Meagan's Guide to West Village NYC

Best Coffee at Jack's (138 W 10th St)

Favorite Street Corner Art (7th and Greenwich Ave)

West Village Florist (7th and Greenwich Ave)

Beautiful Brownstones

Day School Sign

Top 3 Brunch Spots: Cafe Cluny (284 W 12th St)

Myself, Kelly, and Jill at Cafe Cluny

Extra Virgin (259 W 4th St)

Morandi (211 Waverly Place)

Amazing View of Hudson River

The Magnolia Bakery (401 Bleecker St)

Mulberry (387 Bleecker St)

Ano 1868 Door

Ralph Lauren Children's Store (380 Bleecker St)

Rebel Rebel Records (319 Bleecker St)

Le Petit Puppy (18 Christopher St)

Cutest Little Puppies

Puppy in Storefront

Favorite Corner View (Gay and Christopher St)

Best Boutiques: Project 159 (159 7th Ave)

Zachary's Smile (9 Greenwich Ave)

Village Bazaar (351 6th Ave)

Village Bazaar Tattoo Artist Casey Hahn and I

Farmer's Vegetable Stand

Highlands Bar (150 W 10th St)

On August 2, 2010 I had the great pleasure of calling the West Village my new home. After spending a year living on the cusp of the Upper Eastside/Spanish Harlem, moving downtown came as a great relief. To outsiders the neighborhood is better known for the celebrities it houses, but any true local will boast of its vibrancy. The energy and quaintness of this place is worth savoring for a lifetime. I was tempted to title this post "A Love Letter to the West Village." Having lived here for three months, I've compiled photos of my most favorite village treasures that I would like to share with you. I know there is probably so much more I have yet to discover, but for now this will do. Happy Halloween everyone and enjoy!!

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Three Color Views in Illustrator

Greyscale in Illustrator

Shape in Illustrator. Me and Actual Ring below...

Especially when they don't cost a fortune ;) My latest assignment for my Computer Typesetting and Design class required us to render three views of an object in Adobe Illustrator. The more complex the better because it was intended to demonstrate our shape-making skill level. I chose to do my diamond encrusted wooden ring that I purchased from H&M many moons ago. I just loved the combination of the rustic wood combined with the hard metal. Talk about seeing double though. This project had my eyes watering for days after. I've included a picture of me wearing the real ring as well for comparison. Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy!!

Tomo Goes to Paris

Me in Paris below...

More specifically, the Palais Royal!!

I met my beautiful friend Tomo when she began modeling for FIT's fashion illustration block last semester. With a mutual love of art and fashion, and our birthday's being three days apart, it's no wonder we clicked instantly. She has always been so supportive of my artwork. Her suggestion that I start a blog led to Travel Write Draw's inception. This summer, while discussing our travel plans, she mentioned her longing to see Paris for the first time. This homework assignment for Bil Donovan's class proved to be the perfect opportunity to send her there.

Once again we were asked to take class drawings of Tomo and integrate them into a graphic background. The focus of the illustrations were her striped shirt. For me, stripes are synonymous with Paris. I decided to reference my pictures of Paris from a trip a few summers ago. I was immediately struck by Daniel Buren's striped columns in the Palais Royal's courtyard. What better way to counter her horizontal stripes with their graphic verticals?! Since I can't afford to buy her plane ticket, this piece of art will have to do. I adore reminiscing about the city of love. Enjoy!!

A Day with Me at FIT

Morning Starbucks

Fashion Illustration Family

7 Minute Warm-Ups

Hugs from Jimmy

10 Minute Compositions

Joe Denaro Demo

Final Drawings of the Day

David Downton Presentation

Hello Friends,

Since I've only just begun Travel Write Draw a little over a month ago, I thought it would be fun to allow you to get to know me better. What greater way than to bring my readers along with me for a day at FIT. The following photos are from October 15th, 2010. It happened to be a special day because we had fashion illustration royalty speaking at our school, Mr. David Downton. For those of you who are not familiar with his work, perhaps you will recognize his cover illustration of Cate Blanchett for Vogue Australia's 50th Anniversary Issue. Otherwise, the rest of the photos are pretty indicative of a typical day in the fashion illustration block at FIT. Laughter, creativity, friends, and fun, what more could a girl ask for?! Enjoy!!

Cherry Blossoms

YAY it's finally here!! I promised the completed poster design for Joe Denaro's class in the Harajuku Girl post et voila!! We just submitted them this morning and our classroom is exploding with Tokyo fashion, print, and color. The final is 18 x 24 in gouache and colored pencil. I must mention that many of my references were found on http://tokyofashion.com/ which turned out to be an amazing resource. I'm such a lover of street style fashion forecasting.

I thought it would be fun to include images of a time when I was photographed. It was for Insert Magazine, a "Toronto Chinese urban lifestyle magazine" http://www.insertmag.ca/ and I just so happened to be stopped on my walk home from work at Lida Baday. I'm forever flattered and love that there is such an appreciation of different styles from all over the world. Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy!!