Petra Dufkova

Petra Dufkova was born in Uherske Hradiste, Czech Republic, Petra initially studied art at technical school for applied arts.She moved to Munich, Germany and in 2008, graduatedfrom the International Fashion School Esmond, with a Pret-a-porter collection.During her education at Esmond, she participated in numerous projects and contests, including winning Best Illustration award with her collection at China Fashion Week. 

Petra's fashion, beauty and lifestyle illustrations combine traditional methods, with a modern look. She gets her inspiration from books, magazines, exhibitions and fashion shows. Petra currently works as a freelance illustrator, stylist and fashion designer in Munich, Germany. What I love about her technique is that her lines are so perfected, almost as if they had been created using a program. This makes her work look so crisp and modern, which is exactly why her main focus is on the edgy world of fashion illustration. However, her pieces are almost too good to feature in the 'throw-away' context of magazines. Hailing from the Czech Republic, illustrator Petra Dufkova’s use of watercolour gives a romantic contrast to the sharp lines favoured in her sketches. Not typecasting her subject to the female form, Dufkova looks to everyone and everywhere for her inspiration, including the past. A favourite is her portrait of Audrey Hepburn; so accurate in her execution it almost seems life-like.

 

Her moodier work based around taupe, beige and dark grey showcase her artistic versatility; too many illustrators focus on the lighter side of life. Her black on white illustrations portray the darker, more emotional. The series that focuses on facial portraits and palm trees reminds me of the under-side of Hollywood, the un-publicised, shadier side of celebrity.

BY  

THIRI YADANAR@TIFFANY

                    FD2A2

Sarah Hankinson, Australia-based illustrator from Melbourne is one of the best illustrator nowadays. She lives in St Kilda and illustrate from a studio in Windsor.

She captures the pulse of modern style with her classic illustrations, which pair soft splashes of colours and meticulous line work to portray control and impulse, form and silhouette. Sarah’s illustration style is elegant, youthful, and strongly fashion orientated, many of her pieces focusing on the female form and made up from a variety of mediums including inks, charcoal, pencils, cut paper and fabrics. Some of Sarah’s clients include Harper’s Bazaar Magazine, Maybelline New York- Austraila and US Target. In 2012 Sarah co-founded The Windsor Workshop a co-working studio space in Melbourne’s South and is also half of creative services agency Santiago Sunbird.Her first published illustration was in Girlfriend Magazine and  she treated each illustration job as a path to gain exposure therefore more work. She love fashion and follow many models so it was natural for her to draw this kind of imagery and progress her career on this path. Sarah’s work is a combination of traditional handmade and digital collage. Inspired by her travels and an avid collector of random ephemera, she finds and stores interesting bits of old paper, maps, photographs and various objects, which have all become strong elements in her work. For every new project she has a unique sift through the many random piles, sketchbooks and pads that have accumulated around her studio selecting suitable elements as she goes. Well known at art school for her numerous layered and collaged sketch books, Sarah still, continually collects and documents new and inspiring collage material/ephemera in this way.

And her words of wisdom for other freelance illustrator is

        "Work hard! Don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t happen straight away it takes time and commitment. If you are passionate you can make it happen".