Project by: Gaia Prete (12th Grade)

Faculty Advisor: James French

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

For the past two years, I have been working along with James on the “Fashion Illustration” honors project. During the two trimesters, I am planning on continuing the project, taking it a step further. After seeking inspiration from various different fashion designers, I will create original patterns for clothing and analyze how colors match together to create combinations of fabric. I will move from illustrating the movement of fabric on the human figure, to improving drawing the anatomy of the body and designing original clothing.

Throughout the first trimester, I worked on my “Fashion Illustration” honors project, in which I focused on developing different types of artistic skill sets. To do so, I worked on two projects at the same time: studio art with fashion design.

During the fashion illustration project, I started by developing ideas for different clothing styles. I did so by drawing dresses in croquis figures (fashion design mannequins) with markers, creating a variety of styles and designs. When creating the drawings, I found myself wanting to bring them to life. For this reason, I decided to produce one of the dresses I had drawn. The drawing I chose was a dress made of two parts: a silky slip dress, to be worn as a base layer, and a tulle gown to go over it. Before beginning the production process, I focused on creating flat sketches of the clothing. These are key in illustrating the structure of the clothing to a production team: it shows not only what the item is meant to look like, but also highlights where lining, stitches, and pockets are meant to go. I went to Mood Fabrics, collected swatches of fabric (samples of fabric of different materials) to match the color of the design I had. Once I collected the fabric I needed, I worked at home on a dress form to shape the fabric to the form of the model, following the design I had on paper. I was able to complete the silk slip dress, and I will be producing the tulle dress in the next few weeks.

When exploring studio art project, I began by focusing on understanding how light and shadow affects a drawing. I sketched objects I observed in the environment around me, paying close attention to different shapes and lights. As I became more comfortable with this, I started to look beyond the light games, and I drifted to drawing numerous objects in an environment, and then to add people to my drawings. Slowly transitioning to more complex subjects was both entertaining and testing, which helped me refine my skills little by little. In time, I began working with contour line drawings, helping me scrutinize shapes of objects carefully while loosely working on my art. This required me to focus on a different side of my skills, which was positively challenging. I worked on line drawings of environments, people, and animals.

By the end of the trimester, I joined my fashion illustration project and my art project, creating a contour line drawing with a patterned piece of clothing over it. Bringing these two art worlds together was immensely useful for my formation as an artist and truly rewarding.

During my project, I met with James French once a week to discuss how to develop my drawings and continue challenging myself through my artwork. This is why I’ve chosen to continue working on this honors project during the second trimester: I want to further develop my drawing skills and to continue working on the production of the dress.

Fashion Illustration Project

Studio Art Project

Project by: Gaia Prete (12th Grade)

Faculty Advisor: James French

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

For the past two years, I have been working along with James on the “Fashion Illustration” honors project. During the two trimesters, I am planning on continuing the project, taking it a step further. After seeking inspiration from various different fashion designers, I will create original patterns for clothing and analyze how colors match together to create combinations of fabric. I will move from illustrating the movement of fabric on the human figure, to improving drawing the anatomy of the body and designing original clothing.

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project?

As I am very interested in fashion, I am sure this honors project will be essential in strengthening the illustrating aspect of this topic. By the end of the year, I will have produced a variety of drawings representing my overall improvement in fashion illustration and anatomy drawing.