Sarah Smart

posted by Lo Parkin February 25, 2015

Sarah Smart is a London based illustrator who’s traditional meet’s contemporary ‘fashiony’ style of illustration has lead her to work with an impressive body of clients including Harvey Nichols, Carven and the W Hotel. I was lucky enough to catch up with her about her work, eager to find out more about her outlook on contemporary fashion illustration.

With her inspiration rooting from 1950s illustrations and fashion Sarah’s imagery is inspired by many iconic image makers including Renee Grauau and Antonio Lopez alongside Illustrators of today such as the Hess sisters, Jacqueline Bissett, Erin Peston and Kelly Smith. She explained;

“I love what I do and the satisfaction in working to a new and exciting brief, seeing my style develop innew outcomes is what keeps me going.
A drawing can take me anything from a few hours to a week to complete – it just depends on what it is for and the techniques I use. I tend to start with research and loose pencil sketches, working my sketches up with a lightbox, until I begin filling with colour before rendering the linear in ink before editing in photoshop.”

“I love looking back at old illustrated Vogue covers from the 1920s, and I think there is a real return to fashion illustration.
I feel it has quietly evolved whilst Photography has been booming. That’s not to say I don’t love Photography, it’s a huge inspiration to me, but I think it’s fair to say that there’s an element of it saturating the market somewhat and illustration has almost become fresh and new again.”

“I love that a lot of contemporary fashion illustrators have stepped up making art ‘accessible’ by illustrating live, as clients look to personalise their brands. Jacqueline Bisset, Willa Gebbie, Clym Draws and Miss Magpie Spy are great examples of this. Contemporary fashion illustrators are really pushing the boundaries with what they can do with their work, and styles and I’m finding it really exciting.”