Well. I think I figured out the problem!

Photography by Chris Carr of EatTheCakeNYC for Rosetta Stoned’s All I Think Is Pink digital release project. Illustration, Photo-editing & Modeling by Moi!

Do you love her or hate her?

I am filled with utmost LOVE for her, or at least for her brilliant Haus of Gaga design-squad. They’re unprecedentedly putting futuristic and avant-garde fashion into the eyes and mouths of many, and I could not be happier about it. The future is now, kids. Prepare yourselves.

About the illustration:

This was done in Photoshop with a combination of hand-inking on paper and digital coloring, with the addition of photographic textures.
It was done for a “Celebrity Portrait” assignment in an Illustration Concepts class I briefly attended last semester before I left Parsons for the bazillionth time. Such is the life of the Art School Dropout, sigh!

(As an aside, said class was taught by Peter Hamlin, whose work I once described to a friend as “psychedelic neon nanobot Bosch”. Yep, way awesome, check it out.)

Did this illustration today at work. Was hoping to have more veggies and greenery popping out of the grocery bag, but sometimes I have to give myself a stopping point before I get overzealous with details.

It’s done with a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop, pulling the vector layers in to add some glowy layer style business and the transparent leaves. I’m starting to work more and more in Illustrator because of the speed and the editing capabilities you have with the lines. Though I still think there’s something that’s more sensitive about inking linework by hand, especially as it’s easier for me balance the line weights that way. But, as my design partner pointed out to me the other day, hand-inked artwork really doesn’t doesn’t scale too nicely, and it kind of gets jagged at small sizes. Boo!

This, by the way, is to promote “5% Day”, on January 6th, where five percent of your purchases at the Bowery Whole Foods in Manhattan goes to benefit The Lower Eastside Girls Club (where I work).
Do it! Peer pressure!

Look for me there, too, doing UV face & body painting!

Newly posted work in the Illustration gallery!
This is a series of fashion illustrations I did a few months back.

This summer, I traveled to the Hamptons on a photoshoot for VividBraille. They’re a clothing company that mashes up modern and vintage influences with a message. It’s refreshing to see clothing that goes beyond visual tricks and actually begins to start a dialogue. I personally love their tagline, which is “Art is remembered not by what is seen, but what is felt.”

I was invited onto the team as a makeup artist but I ended up playing a variety of roles including photo assistant, stylist, and model. It was a great experience to be involved in all aspects of the production.

Afterwards, I pulled some of the finished photographs taken by Chris Carr and worked to create my own interpretations of the images in Photoshop. My technique involved a combination of photo-manipulation, digital drawing, and many, many layers of transparencies in order to preserve parts of the original photo, while also transforming it into my own illustration.

I had a blast collaborating with some many creative people, and would definitely love to experiment more with this photo + illustration style.

Any photographers out there that are game?