Blog Post Template

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]

This has been quite the year for Design by Streetlight.  Maybe it’s five cumulative years of #hustle without much of a stir on the rest of the world, but things have really been cooking for me in 2017.

I was approached out of the blue about two weeks ago and asked to do live illustration on site for the soft opening of Cacao70, a new eatery in south west Calgary.  They were inviting 25 social media influencers to sample their menu as well as come out to support the Make A Wish Foundation.  Each influencer would receive a gift bag and an illustration to take home with them.  This is where I came in!

Now, in all honesty, I stopped my focus on fashion illustration towards the end of 2014.  I will be forever grateful for the time spent there and it especially came back in spades while brushing up for this event.  Back in the day I would spend between three and five hours on an illustration, perfecting the pose, adding in details like personal jewellery and trying to get the facial features to be recognizeable even in watercolor.

This event was a slightly different experience.  25 influencers in a two hour window – which did actually end up stretching into 2.5 hours by the end of it but still came out to a tidy 6 minutes per illustration.  Insane!  I spent several evenings the week before practicing my figure sketches and working to simplify facial features so that each sketch was more of a loose render than a finished product.  But they loved it!

I am incredibly grateful to the team at Shine PR for the opportunity to do this live.  I am still pinching myself that after five years of working on my craft, suddenly it is starting to attract an audience and these live opportunities to sketch events like this one!

This was one last illustration I wanted to create as a gift to the owners – a thank you and welcome to the community.  I had an amazing time, made a few new connections and will definitely be searching out opportunities such as this one in the time to come!

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]