The Best Gifts Come in Small Packages

I guess it’s like “they” say, maybe the best gifts do come in small packages. At last weeks Oscar's gifting suite I offered a wide variety of products from my shop including 8”x10” and 5”x7” prints of my fashion illustrations, poster prints, notebooks, bookmarks, magnets, and some gift certificates for custom illustrations.

To my surprise the most popular items were the bookmarks and magnets. The celeb’s were loving them and they went fast. If you’d like to have one too you can purchase them from my shop. The bookmarks can be found by clicking here and the magnets here.

Do I sound like an infomercial? I’m sorry, but they really were the fave’s of the day so I thought I’d share!

Tuesday Tip: Faces

I've received lots of emails asking me to explain drawing faces. Similar to "poses" the face is easiest to tackle from the front, head on. (No pun intended!) Three quarter and profiles are a little more difficult, so I'm only going to explain the front view for you now.

1. You start by drawing an egg shape with lines up and down and side to side, both through the center.
2. Halfway between the bottom and the center line you mark a dash for the nose, and halfway between the nose marking and bottom you mark a dash for the mouth. The eyes are drawn right across the center line. They're almond shape, and the space between them is equal to the width of one eye.
3. Draw the hairline, the contour of the mouth and the eyebrows. This is also the time to contour the face. You can curve in at the eye line, the cheekbones, and shape the jaw line.
4. Add the eye iris, the colored part of the eyeball. It should be a circle that is "cut off" by the eyelid and the the bottom lash. Having the iris "cutoff" is one of those details that makes the illustration more authentic and real looking as opposed to a floating dot of color surrounded by white.
5. Color. First lightly erase all your lines. Then start by adding one coat of the chosen skin tone, then with the same marker draw the shadows on the upper eyelids, side(s) of the nose, top of chin, cheekbones and neck. Also apply color for hair (for previous tip on hair click here), eyes, and mouth. And polish off the sketch with colored pencils.

This is a very basic face. Of corse you can create a more unique face by angling or enlarging the eyes, or narrowing the mouth, or pulling it to one side to create a smirk. You can also play with the face contour and jaw to make a long and narrow face, or very angular face. The possibilities are endless. Like I suggested with poses, it also helps to have photos to reference.

If you have any questions on faces, please ask me in the comments section so that your question, and my answer, can be shared with everyone.

Oscar’s Gifting Suite

This week I had the opportunity to participate in an Oscar’s Gifting Suite! Within just a few days I made 100+ samples to “gift”, hopped a flight from NY to LA, and shared my work at a Beverly Hill’s invite only pre-Oscar’s Gifting Suite.

There was a lot of last minute prep involved, since I was notified about this event pretty late in the game. But being that I’m no stranger to all-nighters or some hard work, and had help from good friends, everything came together without a hitch.

I met some fantastic people, including representatives from the other 15 companies participating, Oscar nominees, television and film stars, musicians, and pro athletes. Everyone seemed to really love my work. I got fantastic feedback from the guests as well as gave three filmed interviews! (I’ll see if I can find them online and share them with you here soon.)

In addition to gifting prints, posters, and bookmarks, I also gave some gift certificates for a custom illustrations which can be used towards a custom bridal illustration or to capture their favorite red carpet look.

The gift certificates are also being included in gift bags being sent to the ladies of One Tree Hill; Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Galeotti, Jana Kramer, Lisa Goldstein, and Shantel Van Senten. As well as Maria Shriver, and Jamie Lynn Sigler. It was a great event and what is hopefully the first of many.

(If you want to see all the photo's I'm going to post them all in album on my facebook fan page, so if your not a fan already there's no time like the present!)

Red Carpet Moment: Gwyneth at the Oscars

I’ve been waiting for this post ever since photographing this sketch and swatch at the Audrey Schilt exhibit at FIT. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Oscars and this is one of my all time favorite red carpet moments from Oscars past. Every girl should have a pretty in pink moment and Gwyneth’s 1999 Ralph Lauren silk taffeta gown was nothing less then fabulous in my opinion. Not only did Gwyneth win Best Actress that year, but rocking this dress she was the best-dressed winner as well! (As you can see from the tear, Vogue agrees!)

To watch the dress, (and Gwyenth) in action click here for a video of her emotional 1999 Oscar win and click here and here for my previous posts about Illustrator Audrey Schilt. Don't forget to tune in for tonight's live Oscar show! Fingers crossed there will be some fabulous fashion.

Illustrator: Steven Broadway

Meet another one of my college professors from my FIT days, Steven Broadway. I thought it was time I shared another example of the talent I was exposed to and got to learn from. You've already "met" Renaldo Barnette (here and here), and I've recommended (here) Steven Stiplemans book to every aspiring illustrator that contacts me! This is the work of fashion illustration professor, Steven Broadway. Fabulous, right! He has not only worked as a designer and illustrator in fashion, but in costume design as well.

Back when I had him as a professor he had just completed illustrations for the movie Zoolander! You can check out his website (here) if you would like to see more of his portfolio. A sketch I did while in his model drawing class was actually up in my Etsy shop until recently. (It's now sold out, but you can see it here.)

On another note, I have to apologize to you. Something exciting came up two days ago and I've been crazy busy. I'm actually off to LA in a few hours. I know my "Tuesday Tips" have been a big hit, but I'm going to have to skip this week. Maybe next week I'll give you a double dose to make up for it!

Orthodox Bride

Meet my beautiful friend Sarah. Sarah commissioned me to do a custom illustration of her in her wedding gown. (I didn't know her at the time of her wedding otherwise I would have offered one as my wedding gift, as I do for all my friends who are about to head down the aisle!) Sarah is an Orthodox Jew and therefore her wedding gown was modest, with a high neckline and long sleeves. This was out of my "bridal drawing comfort zone".

Drawing a bride is hard because they wear intricately detailed white gowns that I have to draw on white paper. Usually all the skin shown with a strapless gown helps to give the illustration depth and a frame of sorts around the dress, so this one obviously didn't have that. Also, knowing Sarah, she is such a beautiful girl, both inside and out and one of the most kind hearted people I've ever met. I wanted to really capture her in my illustration. (cheesy I know, but its true!) But I'm really pleased with the outcome and so was Sarah.