I 've been enjoying some recent catwalk shows from Dior and Chanel pre collections for Spring Summer 18, working on my iPad Pro using Procreate app and most of all- HAVING FUN!!!!
Some recent iPad Pro digital work for collections Spring/Summer 2018
YSL Beauty invite Jacqueline to illustrate customers' portraits at Heathrow terminals leading up to Xmas
This was my largest live event to date and I drew over 120 customers in the week leading up to xmas. I was at T2,3,4 and 5- each terminal had a different feel but they were all very busy and had a lovely atmosphere. I met a great variety of people from a female astronaut, fashion designer through to whole families who shopped at the YSLK beauty boutique whilst waiting for 4 family members to be drawn. It's always great to be part of a successful event and this one went really well!
Vogue Japan commissions Jacqueline to illustrate their fortune teller's guide to careers in 2018 for social network platforms
Another creative commission from last month came from Yu Soga at Vogue Japan. I was asked to create loose watercolours inspired by keywords such as 'Concentration','Share', 'BrushUp'& 'Master'. The promotion was for Pola, a luxury anti-aging skincare range, featured a month over the Xmas/ New Year period on Twitter and other networks.
Fashion portraits at Spring restaurant for Garnier's staff & associates' Christmas party
I had the pleasure of working at Spring restaurant last month in a beautifully decorated private dining room for Garnier staff and associates. It's the second time I've worked at Spring and it's always such a pleasurable place, the staff are great and the food was divine! I worked on 15 minute paintings with elements of nature added at the client's request, which were presented to guests at the end of their Xmas lunch along with personalised stockings full of beauty goodies.
Had a lovely commission for Calibre Watches 'Ladies Brand Guide' last month, illustrating in my loose watercolour style to compliment a selection of beautiful watches for their 16 page brochure.
The brief was from Claire Cheung at Northstar to feature ladies performing on stage. These could be dancers, singers, actors etc but they needed to feel powerful and dominant. I had 2 weeks to fulfil the brief, working on rough pencil ideas first and I had a wonderful time throwing the paint around to get some shapes to compliment the watches. It was nice to have direct brief that I could also feel very creative in!
An evening of menswear digital illustrations for Armani Collezioni in Selfdridge’s, London
I spent an early December evening drawing customers’ portraits in my favourite department store on the second floor where the designer mens’ floor were having a celebratory Xmas event with music, champagne and free framed portraits for Armani guests. Commissioned by the wonderful team Armani, it was a pleasure to work with them once again wit their innovative event of linking my iPad to a 2 metre high screen and printer so that customers, as well as receiving their printed, framed portrait, also receive an email and time-lapse of their own art5 work.
Ragley Hall- ancestral seat of the Hertford family, hosts Pragnell's Christmas party. Jacqueline Bissett paints fashion portraits of the guests in the elegant music room
Back in late November, I had the honour of working at Ragley Hall near Stratford Upon Avon. A wonderful, Grade 1 listed mansion set in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside, near where I grew up. PragnelI is a fabulous family-run jewellers with shops in Stratford-Upon-Avon and London. They sell the most beautiful watches and jewellery, both contemporary and Antique. The company, now run by Charlie Pragnell prides itself on extensive knowledge of gemstones and certainly seemed to 'go that extra mile' to find the perfect piece for their loyal customers. I painted some of the guest's portraits in the music room, next to the main room where champagne flowed and live artists and beautiful dancers entertained.
Jacqueline illustrates at FOUR Louis Vuitton Pre Xmas Cocktail events
It's been my busiest time with live events illustrating so I'm rather behind with my blogs I'm afraid! Please bear with me while I try to get you up to date with recent commissions!
I've worked at 4 events for Louis Vuitton over the Xmas period. The first was at their beautifully luxurious New Bond Street flagship store. The store is amazing and in the personal shopping areas they had some amazing art works including an original Gilbert & George and a Yayoi Kusama. I sat and drew customers trying on the new Cruise 18 collection- totally beautiful pieces!
The next event was in Selfridges for the Masters collection, a collaboration with Jeff Koons showing some of the old masters' on bags and scarves etc. I prepared a few pieces before hand to show customers and they could choose similar poses or straight fashion portraits.
Event no.3 was in Birmingham's Selfridges - a lovely cocktail evening for special guests to celebrate the glitzy new boutique in the Bullring Shopping Centre. I met some wonderful guests who made me feel so welcome, felt a bit like a homecoming as I'm from The West Midlands originally!
The fourth and final event was in Westfield in the second week of December, with another exclusive cocktail evening for special customers, all in all it's been an amazing experience working in beautifully luxurious boutiques and with some lovely people.
Emporio Armani invites Jacqueline to produce digital fashion illustrations for the Emporio Armani / Marie Claire fashion 'roadshow'
Just back from an exhausting few days in Glasgow and Manchester with Armani. I was invited to draw portraits of guests on my iPad Pro, which was linked up to a 2metre high monitor. This had been set up 'portrait style' so was huge! It was such a unique idea and I had quite an audience, not great for the nerves but once 'into the drawing zone' I loved it!
The customers were gifted their prints on the night which were mounted and framed.
It was a pleasure being surrounded by such gorgeous clothes- the Emporio range is stunning. There was also a presentation by Marie Claire's Fashion Editor, Jayne Pickering showing key looks for the season.
It was great to be part of the Armani team and the staff were great, I'm looking forward to being part of their Xmas promotions in Selfridges in December, more details to follow...
illustration Ltd invite Jacqueline to sketch clients' portraits at Le Book Connections, Truman Brewery, London
I spent a wonderful day with my agents Juliette and Victoria in The Truman Brewery for Le Book Connections, drawing professional creatives working in advertising, design and publishing.
More nervous to get started than usual, probably because I was trying extra hard to make a good impression, once I'd warmed up I really enjoyed drawing the stylish crew, who came from all over Europe.
It seemed like a really successful day for illustration Ltd with some great prospective clients such as Net-a-Porter and various large advertising agencies. It was great to see my 2 senior agents in action!
Jacqueline illustrates leg exercises for Vogue Japan's October issue
I was recently commissioned to illustrate over 20 illustrations of leg exercise for a 3 page article in Vogue Japan. I've worked for them several times previously, mainly for the beauty section.
Chloé's New Bond Street store, recently opened- invites Jacqueline Bissett along for a day drawing their new collection to celebrate London Fashion Week
I had the honour of working in Chloé's wonderfully designed New Bond St boutique a couple of weeks ago in celebration of London Fashion Week. The staff there were really friendly and made me feel at home on the saturday, the shop has a lovely atmosphere and I enjoyed sketching the customers while they shopped and drank champagne!
Lunching with the lovely Melanie Sykes- link to interview.
To read the full and frank interview from our summer lunch meeting click on this link http://www.melaniesykes.com/interview-with-illustrator-jacqueline-bissett/
Fashion portraits at a beautiful afternoon tea at The Bvlgari Hotel, Knightsbridge
Spent yesterday afternoon with a bunch of very hip, stylish fashion & lifestyle bloggers in The Spirit Room of The Bvlgari Hotel- a super stylish hang out for Knightsbridge locals and visitors alike. Below are some of the sketches that I did as quick 12-15 minutes of the ladies who were all model like in appearance- made my job very easy!!!
Melanie Sykes interview
Met the gorgeous Melanie Sykes yesterday. She popped down to my studio to get her portrait done and interview me for her website www.melaniesykes.com (coming soon). She has a section where she interviews celebs, entrepreneurs , sports personalities etc so I felt honoured to be asked! We had a lovely frank conversation over lunch and got on like a house on fire- what a lovely down-to-earth woman. Watch this space for the upcoming interview....
Vogue Japan July's Health issue double page spread, illustrated by Jacqueline Bissett.
The article was specifically on healthiness and exercises for the promotion of strong bones. Commissioned by Kyoko Takahashi, Jacqueline was asked to supply 13 illustrations of various exercises and body parts in pale colours for a soft, subtle feel. Her paint splatters were used extensively throughout the Health section of the July issue.
Savéol billboard illustrations commission showing on the Paris Métro now.
This is the second commission from French groceries company Savéol that I have worked on. It's been really great fun creating these fun and jaunty figures for them. It's one area that I love to work in- creating brand identity fashion illustrations for specific clients to promote and advertise their product. There are many considerations, with the client usually requesting some of these in the briefing. Eg. the characters here had to be friendly, approachable look whilst having a fashion feel to them with their elongated legs! The girls were to be shown in different locations- shopping, cycling and sitting outside a cafe.
Here are my initial rough pencil sketches which were changed only slightly before transferring into finals- the medium used was black acrylic inks, oriental brushes and letrafilm collage.
Open House in Brighton next month. Jacqueline Bissett- fashion illustrator to exhibit life sketches
I am really proud to be supporting the YMCA Open House ( @YMCADLG) in Hove next month for Brighton's hugely successful May Festival. If you've ever wanted to purchase some art or just follow the Artist's Open House Trail- this is your perfect opportunity! This year I have decided to show my costume life drawings for the first time. As a fashion illustrator, you should always keep in touch with your life drawing skills and draw from a model where possible. It's not as easy as it looks and is a lifelong learning technique which never fails to excite me! Here will be a chance to purchase some of my original clothed life drawings in Pastel and Charcoal. All details are on the poster below...
Harvey Nichols launch Malée natural beauty products in collaboration with illustrator Jacqueline Bissett
The launch of Malée's new soy candles in Harvey Nichols coincided with Mother's Day so I had a busy 2 days illustrating portraits on tote bags in the Beauty Lounge on the ground floor.
I've been enjoying a fabulous collaboration with Malée whose natural beauty products are divine! With ingredients and inspiration from Africa, the products are gorgeous- my favourites are the Conditioning Body Scrub in Verdure which makes your skin SO soft, finish with their gorgeous moisturising oil. These are great products with a wonderfully resfreshing scent and not too feminine so even my husband approves!
Last month we worked on a little 'film' for the illustration work that I did for the packaging. The brief was to be inspired by Malée Masquerade photographs to create something lively and be able to reproduce in different colour ways for the 3 scents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Hzr227QMA
Jacqueline illustrates The Arch window for GP Studio for London Fashion Week
Had a fab time a couple of weeks ago drawing directly onto GPStudio's huge arch windows in Southwark, South London. Drawn on March 2nd, I started at 11 am and finalised by 6pm. It was my first time drawing ion that scale and on glass. The post pens were a joy to use, going smoothly onto the window and even 'wet' enough to splash- which is something I love to do! I draw a rough on the outside glass first of all as the final piece would have to be drawn back to front otherwise it would not 'read' well! I think the hardest part was actually writing back to front as i'd featured designers and wanted to 'credit' them. Featured designers included House of Holland, Emporio Armani,Peter Pilot, Mary Katranzou. Click here for GP Studio's page on their Arch Window- they are always looking for new artists!
http://gpstudio.uk.com/the-arch-window/Jacqueline-Bissett/
Here is a short time lapse of the day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H66BDayzB7E
