Mallory Heyer — Bold Colourful Portrait Illustrator

Minneapolis illustrator Mallory Heyer knows just how to bring a portrait to life. By adding seemingly random coloured shapes she’ll turn an already well drawn facial form into a unique work of art – vibrant, exciting and highly individual. Thanks to the unique style she’s developed, her clients include some of the biggest lifestyle and entertainment brands, and Mallory never runs out of ways to make her subjects look fascinating and engaging.

After graduating with a BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Mallory went to New York where she studied at the School of Visual Arts and launched her illustration career. Clients love how she captures people’s faces and the added expressiveness of her colour treatments. She is inspired by cinematic compositions and lighting, fashion, as well as abstract and traditional paintings by artists including Euan Uglow and Hilma af Klint.

Approach

With a background as a painter, Mallory now embraces digital tools and the strong effect perfect vector curves bring to her images. Illustrations begin with a lot of pencil sketches, with tighter drawings developed on her computer, where she blocks in her eye-catching colour selections.

Styles

Mallory has two main styles. The first involves expressively drawn images with boldly coloured shapes layered over them in random patterns for a captivating overall finish. Working in her second style, she creates slightly more graphic images using bold blocks of colour and a striking composition.