New to my shop: Olivia

It's been a while but hopefully its worth the wait. I've just added an elegant new bride to my Etsy shop named Olivia. I drew her a few months ago while working on a wedding poster of multiple brides (which I've yet to finish.) I forgot about Olivia until a client emailed me asking if I had anymore African-American brides which prompted me to go through my files and gather a few options to show her. The client chose Olivia, and since printing the illustration out, she's become one of my favorites. If you'd like a print of Olivia you can purchase her through the listing here.

Yellow Wedding

I thought I'd share a few pictures from the wedding I was just in this past weekend. I know this isn't exactly a wedding blog, but so much of my custom work is bridal illustrations and wedding websites, so it is semi-related! You may remember my hunt for a yellow bridesmaid dress (which I previously blogged about here), well I finally found one, as did my friends and fellow bridesmaids:

(Andrea, Jamie, Brooke (me), and Keiko)

All of us were close high school friends, so it was nice to get together for a few days and have some "bonding time." The wedding was out in Pennsylvania where the groom grew up. A few of us bridesmaids drove out there from NYC early to help the bride with pre-wedding details. We arranged flowers for the centerpieces, tied tags on the guest gifts, strung place cards, made welcome gifts for hotel guests, painted signs, created a dessert buffet, made sangria, and baked the cake. (<-I kid you not!)

It was a tall order, but in the end the wedding was truly beautiful. My favorite element actually ended up being the all the different yellow dresses! Next up were the driftwood signs I painted (which I'm thinking could be fabulous in my Manhattan kitchen), the programs I designed were detailed with a Martha Stewart eyelet hole punch and came out super cute, and the beautiful table-scapes which consisted of chopped wood bases, mason jars of rustic flowers, pillar candles, damask table runners from Etsy, and napkin rings handmade of vintage fabrics.

(Ines, Brooke (me), Tina, Andrea, and Jamie)

If you're wondering where the bride is, you're just going to have to wait. My wedding gift is a custom fashion illustration, so I'll share photo's of her once I've completed my illustration. I work from actual wedding pictures which is why it wasn't done beforehand. If you like you can click here to see examples of other custom bridal illustrations I've worked on.

Summer Chic

Since summer is officially half way through and there's only one month left to soak up the sun while sporting your tunics, sandals, and ridiculously huge, yet totally chic, large brim hats, I thought it was a great time to share some more illustrations from the talented Audrey Schilt.

These designs are for the Ralph Lauren Cruise Collection of 2004. Audrey described this collection by writing "I could have fun being creative with ideas that were more about the surf and sand. Beading with a shell inspiration, or coral motif. Swimsuits, coverups, easy soft suiting, sarong inspired dresses for both day and evening!

"The sketches have an airy lightness with lots of movement. Cruise is the time of year people travel to warmer climates...they want cloths that travel easily and are free feeling...not restricting. I always tried to make the sketches reflect the freshness of the season."

The illustrations shown here were all part of her exhibit at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. I previously featured her work on Fabulous Doodles here, here and here.

Fashion Illustration Exposed

A little while ago, I was contacted by the lovely Julia Stanescu of Fashionarium. She asked me if I would be willing to write two tutorials as a contributing fashion illustrator. Well I jumped at the opportunity and now I'm excited to tell you about the fabulous new book Fashion Illustration Exposed.

This book empowers readers to easily explore practical techniques of fashion illustration while learning about the tools and steps that ten fashion illustrators (including yours truly) employ. Mediums such as watercolor paint, pen, collage, and photoshop are all touched upon. (It has even inspired me to dig out my old watercolors and guaches that I haven't touched since college!)

It's such a thrill for me to be included in this book. I hope you all like it and like myself, learn something new. Fashion Illustration Exposed is available as a printed paperback as well as a downloadable ebook, which ten of my readers can purchase with a discount of 20% off. Its available by clicking here, and the discount code is brooklit. (The discount is only available to the first 10 Fabulous Doodles readers to purchase.)

Bridal Illustration Art Wall

Hello everyone! I'm sorry about the lack of posts lately here on Fabulous Doodles, its been a very busy summer. I've been juggling freelance product design work, website illustration clients, mile-stone birthdays, family reunions, traveling for showers and wedding events, and new bridal clients. Tis the season, I guess right!

Large 13"x19" poster size prints available in my shop: www.Brooklit.com

I thought it would be nice to share this art wall of some of my favorite framed bridal illustration prints. I created it a while back for a presentation. Wouldn't it be perfect for a wedding planners office, or maybe a bridal dress salon?

Fabulous 4th

(Renaldo Barnette illustration of Michele Obama for Kai Milla, and sketchbook illustration.)

I hope everyone is enjoying a long weekend of barbecuing, fireworks, and sinking your toes in the sand. But just in case your stuck indoors and happen to be looking for some fashion inspiration on this fine holiday I pulled a few illustrations from some of my favorite designers.

(Bob Mackie costume illustrations for Cher and Pink.)

See, you can be fabulously patriotic sporting red, white and blue and not look like a walking American flag! Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans.

(Audrey Schilt fashion illustrations for Ralph Lauren Collection.)