Coveted runways. Bodacious baubles. Beauty bobs. Fab florals.

Jonell Melville sketches them all with serious personality.

Jonell Melville is a self-taught fashion illustrator who captures the elevated moments and sartorial stories of women of color. Often times, fashion illustration shows one kind of beauty; Jonell draws with the intention to amplify a range of ethnicities in her illustrations and brings a storytelling spirit to every piece.

Her style is rooted in expressive, gestural line work. Working across traditional ink and digital illustration in Procreate, she pairs bold sumi ink strokes with looser mark making and strategic negative space to capture silhouette, movement, and mood.

Rich, intentional color brings each piece to life, and the result is a graphic novel sensibility with an editorial edge, well suited to fashion, beauty, and lifestyle work.

Jonell draws inspiration from runway shows, editorial campaigns, florals, jewelry, and fashion artifacts from her own closet, translating texture, color, and line work into illustrations with punchy personality.

About the Artist
Jonell Melville is a Trinidad-born boy mom who resides in Florida. She loves Jesus, a high/low fashion moment, everyday diamonds, mixing her metals, Earl Grey tea, journaling, and a good book. When she’s not drawing, she’s most likely watching Love It Or List It, folding laundry, and/or building Jurassic World Lego sets with her son.