Alisha Jade

Year of birth: 1994
Where do you live: Toronto, Canada
Your education: BA International Studies
Describe your art in three words: Symbolic, restorative and vivid
Your discipline: Digital Illustration and Garment Construction
Website | Instagram

What inspired you to focus on legends and oral traditions from the African continent for this project?

My biggest inspiration is my mother and her family who immigrated to Canada from South Africa, giving me a fond personal connection to the continent. Earlier this year, I created a coloring book that celebrates fashion from cultures around the world, and there was a lot of positive reaction to the African countries featured in the book. People were really interested in learning more about African fashion and culture! This pleasantly surprised me, and I jumped at the chance to create educational material that could still be considered art and fashion.

It’s no secret that African textiles and garments are commonly copied and deemed “original” all the time. I want to create something within fashion that celebrates African culture without discrediting those it belongs to. Originally, I imagined this concept of creating a digital collection that depicts African gods and goddesses as modern-day superheroes, each with a connection to a precious gem from their respective country or region—kind of like how some cultures depict Buddha with gold and jade statues. As I dove into this concept and started doing research, I realized that there are so many untold and legendary stories from the continent. This helped me conclude that a better format for these illustrations would be a book rather than a digital collection, giving me the chance to add context to the characters and revive their stories.

How do you approach the process of turning traditional myths into modern-day superhero illustrations?

It all starts with researching each god, myth, or legendary figure and compiling as much background information as possible. I try to find out what the person or being is associated with, their powers, well-known tales or achievements, and any physical traits available. Once I get a snapshot of the character, I enter fashion design mode. I choose fabrics that the character would wear or that relate back to their country or tribe. When I feel like I have enough color and texture in my fabric swatches, I start my illustration. By this time, I’ve built an idea of how the character should look based on research and my personal fashion design aesthetic.

Alisha Jade, Self Portrait, 2024

Could you share how your background in garment construction and digital design influenced the character designs in this series?

Being a fashion designer greatly influences how I approach both the character designs and the process of compiling my illustrations. I create these characters the same way I would create a garment. For me, research for the character and creating a snapshot is the same as creating a sketch for a garment. The next step is sourcing fabric. Sometimes I photograph a swatch, or sometimes I create an illustrated fabric. Then I work on the body of the character, aka the “mannequin,” followed by creating the silhouette of the outfit. Once I’m content with the silhouette, I layer the fabrics onto the design, which is like draping layers of fabric onto a mannequin. The last step of producing a garment is stitching everything together and adding final details, which is the same with my illustrations. The last stage is always adding decorative elements and shading. The fact that I’ve created two digital collections and two coloring books prepared me for creating illustrations in a consistent style that flow with each other and accurately depict important cultural elements.

What kind of research did you conduct to ensure the accuracy and cultural authenticity of the stories and characters?

Some of my illustrations are based on real people and kingdoms, which provided me with a wealth of books, journals, and web resources to compile background information. However, researching gods, goddesses, monsters, and myths is more complicated. Many explanations are vague, or origin stories conflict with each other. In these cases, I go further, exploring travel blogs and forums from people who have visited tribes and heard their stories in person. From all the information I gather, I create a snapshot of what each character represents, and from there, I let my artistic style and interpretation of the character take over.

My intention is to include all African countries (and surrounding islands) in my book. Before drawing anything, I created a master spreadsheet of my findings. This spreadsheet includes months of research on each country’s tribes, their gods and goddesses, textiles, prominent myths, precious gems, and major pre-colonial kingdoms or events—my own map to the legendary continent of Africa.

To be honest, the amount of information I gathered exceeded my expectations and amazed me with how much I was learning. While still in the research stage, I decided to create a first book celebrating African myths and legends and a second book celebrating African tribes and textiles. The intention is that when both books are placed side by side, they’ll paint a beautiful picture of each country in Africa. With so much history and culture to share, I felt inspired to give all these elements the proper spotlight they deserve.

Alisha Jade, The Lovers, 2024

Why do you think it’s important to revisit and celebrate pre-colonial African stories today?

Pre-colonial African history is often missing from history classes and books. Apart from Ancient Egypt, I can’t say I learned about a single African kingdom, royal family, or tribe throughout my younger school years. It was only when I went to university that I learned about the scramble for Africa and how modern-day borders were created. Should western-centred history be common knowledge while it’s so deeply and darkly connected to the African history that’s ignored?

Today’s education system focuses a lot on colonialism, globalization, and how the world became the machine that it is. We forget the great cities, kingdoms, and civilizations that prospered before they were plundered. And if history can make us forget real events that happened and real people that lived, then the oral stories, myths, and legends barely stand a chance unless they are highlighted and celebrated.

What message or emotions do you hope viewers take away from this collection?

I hope that with this project I can pique the viewers’ interest, introduce them to someone or something they have never heard of before, and inspire them to take a deeper look into the history of Africa. Hopefully, seeing all the amazing people and stories from the continent will also create a feeling of pride and excitement.

Alisha Jade, The Magicians, 2024

Do you see your illustrations as a way of bridging the gap between fashion, art, and cultural education?

I think in recent years there has been a lot more coverage and access to African culture for people outside the continent through music and films. Creating this project from a fashion and art standpoint, to me, is an opportunity for these stories to reach a different audience. I think that creating these African Giants can bring awareness to real kingdoms and legendary people as well as myths and legends that tribes still honor to this day. Hopefully, my designs can create enough visual interest to grab a viewer’s attention, and the story behind it will teach them something new.

Alisha Jade, The League of African Giants, 2024