crayon

20-minute study: felt-tip, water, watercolours & marker pen

10-minute study: felt-tip, pencil crayon & marker pen

15-minute study: felt-tip, water, watercolours coloured pencil crayon & marker pen

15-minute study: felt-tip, water, watercolours coloured pencil crayon & marker pen

I am looking forward to attending Francesco's classes again in September!

Fashion Illustration at Cass Art with Francesco Lo Iacono

I have attended a number of Francesco's classes at Cass Art, Islington (here & here) and they are always a wonderful experience. Francesco has a calm and nurturing tutoring style and is a very positive person. The cost is a very reasonable £15 for a 2-hour session with all materials included for drawing or painting. Francesco has amazing contacts in models and fashion designers showcasing two outfits for the duration of the session. Last week we had a beautiful model, Jesika July wearing Radvile Kisieliute's clothes that were full of texture and interesting construction.

The sketches range from 5-minute to 15-minute studies and I used pencil and watercolour paints during this class. Life drawing is equal parts liberating and frustrating having to work so quickly on art. It is great when the sketch isn't going that well so you can move rapidly onto a new drawing, but sometimes you want to spend some more time adding further detail or improving the quality of the line. That is the joy of practising life-drawing!

I would like to work back into some of my unfinished sketches when I get a moment to add more colour and detail that I didn't get the chance to during the class.

Join me at the next class on 13th June whilst there are places left! 

I worked into the above sketches for about 30 minutes each and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I used Windsor and Newton Promarkers and Sharpies to add more depth of colour in layers.

Fashion Life Drawing Class at Cass Art Islington

I enjoyed a great evening art class at Cass Art on the 17th October. The event is hosted by the lovely illustrator Francesco La Ianoco who organises a gorgeous model and a graduate fashion designer to showcase some amazing outfits.

We were treated to the striking fashion by Maddy Stringer who has produced the most stunning PVC coats that were vividly coloured and wildly sculptural. Check out the photos and a selection of my studies below. The evening was split into a series of 10-minute and 15-minute poses with two contrasting outfits. I used a variety of media including watercolour pencils, marker pens, inks, oil pastel and watercolours.

A 5-minute study in oil pastel, pro-marker and watercolours

A 10-minute sketch with pro-marker and watercolours

20-minute sketch with oil pastel, pro-markers and watercolours

A 10-minute sketch with pro-markers and watercolours

A 5-minute study in watercolours

A 10-minute sketch with pro-markers and watercolours

A 10-minute sketch in oil pastel and pro-markers

A 15-minute sketch in watercolours and pro-markers

A 5-minute sketch in oil pastel and chalk-pencil

A 10-minute sketch in pro-markers

A 10-minute sketch in watercolour

I thoroughly enjoyed my evening at Cass Art whiling away two hours with paints and marker pens. I would highly recommend going to any type of life drawing class if you like drawing and painting because it really challenges you in new and interesting ways. The structural construction of Molly Stringer's garments was such fun to draw!