Custom Bridal Illustrations

Over the past few weeks, with summer coming to an end, I've been busy sending out new custom bridal fashion illustrations. I thought now, mid New York Fashion Week, would be a great time to share a few of these brides with you.

(Bride, Amy)

This first bride was a fun client to work with, not only did I love her gown, but her spunky personality as well. She told me she was "very sassy" and wanted her personality to shine through in the illustration.

(Bride Catherine, gift from her sister Christina)

This second bridal fashion illustration is unique for me. The reason being, although I've been doing these for years now she is my very first custom illustration commission for an Asian bride! I was so excited to work on her and absolutely love the chic simplicity of her minimal and modern look.

(Bride Lyndsey, gift from sis Drew)

Last but not least is this lovely southern belle wearing a classic sweetheart neckline, adorned with lace applique and a figure flattering waist-cinching bow on a-line gown. I happen to be a total girly girl, so this bride is certainly another favorite!

If you would like a custom illustration for yourself or to give as a gift you can check out the custom illustration listings in my Etsy bridal shop, Brooklit Bride. You can also read this older post detailing my custom process.

Sketches from Fashion Week Spring 2012 {Part 1}

(ADAM by Adam Lippes and Peter Som)

Its that time of year again, fashion week is in full swing and Manhattan is all a buzz with shows, parties and promotional fashion events. My favorite aspect of fashion week is the abundance of designer sketches from the new collections of corse.

(Lela Rose and Nanette Lepore)

This season I've grouped the designer sketches by color, and today I'm featuring the springy pinks, reds, and oranges with the occasional hint of navy.

(Elie Tahari and VPL by Victoria Bartlett)

When reviewing a wide array of designer sketches grouped together like this its interesting to take note of the different ways that you could approach your own fashion illustrations. There's a simple, stylized and slightly edgy technique used by ADAM (which happens to be my favorite of this post), or the bold and cartoon-esque look of Nanette Lepore and Elie Tahari.

(DKNY and Tommy Hilfiger)

Another interesting technique you could play around with is a mix of a pencil drawn figure with a marker colored-in, garment as seen in both the Lela Rose and VPL by Victoria Bartlett illustrations.

(Milly by Michelle Smith)

Last but not least is the quick looking more gesture-drawing style sketching as seen in the Peter Som, DKNY, and Milly sketches. What's your favorite illustration style?

(Designer sketches from Pantone)

Anthropologie Welcomes Decor8 Holly Becker

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of meeting Decor8 blogger and best selling author of Decorate, Holly Becker. New York was the very last stop of her US book tour and although mother nature almost interfered by giving us a earthquake and then a hurricane, Holly made it to NYC safe and sound.

I've been reading Holly's blog for years, long before I started Fabulous Doodles. I've also taken Holly's class Blogging Your Way, not once but twice! So needless to say it was a thrill to finally meet the lovely lady herself. Anthropologie hosted the event in their Soho store, which started off with a presentation by Holly on assembling a successful mood board.

A funny thing happened, during the presentation Holly talked about the importance of including key fabrics for color, texture and pattern to set the tone. She used a gold and pink swatch as an example of a fabric she loved and treasured. What's so crazy is that I had sent her that fabric about 5 years ago! At the time Holly had asked her readers to send any extra fabrics and trims they had to put together swatch packets as a giveaway. I was working as a designer and stylist and had an entire studio space filled with fabrics and notions so I sent her a nice big box and that swatch was one of them! I had bought it from Mood and used it on design boards for Seventeen and CosmoGirl. I remember it so well because I, like Holly, loved it too and had a big piece up on my office inspiration board.

After the mood board demo drinks, hor derves and cookies were passed around while everyone mingled and the book signing began. Holly mentioned a group was going for drinks after so I hung around waiting for the singing to finsih while having a great time getting to know Rashan Carraway, aka Mr. Goodwill Hunting and Mayne Richardson.

We had fun and did a little impromtu photo shoot around the store before heading over to the Soho Grand for cocktails with Holly and friends. (Including Paul and Marcia Zia Priven, Cristina Batch-Lee of Etsy, Abby Jacobs of West Elm, fellow fashion illustrator Samantha Hahn, stylist Raina Kattelson, and Brett Bara.) It was so nice chatting it up and getting to know such a creative group of people.

If you haven't already, you should go go pick up Holly's book Decorate. Its a fantastic visual guide to decorating and making your space uniquely yours. The book also has stunning images and tips from designers such as Jonathan Adler, Nate Berkus, and Vincent Wolf.

Vera Wang Designs for Kim K.

I was thrilled when I saw Vera Wang's tweet this morning directing me to her sketches of Kim Kardashian's three (yes, you read that right, she wore three) wedding gown designs. Needless to say, I love a designer sketch. Take a designer sketch and add in a celebrity or pop culture reference and I've got a guaranteed Fabulous Doodles feature. (You can check out similar previous posts with designs for 'Bella Swan' and Kate Middleton.)

This first dress, a classic princess ballgown design is the dress Kim wore to walk down the aisle for the actual wedding ceremony. As I love almost anything ballerina inspired, I adore the impressively large gathered tulle skirt and simplicity and elegance of the strapless lace bodice.

The second design, my personal favorite for Kim, is a dramatic lace ruffled mermaid silhouette that she donned for their first dance.

And last but not least, Kim's third dress is a v-neck bias cut satin gown with a flared skirt bottom. This one is the most simple and very old Hollywood and was worn to party the night away.

I'm so glad that Vera and the Wang gang decided to share these sketches. I wish more designers would follow suit. I'm also thankful thats its gotten me out my blogging rut! I can't believe its been a month since my last post. I'm sorry, its unlike me to let so much time lapse between posts but its been a nutty summer. (I have been posting on facebook and checking in on twitter though, so make sure you're a follower.)

Illustrations by Vera Wang

Custom Bridal Illustration: Emily

Another summer weekend has come and gone and with it another custom bridal illustration is mailed out to a bride. This one is Emily who happens to be a previous client actually. (No, its not her second wedding!) I previously worked with Emily years ago on seven custom Marie Antoinette inspired illustrations for her website, Material Girls.

Emily sent over a entire online album (from her photographer Taylor Lord Photography) of her bridal session photo shoot. It was the ideal way for me to work on a custom bridal illustration. It also didn't hurt that Emily is gorgeous and her stunning Lazaro dress wasn't too shabby either. Its often a bit of challenge to illustrate from the photos clients send over. They can be too small, poorly lit, and rarely have close up shots of the bride and the dress details. This was not the case here though as you can see from these lovely photos.

It was a joy to work with Emily again and I hope she likes her bridal illustration as much as I do! For your own custom bridal illustration or to give one as a gift, you can check out the custom listings in my Etsy bridal shop, Brooklit Bride.

The image above is from Wisteria, I simply photoshopped my illustration of Emily on in there. Emily does plan on custom framing the artwork though and I can't wait to see a photo of it and add it to my client photo album.

Back to Basics

Lately I've felt I needed a little jolt in the creativity department and these drawings may be it. I dusted off my sketchbook and am really excited to share my latest sketches. These are not the usual fashion illustrations I share here on Fabulous Doodles but they're a well needed breath of fresh air for me and my Etsy shop, Brooklit. I haven't drawn like this years and its such a nice thing to revisit.

It started about a few weeks ago when I decided to dig out my watercolors and paint some little mermaids for my bathroom (shown below). Then continuing my obsession with Pinterest, I found some fantastic photos, like this beautiful ballerina (above,) that inspired me to start drawing again. I used to be so opposed to drawing from a picture, that it wasn't really drawing if you were working off a 2D image. (I guess I've gotten over that one since building my custom bridal illustration business!)

Drawing, shading, and texturizing my subject with only pencil and using brushes and paints again has been like visiting an old friend I haven't seen in a decade. (I feel like I sound crazy, I realize this, but its true!)

So for the summer I've decided to keep this sketching momentum going by adding these sketches, starting with Brooklyn Ballerina to my etsy shop available as $6 mini prints. I think this will be a nice little summer project to reinvigorate me and the shop. Are you trying anything new for summer?