Editorial Illustration - Outdated Laundry Habits!

As part of my homeschooling, my mom (a professional illustrator, if you didn’t know) and I have been doing an “illustration as a business” class to build my portfolio and design skills.

My latest assignment for this class was an editorial illustration based off of an article by Real Simple Magazine, called “7 Outdated Laundry Habits that are Ruining your Clothes (and Washing Machine!)” I read the article, sketched out some ideas, and (through a LOT of trial and error) ended with the illustration below!

I wanted to show a 50s-style housewife admiring her spotless outfit in the mirror, with her back turned to the audience, where we can see the mud and flies speckling her dress.

My first (and second, and third, and so on) drafts just simply weren’t working. And my deadline was approaching fast! I was stressed about not getting it in on time, and it was making my work worse. But my mom said that the only way to get around that is to just keep going with it. Try new mediums, test new styles, play with it! It’s supposed to be fun. So that’s what I did. And I’m actually pretty happy with the end result!

Here’s the link to the article: https://www.realsimple.com/outdated-laundry-habits-8699713