Illustrator Spotlight: Rihanna Favorite Hayden Williams

Hayden Williams' energy is pretty infectious: Through his vibrant, idealized illustrations of women, the illustrator has become a phenom for his signature, amazon silhouette.

"One woman even said to me, 'Is it weird that I want to look like your sketches?'" Williams laughs. The fact that Rihanna used his uncommissioned portrait as her Twitter profile picture sealed his sought-after status.

At the mere age of 20, Williams is a student and aspiring fashion designer, and claims his passion for illustration manifested itself at the tender age of three. "As a child, I was obsessed with Disney movies, and I would constantly draw the animated female characters until they looked up to my standards, which was nothing less than perfect," says Williams. "All those years of drawing the female form [made for a] natural progression into fashion illustration and design as a teen."

Williams has also played social media to his advantage, developing an impression legion of followers across Tumblr and Twitter, and of course the Rihanna affiliation certainly can't hurt.


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