Isabelle Feliu
Originally from Québec city, Canada, Isabelle Feliu is an illustrator currently based in Oslo, Norway. Having a background in fashion design and merchandising, her work is mainly about fashion but also very inspired by interiors, nature, animals and curious about much more.
Isabelle Feliu
Interview by THOMASINA R. Legend
Illustrations by Isabelle Feliu
Centred on the feminine persona, Isabelle’s illustrations are bold, colourful with lots of references to high fashion with prints and scenery that depicts a quality of life that evokes a sense of wanderlust.
Her style of watercolour paintings brings to mind the work of artists such as Matisse especially in the exaggerated body forms, gestures of Isabelle’s figures and incorporation of bold flattened shapes.
We love the fact that Isabelle’s illustrations break down the stereotyped definition for what’s an acceptable body type by celebrating curves. Her beautiful illustrations caught our attention and we just had to chat with her about her work, inspirations, challenges as an illustrator and much more.
How would you describe your art & technique of illustrating? I first sketch the different elements I want to include in my illustration and then retrace them to put them together on watercolor paper. I use watercolors in a very simple way, spreading them in designated shapes, without caring much about shadows and perspective. Then I often add some details with gouache or ink.
How long have you been illustrating and at what point did you realize you wanted to do it as a full time career? I always loved to draw, but I only started considering it as a possible career a bit after moving to Norway, almost two years ago. Although I was very happy to have moved to Oslo, I didn’t have a job or friends and I didn’t speak the language. I just had a lot of free time, and naturally started doing what I loved. I became obsessed with it and my passion grew.
That is incredible. To see how having free time can evolve into a passion that blooms is amazing. What did you do work wise before delving into fashion illustration? I was a fashion designer assistant in Montréal. I had previously done an internship in the same field in Buenos Aires, Argentina at a local brand called DelaOstia, and also another internship, concentrated on Social Media marketing for the Spanish Jewelry designer, Cristina Zazo. I knew I wanted to be part of the fashion world, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do. I was exploring but feeling a bit lost at the same time.
You are originally from Quebec, but now reside in Oslo. Why the move and does your environment in Oslo play an inspirational role in your illustrations? I moved to Oslo to be with my boyfriend who is Norwegian, but also because I needed a change and it seemed like a good occasion to get out of the routine I had in Montréal. Living in a Nordic country is definitely very inspiring especially regarding everything that has to do with interiors and decoration. People here are really obsessed with it and it feels like everyone has stylish homes, which is great since I am always on the lookout for new elements I can include in my illustrations.
Although I love living in Oslo, I must say that being from Canada, I always knew I wasn’t a fan of Nordic weather. Maybe it is because I am half Honduran, but I have always felt like I belonged in a warmer and tropical environment. My illustrations are a bit the way I dream and I guess that’s why they have a more tropical vibe.
Yes I did wonder about the tropical elements to your images which are stunning and yes they do make me dream of going away somewhere nice on holiday. Another observation to your illustrations is that they are beautifully exaggerated. Is there a reason for the exaggerated physical proportions? When I decided to start illustrating more seriously, my style just started evolving that way without a special reason. I just liked painting the shapes that way. Now I really feel like the exaggerated proportions are a part of my style and I enjoy exploring it. I like that my characters are an odd and different type of fashionistas.
How did you get into fashion illustration and why? My mother is a talented seamstress and when I was a kid, she would encourage me to design clothes she would then make. Even though the thought of being a fashion illustrator never crossed my mind before I moved to Norway, I never really stopped drawing clothes, whether it was in my note books in high school or later on when I studied fashion design and had my first fashion illustration class. I just love to create narratives with characters wearing beautiful clothing. I think it is how my imagination gets out!
Would you say your illustrations are a reflection of your personality? Yes, totally! It is hard to explain why but I think they have my vibe. It is important when I work for clients that their project allows me to reflect my personality, because somehow it doesn’t work if I can’t put it into my work. The end result just doesn’t feel the same. I sometimes wish I could take more directives and make more compromises, but I guess being personal in my work is why I am so passionate about it.
Where does your inspiration come from for your illustrations? I get very inspired from travels, but since I don’t travel all the time, I get a lot of inspiration from just images on social media and blogs. I like to use Pinterest to catalogue what inspires me and then come back to it later to sketch. I feel like I never stop looking for images, whether I am on the bus or before I go to bed. I also like to discover new places like stores and cafés, and I try to pay attention to my surroundings to see if I can get any inspiration from it. It is something I love about being an illustrator; it makes everything more interesting, because everything is a potential source of inspiration.
How much of your personality would you say is reflected in your illustrations? A lot, they really are a mix of all the things I like and am passionate about. When I work on personal projects, I like to include places I would like to visit, clothes I would like to wear. I like to create scenes and stories I would want to be part of.
That is actually fantastic and I must say I love your dreamy vision now that I know it is embedded in your images. Which artists and illustrators have influenced your creative development over time? A lot of them, I would say Matisse, Gauguin and Sanyu are a few of my favourites, but illustrators who have influenced me the most are contemporary illustrators like Kelly Beeman, Blair Breitenstein and many, many more. It is very inspiring and motivating for me to follow them on social media and see how they evolve. They are the people who made me realize that a career in fashion illustration was possible.
My uncle Pierre Martin was also a talented artist and although he unfortunately passed away before I was born, I grew up admiring his paintings, hung up on my family members walls. I think that unconsciously, he was an important inspiration to me; I always admired how he created mysterious universes and how his style varied with the stages of his life.
That is really interesting. What do you try to communicate through your illustrations? I like my illustrations to be light, colourful and to inspire adventure and happiness. I wouldn’t say that they are meaningless, but I do not think about what I am trying to communicate when I make them. That being said, I like to show body diversity and I would love to send a positive message about that. There is more and more diversity in fashion every season, and it is definitely something I would like to be a part of with my illustrations.
You have done some amazing projects for the likes of Heist, PUMA women, WHIT NY, NOWOW and others. Can you talk us through these and the messages that the illustrations depict? The idea for Heist was to make a small social media campaign, they approached me because of how I depict women, and they wanted the campaign to illustrate diversity, to be light and summery. For the illustration, I wanted the girls to look like they were moving freely in their thighs, like they were relaxed and enjoying themselves.
Puma Women asked me to create a series of illustrations for International Women’s Day that they would use for social media. I illustrated different groups of friends hanging out in a park, doing different activities together, whether it was sharing ear buds, having a picnic or doing yoga. I just wanted to celebrate women and friendships in an everyday life way.
Whit was another kind of collaboration, the illustrations were a bit different than what I usually do and were meant to be printed on some pieces of their last Spring Summer Collection. The idea was to illustrate different feminine figures, inspired by the Style of artist Sanyu. It was a real challenge for me because I was not used to using perspective the way he does, and I had to adapt it to my style. That was tough but I learnt a lot at the same time.
Nowow was very fun. The whole issue was on dreams. I was asked to illustrate some of my dreams, which I did pretty literally. Both illustrations are self-portraits of myself; in one of them, I am trying to find my friend’s cat, Lolita, lost in a sea of cheetahs, and on the other one, I am meeting a strange but gentle creature.
Oh my goodness that is amazing. They are gorgeous illustrations and to think that it is really a representation of you makes it even more intriguing. After working and collaborating with these awesome brands, do you have some specific brands you would love to collaborate and work with in the future? There aren’t exactly specific ones. There are a lot of different brands I would love to work with. Since my personal taste tend to change and designers too, it is difficult for me to have favourites. Recently, I have been in awe of the work of Josep Font for Delpozo and also the surreal universe of Vivetta. I would definitely love to work with them. It would also be very interesting to work with some lingerie and swimwear brands, since tropical landscapes are an important part of my style. Mimi Hammer is a beautiful swimwear brand from Québec I would love to work on some projects with.
Have you ever struggled to procure inspiration before beginning on a project? And if so how have you worked through it? Usually, I take on projects that really inspire me and that will allow me to be myself, so that makes it easier. But when it happens, I think there is no special trick. I personally just need to start working, sketching, looking at inspiration pictures, and eventually, it becomes easier and it starts flowing.
What sort of challenges have you been faced with since taking up illustrating full time? I love working from home by myself, but it does get lonely! Although it is an environment I am comfortable in, I think it is important to try to find a balance, to take some time every day to do activities that include other people and going out.
Balance is another challenge; since my work is also my hobby and what I do to relax, it is highly personal to me and I often feel like I can’t separate my personal life from it. I feel like I could be doing work related things all the time and it is very hard to switch off. Even if I don’t have any projects going on and that I am not even working on a personal piece, I will want to update my social media pages, redesign my website, design new stationary or just look for new inspiration online.
So how are you dealing with the challenge of having a balance between your work and personal life? Is it an area you keep learning and discovering ways to make-work? I think it is important to be disciplined and to get a routine. It is easier when you live with someone else who has a normal job routine, because you can get up in the morning with him or her and stop when they come back at night. It is funny because what I thought was exciting at the beginning about being a freelancer, was the fact that you could escape that routine lifestyle. Sure it is fun at the beginning but I don’t think it can work in the long run.
At first I thought I would just be able to do some work related stuff all the time without finding a balance. I read articles about the importance of differencing work and personal life and I thought “but why, my work is my passion” It does sound a bit naïve, but I have always had this tendency to be a bit intense about the things I love. It took me a while to understand that if I kept going like that, it would always feel like I wasn’t doing enough.
That is very true and I have had similar difficulty myself so I understand what you are saying. So, on the topic of ‘Vision’, what would you say ‘Vision’ means to you? A lot of people talk about vision as a strategy and an aspirational image for your brand, something that needs to be clear and detailed even before you start working on whatever you want to accomplish. I remember feeling so lost and overwhelmed by that type of definitions when I was attending marketing classes in university. I think it is a very discouraging way to look at it for young entrepreneurs and creative people.
To me, vision is something that builds up over time, as you work on your craft and learn to know yourself and your goals. I think it is a mix between my aesthetic and how it reflects my personality. It has also to do with my values and how they direct my goals, guiding me in my choices of clients and projects.
You have made an interesting point about the definitions being overwhelming and hence attests to the reason I chose to look at it for this issue, to get the different points of views from different people and get to know how you each view it and implement it into your lives. I really like what you have said because it does ring true for me at a certain stage in my life.
What direction would you love to see your career go? At the moment, I am just at beginning of it and I would love to continue working on different projects related to fashion, interiors and design in general. I really want to get more experience working with different brands. I would love to have the opportunity to travel more for work; to go illustrate at different fashion weeks or things like that. I have also always dreamed about having my own line of women’s clothing, something related to my illustrations.
That would be fantastic to see what your own line of clothing would look like and I am sure from the illustrations you create, they will be amazing and dreamy. What advice would you give others who are interested in fashion illustration?
I wish someone had told me to “fake it ‘til you make it” at the beginning. I was so shy and felt like an impostor, but no one is going to call you a fashion illustrator if you don’t give that title to yourself at first – so you need to do it even if the only thing in your portfolio is self-motivated work.
What I absolutely love about working in illustration, is that you don’t have to follow any path to do it, you can do it however you feel it is the best way for you: whether it is by going to art school or just working hard by yourself to build up an interesting portfolio. Some people sometimes ask me which “steps” I followed, what school have I been to, how my education impacted my work. I think the most important thing at the beginning is to just step out of this mentality, there is no recipe for it and it is a good thing. It feels great to do things your way.
I completely agree with you on that. Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity to chat with you. I really appreciate it and it has been really insightful. Thank you.
