The Sketch Book — Italy

Hello mes amis! C'est moi, Daphne! Or should I say buongiorno principessa?!  Inslee wrote that wistful blog post about that ONE TIME she went to Amalfi. #ROFL I swear she's been this dramatic since we were two.  Anyway, I'm back. I'm spending yet another long, lazy summer in Positano. Holed up in the quaint little Le Sireneuse. Isn't it so nice when a hotel is both affordable and luxurious?  My dear dearest, Martha, has joined me for the weekend. But because she isn't entirely sure when the weekend begins/ends, she arrived today. We're lunching on the balcony on a first course of prosecco,...

Oh August! A month that, for me, always inspires a confusing mix of wanderlust and also laziness. The victory lap of summer. The final hurrah of doing nothing and being bored and barefoot, but with the potential for magical and unexpected adventure. The last moments of "school's out" mentality before the rhythm of "real life" starts all over again in the fall.  I chose to toast this month with a scene from the coast of Italy - a place where being barefoot and bored is a lifestyle that seems to me to be maintained with great conviction. No one else does lazy...

Buongiorno principessa!This week I will be exploring this beautiful little town with my mom (illustrated above in this wedding invitation design). We will be in Recco, Italy to celebrate the wedding of a wonderful friend, Chiara to her soon-to-be wonderful new husband, Marco.Recco is an important part of Chiara's family history. I've been hearing about how beautiful it is all my life, as each summer her family return from their annual trip to tell us all about it. I've been waiting for decades to see this special place and can't wait to finally be there and see if my illustration...

Meet Daniela! This is an example of the wonderful world of custom portraits that could be yours if you chose to commission me. Daniela worked with me on every aspect of this painting to make it reflect the details of her life. For example, she spends her summers in Italy, so we posed her riding a vespa. She interned at Fendi, so we chose to make it not only a vespa but a Fendi vespa. She also worked for The Row, so shes toting this $34,000 dollar backpack (another glowing example of my illustrative ability to give you things you...

So occasionally I am behind on things. BIG things. Like I didn't get around to trying a strawberry until I was 21 years old. And I still haven't seen Ghostbusters or Full House. And yet again, this morning, I discovered I was embarrassingly late to the party... The Glamourai party. Apparently this amazingly chic blog has been around since 2008. Woops. While I scrambled through her gorgeous outfit posts to get caught up so I'd be hip and in-the-know, I found this one in particular to be illustration worthy. I love her short hair and her crazy necklace with that...