Outfit of the Day Editorial Illustration for Uppercase Magazine

This week has been kicking my butt in the editorial illustration department – but man oh man I am digging this outfit of the day art!

Outfit Of The Day editorial illustration by Steph Calvert of Hearts and Laserbeams

This is another project I put together as part of Make Art That Sells. The assignment was to create an editorial illustration describing your best outfit of the day as a creative. Whether it’s an outfit that’s just so gorgeous and fabulous that you hope to have it someday, or it’s the perfect embodiment of you as a creative, it boiled down to draw some clothes.

The best pieces get a pretty sweet prize – they’ll be published in an upcoming issue of Uppercase Magazine! I’m really hoping my work makes the cut.

About My Outfit of the Day

I’m a work at home mom that lives in the middle of the country, and I share my office with our 2 year old daughter Joy while her brother Phil is in school and dad’s at work. Our day starts at 5am, and doesn’t stop until at least 8pm.

In that time, I need to wrangle getting the boy onto the schoolbus, get my illustration work  done in the studio, help our toddler navigate her day, run out to the chicken coop to feed our forty five ladies and give hay to the miniature horse in our backyard, and still be presentable enough to be seen at public when I take Phil to swimming lessons later in the afternoon.

If I’m working on an illustration project, after the kids are in bed I may be back in the studio painting or working on the computer until 11pm or midnight. Or 1:30am like last night.

Writing all that made me tired.

You’ll note I’m holding a steaming cup of coffee in this illustration – that mug is my favoritest Orla Keily mug I got from Target years ago. I love it because it’s a wide, sturdy mug that isn’t top heavy. Because I’m a klutz and knocking over my drink is always a probability.

So what I’m getting at with all of this is: with our family’s lifestyle, comfort is key.

Cute shoes that can hold up to the punishment of a full chicken coop are just as important. I love my Stetson cowboy boots because they’re just as stylish as shoes you’d find at the mall, but they’re made to take a country beating and they have the rounder toe shape that I love.

My current favorite tshirt is one I made for myself – it’s got a hand lettered design I had printed onto a super soft American Apparel cotton/poly blend tee. I’m wearing it right now, and I’ll probably wear it again the second it comes out of the wash. You can get your own Hey Hi Hello tshirt right here.

And the pants. Oh, the pants. I despise jean shopping because everything you find these days is super low cut down to here let your butt hang out silhouettes. I’ve had two kids; no one wants
to see that but Josh, and I’ve never liked letting it all hang out anyways. My high waist jeans of choice are by Not Your Daughters Jeans – generally they’re too rich for my blood, but I can usually find ’em in my size for cheap on Ebay.

Now, if you ask my little girl Joy what her favorite outfit of the day is, it’s simple.

Bright yellow Minion tshirt.

Superman cape.

At least a dozen clip on bows in her hair. At least.

She’s a little more high maintenance than I am, obviously.

How I created this editorial illustration

The process of this artwork is pretty cool, and I got to play with collaging in Photoshop which is always a good time! I started with tons of thumbnails to give myself a chance to think about posing, what I wanted to include, how serious I wanted to get. I put together a fashion editorial illustration board on Pinterest to start getting the idea wheels turning.

Finally I decided that I really wanted to create something fun that was about me right now, not some idealized me that I could be someday. Because it may not always be easy, but I really like where I’m at right now.

Outfit Of The Day editorial illustration by Steph Calvert of Hearts and Laserbeams

So the thumbnail got a little more fleshed out, and a lot more sketchy.

Outfit Of The Day editorial illustration by Steph Calvert of Hearts and Laserbeams

And then I created a really cleaned up version that looks almost like a coloring book page. One thing I started wondering as I cleaned it up was how I was going to handle my favoritest tshirt ever… Would I pull the artwork into the piece and layer it in there with Photoshop? Or attempt to redraw it?

Then I tried putting it on the scanner. And ohhhh man.

 

Outfit Of The Day editorial illustration by Steph Calvert of Hearts and Laserbeams

I also scanned my pants.

And my boots.

And Joy’s Superman cape.

I just thought it would be really interesting to layer some real world textures in with the cartoony style of drawing to maybe adult it a little bit for a magazine.

But the real magic happened as I played with layers in Photoshop. At one point, I turned off the outlines layer, and I saw this.

Outfit Of The Day editorial illustration by Steph Calvert of Hearts and Laserbeams

I just loved the look of the collaged textures without outlines so much!! So that guided my hand as I continued on – but some areas really benefitted from a little extra detail. Areas like my boots that had a zipper and stitch lines, I put those back in but in a less stark than black color.

I’m just really happy with how it turned out.

What’s Your Favorite Outfit of the Day?

I wanna hear about it in the comments!

Freelance Illustrator Steph Calvert • Steph Calvert Art | https://stephcalvertart.com

Freelance illustrator Steph Calvert is an award-winning artist with 24 years of experience working as a creative professional. She is based in McDonough, Georgia, just south of Atlanta.

Steph Calvert has expertise as a children’s book illustrator. She is an expert surface pattern designer for art licensing and creates line drawings for publishing and product design. Steph has years of additional expertise as a mural artist, creating original art, and logo design for small businesses. She is currently querying literary agents with her first author/illustrator book projects.

National SCBWI Conference, 2023
Illustration Summer Camp – The Highlights Foundation, 2021
Make Art That Sells, 2017
BFA in Computer Art – SCAD, 1999


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