Overview

Now based in London, Lucia Emanuela Curzi is both an illustrator and a textile designer. She loves the sea, wildlife and horseback riding, and when she was a child kept a rooster for a pet. After working in advertising for four years, she decided to make use of her drawing skills and do something that would reflect more of her personal vision. Fashion and beauty illustration was the obvious career.

Training

Lucia has a BA in Media Design, which she followed up with courses at the London College of Fashion.

Approach

Sometimes, Lucia will bring together lots of photographic references and create a preliminary collage before beginning an artwork as well as doing some sketches. Her actual illustrations are created on paper using ink, watercolour, pastels, pens or acrylic – though not necessarily all together. The hand painting stage is very free and instinctive. For Lucia, there are so many variables about working by hand that a computer just can’t replicate. However she does use Photoshop to tweak and perfect a piece.

Style

Strong black ink marks, elegant lines and splashes of colour all characterise Lucia’s style. And you’ll also notice leggy girls feature in many of her images! She specialises in fashion and beauty work for editorial, advertising and textile clients. Lucia also does live fashion illustration at events using either natural media or a graphics tablet. Other areas she works in include architecture, hand-rendered type and packaging.

Client List

• The Sunday Times
• Estée Lauder
• Mary Portas Agency
• Selfridges
• Kurt Geiger
• InStyle
• Company magazine
• The V&A
• Warehouse
• Tate Gallery