emmy the great illustration

Hey hey! I'm super excited today because this week I responded to a Twitter callout via Amelia Gregory, who runs the fabulous illustration blog Amelia's Magazine.

This week she needed a few illustrations for some upcoming articles, and I jumped on the opportunity. She needed an illustration for an article about the singer Emmy the Great. I listened to her while drawing the portrait and I absolutely loved her! She's very folk-y and has a beautiful voice.

This is the illustration I created, using Micron pens & watercolors. I somehow completed it in one night! That's definitely the fastest thing I've ever done haha...

Check out the article here!

This week I'm also working on a custom portrait of my co-worker's 3 sons for father's day. I will be posting that soon!

Stay tuned! Have a great day :)

-gabrielle.

sketches & work in progress

Sorry to reblog this again, but Blogger decided to take down yesterday's post that I wrote :( Here's a shorter recap...

Most nights this week have been spent in bed drawing with my lap desk. It's really convenient and super comfy.

This is a drawing I did one night. I hope to recreate it larger, with lots more flowers!

I also finished up my commissioned portrait, that you can take a peek of in the pictures below.

I've also been having a ton of fun on Instagram! You can follow me here!

Hope you like 'em!

Happy Friday the 13th!

-gabrielle.

maggie and matt's portrait

Hey there!

I finished this piece a while ago but I forgot to share it... oops!

My college friend (and now co-worker!) Maggie and her boyfriend recently moved in together to their new apartment! I'm really happy for both of them, and as a house-warming present I drew their portraits!

I think they were both very pleased and I can't wait to visit their new abode and see it hung up!

Don't forget to visit my new Etsy shop where I am selling custom portraits!

Stay tuned for more updates :)

-gabrielle.

christy & louie

Hi everyone!

Here's a portrait I did of my best friend Christy and her little puppy Louie.

Christy has been my friend since 3rd grade and we've basically been inseparable ever since.

In middle school we would have sleepovers on Friday the 13th (we were very silly & strange...) The next one coming up is in May and we're planning on reading all our notes that we've collected throughout middle and high school. It's gonna be hilarious! I can't wait.

Christy also just got a puppy, Louie, and he's the cutest thing ever... he loves his little green sweater.

Click on the picture to visit my custom portrait shop... you can have one too!

-gabrielle.

weekend work

You may or may not have caught on to my "complaining" about working a lot. Besides working a full-time job during the week, I also do a lot of freelance work on the side. I love both my jobs but sometimes going from one to the other can get pretty exhausting....

This weekend was spent mostly working on these projects. I have a bunch that are still in-progress, but I'd like to share some things that I worked on!

The first was a poster design for my brother's first gig at college...  he needed a poster to be displayed around campus, so naturally he asked me if I could put something together, and this is what I came up with!

I used Graphics Fairy for the awesome fossil image, and I had a lot of fun playing around with fonts from Dafont too. Ya like???

The second project that consumed all of my Sunday is the cover to this journal that I'm creating for my temple. It will be my Rabbi and his wife's 25 years at our temple, and I helped put together a book of ads from temple members as a fundraiser for the celebration.

For the cover, I originally wanted to hand draw it, so I started drawing a portrait of the Rabbi and his wife. I was completely stuck after finishing the drawing and I really wanted to add elements of color and texture, but I knew I couldn't do that with just the drawing. I drew a simple desk surface with some objects and filled them in with watercolor. Then I scanned all my separate pieces and put them together in Photoshop.

I'm extremely satisfied with the result... I think it's subtle in it's message while being extremely personal... and it came out exactly the way I pictured it! Yey!

If any of my wonderful readers {YOU!} is looking for posters, flyers, drawings or any kind of creative design, you know where to find me! I'm always looking for more work!!! :)

-g.

what i wore

I'm sorry to be boring you all with my "What I Wore" drawings, but I really want to get the rest posted so that I can post the newer ones! So bear with me... I hope you still enjoy them :)

-g.

ps. Please don't make fun of my strange and always-changing body types... or my scanner :(

monday blues & charmaine olivia

Monday has brought us {me?} a dark, rainy, dull day... I just wish I could have stayed in bed! Instead I am bundled up in a scarf and sitting at my desk with a large cup of tea...

Today I happened upon the lovely artist Charmaine Olivia, from San Francisco. I have seen some of her prints before, and even posted one on Tumblr, but now that I know who is behind the art, I am even more hooked!

Charmaine Olivia has two very distinct styles... one being elegant watercolor drawings and the other being bold and seductive oil paintings. I'm only going to show her drawings here for now, since they are so inspiring to me and that is what I am trying to focus on at the moment. I hope you find them inspiring as well!

-g.

what i wore june 14

I mentioned in a previous post that I am in love with Flickr's What I Wore Today group. It's a fun way to keep a journal and it's a good way to avoid those repeat-offender days.

Here is my first drawing from June 14:

click to enlarge

I know it's a little late (ok a lot late), but as you can see, I have an awesome scanner (and it's only hooked up to my slow Dell laptop) so it's a pain in the ass to scan, edit and post. I waited until I had about 20 so I could do them all at once.

I have a lot of fun doing these little doodles. I also like to see how my style of drawing evolves in each one, and in the later ones they are more like mini diary entries.

I use a zig pen and then color them with watercolor pencils... they are so convenient!

I hope you like it! I will be posting more soon!

-g.

julia mai linnéa maria

Happy Monday everyone! I'm sure I'm not the only one who would rather still be in bed. This weekend was a lot of fun... 2 graduation parties, lots of alcohol & dessert, & True Blood. How was your weekend? I would love to know!

So this morning I came across Julia Mai Linnéa Maria on Tumblr, first by reblogging a reblog of someone's post (funny the way Tumblr works...) However, I was extremely excited when I came across the artist's own Tumblr page, and also Facebook fan page.

Julia is a Swedish artist who works mostly in pencils and watercolors. She draws mostly nude girls with lots of hair in interesting and surreal situations. It's mysterious and beautiful to look at.
















-g.

ian macarthur

Ian MacArthur is a very talented (young) artist and designer from England. His surreal illustrations are created using pigment pens and watercolors, embellishing his portraits to create a unique and vibrant explosion of creativity.

His client list is extremely impressive, working with Nike and MTV to name a few.

Take a look at these awesome prints!

-g.

more postcards!

I had a super-productive day today! I basically spent all day on these postcards.
Here are three different sets of postcards. Each set will have 3 postcards. I still have to lamenate these and mat them to another paper but here they are...

Set One: Travel







Set Two: Love/Friendship







Set Three: Internet Memes







Hope you like them! Will be on my Etsy sooner or later.

-g.

Postcards

I am working on a couple sets of postcards that will soon be on my Etsy account. I'm thinking there will be about 3 or 4 sets with 3 or 4 different cards in each set, but right now I have only a travel set and one of a love/friendship set.

The postcards are about 4x6 hand drawn with zig pens and then watercolor painted on top. I will have to mat them to something so they are sturdier. On the back will be regular postcard things (probably hand written.)

I am also thinking that since postcards, and mail in general, are becoming outdated, that I would sell the postcards already stamped... It would kind of be annoying on my part to buy a whole bunch of stamps, but I think people would be more likely to write it and put it in the mail if there was already a stamp on it. Comment on what you think, it would help a lot :)

A couple of pictures of the cards.






It was unintentional at first that I did a travel theme... maybe I subconsciously want to go somewhere. Actually, yes, I do...

So, please tell me if you would buy these on Etsy (or at a craft fair)... they would come in packs of 3 or 4 but they would all be different and all handmade :)

-g.