Fabulous Doodles Fashion Illustration blog by Brooke Hagel

New Etsy Fashion Illustrations

I've finally added new fashion illustration prints to my Brooklit Etsy shop and I'm excited to share them all! Although I'm constantly illustrating and creating new work for clients, Casetify and Instagram I honestly can't remember the last time I posted new prints to Etsy. These new prints are groups of three girls, like mini fashion collections. I'm really happy with them and hope my customers so as well. The first new print (shown above) is three designs inspired by Rachel Zoe. Originally there were five illustrations in this group but I played around in photoshop and edited it down to three. Of all the new prints this is my favorite, as its the most my style fashion wise. I also love the stylized nature of the illustration not being too detailed in the faces and elongated bodies.

Next up is Lady Gaga in a white Brandon Maxwell jumpsuit at this years Oscars. As anyone who follows me on social media knows I often live sketch award show red carpet looks to share my favorite fashion of the night. Gaga outdid herself with this look and I think I captured the moment and look well. Its a fairly simple but strong sketch since the look was elegant and not overly embellished. I primarily used marker and pen with a few touches of white gouache to highlight the hair and earrings. I made a print of her solo, as originally drawn, then also grouped Gaga together with two other sketches of favorite looks from the night, Priyanka Chopra in Zuhair Murad and Olivia Wilde in Valentino couture. The sketches of Priyanka and Olivia are a little less polished and more stylized with unfinished faces, but I think the grouping works well and it makes a strong print.

And lastly I have three lovely ladies inspired by Giambattista Valli couture (shown below.) This collection, and the styling of this collection with oversized bow headbands and dramatic swiss dot veils was a fashion illustration dream. The looks were so beautifully embellished, girly and simply couture at its best. They're also a wonderful color palette with tiny floral details in pale pink and peach with pops of black.

My goal is to revamp the contents of both my shops Brooklit and Brooklit Bride over the next month or two starting with these four new prints.

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Inspired Weekend: Spring

Yesterday was the first official day of spring and although it was actually snowing here in NYC I had quite the spring inspired weekend. So much so I thought I'd write a new "Inspired Weekend" post, which I haven't done in ages!

1. Flower crowns have been on my mind the past few since live-sketching a Beverly Hills party where half the girls I drew were wearing them from the on-site florist. They were so pretty and really added to the illustrations and when I returned home I found myself drawing them over and over again.

2. Saturday afternoon I celebrated my friend Joanna's birthday. Each guest was asked to bring a bouquet or two of blooms for a flower arranging party. To my surprise not only did we learn how to arrange flowers in antique teacups but we also learned to make our own flower crowns! I rarely post selfies but I couldn't resist once I had mine on!

3. Last week Woops bakery reached out to me to share that in addition to being the first day of spring, Sunday was National Macaron Day and they wanted to print a box of custom macarons for me. I immediately thought portraits of some of my flower crown girls could be adorable on a set of french macarons. They came out even better than expected, tasted delish and although I wasn't sure at first, I ended up loving the sketch assortment I sent them of portraits from previous instagrams and client projects. (Modified this Dreamdry x Teen Vogue sketch with a flower crown, a Viktor and Rolf bowed beauty, and two Naeem Kahn/Frida Khalo inspired illustrations.)

4. Last but not least, I finally added a bevy of new beauties to my long neglected Etsy shops! Even though I sketch new work constantly it had been forever since I added new prints to the shops. I decided to list some new prints with groups of three looks, like these pink, black and white embellished designs inspired by Giambattista Valli Couture.

Honest x Ladurée | Apple Pencil Party Sketching

Last week I flew back early from LA to join Jessica Alba and live-sketch custom fashion illustrations at her intimate affair for "Honest in Paris" at Ladurée Soho. The event was for select journalists and bloggers to give them a sneak peek at Honest's new Parisian themed products. It was my very first time drawing on an iPad Pro and trying out the new Apple pencil. I was quite nervous about it so I arrived an hour early in the hopes of getting some practice in and getting a feel for the program but the new iPad wouldn't acknowledge the new pencil! I ran to Apple and they got it working but it didn't leave me much time to get back and experiment before the doors opened. Jessica was my first sketch of the day (shown below) but in all honesty here, it took two tries before I felt I could share it with her!

Beautiful pastries and petals filled the party and both the clients and guests were trilled with their custom illustrations but being my own worst critic I do wish I had the opportunity to practice using the Apple pencil beforehand so my digital sketches were on par with my traditional pencil-to-paper fashion illustrations. If clients are going to insist on digital sketches I think its time I bit the bullet and invested in a tablet and stylus but now the question is Apple or Samsung? I'd love to hear opinions from those of you who have used them for creative work. Have you been able to achieve the same effects as with actual art tools and which brands and programs have you used?

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Custom Fashion Illustrations | FENDI

I recently live-sketched custom illustrations for Fendi at a private event down in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a fabulous fête hosted by southern socialites in which guests were given a custom sketch as a gift with purchase only after spending a whopping $1k, all to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation of Georgia.

I so enjoyed chatting with all these lovely ladies while helping to raise money for a cause they were so passionate about. Live-sketching in a beautifully designed new boutique as Fendi Buckhead was quite the treat as well. I even snapped photos of my business cards styled alongside the iconic baguettes (shown below) to share with my social media before the party started.

It was my first time in Atlanta and hopefully it won't be my last because although I was only there for a short visit I met such nice people, had some fantastic meals, and did some much needed holiday shopping. All in all, it was quite the successful little work trip. For more information on my event-sketching and availability for your next event, you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com.

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Framed Fashion Prints | IfOnly & American Express

I'm so excited to share that for the first time my fashion illustrations are available as framed prints! I've teamed up with IfOnly in conjunction with Platinum Card® from American Express to offer six different fashion prints. Each is beautifully framed in a classic black frame, matted in white, available in a variety of sizes and arrive ready to be displayed or given as a gift to your fashion loving friends and/or family.

Together we curated a small collection of my most popular illustrations and most "liked" images. I also sketched a new fashion illustration to be exclusive to IfOnly. "Georgia" (shown above) was originally created with black and white gouache paint on craft paper. She's a more stylized illustration than I usually render but I love her and am excited to display her my home complimenting my decor of mostly neutrals, black and white. Over the next few weeks I plan to share images of the prints styled throughout my home both here on Fabulous Doodles and via Instagram (@brooklit).

The fashion prints available in this collection are Georgia, Miriam (shown above, as shared on Instagram as I was approving the large-scale print quality a few weeks ago) Gwen, Blue Belle, Kay, and Bethany. Each print can stand alone as a strong piece individually yet they also compliment one another nicely if bought in sets or grouped together, as you will see when you look at the collection as a whole.

As always with IfOnly to make their offerings even more appealing, a percentage of proceeds will be benefitting a charity. My charity of choice is Hilarity for Charity. Started by my cousins, its an incredible movement led by Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen to inspire change and raise awareness of Alzheimer's among the millennial generation.

I'm so excited to have framed prints of my work available and just in time for the holidays. I hope you like them and should you make a purchase I would LOVE to see how you display them in your homes so please email, tweet, insta, and share with me and other #FabulousDoodles fans!

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Party Sketching Golden Portraits for La Prairie

Today I'm sharing custom painted golden portraits of beauty editors I created for luxury skincare brand La Prairie at a private press preview party for their new products due out in February. The brand requested I work only in gold and custom illustrate only profiles. Painting solely in gold was a unique request, and it took a few trips to the art store to settle on the right mediums to achieve various effects and looks I was after to render highlights and shadows in all one cohesive color. It took a few tries to find what worked but in the end I found the right golden portrait formula. I really enjoying experimenting with new mediums and techniques, and dabbling with mixtures of gold acrylic paint, gouache, ink, pastel, brush paint pens and pencil to successfully render golden profile portraits that reflected La Prairies new "endless radiance" product.

La Prairies new product being launched contained gold so it was only natural the event was held at "golden hour" atop the Hugo Hotel with views of the Manhattan sunset. It was also the perfect event for my new luxe desk accessories! I recently received the most gorgeous Addison Weeks brass and moonstone cup (show above) as a gift which was perfect to hold and display my bevy of brushes. I scoured Etsy for new business card holders to compliment my brass and stone beauty and found a great shop of handmade stone objects created by a kitchen fabricator in California saving smaller unwanted pieces. He took my request for white marble and made me a long card holder of Carrara marble. It displays three cards at once so guests could see an assortment and choose their favorite. I couldn't be happier with how my new presentation pieces came together and complimented this event and venue.

I custom sketch at parties and events quite often but this one was unique with the clients request of rendering in only gold and profiles, and to be honest I was a little nervous. But its important to try new things and push yourself out of your comfort zone sometimes. As usual this event went really well and both I, the client, and all the beauty editors I live sketched were happy with the radiant results.

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