IllustrationX - Caroline So portfolio

Imagination, adventure and emotion are at the heart of Caroline So’s fashion and beauty illustrations, and they’re ingrained in her personality as well. Originally from Southern California, she set off for the Big Apple at 17 with the goal of working in fashion and she hasn’t looked back since. Now she finds herself producing stylish and slightly whimsical imagery for the biggest names in fashion and beauty, with a portfolio that’s going from strength to strength. She refers to her pen and paper as her oldest friends, and since she was a child Caroline has been exploring new ways of capturing facial expressions, poses, animals, nature and more. Caroline has 10 years of experience working in fashion design, and that background helps her find the right solutions for her clients with every image she creates. Her inspirations include Francis Bacon and Egon Shiele, and she also loves collecting novel perfume bottles, secretly watching reality TV, and backpacking. Favourite destinations include the states of Utah and Arizona, Florence and Salzburg, and she’s not ruling out Mars as a future stop.

Training

Caroline has a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, but her philosophy has always been to carry on learning new techniques to broaden her skills and style.

Approach

Each of Caroline’s illustrations begins with pencil sketching, so that she can establish her composition. Once she’s decided on a blueprint, she traces the most important lines in ink, scans them into her computer, and carries on the work in Photoshop. She loves creating a clean, modern feel because it goes well with her natural, hand-drawn linework.

Style

Caroline’s style is bursting with emotion, whimsy and life thanks to her linework and colour. She likes to bring a touch of joy to everything she does, and gives her subjects a sense of playfulness, delicacy and quirkiness.