Dance, Dance, Dance

Please note: This blog post contains affiliate links, which help pay for the upkeep of this site. That being said, I will never, ever promote anything I am not 100% in love with!

I was a classical ballerina for about 19 years (and also did tap dancing, jazz ballet, street funk, hip-hop, Bollywood, Ceroc, swing, ballroom.....you name it I've danced it) and I still find so much beauty and strength in it. Ballerinas are disciplined, graceful, and make such hard moves look simple. So when I saw a series of photos by Ken Brower and Deborah Ory I fell in love and just had to interpret them in watercolor and ink illustrations.

These are the first in the series! I sketched them out using Tombow Mono pencils and erasers, then used watercolor for some of the base skin tones, and Tombow dual brush-tip markers with water and a paintbrush for the colors!  

Did you ever take ballet classes? If so, did you enjoy them?

Creating a series of art work or posts is number 6 in my FREE, downloadable guide '21 Social Media Prompts for Artists'. So if you ever feel stuck for social media post ideas, grab yourself the guide here.

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Sketchbook Project 2017

I finally finished my 2017 Sketchbook Project Book, with the theme of hand-drawn, repeating patterns. It was a really nice project to work on in-between other commissions and illustrations. And because I kept it simple and just used ink over watercolor backgrounds I found it quite relaxing to do. If you haven't heard about the Sketchbook Project before, check out more details here, it's very cool!

I also got the chance to test out Instagram's newest feature where you can upload multiple photos and videos as part of one collection. This could be really fun for us artists, giving us a chance to show a piece in progress, and add both videos and photos to really tell a story, rather than just choosing the best image to try and portray the whole thing. Let me know in a comment if you can think of any other ways you'd use the new multiple photo/video upload to show off your work?

If you haven't played with the new feature yet, here's how I used it.

A post shared by Jessica Mack 🎨 Colorado Artist (@brownpaperbunny) on Feb 22, 2017 at 1:56pm PST

And here is the video from Instagram, explaining how the new feature works.

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Jenny Packham Fashion Illustration

Please note: This blog post contains affiliate links, which help pay for the upkeep of this site. That being said, I will never, ever promote anything I am not 100% in love with!

I've really enjoyed seeing all the collections on show as part of New York Fashion Week — and of course, creating fashion illustrations from my favorites. 

I fell in love with this orange and blue outfit by Jenny Packham and recreated it using Tombow Dual Brush Tip Markers, pencils and Mono erasers. 

I wanted to add a 3D element to my illustration but I didn't have any blue ribbon, so I used the Tombow markers to color in some pale pink ribbon and then stuck it on using Mono Multi XL liquid glue (which has a useful fine-tip applicator on one end and a broad tip on the other).

As a Tombow Ambassador I was sent the erasers and glue for free, and I've got to say they've quickly become my go-to tools, and I've been using them all week!

You can see how I created this illustration in the time-lapse video below.

Have you been watching any of the runway shows from New York Fashion Week?

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New York Fashion Week Illustrations with Tombow

Please note: This blog post contains affiliate links, which help pay for the upkeep of this site. That being said, I will never, ever promote anything I am not 100% in love with!

New York Fashion Week starts today, and to celebrate I'm taking over Tombow's Instagram account with some of my fashion illustrations. 

I love seeing next season's fashion previewed on the runways, and to prepare for this week I poured over trend and color forecasting and picked a few of my favorites to illustrate.

One of the trends we're likely to see is bolder colors in geometric and more structured patterns and designs. I'm all about color, no matter what season it is, so I'm excited to see what comes down the runway! I used Tombow Dual Brush Markers with a Blending Palette and paint brush, Mono pencils and Dust-Catch eraser, along with the Tombow Fudenosuke Twin-Tip Brush Pen to create this piece. Tombow is running a Fashion Week promotion this week if you're interested in picking up some new supplies for 25% off.

Watch the timelapse video of my first fashion illustration below:

I'm also expecting to see some neutral knits, pared with sheer fabrics, on the runway this week, with grays having a lovely blue tint to them. I used Tombow Dual Brush Markers with a Blending Palette and paint brush, Mono pencils and Dust-Catch eraser, along with the Tombow Fudenosuke Twin-Tip Brush Pen to create this one.

And lastly, delicate Japanese floral prints have always been a favorite of mine and I'm hoping we'll see some on the runway this week, particularly in shades of purple and lilac. I used Tombow Dual Brush Markers with a Blending Palette and paint brush, Mono pencils and Dust-Catch eraser, along with the Tombow Fudenosuke Twin-Tip Brush Pen to create this piece. 

If you'd like to see how I'm using Tombow markers like watercolors, check out this post.

In the spirit of full disclosure, if you buy Tombow products by clicking on the links in my blog I get a small percentage of the sale. This helps pay for web hosting and all the other things I need to keep this site running. So thank you in advance!

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Pattern January

Anika, over at @AisforAnika put together a month of pattern challenges / inspiration to get the year off to a good start, and it's been wonderful seeing how differently everyone interprets the prompts. 

This January has been busier than usual for me, so I haven't participated as much as I would have liked, but here are just a few that I've done so far. 

Greenery

Greenery patterns in my #SketchbookProject book for #PatternJanuary with @aisforanika Learn why video is so important to a successful social media strategy: http://bit.ly/videoforartists (link in bio)

A video posted by Jessica Mack 🎨 Colorado Artist (@brownpaperbunny) on Jan 14, 2017 at 8:00pm PST

Pomegranate 

Sketching Pomegranates for #PatternJanuary with @aisforanika ❤

A video posted by Jessica Mack 🎨 Colorado Artist (@brownpaperbunny) on Jan 24, 2017 at 5:19am PST

Rain

A little bit late posting my 'Rain' entry for #PatternJanuary 💦

A video posted by Jessica Mack 🎨 Colorado Artist (@brownpaperbunny) on Jan 26, 2017 at 9:29am PST

Did you participate in any group challenges or projects this month? It's number 13 on my list '21 Social Media Prompts for Artists' — if you haven't download the list already, you can find it here (it's free). 

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Fashion Illustration Friday

Happy Fashion Illustration Friday folks! (Try saying that five times fast) ;)

I'm already missing the Starbucks Red Cups, although the plain white ones leave plenty of room for doodling and decorating them — because sometimes it's fun to draw on something that isn't flat!

Do you ever doodle on cups, objects you find, cereal boxes, other things around the house? 

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Golden Globes Fashion Illustrations

I LOVE watching the red-carpet arrivals at award ceremonies. So many incredible gowns, and so many 'what were they thinking' moments. ;) 

So during award season you'll find me spread out at the coffee table in front of the TV, madly sketching my favorite fashions as everyone arrives. The Golden Globes last week were no exception — here are three of my favorites, done in watercolor, ink and loads of glitter!

Are you an awards-show junkie too? 

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Portland Sketches

Over the Christmas break we've been traveling around Oregon, and I started sketching quick snippets of our activities to remind myself what we've done and seen on the trip. 

We've eaten a lot of delicious food, spent a LOT of time at Powell's bookstore (and bought a lot of large books we aren't sure how to get home), bought some of 'baby's' first toys, books and clothes, and strolled around some super cute Portland streets and neighborhoods.

While this isn't the sort of art I usually create, I wanted to share it as a way of showing you 'behind-the-scenes' and what I've been up to lately. In fact, Behind-the-Scenes Content is idea number 17 in my free guide '21 Social Media Prompts for Artists' — if you haven't downloaded it yet, you can get it here. 

So, have you ever used a travel sketchbook to record your adventures? Let me know in the comments.

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St John Knits Live Fashion Sketching

This weekend I was illustrating guests at the Shine Bright event being held by St. John Knits in Denver. I had so much fun, I mean what's better than getting to paint and draw fashion illustrations all afternoon, surrounded by lovely ladies and gorgeous fashions? 

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If you're not too familiar with live fashion sketching, it involves drawing or painting guests, live, which means you have to be pretty quick. At this event I took a photo of each person on my phone and then got to work sketching them, so they didn't have to stand in front of me the whole time, but could spend their time sipping champagne and perusing the latest collection. 

Often at live sketching events you'll illustrate guests in the outfit they are already wearing, but the fun thing about this event was that they got to choose which of the new Resort 2017 Collection they wanted to be drawn in, from bright red evening dresses, to gorgeous black skirt suits. 

A video posted by Jessica Mack 🎨 Colorado Artist (@brownpaperbunny) on Dec 9, 2016 at 7:33am PST

Because I didn't have a lot of time to let paint dry my Tombow water-soluble brush markers were perfect. I just used a little water when I wanted to blend colors. I did finish off some of the sketches with metallic watercolors, but kept those areas small for fast drying. 

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Oh, Hello There!

I've made a lot of new friends online this year, and I thought a proper introduction was WELL overdue! I'd love to hear a little more about you too, so please leave me a comment — let me know where you're from, what you do, and what brought you to BrownPaperBunny!

So hi, my name is Jessica, and I'm Australian-born but I've been living in the USA for a few years now, with the last two and a half in Colorado. I kind of love it here, sunshine, mountains, fresh air — what's not to love! I live with my lovely husband, our naughty kitties (Bonnie and Clyde), and we have a baby girl on the way!

I'm a bit of a serial student and have a few different undergrad and graduate degrees in marketing, communications, commercial photography, information systems and I started (and dropped out of) a Masters of Fine Art majoring in Illustration — more about that below. For the past 16+ years I've been running marketing and social media programs for a wide variety of organizations from huge, global corporations to not-for-profit scientific organizations, to tech startups, and everyone in-between! Including General Motors, Starbucks, eWater, Raytheon, OtterBox, General Dynamics, LifeProof, DLA Piper, Robo 3D and more! And this year I went out on my own, focusing on social media consulting and coaching for creatives. I just saw so many talented artists out there doing themselves a terrible disservice online and thought 'I can help them!'

I'm also an artist and illustrator myself, with a penchant for watercolors, fashion illustration, bright color and whimsical, feminine subjects. I feel like I started my creative journey fairly late in life, and really only gave myself permission to start exploring art a few years ago. But after my first creative drawing and painting class, I was hooked, and now I pretty much sleep with a paintbrush in my hand. So if I can encourage even one person who thinks they 'aren't creative' to start drawing, painting, quilting, taking photos, baking, or any other creative pursuit that makes them happy, then I've achieved my ultimate goal! This is where I show you the self portrait I drew in my first creative drawing class, which I was trying to draw realistically and to scale by the way...and that I worked on for at least two hours — compared to a couple years (and a really good teacher) later. Anyone can learn to draw or paint. It just takes determination, practice, and someone to show you how....

So, back to that Masters of Fine Art. I didn't have access to illustration courses where I was in Australia so when we moved to the USA I jumped at the chance to apply for a Masters course in Fine Art and Illustration. I learned SO much in my first semester, but after several classes on charcoal still life drawing, with each class being a huge time commitment and me working almost 100 hours a week trying to get a tech start-up off the ground, it really began to be too much. I might have stuck it out, but when I was told that my next few prerequisite classes were going to involve more still life studies, but this time in oil paint I simply got too impatient. I wanted to skip straight to bright colors and ink and watercolor, and illustration work. So I put my studies on hold and started doing my own thing. I left the still life charcoals behind....

And started painting, bright, crazy things that made me happy!

That's probably more than you ever needed to know about me, so now it's your turn. Tell me a little about yourself in the comments!

And if you're interested in improving your own online branding and social media, come join my private Facebook group or sign up to my email list to get lots of free tips and get your questions answered!

Ready to make some changes right now? Book a social media consulting session where I'll give you an analysis and action plan to get you where you want to go!

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Travel Sketching

This week we've been in Vancouver for some meetings and other things. We tried to get out and explore as much as we could but it's been non-stop, heavy rain the whole time, so we've mostly stuck to indoor activities. In fact, the first few days were so grey I started the Instagram hashtag #NotBlackAndWhiteJustVancouver ;)

Of course the sun came out and it was completely gorgeous, 20 minutes before we had to leave for the airport. Here are a couple of pics if you're interested...

While we were there we visited the Juxtapoz x Superflat exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which was really cool, and took a sea-plane flight around the area. And we also had a lot of lazy mornings in our hotel, eating breakfast in the lounge and sketching. 

Here are a few of my favorites from the Juxtapoz show. I wrote down who each of the pieces was by, and now I've managed to misplace that note. Sorry! Click on any of the images to see them a little bigger.

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Oh Big Bird, you saucy fellow!

So, my question to you is what art supplies do you take with you when you travel — or what is in your handbag every day? I always take WAY more than I'm going to be able to use, but I was almost glad for the rainy weather, which meant I got some creative time in this trip!

In my carry-on I had two sketchbooks, a handful of Tombow markers, a bag of Prismacolor brush markers, stash of Micron Fineliners, Liquetex Paint Markers, some brushes, pencils, and my home-made travel watercolor tin! 

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Download Your Illustrated 2017 Calendar!

This year I'm making my 2017 calendar downloadable so you can print it yourself right away. These work great for pin-boards at your desk, sticking to the fridge, framing, or using in your planner. 

AND, to say thank you here's a 10% off code to use with it — just enter 'handmade10' in checkout.

Each of the images in the calendar was originally part of a series I created for Inktober (a month of ink drawings). I then digitized them on my iPad (here are my favorite iPad apps for artists) and added some watercolor elements. If you're a regular BrownPaperBunny reader you know how much I love fashion illustration and bright colors, so I couldn't resist giving these ladies 'rainbow hair'. :)

Here is one of the original drawings being created. As you can see I like to watch TV and drink tea while I paint. ;)

Tonight's inktober fashion illustration was inspired by The Glamourai, painted in ink. Check out my blog if you'd like to see more: http://blog.brownpaperbunny.com

Thanksgiving Sale

Thanksgiving is such a great time for reflection and I've been spending time thinking about the people who matter most to me, and trying to send them more snail mail to let them know I love them and they're in my thoughts (even if there are oceans between us geographically).

I am also so thankful to be able to do what I love, and to have met so many of you lovely people through the blog and social media — so I wanted to give you a little discount on all my prints and stationery right through until the end of the month. Just enter 'handmade10' in the checkout. 

If you're anything like me, you're already trying to get all of your holiday shopping out of the way so you can just enjoy time with family. I bet there is something in my store that would be perfect for that hard-to-buy-for person on your list. ;)

If you're interested in a custom portrait, let me know. I'm happy to apply the 10% discount to those too. 

xx

DFW Fall 2016

I scored a front row seat for the first night of Denver Fashion Week(end), and again for the final night of Fall 2016 show this week. It was pretty fantastic, with some great local designers and talent. I've started illustrating a few of my favorites and you can watch each of the actual shows and flick through the photo slideshow below. 

Timelapse Fashion Illustration from the Femme Fatale Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end)

Illustrating some more of my favorites from DFW: Ansley Hair Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end) Fall 2016

Artemis Birch Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end) Fall 2016

There's some incredible fashion talent here in Colorado, check out some of the runway shows from Denver Fashion Week(end) Fall 2016

Femme Fatale Intimates Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end) Fall 2016

Mona Lucero Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end)

Steve Sells Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end) Fall 2016

Maggie Burns Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end) Fall 2016 I liked Maggie's designs, but the show itself was very long and awkward and reminded me of a debutant ball full of awkward teens doing awkward dances.

Anthony H Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end) Fall 2016

Tyne Hall Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end) Fall 2016

Rachel Marie Hurst Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end) Fall 2016 Really loved all of her fabrics!

Night by Charlie Price - Runway Show at Denver Fashion Week(end) I enjoyed some of his designs, but it looked like the shoes were about to fall off most of the models, so they couldn't walk properly, which was distracting. The poor girls looked terrified!

Denver has so much local talent, I'm thrilled to see it showcased in such a cool way! Leave me a comment and let me know if anything in particular caught your eye.

Be Yourself

We've been having a lot of discussion lately, about authenticity and being your true self as an artist, in an art journal group I'm a part of.

With the internet comes ready access to other artist's work, and also praise and criticism of our own creations via social media and other online channels. Does this seep into our subconscious and ultimately influence what we create? Leave a comment and let me know what you think? 

This quote by Judy Garland always sums it up well for me — I just have to keep reminding myself.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. —Judy Garland

Inktober Day 31: Halloween

I can't believe we've reached the end of the Inktober Fall Fashion Challenge! A whole month of drawing and painting using only ink. Even though I fell behind at times, I always had a lot of fun catching up, and creating all of these fashion illustrations! 

The very last prompt was 'Halloween' so I drew these four cute costumes I found on Pinterest. Cactus, Popcorn, Cotton Candy and Ice-Cream. And it just occurred to me that they are almost all food-themed — maybe I need to go eat something. ;)

What are you dressing up as for Halloween this year? 

Inktober Day 29 (Fringe) and Day 30 (Accessories)

In a bid to catch up on my Inktober Fall Fashion Illustration Challenge prompts I combined Day 29 and Day 30, to create this gold 1920s Flapper dress — with jeweled hair clip and two-toned shoes. I had a lot of fun with this one, and I used to have a black dress (and shoes) just like this. :)

Check out all my other Inktober drawings here. 

Inktober Day 26 (Blazer), Day 27 (Plaid), Day 28 (Skirt)

Please note: This blog post contains affiliate links, which help pay for the upkeep of this site. That being said, I will never, ever promote anything I am not 100% in love with!

Maybe it's the touch of Scottish heritage in me but I love a good tartan or plaid. So I combined Day 26 of the Inktober Fall Fashion Illustration Challenge, which was 'blazer' with Day 27 which was 'plaid' and Day 28 'skirt'. 

I used Tombow Brush Markers as watercolors (more on the technique here) and then outlined it in Micron Pens. 

You can see all of my inktober entries here. :)

Inktober Day 25: Cardigan

Please note: This blog post contains affiliate links, which help pay for the upkeep of this site. That being said, I will never, ever promote anything I am not 100% in love with!

I love a good cardi, and when I saw this cute picture of Atlantic-Pacific's outfit I knew I just had to paint it for the Inktober Fall Fashion Illustration Challenge. 

I used a combination of Dr Ph Martin's Liquid Ink, Tombow Markers, and Sakura Micron Pens. 

Uploaded by BrownPaperBunny on 2016-10-31.

You can see all of my Inktober entries here. 

Inktober Day 24: Coat

Please note: This blog post contains affiliate links, which help pay for the upkeep of this site. That being said, I will never, ever promote anything I am not 100% in love with!

For Day 24 of the Inktober Fall Fashion Illustration Challenge I drew a coat I wish I owned. Soft pink, military cut, but with a feminine bow. If you ever see a coat like this will you let me know? ;)

I used Tombow markers to get a watercolor effect (see the tutorial here) and then outlined it with Sakura Micron pens. 

You can see all of my inktober entries here.