Custom Bridal Illustrations

Summer is wrapping up and for me that means many custom bridal fashion illustration orders are being shipped out. This wedding season has brought on lots of new custom bridal sketches and over the next few weeks I plan to share a bunch of them. To start here are two of my recent favorites.

First up was commission by a personal friend, Lou (the groom.) Lou was excited to surprise his beautiful bride Adele with a custom bridal illustration on their one year anniversary.  What Lou didn't even realize, was just how appropriate that was because the traditional gift for the one year anniversary is "paper!"

This next bridal illustration was a gift as well but this one was a wedding gift for the newlyweds from the brides sister Jillian. To commission a custom illustration of your own or to learn more about my custom process you can check out this post from last year as well as the custom listings in Brooklit Bride.

Birthday Girl

This fancy little sketch adorning my party invitation is part of a group of line drawings I've been working on here and there inspired by my Pinterest finds. My birthday was this past weekend and I decided to throw a last minute party on the roof of the Empire Hotel for any friends who were in town. (NYC tends to clear out on summer weekends, especially in Aug.) I designed and emailed the invite literally the night before, and quickly chose this little sketch to go on it since she was fun and festive. The next day a friend pointed out that she looked a lot like my current Facebook pic (also shown above) and asked if I drew it especially for the occasion. I honestly didn't even realize it! Although the photo is similar I'm no where near a size zero, like the girl in the sketch. Since I really like how the invite turned out, as well as the fun night with friends that followed, I thought I'd share it with you. (Here is the girl, fashion blogger Blair Eadie that actually inspired the drawing, from my She's a Sketch board.)

Party Guest Fashion Illustrations {Part 2}

I'm excited to share more custom fashion illustrations I sketched a few weeks ago for guests at the Cameo PR party. It was such a successful event, my table (shown above with framed examples of my work and my portfolio) was continuously crowded with ladies eager to be illustrated. It seemed as though every guest was decked out in her best party frock and looking like a sketch already. (Maybe you remember my "She's a Sketch" posts!? Or follow my "She's a Sketch" Pinterest board? These girls would surely fit there, totally chic and sketch worthy.;)

I have to honest, people watching me draw has always made me a little nervous, even back in high school when we'd visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art and sit to draw "studies" of the classic works. But this was so relaxed, drawing while chatting with all these lovely ladies as they waited for their custom illustrations. Everyone was so enthusiastic and supportive and overall it was a really enjoyable evening of sketching.

Each party guest happily posed for a quick pic before they took home their original signed sketch drawn in pencil and colored with marker (mostly with Copics, as shown above) in a protective cello sleeve.

You can check out my previous post about this live party sketching event here in Part 1 and you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com for rates to sketch live at your soiree; corporate events, weddings, sweet 16's, bat-mitzvahs, bridal showers, etc. I'd love to hear about your event and work together.

Material Guy

Last week I was contacted by one of my favorite repeat clients, the Material Girls, to illustrate the newest member of their team, who surprisingly is a man! Meet the new "Material Guy." I drew him based on a image sent to me of a painted portrait from the 18th century. We kept his hair blond to match all the Marie Antoinettes that I previously drew for the girls and I added blue with gold accents for a regal touch.

You can check out some of my previous commissions for Material Girls here and here on Fabulous Doodles and here on Material Girls. (<-If you click on each city name you will see a different Marie themed illustration for each header.)

Sister Sketches

A while back I was commissioned by three stylish sisters to create custom fashion illustrations for their online boutique. The girls each had their own unique fashion sense and clear vision of how their sketches were to be styled, dressed and drawn. The sisters were lovely to work with, and I thought it was about time I shared the sketches and their shop, 3 Sisters Style. Above I've featured two of the sisters (the two that mirror my current surroundings as I write this post on vacation in Maine!) Greer to the left with her nautical stripe top, woven leather bag and skinny jeans and Laurel in her ocean hued ombre sundress with sun glasses atop her blond highlighted hair, would fit right in here. For a look at the third lovely sister and to browse their San Francisco based e-shop click on over to 3 Sisters Style.

(Illustration by Brooke Hagel)

Fashion Illustrations of Party Guests {Part 1}

Last week I participated in a fabulous party/event where I sat and live sketched quickie fashion illustrations of party guests. My illustration table turned out to be quite the hit of the party and resulted in some fun and fashionable new sketches, like the one shown above of Kimberly, the lovely author of Eat.Sleep.Wear. I did share (via Twitter & Instagram) a few pictures of illustrations fresh off my sketchbook that night but thought I'd feature some more of my favorites here on Fabulous Doodles.

This "Midsummer Soiree" was thrown by Cameo PR as thank to the NY based editors and fashion bloggers whom they work with on a daily basis. I was only signed on to draw guests for 1.5-2 hours but my table got so crowded and I had such a long list of party guests wanting an illustration that I ended up staying and sketching just over 3 hours without getting up even once! It was a challenge to capture each guest in a such a small time frame but I tried to zero in on something that made them unique and made their personality and style shine through. For some it was their edgy summer party frocks and rocking attitude, like Kim's cheetah print silk shorts and dark shades, or Dawn's classic LBD and giant quilted Chanel bag.

 As for other guests/models it was their demeanor and pose witch made their personality come through in the drawings. The top two friends wanted to be drawn together and I loved how their two summer dress looks complimented one another as well their stance. Sarah (in the middle above) was adorable in her preppy "anchor pants" and I tried to capture her preppy-chic style in a comparable fun and flirty pose.

My live party guest sketching station was certainly a success, guests were thrilled with their illustrations and I plan share more sketches from the event later in the week. For rates to sketch at your event you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com.

(All images and illustrations: Brooke Hagel)