Illustrating Live at Events - A Fashion Illustrators Tips For Live Drawing
2025 marks the 12th year since I started live event illustrating… Don’t ask me how I managed to book my first job when I was 6 years old… child prodigy🌝
But since then I’ve been booked to illustrate for Gucci, Christian Dior, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Celine, Mulberry, Tiffany & Co, Chopard, Hugo Boss, Apple, Samsung, Ted Baker, Rabanne, Armani, Selfridges and more.
And these have included private events, corporate events, runway shows, backstage, illustrating at photoshoots, events for fashion brands, jewellery, make up, fragrance, drinks, restaurants, birthday parties, weddings, even a bar mitzvah, so I’ve had a variety of experiences and so trust these tips come from a place of lived escapades.
They’re a mix of illustration tips and logistic tips, because whilst the art is obviously important and the foundation, it’s only half the equation when it comes to illustrating at events as you’re hired for people to enjoy the process of getting a drawing done not just the outcome.
So here we go:
Pose It Up
Posing’s always been my favourite part of illustration but it’s such an integral part of fashion illustration, don’t let yourself and your sitter down by just drawing someone standing there, it’s FASHION hunny, give them some attitude.
My advice is to perfect 3 poses or have 3 silhouettes next to you as reference and alternate between those, trust me posing is the number 1 thing that will elevate your work to the next level.
Draw Faces
Whenever I see event illustrations where people duck drawing the face, unless you’re extremely good at capturing peoples face shapes it just ends ups looking like a wig popped onto a boiled egg, the drawing looks unfinished and can make the illustration look a lil bit amateur.
I know what you are gonna say ‘but we’re FASHION illustrators, the emphasis is on the clothes!’ But most of who we draw at an event will be the general public, and most of the general public won’t be swanning around in a Valentino couture gown.
And in figurative illustrations the face is the first place people look, it’s where our eyes dart to first to get an understanding of how to frame the rest of it, so if the first part someones eye goes to is blank, it might be a little disappointing. Plus as I said most people don’t swan around in couture, so they’d actually rather see their face depicted than their t-shirt and jeans. Even if its just a flourish of an eyelash and a pop of lip, something to give the face more context.
Be Social
A lot of event illustration is in the social side of things, most of the time it’s hired as a form of entertainment so you gotta bring the fun! I’m not saying you gotta be performing a stand up routine whilst you’re sketching away but being able to hold a conversation and be able to pay attention to your sitters will elevate you to the next level.
Like I said in the intro, the sitter has to enjoy the experience of getting a drawing done as much as they enjoy the finished piece.
Streamline Your Materials
I’ve made this mistake god knows how many times, but I’ll over prepare for events and go there with 3 of each pen, pencil, marker etc and lay it all out on the table looking like some ransacked kindergarten and even though I’m prepared, I’ll be picking up the wrong marker 3 or 4 times before finding the right one because there’s just too many.
So streamline to one colour of each, maybe 2 of black and 2 of skin tones as you get through those quicker, that way you’ve only 25 markers or so to glance across rather than the 100 I used to lug around with me.
Check Your Ego At The Door
The age old saying, art is subjective, and this goes for our lil 10 minute sketches too. Not everyone will like your work, most of the time it’s not a sign your work is bad, it’s just people have different tastes.
I know from experience you can do 40 portraits at an event, 39 people will love them, but one person isn’t over the moon, and it’ll be that one that will stick with you but you just gotta brush it off. It’s not a reflection on your ability, not everyone loves the Mona Lisa, doesn’t mean the Louvre bin it if a tourist isn’t impressed.
Finish Each Step Before Moving On
Don’t sketch, ink and colour the face then move onto the torso because it’s easy to get lost and caught up with the timings and after 10 minutes you’ll end up with a piece of work that looks like one of those illustrated consequences game, 1/3rd really nice then 2/3rds scribbled.
So pencil the whole thing, ink the whole thing, base tones the whole thing, shade the whole thing then add flourishes. This way if the guest needs to make a quick getaway they’ve got something complete no matter what stage it’s at, and if you find yourself going over the time you can just give them a drawing with just base colours done, it’s more flexible.
Know Your Limit
This is in reference to knowing how many people you can draw, I always over subscribe because I hate turning people down but trust me it’s way better to turn people down and be on top of the amount of illustrations you can do and create them comfortably than looking at the clock, seeing there’s 30 minutes left and you got 12 people to draw, god daaaamn the stress. I do share a few methods of keeping tabs on the logistics in my course xoxo.
Price It Right
I won’t go over specific prices here because experience, regions and industry play a part, but my blanket advice is that most illustrators are way undercharging for live events.
Live events should always be charged hourly, not per illustration, or even per day, really, because people will always try and consolidate a quote if it’s a day rate. This is a skilled job and one that doesn’t get requested every single day so should be charged as such, so charging £75 an hour or something isn’t great for the industry.
Clients will never pay what it’s actually worth if they can get it from someone charging way under the usual rate, and this brings down the entire industry. Plus you don’t want your selling point as an illustrator to be that you’re cheaper than the rest, so research other local illustrators, see their rates and price yourself fairly, obviously there’s room for negotiation and someone starting out won’t charge what a veteran charges, but no-one should be getting a live illustrator for a small rate, respect the craft, respect YOUR craft.
Speaking Of Craft, Hone It!
You should always invest time in improving your drawing skills, it’s the foundation that your entire business is built on, the marketing and self promotion is important, people skills are important however it all falls back on your drawing skills so don’t forget to invest the time to honing them. Look at your work and push yourself, better poses? More likeness in the face? Less stiff drawings? Quicker? Full body rather than cropped? Always be refining your work.
Take My Course!
Hehehe you knew it was coming, call me an electrician cause plug plug plug. I poured everything I know into this course, over 17 hours of examples, info and exercises plus weekly homework and live personalised feedback on Zoom. The course covers improving your drawing speed, tackling a specific subject each week and a business / logistics talk each week, and anything not covered in the videos is covered in the weekly live feedback sessions… only thing I did miss out on in the course was how to draw kids, and that was probably on purpose…
And that’s it! That’s my tips.
Full Live Event Illustration Masterclass reopens Friday 31st January for 15 people, excited to meet the new round of students.
And for those interested in how I booked my very first job that I mentioned in the intro, check out this blog post about it here:
