Self-taught fashion artist

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 17

Self-taught fashion artist

If you’ve been wondering who draws the delightful damsels in DIC/Beaths’ fashion advertisements, they are all the work of Miss Jeanette Park, the store’s artist for the last 10 years. As fashionable as one of her own drawings, Jeanette Paia is completely self-taught. At the time she left high school, the S::hool of Ar' in Christrhurch couid offer no course in commercial art am. l the Technical Institute was not establ’sh'-.1. Miss Patk started as a trainee artist with Beach- when she was 17 years old, worked with them for four years, and after a time with Hays Limited returned to Beaths. The techniques in fashion drawing have changed radically over the years, says Miss Park. In the early 1900 s, figures were drawn in simple ink lines. There were no shadows or tonings and th- whole effect was a very basic one. Then came the line and wash, with high-lighted half-tones. Nowadays, reproduction methods have

encouraged yet another method. This is inked lines with soft-pencil shading, (an EE pencil is commonly used), on sandgrain paper. This produces much the same effect as pen and wash, but is quicker for the artist and gives a crisper image when printed. As teenage artist, Jeanette Park found her ideas for poses and composition in American Vogue magazines. Now It is Vogue Italia, because of their great, imaginative layouts. “They are tops in the world,” says Miss Park, “when it comes to artistic knitwear and stylish fabrics.”

.» complicated advertisement with a detailed drawing can take as much as a whole day to finish, and all layouts are oncers. They are used once, and that’s, it. Occasionally Jeanette Park draws furniture, china or other items from DIC/Beaths’ stock, but usually it is figure drawing. In the past, her work has been chosen for catalogues that have gone to Canada and Europe.