Though most of my time is spent creating handbags, I do occasionally need an escape; that’s when I pick up my trusty paintbrushes or a pencil and start sketching. Each new handbag design starts the same way but sometimes I miss the soul of the human form. Often as I am developing a new bag an idea of the person who will carry it comes to mind first and I will begin to assemble a fashion character as inspiration. I think about where she might live, where she might go and what she might wear. Sometimes I’m inspired by people I see and other times they are a complete fantasy of random ideas. I don’t know that I have a favorite medium in which to create, as there is something special and unique about each one.

Graphite lends itself to small details captured in fine lines and soft blended strokes and nothing can replace the feeling of a paintbrush in hand with layers of blended color. Or sometimes the faint and watery look of watercolor and Prismacolor markers. And of course the fun of creating a vector illustration line by line and shape by shape until it’s a perfectly rendered image made completely of tiny pixels.

Vector Illustration

Pen and Ink/ Background in Photoshop

Pen and Ink/ Background in Photoshop

Graphite/ Background in Photoshop

Pen and Ink

Graphite Illustration

Graphite Illustration

Graphite Illustration

Acrylic on Canvas

Acrylic on Panel

Acrylic on Panel

Acrylic on Canvas

Graphite Illustration

Vector Illustration

I’ve been lucky enough to work with some fantastic clients over the years, creating custom fashion illustrations for a variety of projects. Many of them are small start-up’s with enourmous passion and really inivative ideas. One of my favorites were the husband and wife team of Brandon and Cali Sorenson the creators of HipSlimmer.

It’s so exciting to play a small part in making someone else’s dream a reality and watching each piece come together. I still enjoy taking on new illustration projects and though my first love will always be handbags, there’s still plenty of room in my heart for a blank piece of white paper and a plain old #2 pencil!