Live illustration with Ted Baker

Yesterday I participated in my very first live illustration event. I was approached by the wonderful people at Ted Baker, London, to illustrate in their Kildare Village store for the 'Make it Yours' event. With every Ted purchase over €150, lucky customers received a free personalized tote bag by myself. It was such a fun and enlightening experience. I drew a range of illustrations; including flowers, floral patterns, quotes, monograms, portraits, and cats!

I think the theme of the day was definitely floral, along with inspiring quotes. And the most popular colour was purple (and glitter, of course). I love finding out details like this, as it helps me to gauge what customers are looking for in personalized illustrations/designs. I used mainly Promarkers, Posca, and Sharpie pens as they dry much quicker than paint. The newly purchased Fabrico pens were ok, but weren't as smooth in their application as the other pens. Tote bags are tricky enough to illustrate on due to the variety of materials they can be made from, but it was exciting to illustrate on a new surface for a change, as I'm usually a paper-loving girl!

~ Rachel x

Some of the pens I used during the day. Posca and Sharpie were better suited to the task and the type of tote bag material. The Promarkers bled a little bit as the material was quite light, but the shading and blending of Promarkers is one of the things I love about them, and it resulted in quite a nice watercolour-wash effect.

Before I began illustrating on the bags I sketched a few doodles to warm-up. I also brought a scrap of canvas material to test colours and ink absorbency before applying them on the tote bags.