Vegas Bride

It's so fun to see a bride who thinks out of the box! For Beth's Vegas nuptials she did just that by choosing this adorable Topshop strapless white bustier dress in a red lipstick kiss print. It was such a fun illustration to work on, and I love how it came out. There's something about Beth's smirk and silky long hair makes this bridal illustration look very Disney princess to me. (If only there was a Disney princess who skipped the yacht wedding at sunset and headed to Sin City!)

Press!

Ever since I started my illustration business I've gotten some fantastic press. I thought it was time to put it together and post them together in one spot. I've created a facebook photo album here on my facebook fan page with some of my favorite features from magazines and blogs.

New Jersey Bride was the first magazine to feature me and one of my illustrations. It was such a trill to see my name in print next to my work! I had had illustrations printed before but it was always illustrations done for clients or my former company and I would never actually receive any credit. I think I actually gasped while I stood in line in a Barnes & Noble in Jersey and first saw this page with my feature.

The next time I felt this trill was with this feature in New Jersey Life Weddings. (I'm a born a raised New Yorker but New Jersey's really shown me some love huh!) The way that this feature came about was through a previous job. I was assigned to style a 2 day photoshoot in Pennsylvania for Country Living and I worked very closely with one of their senior editors, Jennifer Vreeland McDermott. On the long car ride back to NYC we talked about our interests and hobbies and I mentioned my budding bridal illustration business. About a month or two later I learned Jennifer was moving on from Country Living to become the new Editor in Chief of New Jersey Life! I sent her a congratulatory note and told her if she ever needed any sketches done that I would love to work with her again and share my portfolio. Soon after I received an email asking me to send some examples over. The rest is history, here is the tear from their premiere wedding issue.

This last image is from Design This Design That, a online art magazine. It was my first time being interviewed about my work and my process. I really love the look of the spread with my shop name over my Lily print and the text of the article overlapping one of my brides. You can read the interview by clicking here, and "turning" to page 107.

Project We Do

For the past 2 months I've been involved in an exciting new project called Project We Do (I actually came up with the name that the committee ended up choosing as the one!) What we're doing is bringing the community together to throw a wedding for very deserving couple who couldn't otherwise afford to have one. The Rabbi says that it's the biggest mitzvah (good deed) you could do, helping to bring a couple to the chuppah (wedding canopy).

For the site I illustrated a bride, groom, and chuppah which the website designer applied to the page as an animated element using flash. I also drew these fun little icons to be used on each page of the site. It's been a really successful collaboration working on designing this website and from the way things are going, and all the donations rolling in, it looks as if this wedding will be a memorable one.

We're still working on the site and will be adding to it daily. Just this past thursday we shot the first "webisode" to document our planning. As one of the head planners I'm co-writing the Planner Blog, so you can check in to read about our progress (here) and even weigh in by voting on different elements of the wedding. As I'm single, and haven't actually planned a wedding for myself yet, I'm really enjoying this project!

Peg People

For the past few weeks I've been working on a new project. Part of this project is to come up with illustrations to be used as graphics for a website. (The site has not gone live yet, but I will share it with you once it does.) My little bride and groom couple shown here got nixed by the committee, so I figured I'd post them here and share them with you. Cute right?

I was inspired by the custom cake toppers of Goose Grease. A few months ago I came across the Goose Grease booth at the Renegade Craft Fair and bought a blank set to paint myself for a wedding I'm in next September. (I know what her dress looks like after a fun trip to Klienfeld's, now I'm waiting on him to decide upon his look and I can start painting!)

Wedding Gift Ideas

I just found out that my Rebecca print is featured in Etsy's "Wedding Gift Ideas" gift guide! I've been a proud seller on Etsy for 2 years and 5 months and have finally made it to the Gift Guide. And as if it couldn't get any better, I'm the first listing in the group, so when the "wedding gift ideas" guide pops up on the Etsy home page, my illustration is there! I'd like to send a BIG thank you to the Etsy staffers for this one. :)

Step 3: Ta da!

Well as you may have guessed by the title of this post, step 3 in the custom order process is completing the final artwork. Once the line drawing is perfected and approved by the client, (Adam, who's name I can now share with you because he gave it to his wife Heather this past weekend for their first anniversary so it's no longer her surprise 1 year anniversary paper gift) I then get to work on the coloring and fabric rendering.

I love this step. This is where the illustration comes to life, the make it or break it moment (well, hours really). Some bridal illustrations take only one to two hours to render in color, like Heather here. But some take much longer, when the dress is head to toe lace or a ornate vintage gown. So here she is, I hope you liked seeing and reading about my process and getting a peak at my messy desk here.

I got an email from Adam last night telling the gift went over really well: "Heather loved it! It literally brought tears to her eyes!" I couldn't ask for anything more, I looooove a happy client! It was also such a pleasure to work with Adam, so thank you for that Adam, and thank you for letting me share it all here on my blog. Happy 1st Anniversary!

Step 1: Roughing it

Last week I got an order from another husband. I just love those husbands who order custom wedding illustrations as gift's for their wife's. It's so sweet! I decided this would be a nice opportunity to write about my process of creating a custom illustration.

After the client places the order with me, either through my etsy shop or by contacting me via email, he or she then emails me photo's from the wedding. Sometimes I receive entire online albums, sometimes a link to their photographers website, and sometimes its just a hand full of photo's. (I've also had situations where the wedding was a long time ago, so no online pictures exist, and in that case they sent me actual photo's through the mail and I returned them with the completed order.)

I also send the the client a questionnaire asking if they have a favorite part of the dress, prefer a specific angle (like a back shot), etc. Once I study the photo's and the questionnaire, I then get to work on what I call the "roughs". I sketch out different poses and different looks tyring to see what looks best and create a nice composition. Once I have a bunch I chose my favorite 3 or 4 roughs and email them to the client to see which one they would like to go with for the final bridal illustration. Which one would you chose? Stay tuned for step 2, which I'll post friday, and you'll see which one the client chose.

Why Chose Just One

When I start a custom illustration I always send the client a few "roughs". These are quick and loose sketches just to try out different poses and layouts to see which ones work, how to best show off the details of the dress, and which pose the bride would prefer. Often times there are emails back and forth contemplating the pros and cons of the different sketches and seeing if I could combine different elements of the different roughs into one.

Well Shannon here was the first bride I had who just couldn't decided, loved two of them, and decided to order both! One is simply her and her gorgeous dress, and is more of a traditional fashion illustration. And the second one is mimicking a shot from her photographers album fully styled with all her wedding props; veil, bouquet, and even a monogrammed umbrella.

Shannon was definitely a satisfied customer, because I received the the sweetest email from her shortly after mailing out the artwork:

"I had the most wonderful surprise in my mailbox yesterday - your illustrations arrived! I can't even describe how delighted I am. I literally gasped when I saw them! You captured every detail and I will absolutely treasure these forever. I took them in to a frame shop to have nice frames done up for them so I can hang them in my bedroom and enjoy them every day. Thank you so much for being so patient with me and working so hard to get everything perfect. You have a real talent for capturing the feel of the fabrics and movement. Thank you very much for the wonderful illustrations!"

I love a satisfied customer! That and knowing my artwork is up in someone's home, it just never gets old! Thank you for the "thank you" Shannon!

Brides brides and more brides

Being the heart of wedding season, I'm a bridesmaid in one wedding, planning another wedding, and sketching lots of bride clients. So I thought I'd share more of my past bridal clients with you.

Above are Sheryl and Scott. Sheryl is friend and former colleague of mine. She requested a sketch as her wedding gift, and here it is. I love her dress, don't you! I'm sucker for anything pink, so the pale pink satin waist paired with the delicate beading got me. I also love her bouquet choice. Perfect for their fall wedding in the Berkshires.

Lori is next, she is the pretty blond in the lace mermaid gown. Lace is one of those things I procrastinate working on because its so tedious to render properly, but then once your finished it's just beautiful. The same thing goes with most prints actually. I dread rendering prints like plaids and florals, but then once I get it done it's usually the highlight of the illustration. Another detail that I really like about this dress and I think came out really well in the illustration is the pleated trim around the top and bottom, it's a very nice touch.

And last but not least, in this post, is Mary Ann. For this job the client was her husband, Keith. I love it when i get to work with a husband, it's a very different experience then working with a bride or friend of the bride. When I begin working on a custom piece I send the client a few rough sketches for them to chose the pose and layout they like best. I was trilled when Keith picked this back pose. Most of the brides chose one that's a strict front view, it's nice to something different and it's also a great dress for this pose! In the photo, you can't see her pretty satin sash, so I moved it over a bit to highlight it in the illustration.

Wedding Season is Upon Us

I've been away for a few weeks and the majority of emails I received while away, as far as job inquiries go, were bridal. I love drawing brides and I love capturing a woman in one of the most important moments of her life, wearing her dream dress. I also love seeing people's wedding photo's! I'm such a girl, what can I say. I love seeing the shoes she chose, the flowers, the bridesmaids dresses, the color scheme for the wedding, ect... I can go on and on about this one!My whole illustration business started out because of the bridal illustrations I did for friends. I'm at the stage in life where many of my friends are getting married. I made personalized fashion illustrations for my close friends on their special day. They hung them in their homes, friends and neighbors saw them and would ask for my contact info. Before I knew it I had orders rolling in. 

I started an etsy shop to get my sketches "out there" and soon after I was featured in a bunch of great blogs such as Weddingbee, Wedding Paper Divas, and Pretty Little Things as well as in bridal magazines like New Jersey Bride and New Jersey Life Weddings. (Although I'm a born and raised New Yorker, I swear!) In the past 2 years I've worked on illustrations for wedding planners, editors, decorators, bloggers, greeting cards companies, websites and large corporations. It's been fabulous, but I have to say I really do have a sweet spot for brides! So here are some of my favorite brides from my illustration portfolio.