As you can tell from my website, my main shop is located here. However, I also sell prints and iPhone cases over at Society6. I finally found some time to update the shop with newer work. Also, I’ve finally added the Inaugural Gown illustration!
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! Thank you to everyone who’s already signed up for my online class… I can’t wait for it to begin!
I’m super excited to finally announce my first ever online class, Illustrating Your Favorite Runway Looks.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working with Skillshare to create easy to follow video tutorials that will give you an inside look into how I create my fashion illustrations start to finish (and add the likes of glitter, crystals, and sequins!).
Here’s a little video we made to give you an idea of what you’ll see in the class…
Check out the full description and sign up here. I’ll be directly involved in the class, and helping you as we go along beginning March 11-23. However, since this is an online class, you can get tickets at anytime… I just won’t be guiding you through it on a personal level after these dates- all the more reason to sign up now!
I’ll also be hosting 2 giveaways for the class members who participate:
1/ One student at random will receive a beautifully printed book of my illustrations and process photos from Artifact Uprising. (remember the book I made with them a while back?)
2/ The top two finished illustrations will each receive a set of three of my favorite illustration books from Laurence King Publishing:
Can’t wait to see what you guys do with your new skills!
Beauty illustration is an area I haven’t dabbled in much… so over the weekend I started a sketchbook dedicated entirely to cosmetic illustrations…
Lipstick is such a simple object, but the moment a woman paints a fresh color over her lips… it’s game on. A bright red lip gives women a power that no other cosmetic can touch.
Prints available here.
You can find the same watercolor sketchbook I use here.
Many of you ask me…
“How do you come up with your illustration? Is it purely from your imagination?”
Yes and no. Quite often, I find a trigger. That trigger is something I see that instantly floods a million ideas into my head… ideas I can clearly see. It can be something I see while on a walk outdoors, driving in the middle of nowhere, or an image I come across online. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where inspiration begins… as it’s all around us if we look for it.
For example, last November I went to see the Nutcracker here in Boston. The Boston Opera House is a place straight out of a dream… and the show itself was absolutely mesmerizing (which I’ve told you about a million times by now!). There was just something about sitting in that theater and watching the show that struck me. It wasn’t just about what was happening on stage… it was about the audience and the entire atmosphere. It was the captivation on everyone’s faces, something you don’t often see in everyday situations. How everyone was dressed up, and how that may have looked sixty years ago. That idea stuck with me. Not long after that, I re-watched Finding Neverland, a movie I’ll never tire of… which drew upon that idea.
All of those thoughts and ideas formed this image in my mind, and that’s how she came to be. Although, finding inspiration to form an idea is only one step of the way. The process of bringing that idea to life is something that needs to be inspired as well. For me, that’s where music comes in. I’ve been surrounded by music and musicians my entire life. When I’m trying to ‘get in the zone’ to illustrate a new piece, nine times out of ten music will do the trick. It’s important for me to play the right songs for the mood of the piece and what I want to convey. It’s incredible how much more meaningful my work turns out when it has a soundtrack. For this particular piece, I listened to mostly movie soundtracks and jazz. Listening to music with words can sometimes be distracting to me… it’s almost as if my brain is focusing on the lyrics instead of what I’m working on. Although, sometimes music with words works… I’m a huge fan of Lester Young and Billie Holiday!
“Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul” – Plato
All in all, how you get inspired is very much different for everyone… what do you do to spark your imagination?
Here’s a playlist I created with some of my favorite work music.
I’ve been craving artistic exploration lately… not just with new mediums, but also with perspective. Usually I focus on the large picture, but this time I zoomed in to focus on the face. 
I tried to keep things simple by focusing on the purest form of watercolor and working with positive and negative space. It creates such a strong graphic element…
It’s refreshing to try something new… don’t you think?
