When did you first get into drawing?
I know many people say this but I don’t remember ever getting into drawing, it was always something I did when I was a child and I’ve never stopped since. My earliest memories are that my grandma used to draw pretty women in their dresses with me after we watched old musicals or Miss World on tv so that’s probably how it started. My mum recently found some early drawings I did in my grandmas loft and they are actually hilarious -all bows and frills- I’m considering re-drawing these imaginary fashions in my current style just for fun.

Why did you choose to make fashion part of your inspiration?
At school when asked “what do you want to do when you grow up?” I used to say “a fashion designer” but in reality what I enjoyed was drawing the women and imagining outfits but I had no interest in making the clothes or anything. As I got further into senior school my artwork developed in lots of different directions and when it came to choosing a degree I chose illustration (or visual communication design specialising in illustration I think was the official title) Fashion drawing wasn’t on the radar on that course but I still managed to drop in little things that influenced me from the fashion world. I was fascinated by the 90s Supermodels and I made a screen print of Kate Moss that was a collage of her face made from actually moss I scraped off the walls in the Uni car park.
Life Drawing was my favourite lesson and I used a lot of colour in my work. After uni I did so many things creatively on and off, but drawing people (especially women) has always been at the centre of it along with florals. I’ve been part of a studio collective and run a community gallery for over 10 years (unfortunately they pulled the building down last year to build houses so now I’m back in a home studio!) Alongside family commitments I did some fashion and figurative illustration for online sources and storyboarded a New Look campaign pitch. I’ve also done a lot of customisation work in the bridal industry. After lockdown I did a Fashion illustration course online with Joanna Layla and realised there’s this whole community. It’s only now that my children are not as dependent on me I feel I can dedicate more time to finding focus on what I really want to do as an artist and I have loved immersing myself in new ventures like drawing at London Fashion week and properly developing a fashion and lifestyle illustration portfolio.

What are you drawing today? Music are you listening to? Books that you are reading? Favourite artist/designer at the moment?
I’ve recently ordered some art materials in the Derwent sale so I’ll be trying them out and I’m going to be embracing my massive obsession with Barbie in July as the Movie is this month!
Music -Madonna
Books- I enjoy life stories. I’ve recently read Bryan Cranston’s book as I’m such a fan of Breaking Bad, I’ve got the Andrew Ridgely one ready to read next.
But truly I’m more a movie watcher than a book reader these days!
I love seeing artists work on Instagram, I really like Astrid Vos’ fashion illustration at the moment.

Claire's Portfolio