Inspire to Illustrate #1- Girls Luv Girls

My 6 go-to female illustrators for fun, quirky portrait/fashion graphics inspiration

Inspire to Illustrate- where I draw out my collection of favourite illustrators weekly during moments of boredom, artist's block or even when just scrolling through my pinterest and instagram, and present it to hordes of others I hope like me are struggling to look for cool references and ideas for graphic styling.

I've always held an obsession with the human form and various representations of it- particularly within manga, and graphic novels. For this first collection, I've pulled out these six awesome women who play around with the female form and features using quirky characters, geometric elements, bold pop colours, soft pastels and strong graphic compositions. All their works are influenced by pop-culture, fashion and comic-visuals to build playful visual narratives.

1. Janice Sung

Follow her : https://www.janicesung.com/

Shop : https://www.janicesung.com/shop/

Janice creates beautiful imagery through her soft, deliberate use of digital airbrush strokes and carefully composited frames- her girls are gorgeous, ethereal and modern. Mixing natural, organic forms with geometry to create contrast, Sung's pieces are the perfect figure study for days spent pondering how to frame the female body in interesting visual ways.

2. Betsy Cola

Follow her : http://betsy-cola.tumblr.com/

Philippine based illustrator, Betina Continuado's graphics are very comic-book inspired, and her female characters are diverse, engaging and bold. With strong colours, bright visuals and summer inspired tones, her illustrations narrate a story of coming-of-age, youth, love and acceptance. Perfect for an alternative look at visual portrayal of the female body in all shapes and colours, framed against simple, emotive environments.

3. Manjitt Thapp

Follow her : https://manjitthapp.co.uk/

Shop : https://shop.manjitthapp.co.uk/

Manjitt Thapp is a UK based illustrator whose work combines fashion, digital design and pencil work to create visually intriguing, beautiful brown women who seem elegant, poised and perfect references for a late night of sketching portraits.

Inspired by movies, fashion and pop culture, Manjitt's style is super playful, focusing on the narrative quality of these women.

4. Little Thunder

Follow her : https://www.instagram.com/littlethunder/

Shop : littlethunder.storenvy.com

Comic artist from Hong Kong, Little Thunder's illustrations are straight out from a shoujo manga, and her pieces are soft, delicate and emotive. Pastel tones, light outlines and petite, often erotic young girls- I personally adore her style of painting and always look to her comic compositions for inspiration on capturing the beauty of youth in art.

5. Laura Callaghan

Follow her : https://www.lauracallaghanillustration.com/

Shop : http://lauracallaghanillustration.tictail.com/

Definitely one of the biggest female illustrators out there online, Laura's mix of ink, watercolour and isograph pen creates phenomenally detailed, intricate and bright narrative pieces. Her women are across all ages, sizes, races and personalities and each of them shines through in her unique character style. I love the fashion styling in all her pieces, and her environment designs are flawlessly executed for work all done in traditional medium! Super inspiring to work on character studies and explore pop-art style of comic illustration.

6. Bijou Karman

Follow her : http://www.bijoukarman.com/

Shop : https://www.shop-bijou.com/

Bijou is an artist and illustrator from LA, and projects are distinctly rooted in LA pop culture, music and fashion. Her vivid, confident characters are influenced by vintage images, Googie architecture, the 1960’s, nostalgia and plants. Her work is superb as visual references for street fashion and vintage painting.

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Do support the artists by following and checking out their merch!

#femmeart #illustrationinspiration #femaleillustrators #femaleillustrations #graphics

xx