Emily Isabella’s pattern-driven illustrations lean on her background in textile. Trained originally as a textile designer, she likes using gouache for her illustrations – a color also used in textile design as it dries flat and mimics screen printing.
“It wasn’t a deliberate choice,” she admitted in an interview with Ballpitmag, “however, I love exploring the relationship between line and flat color and gouache is the perfect medium for this. Also, it dries almost immediately so it’s great when you’re working on a deadline!”
Based in the Hudson Valley, just north of NYC, her drawings and gouache paintings have been applied to products like books, bedding, clothing, furniture, fabric, dishes, rugs, toys, and wallpaper; with clients that include Kate Spade, Anthropologie, and Flow Magazine.
Reflecting on her artistic background she recalls her childhood as pretty idyllic, with her parents being both artists and encouraging her to be creative and embrace nature. That creativity and love of nature carried well into adulthood. “I met my husband in art school and from the beginning, we’ve dreamed of building a place to house our creative endeavors,” she says. “We now live in the Hudson Valley on 15 acres and are building that studio! I guess my adult life mimics my childhood.”
“I feel very connected to my memories of childhood and I’m always interested in bridging the gap between childhood and adulthood,” she adds. Scrolling through her many patterns and illustrations might help in bridging that gap:
