Line Drawings for Remington at Target

While on a vacation in Maine a few weeks ago I spotted more of my drawings on hair products in Target. Remington Products commissioned me to create line drawings for their hair accessory collection at Target. A little while back I shared my drawings for the hair scarfs and now these cuties depicting the many ways to wear the flower clip.

Above is a instagramed photo I took in Target of the actual product packaging with my sketches. It's always exciting to see my work on a finished product but even more so in a huge national chain store!

Italy Textile Design

 Not long ago I was commissioned for a unique project by Italian handbag designer Alexandra de Curtis to sketch an Italy themed print for a textile. The fabric will be used to line the interior of her collection of fine leather tote bags and clutches. In addition to a couple of stylish Italian girl fashion illustrations, her logo and sketches of some of the bags, Alexandra provided me with a list of iconic-ally Italian things that she wanted me to add to the design. In the "swatches" shown here you can see a cup of cappuccino, wine, designer shoes and sunglasses, art, the coliseum and even a Vespa were all drawn in along with key phrases and cities.

Hopefully this is the first of many more countries I will illustrate for Alexandra's line but in the mean time I'm thinking I need to book a trip to Italia asap. (I've been twice before, but Italy is just one of those places that never gets old.) The bags with my illustrations inside are due out next year, I'll keep you posted once they're available. Ciao bella!

Belts, Bags, Black & White

Not long ago I was asked to create an assortment of fashion illustrations as well as consult on the branding and design esthetic for an accessory company called Bali Belts Studio. I created eight illustrations of fashion forward girls all sporting their belts while donned in classic black and white. Having a background in brand development, I advised that keeping the color story simple will prevent the sketches from becoming dated and will be relatable to multiple markets.

My design idea's were implemented and my sketches featuring the companies handbags and belts were used as decor in their NYC showroom, as well as within trade show booth displays at The Accessories Show in New York, and Magic in Vegas.

Syms & Filene's Basement Project

About two months ago I was approached by a branding group to sketch fashion illustrations for a new re-branding proposal for discount chain stores Syms and Filene's Basement. They commissioned me to draw some simple line illustrations to be used in ad mock-ups for their proposal presentation.

Normally I'd feel uncomfortable sharing conceptual artwork that never made it to print but since the retail giant announced that they were filling Chapter-11 and would be closing all their stores I thought I would share a few examples from the project with you.

I grew up making frequent trips to Filene's Basement with my mom and I'm sad to see them close, although it was a thrill to work on this little project for them before they bid adieu.

Holiday Commission

Tonight on my way home from Chinese and a movie with grandma I passed by a Barney's Co-op store. I noticed their holiday windows resembled the current E-Drop Off windows (shown here) which are entirely comprised of my illustrations! I have yet to share them, so I figured better late than never, right?

The first time I was commissioned to illustrate for them (here) the designs were completely item focused to coincide with the different tabs of their site. For this round of illustrations I was asked to draw two "winter chic" girls, one "holiday party girl" with a banner, a plush holiday garland with designer logo ornaments and a truly unique snowflake comprised of the E-Drop Off logo (or seven of them actually!)

It's so cool to see my illustrations blown up so large, I wish I could see them in person. Unfortunately I don't have plans to hit Chicago anytime soon, so these photo's from the E-Drop crew are going to have to suffice. I hope everyone has a happy and fabulously chic holiday season! To see more of my work for E-Drop Off you can check out their website.

Holiday Girls

Last summer I was hired to create illustrations for holiday cards (here's my Christmas in July post) and now that spring is just around the corner what better time to make some more, right? (hehe) The same company hired me again to draw a few more holiday themed illustrations to complete the set.

This time I not only created the illustrations but came up with the concepts as well. The idea behind the first one (top of post) was a girl posing with her fashionable snowman, and the second one (above) is a girl tangled in vintage lights. With a big skirt and star on her headband her silhouette is meant to mimic a tree.

The third (above) is a girl excitedly showing off her craft skills while preparing for her guests to arrive. My festive ladies are being presented to a few major department stores but nothing is set yet. I'll be sure and let you know where and when they land.

Face it

Last week someone posted a question to me on my Facebook fan page asking advice on drawing faces. I've since emailed her a few tips and a book suggestion but I thought I'd share one of my tips to here with you. It's something that helped me, so I thought it was worth it to share and maybe you'd want to try it as well. What is it I'm talking about? Copying.

Let me elaborate. It started when was hired by Timex to do a bunch of illustrations. (Previous post here) They emailed me their previous style guide and I was extremely intimidated by the illustrations of the previous illustrator. I wasn't sure I was right for the job and if I could give them what they needed. Like a lot of artists and women I guess, I tend to be my biggest critique and often have a lot of self doubt. So I decided to copy, or as we used to do back in high school, do "a study" of his work to see if I could pull it off. (shown above)

It really helped me and gave me the encouragement I needed and changed the way I illustrated. I really liked how the lips came out and have since changed my technique with them. It also inspired the necklace and turtleneck I chose for this Marie Antoinette sketch for Material Girls blog.

I'm not saying to flat out copy, publish, sell, or even fully take credit for someone else's idea and creativity. It's just an exercise that I've found to be helpful, especially when it comes to things that can be difficult to figure out such as faces, hands and profiles. You just may teach yourself something new in the process!

Showerific

As if getting packages in the mail wasn't exciting enough, its ten times more so when it's a surprise package you weren't expecting! I came home to find a box at my door from River Cottage Farm. At first glance I thought maybe I had ordered something from etsy late night and forgotten about it (which does happen on occasion), but when I picked up the box I instantly knew some sweet handmade body products were awaiting me because the return label had my fancy farmgirl sketch on it! As do all the yummy shower scrubs, sugar cubes and lip balms that were inside. It's such a thrill to see my illustrations on actual products, and amazingly smelling ones are even better. Here's an old post about working on this project.

Fancy Farmgirl

About two months ago I was contacted by the lovely Charity from the River Cottage Farm out in Ohio to create a "farmgirl" illustration for her new line of bath and body products. Charity asked that the illustration be a very girly and fancy farmgirl, who brings style to her homestead. Charity's vision included a country floral print, pearls, flat shoes (because farming in heels just doesn't work) and a chicken!

The River Cottage Farm online etsy shop is now open, complete with my farmgirl on all the labels and packaging. Not only do the products look cute, but they're made by scratch on the farm and packed with natural and organic ingredients. I love a good body scrub and can't wait to try the lip balms. Now for the big decision of which flavor to chose.

All photos by River Cottage Farm

Project We Do II

This week I was asked to do some more sketches for the Birthright Israel NEXT, NY Project We Do website. They're super tiny on the actual site, so I thought I'd post them here for you to see a little bigger. Each illustration is an icon to coincide with an explanation of the different elements that make up a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony.

I've also designed the invitations for the wedding and now that they've been mailed out, and guests have seen them, I can share them here with you. The cute part is the bottom of the invite. It has the bride and groom illustrations that match the one's that drop down throughout the website. I chose this font for it's rounded and playful yet casual cute look.

Project We Do

For the past 2 months I've been involved in an exciting new project called Project We Do (I actually came up with the name that the committee ended up choosing as the one!) What we're doing is bringing the community together to throw a wedding for very deserving couple who couldn't otherwise afford to have one. The Rabbi says that it's the biggest mitzvah (good deed) you could do, helping to bring a couple to the chuppah (wedding canopy).

For the site I illustrated a bride, groom, and chuppah which the website designer applied to the page as an animated element using flash. I also drew these fun little icons to be used on each page of the site. It's been a really successful collaboration working on designing this website and from the way things are going, and all the donations rolling in, it looks as if this wedding will be a memorable one.

We're still working on the site and will be adding to it daily. Just this past thursday we shot the first "webisode" to document our planning. As one of the head planners I'm co-writing the Planner Blog, so you can check in to read about our progress (here) and even weigh in by voting on different elements of the wedding. As I'm single, and haven't actually planned a wedding for myself yet, I'm really enjoying this project!

My final Zaji Girl sketches

A few weeks ago I completed a freelance project for Zaji Girl Magazine, an online magazine for the traveling girl on the go. My sketches are not only up on their website, but they've been animated to Lily Allen's song 'Mister Blue Sky.' Something weird is going on with the "London" illustration (not shown here... the bus and flowers are kind of floating, not sure why but I'm hoping it will be fixed soon) other that I think they came out cute.

I think my favorite is the girl in Paris, I'm just a sucker for shopping. Especially at those stores! Ahh a girl can dream.

It's about Time-x!

Last October Timex commissioned me to draw six fashion illustrations coordinating with watches from their spring trends. I completed the job so long ago, that I forgot that besides being in brochures (which they sent me copies of) and available for print, they were due be on their website. I don't know what made me look, but tonight I decided to check their site, and there they were!

Because Timex "takes fashion from the runway to your wrist" the assignment was to draw women wearing Timex watches, each one fitting into one of the season's trend groups: The Romantics, White-Out, Roaring 20's, Jet-Setter, Pedal to the Metal, and Black & White.

After countless emails and phone calls with the Timex group debating things such as design details, garment silhouettes and hair color, and some of the sketches being thickened up in photoshop (because I naturally tend to draw very skinny ladies), they got completed and are up for viewing. You can also download a pdf version of their Spring 2009 Style Brochure with all six of my drawings from their website here: Timex Style. (<-This link is old and longer links to the work I did)

Zaji Freelance Project

I'm wrapping up 4 drawings fora new client, Zaji Magazine. This is an different type of project because besides drawing 3 fashionable girls, it also involves background drawings of cities (the images above are the girls going in the cities.) It's a challenge for me to make the backgrounds match the girls. I've been drawing fashion figures (or croquis; a word that comes from the French and means sketch) since high school. I was also a Fashion Design Women's Wear major in college, where I spent years practicing and perfecting drawing women. Therefore I'm simply much better at them, then I am at drawing other things. That's not to say I can't do it, it just doesn't come as easily. 

One trick I learned from past mistakes is to draw the background and the girl separately then photoshop them together. That way if the girl turns out great and then I have a mishap with the background, or visa versa, it doesn't matter. The whole illustration will not be ruined. This doesn't always work, sometimes its too complicated a pose or layout, but in the case of the Zaji drawings I can do it. All the girls are simple standing or walking figures, not overly intertwined with a prop or background element, like my previous illustration for Material Girls shown below. 

The girl and the drape of her dress were so effected by the chair that they had to be drawn together. However it was a background I was very comfortable doing, as I have done a few similar drawings with similar subject matter for them before.