Coles Phillips Fadeaway Girl 2

C. Coles Phillips (1880-1927) is most well-known for creating the Fadeaway Girl. This book illustration is a fine example of the Fadeaway Girl technique. Coles used this technique in book and magazine advertising images. In these drawings the focus is on a beautiful woman, her clothing is colored in the same color as the background creating a faded out appearance. Even without those details, Coles is so skillful that our eyes automatically fill in what appears to be missing. In this example, it is the side of a lovely bride’s wedding dress. She stands before a tall mirror, perhaps taking one last look to ensure that everyone is just right before she walks down the aisle at her garden wedding. Tall orange-flowering trees set off the color of the bride’s hair decoration as well as the trim on the mirror.

This Coles Phillips book illustration of a Fadeaway Girl was not named so, for lack of a better way of keeping track of things, I’m calling her Fadeaway Girl 2 because she is the second of this type of drawing that I’ve posted on The Famous Artists.