Crafty Girls Painting

Hello everyone I just completed a watercolor painting I have called Crafty Girls. I was inspired by a group I occasionally meet with. The girls that go have never met before but love to do arts and crafts. There are girls from all ages that come and share their talents with the group. Every time we get together another girl is able to share snippets of their life story. It reminds me of the movie called How to Make an American Quilt .
If you have never seen this movie before it is definitely a must see.
Took me several days to complete this painting and I'd like to share with you the process of the painting.

In the final illustration, I styled the girlfriends with different outfits I found made by small biz owners/ artisans. Please be sure to visit their websites.
Left to right:
Mohair Boucle Sleeveless Jacket by Warmed by Love
Hand painted blue green vines silk scarf by Silk Scarves Takuyo
Hand knit shawl by Almas Knit Shop
White, Pink,Blue, Purple Yarn Bowl by Hurricane Pottery
Orchid Yarn Bowl by Hurricane Pottery
Moroccan French Handmade Tea Set by Back Bay Pottery
Crimson wave jacket by Petitelibellule
If you love the Crafty Girls illustration please visit theshop for Art prints, Mugs, Totebags with the image on it. Have a great rest of the week! Please feel free to share this blog post with your fellow crafty girls. :)

Custom Fashion Illustration of the Winner

I  hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Now I am sure everyone is gearing up for the Christmas Holidays. Lots of gift planning going on.

Last month I decided to do a little gift giving myself by doing a custom portrait fashion illustration of a lucky winner. That lucky winner was Stefunny! I contacted her and ask her to send a picture of herself in either the outfit she wanted illustrated or to send me links of items she wanted to be illustrated in. I was sent the following requests.

Moto jacket with fur

Chanel Handbag

Suede Platform Louboutin Boots

Leather pants

Gorgeous Stefunny

And here is my process:

Initial sketch

Watercolor paint added

6*8" custom illustration signed by me

I had so much fun doing this painting. Hope she is happy with the painting.  I must say that she has impeccable taste! I think I will be adding some of these things to my wish list as well! :)

If you are interested in gifting a custom fashion illustration you can go to the shop and order there. Once the illustration is done I can then design notecards (with their name), mugs, tote bag, pillow with the image on it.

Have fun hunting for those Christmas gifts and don't forget to support your artists! :) 

WIN a Free Custom Fashion Illustration

Hello everyone I am running a quick giveaway to celebrate birthmonth!!! I am giving away a custom fashion illustration by muah. I will be offering a drawing and painting of you in a 6" by 8" with 1 personal item (handbag, sunglasses, briefcase, etc. ) For example this is my self portrait sporting a Valentino handbag.

This is a great giveaway because then you can have custom notecards made with your image and name.
The giveaway is for U.S. Only and is running till 11/8 6pm PST.

>>>>>> CLICK to enter. 

Becoming a Working Artist

I have been busy and forgotten to post here on the blog so ill share a couple of things with you all.

I took the class by Lisa Congden called  Becoming a Working Artist on Creative Live. She is an artist that I have been following online via her blog and instagram account. She recently wrote a great book called Art Inc.

 In this book she talks about the many ways you can earn a living by making art—through illustration, licensing, fine art sales, print sales, teaching, and beyond. It is a great class and a great book for the budding artist.
While taking the class I have also been working on my fabric designs and illustrations.

 

I have also been working on some fashion illustrations to add to my portfolio. I always have a great time styling the girls in high fashion outfits.

This fashion illustration was inspired by Rustic Moon 13's bone leather boho Bag. I styled this girl in Key Man Design's Clementine leather shoes, 13 Threads's green tunic wool dress and Amaria rosary necklace.

 The fashionista in this Pink in the City is wearing a St. John Knit jacket, Bottega Veneta Roma Leggero Tote bag, and Alejandro Ingelmo lace up point toe pumps.

In this fashion illustration I featured a Gucci leather belted jacket, skirt of a fabric design I am currently designing, Luchesse Milla alligator 4" stacked heel boots. This illustration is was inspired by the boots that we saw at Kemo Sabe in Las Vegas last week. This store has some incredible products and the customer service is amazing. We spent some time getting educated on various products such as William Henry's amazing knives and the amazing Luchesse Milla boots.

This particular image was inspired by the Gucci leopard print tote. I have included a Smythe jacket, Gucci scarf and Gucci studded boots.

 If you are interested in any of these prints please visit the shop. I am also even offering these fashion illustrations on customizable notecards. You can have the illustration but with your name on it.

 I have so much more to share but I'll stop there. Hope you all had an awesome couple of weeks. Everyone have a great weekend! :)

Learning to do Surface Design

Earlier this year I search the internet for videos to teach me how to use illustrator to create repeating patterns for surface design. I did not study graphic design in school and it has been something I have been interested in the past few years. I dabbled with adobe illustrator this year with a couple of fabric designs I have in Spoonflower but was incredibly frustrated that I lacked the skills. Last week Bonnie Christine who is a surface designer was on the Creativelive last week teaching everything see learned on her own to do repeat patterns. This is the class and it is well worth purchasing if you are interested in surface design.

photo credit: Creativelive.com

 So all this week I have taking that class and attempting to do my next fabric design on illustrator. It has been so much fun! I was so excited that this class was offered!
Here are some pics of me sketching out some ideas and dabbling in illustrator.

And to end the week off right I did another custom portrait of this fashionable couple who is recently engaged to be married.
 

Check out Creativelive they offer some really great classes.  Hope you all have had a great week! Enjoy the weekend!

A Peek into the Studio

Here is a peek into the studio this week. I'll start with showing off my self portrait. This is definitely one of the more difficult illustrations I did this week but I am pleased with it. I love the fact that I can can just imagine myself wearing the lastest fashion. I especially love the Valentino bag I snuck in there. Maybe one day..... :) I also went ahead and designed my own custom notecards.

This last illustration is of my first boss at Neiman Marcus. She is the ultimate personal shopper, Betty Lidji, at the flagship store in Dallas. Her customer service to her clients is top notch. I learned from the best! I know she will enjoy writing to her fabulous clients with her personalized notecards. :)

If you are interested in getting your own custom fashion watercolor portrait done visit the site. Once the portrait has been completed I can upload the notecard design in my zazzle shop. There you can order and reorder to your hearts desire. If you would want any other item with your portrait on it you can let me know and I can upload that to the shop.

I hope you guys enjoyed seeing what I have been working on this week in the studio.  Have a great weekend and be creative my friends!

Custom Watercolor Fashion Illustrations

I have been busy this week doing more custom watercolor fashion illustrations. I have had a great time doing these paintings on 8" by 8" paper. Here are a few that I have been working on.

 

 

If you are interested in having a custom fashion watercolor portrait done please visit the shop. Once the portrait is made I can design a notecard with your name on it similar to the one I made for this lovely little family.

Here are the ones I sent out this week.

Have a great week everyone and I will try to keep you guys updated on all the exciting things happening in the studio!

Perfect Hostess Gift

I have been a bit busy the past few weeks with family and have not been able to post any new projects. A week ago we stayed at our family's house in Los Angeles for a long weekend. On the way back I decided to create a custom watercolor notecard for our amazing hostess.

Here are the sketches and the final painting.

I then scanned the watercolor and created the notecard on photoshop. Put the order in for the notecards and now just waiting for them to ship. So excited to see how they look once they come in from the printers.