Overview

Jacqueline Bissett goes horseback riding for fun, uses yoga to beat stress, works while her kids are in bed, and keeps the world of fashion happy using the classic lines of her incredible figurative illustrations. She also loves all-night clubbing, house music and is inspired by the colourful characters of Brighton’s gay scene.

Training

Studying fashion design at the Bourneville School of Art for two years, Jacqueline then moved to the Epsom College of Art and Design where she did the Fashion, Promotion and Illustration course. She began working in Lynne Robinson’s studio before she’d even graduated, gaining commissions from a range of women’s weekly magazines.

Approach

Sketching is everything for Jacqueline. She uses a range of photographs as reference, piecing them together into an entirely new image. Everywhere she goes, she takes photos for later use. In terms of colour, she’s usually inspired by what’s on the catwalk this season.

Styles

Jacqueline has two styles. Her watercolour style sees splashes of colour bled onto a wet page. It’s a playful approach, quickly executed, and with scope to tweak the look and feel in tune with the client’s brief. Black lines are added to the soft watercolours to really give the images some definition.

Her second style is collage, using Letrafilm to transfer blocks of colour onto the page and build up an illustration from shapes and lines. Letrafilm has been discontinued by Letraset, but Jacqueline has her own hidden stash. When certain colours run out, she augments her images using Pantone pens on tracing paper and cuts out the shapes or edges she needs.

Client List

• Givenchy
• Giorgio Beverly Hills
• Thomas Sabo
• Swarovski
• Mac
• Penguin Books
• Rigby & Peller
• Tatler
• HTC
• Samsung
• Kurt Geiger
• Space NK
• Warehouse
• George @ Asda