LIVE Fashion Illustrating with Lexicon of Style

Hello My Darlings,

I hope you've had a wonderful week thus far. SO much is changing in my world at the moment and I can't WAIT to reveal the big news with all of you. In the meantime, I'm thrilled to finally share the collaboration I did with my dear friend, the uber talented scarf designer and blogger Alexandra Dieck of Lexicon of Style!! Alex and I met this past Spring while taking that incredibly inspiring Blogging for Fashion Business class at FIT. We had an instant connection, as we are both super passionate entrepreneurs. Shortly thereafter we discovered that not only did we both live in the West Village, but we were also featured in the same Glamour Magazine New York Fashion Week Video from this past February 2014!! Clearly we were destined to become friends...continue reading after the jump!!

We thought it would be great to combine both of our passions one afternoon, whereby I would illustrate Alex in her element of personal style blogging, while showcasing her beautiful scarf designs. Needless to say, the afternoon was an aaaaamazing success. Nothing beats live illustrating...correction, nothing beats live illustrating super gorgeous and stylish fashion blogger/models standing in the streets of New York City (yeahhhhhh loves it!!!!). So if you yourself are an illustrator with a desire to illustrate fashion figures from life, connect, connect, connect with your lovely friends who also share a passion for fashion that would be willing to pose for you one afternoon. It will get you prepped for your moments illustrating live from the runway of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week naturally (yes?!, YES!!).

So get out there, start connecting, collaborating, and drawing, and don't forget to share with me the results. More to come.

Much love,
Meag xx

Photos by Lordale B

Take Me to Hong Kong : MOSCHINO Resort 2015

Hi My Little Love Bugs, 

Happy Sunday evening to you all! I hope you had a refreshing two days off in the sun. I spent the weekend working on commissions and soul cycling my body back into shape. Seriously, I kick started my Saturday with a 45 min session in SOHO at 8:30 AM (in the dark, candles lit, music blaring, instructor headbanging) and biked the remainder of the day through Central Park. I cannot contain my smile when I hop on a bike in New York City. Equal parts terrifying and liberating, it feels so good to be enjoying exercise in the sun. By the time I returned home, I was starting to paint this piece by 10 PM Saturday evening. I'm seriously getting old, no late night NYC dance session for me as of late.

Anyway, I really wanted to paint this gif as part of a continued MOSCHINO series I started with the post Fast Fashion. Since bringing Jeremy Scott onboard as the label's new Creative Director, there isn't a star in the world who isn't rocking at least one piece of this brand's gear on tour (hello Miley, Yonce, Katy Perry, RiRi etc). When I clicked through the designer's Resort 2015 collection on Style.com, I somehow identified with the all-attitude, gangsta blonde, modelling the looks. She seemed to be screaming Drake lyrics through her smouldering schmize (smiling-eyes, thanks Tyra Banks) which is what I attempt to do in New York every damn day. No new friends, no new friends, no new friends, no no new...what?! Just go with it.

So I decided to travel vicariously through this MOSCHINO lookbook model and illustrate her in Hong Kong (I'm putting my intentions out into the universe, as I deeply hope to travel throughout Asia this Fall). I loved the juxtaposition of her 90's New Kids oversized t-shirt against the city light show of Hong Kong. And there you have it...Take Me to Hong Kong. Now can someone from Jeremy Scott's team please send me a trunk of his incredibly genius pop culture clothing?! Thanks!! I have much more to share on here this week my darlings so stay tuned, but for now SLEEEEEEPPPP.

Much love,
Meag xx

24 Hrs in Toronto - A TWD Guide

Happy Thursday My Darlings,

I hope you've been enjoying your week so far. I have been riding on my 5 year New York anniversary high lately, seeking out new adventures in the city including getting on my first citibike woot woot look out!! I can't thank you enough for the beautiful comments you left on my blog and Instagram for that post. Sharing 4 of my 5 years in New York with all of you on this blog has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever experienced. I'm so excited to continue evolving with all of you.

Anyway, as I mentioned on my illustrated scarf post, I spent a whirlwind weekend in Toronto a few days ago for a friend's wedding. So often in New York I have friends asking me for recommendations of what to see, do, where to eat, and shop in Toronto, so I thought it would be useful to compile a Travel Write Draw Guide to 24hrs in the city. Below are the links for each section so you can do a little more investigating if you plan to make a journey to this beautiful city in the near future.

WEAR: Toronto is a fairly casual city so pack your best gladiators and sunnies to hit the streets!

belle by Sigerson Morrison bianca caged gladiators

FINDS + Karen Walker sunnies

LISTEN: You can't visit Toronto and not listen to Drake in his hometown. Also, everything Majestic Casual sets the tone for this laid back city.

Drake Nothing Was The Same 

Majestic Casual Playlist

EAT: One of my favorite spots to visit in Toronto is St. Lawrence Market for the oodles of food porn inspiration. Also, I literally salivate over the thought of Holts Cafe's tartines on Bloor. Finish off your city stroll with a fresh macaron from Nadege on Queen Street West.

DO: I absolutely adore Toronto's beautiful architecture. We have world class designers behind our city's greatest art galleries and museums including the ROM and AGO. You'll also be able to catch a great glimpse of the contemporary OCAD University that sits above the city on crayon colored pillars.

SHOP: Toronto's shopping is a little more varied and spotty so be prepared to walk and hop on the metro to get from Queen to Bloor (Queen being much more casual trendy and Bloor catering to the Madison Avenue type). The best route would be to start at Queen St. and John St., walk west and head north to Kensington for some vintage hunting. Then you can saunter off to Bloor St. and explore Yorkville to see the best of high end shopping Toronto has to offer.

ON THE WAY OUT: Visit Niagara Falls!! While driving back from Toronto to New York on my last road trip, we found ourselves taking one wrong turn and ended up at this stunning waterfall. Honestly, this was the greatest error made in road trip history, or at least it was for me.

There is so much more I could recommend and advise in Toronto but for now I will leave you with this.

Much love,
Meag xx

Top 5 Things I've Learned While Living in New York

Hello My Loves,

How have you been?! I hope you're all feeling refreshed from your weekend. I for one am over the moon while writing this post because this weekend marks my 5 year anniversary of living in the Empire State, New York City!!!! This is truly a joyous occasion. I feel like I'm honestly celebrating my birthday. For those of you who have followed my journey on this blog the past four years, you know that I'm a Canadian citizen, and that life as a legal alien living in NYC has been anything but a cakewalk. That said, my heart could honestly burst when I think of all the wonderful experiences I have had while fighting for my dream here in the Big Apple. I feel so incredibly fortunate everyday that I have had the opportunity to pursue my greatest passion, fashion illustration, in the city that never sleeps.

Moving to New York undoubtedly changed the course of my life forever. It marked my decision to leave behind comfort and convention for the potential of a life filled with passion, purpose, and creativity. It was proof to myself that I believed in something greater, that I had a burning fire deep down within me that believed I could live the life I so badly dreamed of. This post, however, is really for all of you lovely and loyal Travel Write Draw readers. So many of you write me beautiful emails asking questions about my career as an illustrator and what it's like to live in New York. Well here are my answers out in the open for all of you; a comprehensive Top 5 of what I've learned, and what you can expect as a creative in arguably the greatest city on the planet.

1. Dream big, start small, expect nothing: When I first applied to attend FIT while still living in Toronto, I had a million ideas of what my life would look like when I moved to New York. I expected to be embraced wholeheartedly by the glamourous world of fashion the minute I moved here. I thought I would be given the key to the industry on a silver platter. I imagined I would have my own company straight out of my associates in illustration, making my own illustrated accessories, coffee table books, and absolutely killing it financially. Needless to say I had BIG dreams and even BIGGER expectations and that often led to HUGE disappointment. 

I'm not suggesting you don't dream because that is vital to getting here and surviving when the road gets tough. Rather I suggest you be reasonable with yourself. Unless you have an obscene amount of family money, chances are you will not be killing it as an artist in New York when you first start out. You have to build your empire starting from the ground up, not from the top of the castle down. No opportunity I've had here has come without me working my ass off to make it happen. I have had to work full-time to support myself and stay in the country and only now, 5 years later, does that have the possibility of changing.

 
    
2. Sometimes you get lucky but mostly you just work hard: This could also just as easily be titled "living your dream is actually not a dream just a lot of hard work" lol. As I mentioned above, every opportunity I have had in this city is a result of working harder than I ever imagined I was capable of. I have pushed through so many bloody obstacles in this city it is a running joke with my family and friends that someone must have put a curse on me along the way. 

But thinking like this gets you nowhere. You just have to embrace your circumstances and rely on no one other than yourself to make shit happen. And I really mean this. Magic might very well exist in the world but it isn't anything we have control over, SO if you want things to happen in your career then focus on what you can control: working hard!! Work hard and people will respect you. Work hard and you will respect yourself. Work hard and your dream won't be a dream, it will be your reality. 

3. Compromise is key: New York is a city of compromise. It is nearly impossible to have it all unless you are making a half a million a year or have a trust fund. NYC really forces you to think about what you value most and build your life around those top priorities. For me, having easy access to the best restaurants, shops, subway stations, art galleries, the Hudson River, and my full-time job all took precedence over the size of my apartment. 

Those values are slowly starting to change as I'm getting older and long for my own personal space and room to create my artwork. Just keep your reason for being in the city at the forefront always. You may have to live further away from Manhattan to afford being here but who cares if it means you get to live within access of all this city has to offer.



4. Believe in Yourself: this may be the most important life lesson I have ever learned in life never mind living in New York. This city is absolutely every bit as crazy as you expect it to be. If you want to be the best version of yourself, go against the best, you have to remember to not lose site of who you really are along the way. Sometimes it can be so discouraging when you realize just how competitive New York (i.e. the world) really is. This is especially the case when you come from small towns and are often the big fish in a small pond. 

But life isn't meant to be lived in a bubble and truthfully the saying "if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere" happens to still be VERY true in the fashion industry. Paris, London, and Milan may be stunning fashion capitals but when you make it in London you still have to make it in New York to matter in fashion. That is just the way it is and if people tell you otherwise they are only fooling themselves and attempting to fool you too.    

5. Anything is possible but ultimately it's up to you: This goes hand in hand with my post from not long ago, Don't Wait for Opportunities, Create Them! No one became an overnight success by sitting in front of the TV morning and night and not working towards their dream. And now with social media being as prevalent as it is, if you do not have web presence, you don't exist. I hate to be so blunt in this post and honestly I wish that half of what I was writing wasn't true. 

I wish I didn't have to be so plugged into social media all the time to keep my career going. I am actually much more of an introvert than I might come across. But if you want to be in the game, you have to put your sneakers on and get running otherwise no one is going to see how brilliantly talented you really are. Put yourself out there even if it scares you, actually, especially BECAUSE it scares you. If you aren't struggling in some capacity, you probably aren't growing either, and sunshine you were meant to grow BIG!!

I hope this post was helpful to all of you who have ever wondered what it is like to live in New York as a creative. There is no mystic, it is your choice, so if you want it make it happen!! Here's to another 5 years of this blog and our journey together as a Travel Write Draw family. Love to you all and be sure to have a glass of champagne in our honor wherever you are in the world today.

Much love,
Meag xx

How To Design An Illustrated Scarf

Hello My TWD Darlings,

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and great start to your week! I for one had a pretty stellar weekend involving an uber fun filled roadtrip to Toronto for a dear friend's wedding on Saturday (more on that to come!!). I'm finally bouncing back from the whirlwind of nearly 24 hrs spent in a car in 2.5 days lol. Regardless, today I'm riding high on life because I discovered that the illustrated scarf I designed for Collection 18 has finally become available to buy on NORDSTROM EEEeeeee!! Yes I'm totally squealing over this.

I VERY rarely show any of the work I do for my employer here. But I thought it could be really interesting for you, my sweet Travel Write Draw inner circle, to show the behind the scenes of making the scarf and also break down a comprehensive (and very much abbreviated) how to that you can use when considering designing a scarf yourself. SO it starts a little something like this.

STEP 1: Decide on your theme! When we were considering our trends almost a year ago now we were seeing lots of evidence of flamingos everywhere from fashion accessories to home goods. It became clear that this wasn't a trend to be ignored. So we agreed to move forward with an engineered scarf design involving a flamingo and I got straight to work on pulling references to draw from.


STEP 2: Illustrate your motifs! Once I gathered the very best the web had to offer on flamingos I whipped out the finest watercolor paper and got to work. I painted and painted, and then I painted some more, until I got just the right angle of the flamingo to work with in photoshop. I scanned the best illustrations, cleaned them and moved onto...

STEP 3: Playing with compositions! With my scanned flamingos I started placing them into a file in the dimensions of the scarf I wanted to create - in this case 26" x 80". I illustrated a few geometric shapes to create a print for the background of the scarf. This was the really experimental stage where I created roughly 40 different layouts to be considered for one final scarf design.

STEP 4: Pitch the colors! We decided unanimously to use the scarf where the flamingos head and body draped around your neck when wearing as a true wrap. But this wasn't the end of it. I printed the scarf life size and started pitching the pantone colors so the maker would know how to get as exact as possible. This also allowed for limiting the number of screens it took to print the design.

STEP 5: Send to maker! Once the pitch sheet was filled out with all the colors and their positions on the scarf, I burned the final design to a disc, folded the life size printout, and threw the design sheet in an envelope to be sent to our makers. Within weeks we received our first sample which was probably my most rewarding day ever at Collection 18!!

STEP 6: Sell to buyer! Once you have your sample, you're ready to sell! In our case, the sample goes in the showroom in time for August market to be viewed by all the retail buyers. For you at home receiving a sample means you can confirm that it is accurate and also photograph for your online store. I'm beyond thrilled that of all the retailers to walk through our showroom last Summer, NORDSTROM was the one who purchased my design!!

And now you can view it on shop.nordstrom.com here:

Did you find this post helpful? Are there projects that I've worked on that you would like to see more how to's or behind the scenes on? If so let me know in the comment section below.

Much love,
Meag xx

JEFF KOONS : A RETROSPECTIVE

Hello Lovelies,

I can't thank you enough for your amazingly sweet comments you left on my latest post Finding My It Girl. The wheels are definitely in motion and I've been doing a lot of thinking about additional ways I can better serve you all, my readers, here on Travel Write Draw. Ultimately I want to give you access to the very best of art, culture, fashion, & illustration here in New York and abroad and inspire along the way. So today I'm starting with an inside glimpse into what I consider one of the best art retrospectives I've seen to date in New York - Jeff Koons: A Retrospective at the Whitney Museum.

I visited this exhibition a week or so ago and was absolutely overjoyed by the experience. Jeff Koon's work is meant to elicit a reaction from its viewers and it most certainly did for me. There is something really refreshing about standing next to oversized everyday objects, play-doh and the like, that ignites the child in you. I left feeling totally recharged which says a lot considering it was crowded with the typical selfie obsessed attendees. The saturated colors alone are worth the visit. If you are planning to make a visit to New York this Summer, make it apart of your "must see list" otherwise enjoy the snapshots I curated just for you.

Much love,
Meag xx

Finding My "It" Girl

Good Evening My Darlings,

It feels like forever since I last sat down and connected with all of you here on Travel Write Draw. Truthfully I've been having a really rough time lately, as in lots of crying, breakdown fits, and rocky emotional roller-coaster rides. I'm about to make some MAJOR moves here in New York and quite frankly I'm scared shitless. I've been doing what most overly anxious OCD people are prone to doing - running around asking everyone for advice and seeking answers, while feeling totally unsure and uncertain about making a major decision. And all the advice getting can really throw you for a loop. In my quest to get some real answers on how to create real quality content on my blog, I consulted with a blog "expert" and walked away feeling completely sideswiped to the point that I didn't feel like I could write on my blog anymore (hence why I disappeared for over two weeks).

I WAS PARALYZED...I was told that my content wasn't good enough, that my traffic was dismal, and that I needed to write an E-Book?! I felt like everything I had ever learned about social media, being authentic, and being myself was completely WRONG. Honestly I'm still reeling from the experience. BUT with every hard lesson comes a wave of self-affirmation. How can anyone FAIL at being THEMSELVES?! Seriously?! How can you go wrong expressing yourself, speaking from your heart, and connecting with people from every corner of the world?! Frankly the fact that I've managed to connect with anyone through the internet in a meaningful way feels like a huge WIN to me.

Furthermore, last night I attended a brilliant personal branding class through The Lovely It Girl, a personal brand consulting boutique, where the founder Michela Aramini challenged all of us to identify our inner "It Girl". Suddenly all the reasons I love life and feel passionate about being a fashion illustrator came flooding back to me. I was reminded that my "It", my unique intrinsic value, is the only voice I really need to listen to.

So my loves, I'm on the quest to find and re-define my inner "It". Just like the ever stunning and talented Candice Lake I illustrated above, I want to exude all the light and warmth of the world from the inside out. I want to live in my "It" and I want you all to come with me. What does being your "It" self mean to you?! Who are you at your very best?! I'm thanking Michela Aramini BIG time for beginning the new movement and suggest all you amazing readers join in.

SO much love,
Meag xx