Why Wedding Illustration Is Crucial For All Fashion Illustrators
I come from a fashion photography background, and in photography there’s always been this stark distinction between a wedding photographer and a fashion photographer.
There was always this prejudice, like you wouldn’t book a wedding photographer to shoot your fashion campaign.
Fashion photography was creative, cool, avant-garde, it was art, Wedding photography was safe, commercial …boring
And I often wonder if this stigma is in the illustration industry too.
Maybe fashion illustrators don’t want to get into weddings and bridal illustrations for the same reasons above.
So I wanted to discuss it a bit! As there’s absolutely no reason you can’t do both, plenty of fashion illustrators go between working for fashion brands and weddings and it works out perfectly fine.
So I wouldn’t worry too much about having to pick one of the other, there’s loads of things that can help bridge the gap between the two through your art style, branding, content, portfolio so you’re not stuck being labelled as one or the other.
But the main thing I wanted to discuss today was WHY would a fashion illustrator need to venture into wedding illustration?
So let’s get into why wedding illustration is crucial for all fashion illustrators.
To start off with, if you can draw, a wedding commission will find its way to you at some point, guaranteed.
Whether it’s a friend or family member wanting one, an email that lands in your inbox, a request at a live event, a random DM, it’s not a case of IF, it’s a case of WHEN.
It’s an inevitability and it’s actually helped me out a few times in the past when I needed some work coming in.
You can’t fully control the work that finds it’s way to you, so you need to be able to say yes to most opportunities that land in your inbox, especially in the beginning.
As the key difference between having a career as a freelance Illustrator and just booking the occasional work is adapting.
If you think being a fashion illustrator is working for Dior every day… then you got another think coming, they don’t have enough work for you!
And even if they do this year, maybe next year they want to try someone else, so flexibility and adaptability is key.
What you start off getting booked for might not be what you get booked for a couple years later and so on…
So being able to adapt your work to a multitude of situations and briefs is what will allow you to be able to continue on as an illustrator.
As I detail in my career course, I’ve had years were my primary income was from project work, then another year it was events, another year it was half events half courses and another year it was courses, it’s ever changing and adapting.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but multiple income streams is essential if you want a career.
Ok I get that, but where does weddings come into all this?
So as I keep going on about, Live Events are one of the most in demand and accessible income avenues for Fashion Illustrators at the moment, but that doesn't just mean illustrating for luxury fashion brands!
Weddings are a HUUUUGE opportunity for event illustrators, brand events can be inconsistent and seasonal, yet weddings are all year round.
So if you’re wanting to make most of your income from live illustration I’d recommend every event illustrator also offer weddings, once you start promoting yourself as an event illustrator you're bound to get wedding enquiries anyway.
Plus a lot of live illustrators focus solely on weddings and are booked up throughout the year, so it's not an avenue to dismiss!
But if illustrating at a wedding isn’t your cup of tea, don’t think you’re off the hook just yet…
Most branded events I've done, at least one person will come up to me, phone unlocked, wedding album up, wanting to get a drawing done of them on their wedding day rather than them in the t-shirt and jeans they’re currently wearing.
You need to know how to navigate drawing wedding dresses, you can’t just turn them down because you don’t know how to.
So bridal illustrations are going to pop up whether you choose to work in weddings or not!
Also if you're open for commissions, the traditional present for a one year anniversary is paper, which many people use as a reason to commission an illustration of their wedding day, which is consistent income and can come in very handy!
So it's always good to know how to illustrate wedding dresses/bridal things!
If you’re a Fashion Illustrator and aren’t offering weddings/know how to illustrate bridal, you’re waving goodbye to a lot of opportunities, clients and sacks of casharoo.
Because some of you might be quite surprised just how often it pops up!
And if you’re sitting there thinking ‘omg I don’t know how to draw any of that’ then I got your back!
My Wedding Illustration Masterclass has opened and is starting on Monday.
It’s open this one and only time, so join if you'd like to improve your bridal/event/party illustrations over the course of 4 weeks!
See you in there!
x
