For more research and reference, I looked at some icons of the 1950s, and the one that caught my eye most was actress Grace Kelly.
Grace Kelly wore a number of different styles, and helped inspire the clothing of women throughout the 1950s, from skirts and dresses to trousers and shorts.
Here again, Grace is wearing a short scarf as described in the previous post, and wears the standard capri pants and full skirts many girls wore.
To further help my research I first tried looking in the library for books concerning 1950s fashion, however all the books I looked through had only very small sections on it with no real pictures for reference, or were more focused on prints and textiles rather than actual cuts and styles of clothing.
And so I turned to the internet to help. There are lots of blogs run by girls and women inspired by 50s fashion and consequently there is lots of reference material for me to use, wether it be vintage photographs or images of modern vintage-styled clothing.
These two modern dresses are directly influenced by the 1950s. Halterneck cuts were popular at the time too, as well as polka dot prints, and the dresses have the typically big, full skirts of the 1950s. This type of dress gives the wearer a petite hourglass figure and a girly charm, and so it could be a good dress to experiment on the GHW (Grand High Witch) with.
Wiggle dresses were a tighter, sexier form of dress for women in the 50s. It emphasises the female form and is both sultry and powerful, so yet another good choice for a witch. Another example of figure fitting clothing is in the form of trousers and capri pants, popular with young women at the time. Pencil skirts were also worn, particularly by 'greaser' girls rather than their more feminine counterparts.
Grease is one of the highest-known and most popular musical films of all time, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
The film will be a good source of reference and information for me, because even though the film is set in America it feature a wide range of characters, from the greasers the T-Birds, to the Pink Ladies as well as preppy Sandy in her nice dresses and cute cardigans before her awesome makeover.
As seen in the above screenshots from the film, the women wore a variety of different clothing. Rizzo typically is the 'bad girl' of the group, and wears much more figure-hugging, provocative clothing. Polo shirts and shirts with the collars turned up, pencil skirts, high-waisted shorts and waist-cinching belts are often seen worn by her. Again in the second image, high-waisted trousers are worn with a wide belt. Small neck-scarves were also worn frequently in the film.
Sandy (at first) wore much more 'girly' clothing, with big circle and a-line skirts and cute cardigans. She also wears a lot of pastel colours and more muted tones, rather than the vibrant reds or dark blacks of Rizzo and the other Pink Ladies. Off the shoulder tops were also popular at the time too, as Sandy wore in the final scene.
The main men in Grease, the T-Birds, wear clothes typical of the 'Greaser' style in the 1950s. A leather jacket is a staple of the style, as well as blazers and tight t-shirts. Converse, jeans, black jeans and leather brogue-like shoes were also worn.
Throughout the project I've struggled yet again with finding a sound idea for my illustration. However while looking through the creative commons on Flickr for reference photos of boys, I noticed a lot of the images were vintage/retro which is a style I've always liked.
From that I suddenly got the idea to go with a retro 50s theme for my characters and settings, which was a huge relief as I was getting quite frustrated and disheartened with my drawings and was feeling unconfident of my own abilities. Again this has been a valuable lesson for me, showing me that I do indeed sometimes need a 'theme' to work around, much like in the previous module when I was struggling with the Book of Drawings.
This was further helped and inspired when I was at the gym and Grease was on the TV in front of my cross trainer!
From then on I started researching the fashion during the 1950s, particularly in Britain as this is where the book is set. This will be a particularly interesting source of reference for the Grand High Witch and the other witches, as they are all described as rather fashionable ladies.
Jaqueline Bissett uses traditional media in her fashion illustrations, and specialises in live sketch events and catwalk shows. She uses ink and water colour in fluid movements to depict her figures, with varying line weights to give depth and character, and Letrafilm to add block colour.
Her illustrations exude elegance, due to the smooth contours of her lines. I like the texture of the brushed ink and think it softens the sometimes aloof atmosphere of fashion illustrations.
It must require very good control of a brush to achieve this kind of linework, especially when using ink which has a tendency to be difficult at times. I think the fluidity of the lines is where the magic of these illustrations comes from- the lines flow very naturally and aren't just some impersonal straight lines made with a ruler that anyone could do. Although quite far removed from my own work, I am interested in the way Jaqueline controls her lines and would like to try something similar with my own illustrations.
This is my most favourite of all Jaqueline's illustrations. Not many of her finished pieces feature full backgrounds and other figures, and all of her subjects are typically female. The piece is also more subdued than some of her other illustrations, using a more subtle colour scheme instead of bold, bright palettes such as crimson and cobalt blue.
This piece shows the versatility of the Letrafilm in my opinion. The film can be layered over the top of itself to produce darker tones or even new colours altogether, and this way of adding colour seems simple however very effective. I would like to try this myself, either using Letrafilm if I can source it or turning to digital means if not.
Another favourite book from my childhood is A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett.
The series is thirteen books long and features lots of illustrations and design within them. Brett Helquist illustrated the books, who I have also researched before for a previous module, however he is a favourite illustrator of mine and has worked in tandem with the author in this case to produce illustrations and vignettes that flow with the text.
Another thing I always admired in the books were the patterned end pages. Not many children's books I had read at that age had had much thought put into the end pages, they are usually just blank.
Above to the right is an example of the extraordinary ways the illustrations work with the content. The first sentence refers to mirrors and reflections, and the chapter vignette is 'reflected' too. It's a unique little detail which I really love in these books- Brett takes into account the books contents when producing his illustrations and is something I would like to be able to do in future.
The full page illutrations throughout the books are highly detailed also. The illustrations look to be done in pencil, and the coloured ones painted possibly digitally or with ink. Brett also plays around with unusual perspectives and compositions in his work too, as seen in the full page illustration below.
One of my favourite examples of his work in this book is in the reflection of the above pages. The fact that he has utilized the space of the double pages to produce an effective illustration like this is impressive without looking too loud or distracting to the reader.
Again I'm noticing patterns in the illustrated books I like- lots of vignettes, little quirky details and interesting compositions. The fact that the illustrators pay great attention to the content is something I admire too, and something I would aspire to in future, as it has clearly influenced Brett's illustrations in a very positive way.
