New Brooklit Bride Fashion Illustration Print

Over the weekend I added this lovely new bridal print to Brooklit Bride, my bridal fashion illustration print shop. I sketched her about a month ago, while procrastinating by sketching (and instagraming) instead of getting ready for a wedding I had to head to over in Brooklyn. Since drawing her she's been front and center on my shelves and I simply adore her. I've named this print "Martha" since she's inspired by a photo I pinned from Martha Stewart Weddings and the name just seemed to fit her personality as well we the charming vintage vibe of her J.Crew wedding gown.

To purchase a print of Martha or for information on my custom bridal fashion illustrations, click on over to Brooklit Bride.

Kiss Kiss, Lipstick Prints for Dior & Vogue

I have another fun illustration project I worked on for Vogue to share, sketches of my lip prints for La Vie En Rouge, an event with Dior Beauty in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Rouge Dior. They sent me a handful of images of the new Rouge Dior collection and I illustrated lip marks for the team to use for lip-print analysis'. Since each lip print tells a story, Dior and Vogue were on hand to help determine what does your lip print say about you? The lip-print shown here is The Doll, with thin lips and light nude saturation (these would be my lips and my color of choice!) "Ever analytical, this woman is full of insights and is meticulously detailed. She is known for being organized, optimizing processes, and styling new looks." Okay, I'll take it!

I love sketching for beauty clients especially for such an iconic brand as Dior and this was certainly a unique out of the box project. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the event last week as it was at Saks down in Miami and I was at another Vogue event here in NY (which I'll post about on Fabulous Doodles soon) but I wanted to share the project with you. Also, check out the new Rouge Dior collection!  

Designer Sketches from NYFW Spring 2014 Collections {Part 2}

New York Fashion Week comes to an end today and closing it out is the designer behind one of my favorite inspirations sketches of this season, Ralph Lauren. His inspiration, along with these two from  Joie and Honor were three of my favorite stylized sketches from spring 2014. These pieces are all quite artistic and stylized, and certainly not your typical "fashion illustration" but they are all such beautiful pieces of artwork and examples of illustration.

Joie's inspiration (shown above) is a stunning use of mixed media. They combined a beautiful illustration with actual fabric swatches of textured whites to the paper and make tiny gathers to create the clothing silhouette. They also used a craft paper base, which you know I'm a huge fan of these days and have been illustrating on and experimenting with myself. (Remember this project for Vogue and Bobbi Brown)  

Next up is Ralph Lauren's simple yet powerful watercolor silhouette. Again, not your typical "fashion illustration" but such a wonderful minimal painting. Sometimes keeping it simple and showing restraint makes more of an impact, or as they say "less is more." I'm curious to see his collection this morning and see if this feeling is carried through to the collection. 

Lastly is Honor. At first glance this sketch seems to be just a floral appliquéd veil. It's only once you take a closer look and see the figure beneath veil: the head, the long arm, the tiered black dress, that you see how impressive this stylized illustration truly is. I would love to have a piece like this framed in my apartment. It also makes me want to whip out the gouache and experiment with painting layers of whites over a pencil sketch. 

These three designer illustrations from New York Fashion Week inspire me to take risks and experiment in my own artwork. Fashion illustration doesn't have to be traditional. Sometimes thinking outside the box can is where your creativity can truly flourish.  

Check out part 1 of my NYFW designer sketches for spring 2014.

(Fashion Illustrations by Ralph Lauren, Joie and Honor from WWD) 

Invitation: Illustrating for Vogue & B. Brian Atwood

 
I'm excited to share that I'll be live illustrating for Vogue Magazine this fashion week and you're invited! We'll be celebrating the launch of the new B. Brian Atwood handbag collection. Vogue along with Helena Glazer of Brooklyn Blonde will be hosting the soirée and I'll be on hand live-sketching guests with their new B. Brian Atwood handbags, giving each customer an original custom fashion illustration as a unique and personal gift with purchase.

Where: Bloomingdale's 59th Street on the Balcony

1000 Third Avenue

New York City

When: Wednesday, September 11th, 6-8:00 PM

Enjoy stunning bags in an intoxicating mix of shapes, textures and skins along with cocktails, sweet treats, and fashion illustrations. Hope to see you there!

Teaching Fashion Illustration at Stitched Fashion Camp

A few weeks ago I spent a day out in East Hampton teaching fashion illustration to the adorable campers of Stitched Fashion Camp. Stitched is the brainchild of Elle's creative director Joe Zee and Parsons adjunct professor Rob Yonkers. Its a week long summer fashion day camp that encompasses all the elements of the fashion industry and I had the honor of being asked to join as the industry expert on fashion illustration!

I prepared a handful of lessons including croquis (aka. fashion figures, its taken from French, the literal translation is "sketch." Its pronounced crow-key) development and various fabric and pattern rendering techniques, many of which were taken directly from archived Fabulous Doodles posts. I gave the fashion campers a lesson in fashion figures and poses and demonstrated rendering fabrics including sequins and beading, leopard, zebra, and denim. We also worked together one-on-one and I gave mini tutorials on drawing elements like faces, hair, hands and feet, just about anything the kids said they were struggling with drawing.

Throughout the day the kids tried the fabric rendering techniques I taught them and worked on illustrations of looks from their own mini collections. Many used the ditto's I handed out as a guideline, one of which is the photo-to-croquis example shown above (for more fashion figure info you can click over to my pose tutorial post.) And others created original fashion figures of their own from photo inspiration. Below is a picture of some their fabulous illustrations fresh from their sketchbooks.

Spending a day out in Hamptons and getting to work with these 12 kids ranging in age from about 10 to 15 was truly fantastic. The kids were so adorable, and so eager to learn and improve their illustrations. I have to admit I was a little nervous going in, as I had only ever tutored before one-on-one and this was my first real classroom setting but I have a feeling it won't be my last! It was such a wonderful and fulfilling experience, especially seeing the excitement in the kids eyes and the pride they exuded when they saw what they could achieve.

Click here for more about Joe Zee and Rob Yonkers Stitched Fashion Camp and if you're interested in my private tutoring and located in NYC you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com for rates.

Designer Sketches from NY Fashion Week (Spring 2014)

Time to drool over designer fashion illustrations fresh from the designers studios and hitting the runways. Unless you're living under a rock you probably know New York Fashion Week has kicked off this week and at the start of each fashion week WWD collects and publishes designer inspiration. Its something I, as a fashion illustrator and fashion illustration enthusiast always look forward to. This season it was a nice surprise to see that some designers opted to show more than one illustration from their spring collections. It's such a treat to see grouping of illustrations, how the collections take shape and the consistency of each designers illustrative style.

I absolutely love the first grouping of sketches from Erin Fetherston (shown above) inspired by her recent Barbados summer wedding. Her illustrations are all so feminine, soft and delicate while still conveying personality with their simple stylized top knots and a single dramatic eye. Rebecca Minkoff's sketches (below) are quite different but equally as striking. Her "strong Latina woman" inspired illustrations are certainly more detailed and the fabrics are thoroughly rendered yet not overdrawn.

Brandon Sun's sketches (below) are super simple pen and ink illustrations with no color, skin tone or design details yet you get the feel of his collection and its bold and modern Japanese samurai armor inspiration.

Last but not least is of one my longtime favorite designers, Oscar de la Renta. These illustrations are quite unique, they have classic Oscar features, faces and hair styles yet the garments are very stylized. Taking a close look, if I had to guess I'd say that the "dot calm" inspired clothing was rendered digitally from actual fabric scans. Their whimsical and fun styled illustrations for Oscar's always sophisticated, classic  and timeless designs.

For more designer illustrations from the NYFW Spring 2014 collections you can click over to Women's Wear Daily, as well as checking back here with Fabulous Doodles in a few days as I plan to feature a few more of my favorites but with an interesting twist.

(Fashion illustrations by the designer named.)