what i wore: first day of summer

As you may or may not know, Gemma Corell's "What I Wore Today" blog/Flickr group is now becoming a book!

She asked all doodlers to contribute their best "what I wore" drawing and she will select some to have published in her book.

Of course, typical me waits til the last day of the contest to enter... I spent a lot of time on this drawing but unfortunately all the little details I love are lost in the image. I also used the crappy work scanner, so this is definitely not the best represenation, but I do like the simplicity and semi-realism I have going on.

What do you think? Did anyone else participate in the contest?

What I Wore: First Day of Summer:
H&M sunnies
Rosebud salve
Gold tree necklace from Nyack
Orange silky tank
NY&CO flowy watercolor skirt
Dunkin iced coffee
Essie nailpolish
Tan satchel
Target platform sandals

Also, if you can see it, I have a sketchbook in my drawing that has this drawing in it. It's like a drawing within a drawing...

Have a good weekend & happy summer!

-gabrielle.

H-E- triple hockey sticks

In honor of Father's Day, my co-worker Marcie asked if I could illustrate her three boys in a portrait!

She has older twins and a little boy. It was my first time drawing children (& twins!) but I think I captured their individuality really nicely.

Marcie and her husband are from Montreal, so naturally they are a big hockey family :)

I'm really pleased with the way it came out. I feel a lot more comfortable drawing from pictures now and I even see improvement from when I first started!

If you like what you see, you can check out my Etsy store and order your own personalized portrait!

-gabrielle.

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.

adventures in brooklyn.

horray for the end of the week! although i really shouldn't be complaining because i had the past 2 days off from work. now it's friday but it feels like a monday... so confusing.

anyways, i've been hanging out in brooklyn with matthew. we have been really busy bike riding, collaborating, taking pictures (with my 'new' 35mm canon from ebay... i love it so much... see smiling photo above), apartment hunting, eating delicious food, but most of all trying to stay cool! preferably with tons of iced coffee, refreshing fruit & cool salads.

it was matthew's birthday a few days ago and i bought him tickets to see thao & mirah for this past wednesday. it was amazing to see them live (again!) & they certainly never disappoint. my favorite was hearing them play "little cup" but i also have so many new favorite songs after hearing them live.

the opening band was bobby. i never heard of them before but they were totally awesome! they had sweet stage lighting & it was really cool to watch.

all photos by matthew. you can see more on matthew's blog!


-gabrielle.

introducing 'smooth sailing'

Good morning! Isn't it beautiful outside today? I thought so too :)

I want to introduce my new collaboration with my friend Matthew Alexander.

We are always inspiring each other and now that we started working together, we thought it would be nice to have a space on the internet to show our work.

So without further ado... please check out our new website called "Smooth Sailing." We will be posting lots of photos, drawings and little stories to go with each of our pieces. 

Here's a little peek at what's there now, but we will be updating the site regularly!

Be sure to check it out and read our About Us page :)

-gabrielle.

alex & angelo

Hey everyone! Long time no... blogging.

I hope you all had a fantastic long weekend/Memorial day! I was happy to have an extra day off so I could play in the sun all weekend! It was great.

Today I'm showing you another portrait of my friend Alex and her boyfriend Angelo. She was actually my first sale on Etsy since I added them to the shop!

She asked if I could include her little goldfish too, which I thought was so cute! They look like a happy little family, haha.

I also wanted to show you the framed version of Katie and Gary's portrait! It looks really nice and I can't wait to see where they put it!

Don't forget that Father's Day is just around the corner! 

Be sure to place your custom portrait orders soon! 

www.gabriellebrittney.etsy.com

-gabrielle.

katie & gary's portrait

Good afternoon! Did you enjoy your weekend? I definitely did... it was spent with my best friends from college (Maggie, Leah & Grace) for a surprise birthday party for my friend Katie!

Gary (Katie's boyfriend) successfully organized the whole night. First, we had drinks and dinner at Double O, and then ended the night at Shadow's for more drinks. It was a lot of fun, and best of all Katie was so surprised!

I drew Katie a portrait of her and Gary as her birthday present. They're a super cute couple and I'm so glad that they liked it! I gave it to her in a black frame with a white mat and it looked really awesome :)

Happy birthday Katie! I had so much fun with you (& our mums!) this weekend!

-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.

weekend trip: coney island

Hey hey! As promised, here's my post about my weekend adventure!

Matthew and I decided it would be fun to take a little trip to Coney Island one day since he's never been there. We hopped on the subway Saturday morning and spent a good part of the day walking around, taking pictures and people watching.

It was a perfect day to go because it wasn't too hot or crowded. It was Matt's first time going, but I've been to Coney Island a few times... such as for the Siren Festival that happens every summer. Usually there are much weirder people and sometimes it freaks me out a little, but being there with Matt was perfect.

The craziest part was riding the Wonder Wheel! We chose the "sissy" route and sat on the stationary cart... which was scary enough! It was too bad that the carts are basically cages, so the pictures of the pretty views didn't turn out very well.

I had so much fun; I'm proud to say that I've already went to the beach so far this spring/summer!

I definitely want to take more local/road trips this summer! Do you recommend any interesting places to travel?

-gabrielle.

happy mother's day

Hello! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a special Mother's Day (if you celebrate!)

I had a great weekend (which will have to be it's own post.) However, on Sunday I came home and hung out with my mum while she planted flowers...I just watched :)

Little did she know I was actually painting an illustration for her! And here it is!

She really loved it which made me super happy.

Here you go, Mommy! I love you so much <3 I hope you had a great Mother's Day :)

-gabrielle.

quarter-life crisis

Happy Friday! Phew, it was a long week... at least it was partly sunny and kind of spring-like. But seriously, where is the spring? Hopefully this weekend will bring some sunshine!

I'm having a bit of a mini quarter-life crisis recently. I'm in a rut where I have a full time job that takes up most of my time... but while I'm at work I can only think of things that I want to do and make. And when I come home I'm way too tired to do anything! But there's also some annoying freelance projects still lingering that need to go away. There's too little time in the day to do everything!

Maybe I put too much pressure on myself, but I can't help it! I become very overwhelmed with the ideas I have.

I need to relax this weekend, write a decent to-do list (without rewriting it every time I cross something off!), and plan out a good strategy.

Does anyone know of any helpful resources for artists, illustrators and/or Etsy sellers? It would be much appreciated!!!

What kind of things do you do regularly to help you stay on track?

-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.