Hi my friends! It is March already! I hope everyone is having a great start of the year! I recently did a Facebook live with my friend Emily Merrell, the founder of Six Degrees Society which is a women-focused networking group that takes the guesswork out of who you meet while networking. During the live chat, we talk about how I get to start as a fashion illustrator. Tips and tricks for inspiring artists. Hope you enjoy the chat and more importantly learn a few and implement to your career!

By the way, feel free join my tribe where I share more tips and classes in the near future!

If recall your inner creativity is your new year resolution in 2017, this is a perfect start! Join me and Brunch and Slay for my FIRST EVER fashion illustration workshop! It is going to be fun:-) We watch Osacars red carpet, lots of bubbles, bites, using paints and glitters to draw your favorite gowns and take home with you! Look forward to meeting you all! Please click here to see more details, seats are extremely limited, RESERVE NOW! 

We had a great time at the event, so we even made a video from it! Please check it out ;-)

A year of being a full time fashion illustrator Rongrong DeVoe

What an amazing 2015! I am so grateful I was able to grow my fashion illustration shop and work with some wonderful brands that I previously could only dream of!

Here are some of my favorite projects of 2015:

I teamed up with Scholastic to illustrate a fashion illustration book called Fashion Profile which will be published in the spring of 2016. Woo hoo! Super excited!!!

Teen Vogue back to school live sketch event

Live sketching at the Teen Vogue back to school event with Simon mall in Austin over the summer. Read about my 8 hours of live sketching here.

Rachel Zoe SS16 collection at NYFW by Rongrong DeVoe

It was a busy September. I went to New York Fashion Week as a fashion illustrator for the first time. Even though it was only four days I was amazed by the whole experience. Read my recap here.

Lastly, It was a dream come true when I heard from ELLE.com that they wanted to hire me to create 5 illustrations for Banana Republic for their holiday campaign. ELLE magazine was my favorite fashion magazine growing up. I used to draw from it all the time and dream one day I could create fashion illustrations for them.  When I saw the article on their site, I felt my teenage self jumping and dancing inside me! 

A few unforgettable PR moments:

My first TV appearance on Great Day Houston.  Check the segment here

Rongrong DeVoe, Houston Fashion Illustrator on The Every Girl

Feature interview on The Every Girl. I am finally the Every girl! It was one of my goals when I started my fashion illustration business. I really appreciated the opportunity to share my story with their audience.

I wrote a blog post with some thoughts and recommendations to anyone who also wants to draw or is at the beginning stage of drawing, especially fashion. 

While I am still new to being an artist/small business owner, I am always learning. I would love to share with you some of my favorite resources. I hope they can help you with your creative journey:

I LOVE to listen to podcasts. Three of my absolute favorites are The Lively Show,  The Fresh Rag Show and Brilliant Business Moms

If you are an artist and just started, like me, there are some great mentors who can give you career advice. These three are my favorites: Jennifer Nelson Artists,  Make Art that sells and the Graphic Artists Guild

Do you have an Etsy shop and want to grow and start making more sales? There are so many Etsy experts, e-books and courses all over the internet. The two e-books I found the most helpful are below. I purchased them myself and experimented with them. I have already seen results after a few weeks.

The Get-Found Guide to Etsy - Get to the First Page of Search with Etsy SEO

How To Start an Etsy Store on a Tight Budget eBook & Workbook

Join me on Snapchat(username: RongrongD)  see my fashion illustration process. Want more tips, tricks about creative business, social media, blogging? join me on Pinterest!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Please feel free leave your thoughts, questions, and your favorite podcast, blogs, artists in the comments below.

Until next time,

Rongrong