Mother & Child I

 

The Mother & Child Series

Illustration by Donna Massa

Medium Pen & Ink

My former occupation for many years was a Model and Fashion Designer for the prestigious well known Bridal Manufacturer, The House of Bianchi Inc. in Boston, MA. USA.  And, because of this I created this special Series with a few special artifacts in mind.  First, I wanted to design the gown the bride was wearing, and second the Flower Girl’s dress that her young daughter would be wearing.  Mothers and daughters share a wonderful bond and I wanted to show this through Fashion Illustration.  

Working with pen & ink is a Medium I have always felt comfortable using.  I love to pay close attention to detail, and there are different techniques you can explore while having fun with the concept of black & white.  Along with this Medium I’ve used a No. 2 soft pencil for shading and adding dimension.  

Working with different bridal fabrics, beadwork on fabric, laces and trims is what starts the creative juices flowing in creating a bridal gown.  Once you know the fabric your using whether hard as in silk taffeta or soft as in chiffon, you then begin the creative process of designing the style of the gown, its silhouette or body line in a visual way starting with a sketch.  In this case the fabric chosen is an all over embroidered white Cotton Eyelet.  This fabric has dimensional self fabric flowers also called motifs on the base of the skirt.  There are a wide range of Cotton Eyelet trims to choose from to match perfectly around the hemline of the dress.

The bodice or top part of the dress is a Cotton Eyelet medallion halter neckline, sleeveless, in white Jersey knit.  This fabric gathers, stretches, and molds to the body and is quite close fitting, this is the look I wanted to achieve for the top.  The skirt is a dropped Baskue waistline, two teared symmetrical ruffle rap over a full A-line skirt.  The embroidered Cotton Eyelet skirt, is a whimsical all over flower pattern growing up the fabric transforming into scattered small hearts.  The teared ruffled skirt has a Cotton Eyelet English style trim at the hemline.  The full A-line skirt is the same Eyelet pattern with larger dimensional flowers and a wide rope affect Eyelet trim around the hemline.

Her daughter is also in the same embroidered white Cotton Eyelet fabric only in a different all over pattern that is simple due to her age.  This Flower Girl dress has a scoop neckline, a waistline with self fabric chording, and a three quarter puff sleeve with chording trim.  The skirt is an all over Cotton Eyelet print gathered at the top with an embroidered Eyelet ribbon boarder at the hemline of the skirt.  The soft taffeta lining skirt that is under the top skirt has embroidered Eyelet ruffles to complete the hemline of the dress.  The trick here is the top skirt hangs well over the ruffles attached to the lining skirt, this adds a nice affect to the styling of the dress and makes it much lighter to wear.  The love, adoration and emotional bond they share together is why I chose to name these illustrations the “Mother & Child Series.” There is nothing like having a daughter or daughters.  Mothers are blessed as they remain close, and are so special to us throughout our lives…🖤