My Visual Packing List

What you may ask is a visual packing list? Well, I'm going away for 3 weeks and need to travel with a wardrobe suitable for the wide variety of activities I'll be participating in and places I'll be visiting. Our itinerary consists of everything from hiking and biking -in 100 degree heat- to visiting sites where we need to follow "modesty laws," (your legs, shoulders and chest should be covered.) We need to have cute going out outfits for fun summer nights on the town and comfy casual cloths for sight seeing. So where to start?

Being such a visual person, having a image to reference is invaluable when trying to get ready in an instant. When stylists pick outfits for their clients, or style fashion shows, every look is captured in a Polaroid. Well Polaroid film is super expensive, and now super hard to find as they've stopped making it (boohoo), so I've come up with an alternative.  Instead of riffling through my suitcase trying to figure out what I brought and what matches what, I can just look at my "visual packing list" of quick doodles of all that I've packed and pick something. In the past it's been really helpful (although friends think I'm nuts!!!), so I've done it again. The photo above is page one of two...yes I'm an over-packer. 

So I am off for a few weeks, "packing list" in tow. (Actually it's stored on my camera, much easier than pulling out a big piece of paper. I can just zoom in to see each look close up) Promise to post as soon as I get back!

My final Zaji Girl sketches

A few weeks ago I completed a freelance project for Zaji Girl Magazine, an online magazine for the traveling girl on the go. My sketches are not only up on their website, but they've been animated to Lily Allen's song 'Mister Blue Sky.' Something weird is going on with the "London" illustration (not shown here... the bus and flowers are kind of floating, not sure why but I'm hoping it will be fixed soon) other that I think they came out cute.

I think my favorite is the girl in Paris, I'm just a sucker for shopping. Especially at those stores! Ahh a girl can dream.

Summer Suits

Summer has officially arrived, although here in NY it's been raining just about everyday for what seems like forever. I've been getting ready for a big trip abroad and with that comes the dreaded bathing suit shopping. It started off rough, but thanks to Gap, JCrew, and Target, I have 3 cute new tankini's making the idea of laying on a beach with five of my friends (male and female) not so daunting.

Here is a page from my college portfolio. The theme of my collection was "The Concrete Jungle; the jungle invades the upper east side." (shhh, don't tell but I'm really a upper west girl!) Although it's not recent work I thought the bathing suit page would be a nice image to kick off my summer posts. Enjoy!

My winning design...

106 Artists entered, 12 judges chose 20 finalists, and over 8,000 people voted! Vaute Couture has produced the coat inspired by my winning design! I'm really happy with how it came out, I think it's super cute and girly and love the color options offered. You can see my original sketch here at the top of this post, and below are photo's of the produced coat from the fall/winter 2009 lookbook (which you can download here).

Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart is the visionary behind Vaute Couture. Her mission is to create fabulous vegan/eco conscious coats with the help of emerging artists. (We thank you Leanne!) The coat is made of performance based fabrics, that are water/wind resistant, heat retaining, and have a windproof lining! I suppose Leanne, being a Chicago girl, knows how to pick fabrics to withstand those rough winters.

Since it's a tiny label just starting out, they will be producing 25 of each coat in each color for a limited launch collection. Pre-order special offer here: If you pre-order now through June 30th they will match your deposit amount, as cash off your balance!

It's about Time-x!

Last October Timex commissioned me to draw six fashion illustrations coordinating with watches from their spring trends. I completed the job so long ago, that I forgot that besides being in brochures (which they sent me copies of) and available for print, they were due be on their website. I don't know what made me look, but tonight I decided to check their site, and there they were!

Because Timex "takes fashion from the runway to your wrist" the assignment was to draw women wearing Timex watches, each one fitting into one of the season's trend groups: The Romantics, White-Out, Roaring 20's, Jet-Setter, Pedal to the Metal, and Black & White.

After countless emails and phone calls with the Timex group debating things such as design details, garment silhouettes and hair color, and some of the sketches being thickened up in photoshop (because I naturally tend to draw very skinny ladies), they got completed and are up for viewing. You can also download a pdf version of their Spring 2009 Style Brochure with all six of my drawings from their website here: Timex Style. (<-This link is old and longer links to the work I did)

Pretty Presentation

It's such a nice feeling to open up a package or gift and know that someone took the time to wrap it or put in that extra special touch just for you. I'm pretty crafty, if I do say so myself (fun fact: the queen of crafting, Ms. Martha Stewart, and I share the same birthday. I met her once when I was in high school and I told her that!) I wanted my clients to feel that crafters touch when they open up my work. This is a photo of how my orders are shipped. The envelopes change, as I try to recycle when possible, but this is what the order looks like inside. 

The print(s) are placed against a piece of foam core, so that the art work will not get bent. A wide piece of pink tulle is wrapped around the corners, to make sure the print doesn't move, then its tied into a pretty bow. It's completed with a little thank you card, this cute doily one is from etsy (sorry, I can't find the link for exact seller), I also sometimes use personalized wood grain ones from Paloma's Nest. I add a business card and it's ready to ship out.