30 Nov 2011

Artist 116: Yiunam Leung







It's artist feature time here on the Rally and we have a great fashion illustrator lined up for you now. Yiunam Ling is one of those illustrators who can use the pared down approach that fashion illustration is known for, however she does it with an eye for detail and a sense of composition that sets her work out as something special. Yiunam pays great attention to the faces of her subjects which mean they lock eyes with the viewer and hold your gaze. She has a gentle touch with skilled brushwork that gives her work that translucency of traditional Chinese art that make her figures float. She uses this technique to great effect adding flow and movement that is the hallmark of good fashion illustration. the combination of intense faces and flowing faded figures give her work a ghostlike quality that allows her to infer more and leave out clutter or confusing elements, part of her skill lies in how successfully she can omit parts of her figures whilst still keeping the integrity of the image. Combining detail and lightness Yiunam has a refreshing style and is one to watch for the future.

Who are you: 
My name is Yiunam Leung, I am a fashion illustrator based in London

What do you do: 
Fashion illustrations, portraits with mixed media

How did you start: 
Fashion and art is what I love, combining the two is the perfect solution for me!

A Personal statement about you or your work: 
My work is greatly inspired by Chinese paintings and beautiful brush strokes. 

When I look at a design I try to capture the essence of the colours, concept imagining the flow of the designs and try to incoporate that in my illustration. 

I think the face is very important for me, this is where I start and probably spend the longest on, maybe 3-4 hours just on one eye building up layers and shadows, the rest I try to keep it more simple and suggestive using brush strokes etc like a chinese painting. I always relate the clothes to brush strokes and when seeing shows I imagine how I can translate from design to an illustration. I think this is important, because everyone can illustrate a photo from a catwalk, it may look nice but not very original, it is how you can see the clothes and how you translate them is important I think. 

clients include - vauxhall fashion scout, phoenix magazine, fault magazine, work magazine, fashion 156, urban retreat/Harrods to name a few.

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