muse: stacey bendet

Stacey Bendet of Alice & Olivia. Um, have you seen her Instagram? I totally admire her because she is the cutest most colorful chicest style icon, & the most graceful yogi I ever did see. I've always loved her line of precious bags and clothes. It's so fun and colorful! I love girls who really dress out of their comfort zone because that's also when they're being their true selves. The colors you choose to wear definitely have an influence on your energy. So I imagine she's always positively vibrant and radiant. She is a great example of creative expression in her everyday wardrobe look. I also love her success story as well, and the way she was discovered on the streets of New York. It's pretty amazing & inspiring. Not to mention, this girl can bend! I love that she does yoga!  Love this girl..

xx,

ss

1 free illustration

If you've seen my crazy promo on Instagram, here are my first victims! I mean, takers! Muahahaha.. So I decided to do something crazy, something illustrators wouldn't normally do. I'm allowing my followers a chance for them to be illustrated by moi for the rest of November, for free. I'm allowing only one look so that I don't go crazy with all the requests that will pile up! The reason why I'm doing this is because I only have a few pages left in my to-go design sketchbook, so I'm celebrating. And I decided to fill the rest of my book up with illustrations of my followers. I've also been contacted a few times by fashion bloggers requesting to be illustrated but they just didn't want to pay the amount I was charging. So, as a special one-time offer only, I won't charge for this month! Even though I didn't realize until after I posted the promo that e-mail requests will pile up like crazy for the next few weeks {oops lol}. It'll definitely keep me busy. But, then again I see this as an opportunity to connect with others annnd especially use this as practice for me.

So check it out! And take advantage of this offer! Don't wait up! :)

e-mail me: stephanie.surtida@gmail.com

xx,

ss

vintage, vintage!

Adored Vintage. I recently worked on a project that involved illustrating vintage dresses, and man - working on those sketches all day made me fall in love with them! I never had that much appreciation about vintage pieces before, but now with a new perspective, everything about it is just so pretty & romantic. I found Adored Vintage on IG and started following them and have been loving every new post of their line. They have such a precious looking site, and they're based in Long Beach! I gotta go visit one day..

I decided to practice with the new colored calligraphy pens I bought that I've become obsessed with.

xx,

ss

meet my three.

As you know by now {from my last few posts}, I've been sketching A LOT, and now to the point where the muscle between my thumb and index finger have become swollen. And it hurts :( But before that happened, I was lucky enough to lock down three looks I've decided to keep consistent throughout all of my illustrations! And I wanted to share them with you.. I also wanted to add character to them and a little story behind these revamped dolls. I decided that they are all  sisters - triplets! Each with different characteristics and personalities.

here's a secret: when i came up with the character traits for them i imagined myself split into three different people. these girls are mostly based on me.

Now for every illustration I do, you'll be able to tell which sister I use! Fun, fun!

xx,

ss

Revamping My Dolls

I've been hiding out at home like a hermit doing a ton of illustrating over the past three weeks. If you follow my IG, then you've seen the madness. And because of that I've been hit up a few times this week regarding more collaborations, which is so great! I thought I was going a bit crazy being a lot a bit anti-social.. but I'm practicing my passion which definitely leads to something greater! I just lahhhhhv it! Gotta keep going!

Skaist-Taylor = my favorite designers.

xx,

ss

Thom Browne

Happy Pumpkin Day! I didn't prepare a costume this year because I used up all my efforts {and budget} from Burning Man, lol. These past two weeks I've been sketching like crazy trying to revamp my dolls. So far I've developed 3 looks that I decided to keep all throughout my illustrations for future projects. I'm obsessed with em.. I'll do a post showing the mess I've made in my sketchbook. I'm actually almost finished with my sketchbook! This'll be the first finished sketchbook I've ever done! Lol, don't ever count on me to do a book one day... well, actually... ;) *NEWS*

My Etsy shop has been launched this week! I've selected six of my favorite and most popular illustrations. Check it out!

So to honor Halloween, I decided to sketch an awesome and inspiring line by Thom Browne. His look is perfect for my dolls! arrghhh I can't handle it! I love his taste!!

anyways, i'm still waiting on my chunky sweater...

You trick-or-treaters have a safe & sweet one!

xx,

ss

Another Stupid Sketchbook

So I went to an art store in Hollywood {BIG MISTAKE} because I wanted to look for new ShinHanArt markers & only ShinHanArt markers. They didn't carry that brand so I grabbed myself some red and blue mechanical lead refills instead. I wanted to sketch with my new lead in my sketchbook right away but I didn't have my mechanical pencil with me, so I bought a freakin $5 one which was actually the cheapest one there. I didn't have my sketchbook handy either, so I bought a small stupid one which was about $13. I also wanted to get another calligraphy pen but decided to get a green brush tip marker instead. I also got a WTF eraser which I thought was amazing. Total came out to be around $30. Wtf!! So to make myself feel better I started sketching non-stop and tried to use up as many pages as possible so I don't waste this little sketchbook. I was hoping to be halfway done with this stupid sketchbook by now... but no. I got like ten thousand more pages to go.

hope you like my muses for today!

xx,

SS

Look Pretty

don't we girls wish that every day? just to sit outside maybe with a friend and watch the day go by, eat a block of cheese, a bag of chips, tacos, some fettuccine alfredo, and mango icecream {listing my favorites}, & NOT  worry about breaking out or a tummy ache? that's the kinda day i want today. i've been having a battle with dairy for the past few months. i was hoping to be immune to it by now but i still breakout like a teenager even after i treat myself a small baby bite. ugh... whatever, my friends still love me even when my face is gross, lol. i've learned that love actually feeds on imperfections. happy friday!

xx,

SS

Workin Hard

Since I haven't been working full-time in the industry, my body has re-adjusted itself again to wake up on its own at 6am every day excited to get to {my} work, which is illustrating. When I used to work full-time in the industry, I was usually awake before the 6am alarm on my phone would go off because I hated waking up to it.. and I always had anxiety going into work. I don't use an alarm anymore, now I listen to my body. I'm excited every morning to wake up, make my bed, read a book, and get an early start on building my portfolio. It's literally what I do every day. I've learned a couple things about myself.. I hate watching tv or listening to music, it just throws me in a funk while sketching. I love sitting in quiet and listening to the sound of nature. I think I'll build a workspace outside.. I get the most inspiration when everything is quiet. It's the best feeling. At this point I feel like I'm thriving in life. Yea, I'm not making as much money as I used to, yea the living situation still isn't great, and personal life problems aren't that serious these days. But, I feel whole lot better, healthier, and happier than I was a few months ago.! :) So from being dedicated to my passion and work, I was given an opportunity to do a collaboration with Nasty Gal. I've always had them in the back of my head since the beginning of this year, I just didn't know why exactly. Then my head popped off when I was contacted by the editorial team of Nasty Gal to do this collaboration with the brand featuring my illustrations. All I thought was this would be my break. My chance to make something out of my passion. Finally...

So, I've been working hard on this project. I've been putting all my life force into this in the past few days! I can't wait to see the final results and what comes out of this. Man.. if you've been following me on my Instagram, I've been up to several things here and there too. I've been working on building my Etsy shop, My Book of Dolls {pictured above}, trying to complete my list of summer adventures, a sudden Disneyland getaway... phew! It's all great, all exciting, I wouldn't have it any other way!! I love life and its surprises!

stay tuned for my big feature in Nasty Gal! <3 <3 <3

xx,

SS

More Practice...

When Mother Nature calls I get easily irritable like all normal girls do, and my anxiety increases, my appetite decreases, and I just literally want to be left alone or cry over my past. Laaaaame.. But this week, I've been glued to my to-go sketchbook. I just can't put it down.. Maybe it's because I just purchased a new set of ShinHan Art markers last week? Well, yea, could be.. Or I felt the need to increase my practice in my illustrations, and actually work on my goal in trying to use up every single page in my to-go sketchbook! I've never finished a full sketchbook before. When I finish this one, I'll probably make a book out of it and sell it! I can dream...

Anyways, I have a lot of fuel inside of me and I've just been pinning ideas and inspirations on my Pinterest all day, literally. I hardly ate, but still had my Suja Glow drink in the morning {i need my morning greens!} and just had coconut water throughout my day ending with a yummy Kombucha drink which gave me a nice buzz {working on an empty stomach!}. I'm currently not craving a thing, which is very normal for me. However, my body is tired and my eyes are dead. I guess this girl I drew pretty much reflects what I feel, and what I look like right now. It makes sense, right? I like it anyway :)

xx,

SS

Practice is Progress

I woke up in the middle of the night around 3am for the second time this week. I woke up to the sound of my phone hitting the floor after I smacked it out of my bed while sleeping. When I woke up, I realized how hot it was. And then, I couldn't sleep. Poops.. So then I just started browsing for inspirational pictures to illustrate. I decided at around 3am that I wanted to revamp my illustrations. A friend of mine texted me using that word, and that hit somewhere. It was key, revamp. Then I got myself excited which made it even harder to go back to sleep. So I decided that at whatever time I'd wake up, I'll pull out my little design journal and get right to working on it. I just had so much energy to get started and couldn't wait until the sun came up. I stayed up until the sunrise, then fell asleep at 6, woke up at 8 and went to work.

And this is what I came up with.. I grabbed an old Vogue magazine - and I hardly look at magazines anymore, but I had this one lying around and found a few easy model pictures to start off with. I'm pretty happy about it, just as I am with all my other illustrations. This was a good warm-up practice to start off with I think. I'm on my way to making it better though! :)

xx,

SS