NY Fashion Week Spring 2012 - Zac Posen collection

New York Fashion Week may have taken its last bow until Fall 2012, but fashion artist Beverly Brown has captured the essence of the Spring 2012 runway through her ethereal paintings.

A watercolorist, Brown recently has translated her luminous strokes on the iPad selecting the ArtRage app. We’re beginning a series, starting with Beverly, highlighting talented natural media illustrators who have made the digital art transformation. And we’ve asked Beverly to share her tips, steps and process with us!

Create Painterly iPad Fashion Illustrations With Fashion Artist Beverly Brown

As a watercolor painter, I chose the ArtRage for iPad app initially using the watercolor tools. I found this to be the most intuitive and natural looking of the digital painting apps. After some experimentation, I found I could achieve more natural media results by combining the different tools. You can follow my process from sketch to finished painting broken down into steps.

Step 1

I begin by importing a reference photo and making a very rough sketch using the pencil tool. The pencil sketch, kept in a separate layer, begins the painting process on a new layer.

Step 2

Using the airbrush tool, I map out the colors and tonal range. With these in place, I delete the sketch layer.

Step 3

I then go over the painting with the palette knife tool to soften and blend the colors.

Step 4

Finally, I use the watercolor tool on the Dried Strokes setting and begin painting over the colors. At this point, I'll often go back and make changes with the airbrush; go back over some areas with the palette knife; then continue with watercolor.

Step 5

Here is the final result.

We have a few more examples of Beverly’s painterly atmospheric style and subscribe to her Tumblr for more gorgeous fashion illustrations!

NY Fashion Week Spring 2012 - Rodarte collection

NY Fashion Week Spring 2012 - Christian Siriano collection