Lynsey Erin Illustration

Hi friends! It's been a bit of work, but my illustration website has launched!! Wooooo! This includes my fancy new blog where you can keep up with my news, art inspiration, goodies and such, as well as super new art. Stop by LynseyErinillustration.com and let me know what you think!

Tacos to Truffles

So my friends and I love to eat, and talk about eating so much, we started a blog called Tacos to Truffles. I'll be there every Tuesday illustrating my favorite meals of the week. Come check it out- I promise you'll leave salivating!


Burrata appetizer from Fiore in Brooklyn - watercolor and ink

La Isla Bonita

Hi! I'm back from our honeymoon in Spain, too soon of course. We went to Barcelona and Mallorca, a beautiful island off the coast, and had an amazing time.

This is the beautiful town of Deia in Mallorca that
many artists, writers and musicians come to for inspiration.
Check out more of my Spain sketches on my Flickr page.

Illustrated Wedding Invites

So this is how our wedding invitations came out...our friend Ricky is an amazing graphic designer, and he type set and letter pressed them at The Arm in Brooklyn. (and took these 2 top photos...mine, not so great!)

images per Ricky Ferrer

Here's how the set looked. King and queen Love stamps, grey envelopes with attempted calligraphy, RSVP post card and invite. It took 2 stamps to mail just because the envelope is vertical! At least it made sense with the king and queen on each one....

Fancy Free and ABT

Hi! Haven't posted in a while due to the upcoming wedding and work, but I'm still drawing daily! Recently my fiance and I have been going to the ballet a lot, and he turned me on to the ABT logo contest....and I won! It's a rendering of Fancy Free, a ballet set in the 1940's about 3 sailors who fall for 2 women. Wooo! Check it out at American Ballet Theater.

Moleskine fiend

I never really understood why this brand of seemingly regular notebooks has such a cult following. But then I saw this video by Juan Berrio and was completely inspired, and started searching for other Moleskine using artists...of which there are many, many, and even more many. You must, MUST take a look at the video- it is just incredible.


I found a new favorite illustrator, Badaude, and fell in love with her hand done typography, fashion musings and illustrations, and fantastic scenes of Paris. J'adore her!!




Moleskine page from Illehell, on Flickr....the set is an a-z of cities worldwide, but I had to post my hometown, Houston!



This is a set of 3 Moleskines I bought for me and my two friends so I would finally have a sketch book to use in the subway, and because they are so wonderful and thoughtful, that I owed them some pen pal love. The girl in the top left corner I drew from a Depression era photo found in the Library of Congress's Flickr photostream. Best resource ever. I drew the Alexander McQueen dress for Jen, who was also a huge fan, and finally, a sun bear lamp/upholstered living room scene with a Daughter Earth wall hanging for Katy, of Daughter Earth. That may sound weird, but read her blog, and you'll understand. I'm off to finish my drawings for the invites...and start filling up pages of round cornered inspiration!

Illuminated Invitations part deux

Okay, so my wonderful, fantastic graphic designer friend has kindly offered to LETTERPRESS our wedding invites. How amazing is that?? When you cost them out at other places they are often around 8.00 PER CARD!!! Needless to say, I'm excited...but everything has to be done this weekend because he's printing next Saturday, so that's what I'm doing! There's snow piled a foot high, but I really need to trek back up to take reference pics of the building. Here's the final inspiration board...my rough sketch of the Society of Illustrator's building, and the tall skinny envelopes from my favorite stationery store, Paper Presentation, though I haven't decide on grey or kraft paper yet. At the top left are the Love stamps I'm using beautifully designed by Jeanne Greco.

Illuminated Invitations

This is in no way turning into a wedding blog, but I have been on a quest for great inspiration for my wedding invites, which of course I want to illustrate myself, hence the posting. I already showed the save the date, but wanted something different for the invites and have searched high and low for ideas.

First, I was really into the idea of a comic book theme.


I was obsessed with this comic book cover style design from D.I.Y. Union

and this one from Lollipop Events and Designs-where the bride's ring is a diamond Hello Kitty!!

But also loved the sweet simplicity of black and white lettering and kraft paper of this letter pressed couple via Oh So Beautiful Paper

and of course all the wonderful Rifle Paper invitations; especially that the designs of their whole sets work together perfectly....

and was also drawn to the intricate line work of this gorgeous hand carved and printed set via Tugboat Printshop

But ultimately, this board I put together was the final inspiration piece I went off of to design the invites. It will definitely be a black and white crosshatching type style drawing of the Society of Illustrators where the wedding will occur. I liked the idea of us on it, but we decided simpler was better. I can always draw us in front of the building on the RSVP or for the guest book. (yay, more projects!!) I still don't know whether to add the one color pop of their iconic red door, it doesn't go with the palette of anything else; I'm not all "wedding colors!!", but they have to all make sense together, you know? Although it is so trendy right now, I just love the look of kraft paper and think the envelopes may be made of that...

From left corner: Incredible building illustration by Al lorenz via Society of Illustrators ; Shu Okada's people have a very sweet vintage Joan Walsh Anglund feel; The awesome hand drawn napkin invites were done for a contest on 100 layer cake by Bryn; Picture I drew of Matt in front of the Rosenbach Museum in Philly; Wedding paper set with library building and bookmark; Letterpressed Golden Gate bridge invite; My drawing of a 2 of hearts couple

News and updates and whatnot

Well first, I've been working on my portfolio, trying to get more sequential images in there and all. Here's one from a series I've been working on about a girl and her mom.

Lynsey Hirth - click to enlarge

I guess my biggest news, though, is that I recently got engaged and am now planning the wedding, which, knock on wood, has been great so far. I made these save the dates that said,
"Don't be sketchy, save the date!" Yes, there's a bit of an art theme to the wedding...but not overly cheesy...hopefully I can restrain myself. I'll be posting my ideas for the invites soon...I can't decide on what to go with!

Lynsey Hirth

I am also terribly upset over the loss of Alexander McQueen. His work was a huge inspiration to me since design school, and I've seen his garments in person and been blown away by the craftsmanship. These are a few of my favorite fashion illustrations inspired by his designs:

Beautiful jester drawing by Kuanth

Gorgeous twin dresses by Sandra Suy

An ethereal McQueen dream sequence via Danny Roberts of Igor and Andre

and of course, the adorable Fifi Lapin in her British best

My favorite ever look of McQueen's, from Spring 2005, hat by Philip Treacy, that I will try and draw very soon.

Tavi Time!

I am hooked on Style Rookie, the blog of quirky thirteen year old student-by-day, fashion extraordinaire-by-night Tavi Gevinson. She's hilarious, smart, worships the same designer's I do, and obviously has a future as a stylist....editor...designer...really just about anything. Tavi debuted a leopard dress from Rodarte's Target collection and posted another from their Spring 07 RTW line and I had to sketch them!

Back in business!

Hi there! I'm back....just busier than ever, which is good of course, but I've been slacking on this front! A few things I've been working on lately. These are all done in Prismacolor markers with ink and some Pentel pen and prisma color pencils.



Sketch night at Society of Illustrators



Dior leopard dress from Fall '09



Based on blogger Jane Aldridge from Sea of Shoes but I've changed it up a little :)

Bye, see you much sooner next time!

Go figure!

On the Society of Illustrators main page I always see a sidebar advertising their Jazz and Sketch night, and while it sounded intriguing, those things can be kind of intimidating and I didn't go out of my way to see what it was all about. Finally, probably out of frustration of wanting better subjects than my cats, I decided to check it out, why not? And absolutely loved it. The drawing venue feels like a cozy parlour, a totally relaxed and relaxing atmosphere -a live band plays, you can drink wine, and it's completely non judgemental. The Society has it every Tues and Thurs; I will definitely be going back- you should stop by!


picture via Society of Illustrators



my sketches from last night using ink

I'm the dummy...

I made this today inspired by the graphic simpleness of the clean type and colors of the "Make do and Mend" and "Keep Calm" posters ...mine has a calendar on it as well, left out here, as a countdown to my dummy deadline because it WILL get finished!!!!!

Inky play

A few weeks ago our class was asking illustrator Brian Floca what materials he used and he talked about Japanese nibs. I've always been curious and when another student tried them out for her final project with nice results I was encouraged. I love the thick and thin flow-y lines you get, but it's definitely harder to use than a pen and sporadically the metal scratches, ink erupts and creates sprinkles on the page. Lovely.

Free People Friday!

Happy happy Friday! This weekend I have lots of packing to do, but being the procrastinator that I am I'm pretty sure I'll put it off as long as possible! Anyway, this is a piece I just finished for Free People's Fashion Illustration Contest. If you've never been to their blog I promise you'll get sucked in. It has great art, design, fashion, music videos, a little of everything. I've been meaning to do an illustration based off a sewing pattern because I'm obsessed with vintage ones. Hope you have a wonderful weekend filled with things more fun than moving.....

Freebie Listmaking Zen

Hi again. I've been so busy with my class and the packing/painting/cleaning apartment stuff that I'm supposed to be doing, that I just need to take a breath and make a list. When I can't sleep at night because I get anxious about the next day I have to get up and write everything down. It's a very calming process for me. So here's a freebie to-do list just for you! Go on and zen out while you cross your stress off!

Sketching in the park

I've been reading Danny Gregory's book The Creative License and am very into his watercolor in-the-moment observational drawings. I don't really journal, just keep sketch books and sporadically draw what comes to me or ideas for specific drawings, but I love that he makes the mundane look beautiful. He makes me want to capture my coffee and morning bagel and make it feel special. I definitely don't do enough outdoor drawing and realize when I do how static it makes my other work feel and it' s nice to use it as a relaxing exercise. Pick up his book if you want encouraging and funny words, or new ideas to sketch if you aren't feeling inspired.


3 birds, a dog and 2 people at Riverside park

Pocketful Illustration

ooOoOo... the 3rd issue of Pocketful Illustration Magazine is out! I love the concept- an excerpt from The Little Prince-"Draw me a Sheep!" Everyone interpreted it in such original and unique ways, I'm really excited to be a part of it.

What I wore Wednesday

1 part Lynn Yaegar...

+ 1 part Linnea in Monet's garden

=

what I wore on Wednesday

Friday's Five: Hey, Sailor!

It's fleet week here in NY and Memorial Day weekend! I'm about to go savor some outdoor food and drinks, you can savor these sailor inspired fashions. Have a wonderful holiday weekend!





1. Cute Anchor hat by LIDDesignsBoutique's shop on Etsy
2. Sea blue sailor top by my friend Inessah's eco friendly clothing company Sublet- organic soft cotton keeps you cool in the heat
3. So cute button up sailor pants by Marc Jacobs on Bluefly
4. Every girl needs these Lolita heart shaped sunglasses from Fred Flare for flirty summer fun!
5. Bright orange wedges from Kate Spade on Zappos