Getting to Know You: Artist Kate Gabrielle

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« Getting Lucky Make a wish… » Getting to Know You: Artist Kate Gabrielle Last week I stumbled upon quite a treat: artist Kate Gabrielle and her three very distinct etsy shops . I immediately fell in love with flapperdoodle , her collection of sketches of two lovely ladies (and a few friends) from the twenties who love to eat ice cream, dance the Charleston, and play hopscotch. I emailed Kate and crossed my fingers, and lo and behold, she agreed to answer some of my nosy questions! I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do! Eloise and Ramona prepare for a night on the town 1. Eloise and Ramona: Where did you get the idea for these two characters? Are they based on anyone? Do they definitely have distinct personalities? Ever since I started trying to be an artist professionally in 2004, I’ve been struggling to find my own style. After a lot of trial and error, doodling, and encouragement from my friends on flickr & my blog I finally developed Eloise and Ramona! The drawings are inspired by my love of the 1920′s and my silly Peter Pan like desire to always be a kid. These two things combined to form tall skinny flappers all dressed up in fringe dresses and heels whilst playing hopscotch or jump rope! Even though I draw them exactly the same, Eloise and Ramona do have distinct personalities. If you look at the hula hoop drawing, the skating drawing & the pancake drawing, you’ll see that Eloise seems to be more of the stooge. She can’t hula hoop, can’t roller skate and unfortunately finds herself covered in pancake batter when Ramona attempts to make breakfast! 2. One of my favorite things about your drawings are the names and activities the girls are doing. Do you start with an idea of an activity or does the sketch come first? ie: what is your process like? The activity always comes first. Sometimes I just fall asleep thinking about my favorite activities when I was a little girl, hoping to find a new fun thing for the girls to do in my next drawing! When I came up with the hula hoop idea, I was in the middle of dying my hair and actually ran back to my room to grab my pen & paper so I could draw it while my hair was cooking, I was so eager to execute the idea! (unfortunately, I paid a price for this impulse.. bobby-pinning my hair back so I could draw resulted in striped bangs!) My process is pretty simple, actually. I start with the idea, and do a basic stick figure sketch on scrap paper first. Then I draw the final sketch in pencil and go over it in black marker. The last step is adding any color I need in marker or crayon. Though lately I’ve been trying to make the leap into gouache and watercolor. Eloise and Ramona play badminton 3. How long does one drawing take? If I’m not making any errors, about 30 minutes… but sometimes I do the whole thing, and then mess up on one eye and have to start from scratch 4. Flapperdoodle is highly stylized. Do you take inspiration for this “look” from anywhere in particular? My drawings are definitely more cartoonish than the people I’m inspired by, but I love the work of Edward Gorey & Erte. 5. You have several other shops with other styles of drawings. Can you explain the distinctions? My kategabrielle.etsy.com shop is for my funny artwork [Editor's Note: My boyfriend chuckled for like 30 minutes while looking through these]. I’ve been doing this since 2005, and it’s what people expect to see at my outdoor art shows, the main focus of my actual website kategabrielle.com , and the subject of my art mailing list. Only since January have I started branching out to do other art… From kategabrielle My other shop is silentsandtalkies.etsy.com . This is for my classic film art. I am a HUGE classic film buff (see my blog silentsandtalkies.blogspot.com!) and I decided to use art to pay tribute to my favorite films stars from the 1920′s through the 1960′s. Veronica Lake from silentsandtalkies 6. Where do you do your work? In my bedroom! I’m actually in the process of re-doing the room because right now it is primarily a bedroom and I’ve been working so much lately that now I need it to be a studio first and bedroom second. 7. Is art your full-time job, or do you also have a 9-5? I’m a very lucky ducky… I wanted to be an artist ever since I was about three years old, and my mom always said I could live at home as long as I wanted. A lot of moms say that and don’t actually mean it, but mine did. She and my dad let me live at home and work on my art full time! I might be a little biased, but I really think I have the most awesome parents on the planet. 8. Any words of encouragement for artists wanting to sell their work too? Go for it! There is nothing more satisfying than creating artwork, and selling it. I suggest starting an etsy store, because it is a lot easier to get traffic there than if you had your own domain name. Also, uploading your artwork on flickr and starting a blog have helped me a lot. I love getting feedback on flickr, and support from fellow artists. But always remember- even if you don’t have sales right away, keep creating! 9. Which is your fave flapperdoodle picture? Hmm… I’m partial to three of them: Eloise and Ramona ride their two seated bicycle , Unlike Eloise Ramona has mastered the hula hoop, and Eloise and Ramona vamp it up for the cameras . Eloise and Ramona ride their two-seated bicycle 10. Where are you located? Do you ship everywhere? New Jersey, and I ship absolutely everywhere! Even Mars, believe it or not! Thanks Kate! Readers, shop for flapperdoodles here . Many sizes available (and pocket mirrors! I die). June 8th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized , getting to know you 3 comments to Getting to Know You: Artist Kate Gabrielle kate gabrielle June 8, 2009 at 12:43 pm Thanks so much for asking me to do the interview! Down and Out Chic June 8, 2009 at 3:09 pm eloise and ramona are fantastic! i’m off to check out the shop. thanks for introducing me to such a wonderful artist. fresh365 June 9, 2009 at 1:21 pm Oh my goodness- these are SO fun! I think I like the two seated bicycle and the ice cream drawings best. Leave a Reply Cancel Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website You can use these HTML tags <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <q cite=""> <strike> Receive additional comments for this post in your email

Last week I stumbled upon quite a treat: artist Kate Gabrielle and her three very distinct etsy shops . I immediately fell in love with flapperdoodle , her collection of sketches of two lovely ladies (and a few friends) from the twenties who love to eat ice cream, dance the Charleston, and play hopscotch. I emailed Kate and crossed my fingers, and lo and behold, she agreed to answer some of my nosy questions! I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do!

Eloise and Ramona prepare for a night on the town

1. Eloise and Ramona: Where did you get the idea for these two characters? Are they based on anyone? Do they definitely have distinct personalities?

Ever since I started trying to be an artist professionally in 2004, I’ve been struggling to find my own style. After a lot of trial and error, doodling, and encouragement from my friends on flickr & my blog I finally developed Eloise and Ramona! The drawings are inspired by my love of the 1920′s and my silly Peter Pan like desire to always be a kid. These two things combined to form tall skinny flappers all dressed up in fringe dresses and heels whilst playing hopscotch or jump rope!

Even though I draw them exactly the same, Eloise and Ramona do have distinct personalities. If you look at the hula hoop drawing, the skating drawing & the pancake drawing, you’ll see that Eloise seems to be more of the stooge. She can’t hula hoop, can’t roller skate and unfortunately finds herself covered in pancake batter when Ramona attempts to make breakfast!

2. One of my favorite things about your drawings are the names and activities the girls are doing. Do you start with an idea of an activity or does the sketch come first? ie: what is your process like?

The activity always comes first. Sometimes I just fall asleep thinking about my favorite activities when I was a little girl, hoping to find a new fun thing for the girls to do in my next drawing! When I came up with the hula hoop idea, I was in the middle of dying my hair and actually ran back to my room to grab my pen & paper so I could draw it while my hair was cooking, I was so eager to execute the idea! (unfortunately, I paid a price for this impulse.. bobby-pinning my hair back so I could draw resulted in striped bangs!)

My process is pretty simple, actually. I start with the idea, and do a basic stick figure sketch on scrap paper first. Then I draw the final sketch in pencil and go over it in black marker. The last step is adding any color I need in marker or crayon. Though lately I’ve been trying to make the leap into gouache and watercolor.

Eloise and Ramona play badminton

3. How long does one drawing take?

If I’m not making any errors, about 30 minutes… but sometimes I do the whole thing, and then mess up on one eye and have to start from scratch

4. Flapperdoodle is highly stylized. Do you take inspiration for this “look” from anywhere in particular?

My drawings are definitely more cartoonish than the people I’m inspired by, but I love the work of Edward Gorey & Erte.

5. You have several other shops with other styles of drawings. Can you explain the distinctions?

My kategabrielle.etsy.com shop is for my funny artwork [Editor's Note: My boyfriend chuckled for like 30 minutes while looking through these]. I’ve been doing this since 2005, and it’s what people expect to see at my outdoor art shows, the main focus of my actual website kategabrielle.com , and the subject of my art mailing list. Only since January have I started branching out to do other art…

From kategabrielle

My other shop is silentsandtalkies.etsy.com . This is for my classic film art. I am a HUGE classic film buff (see my blog silentsandtalkies.blogspot.com!) and I decided to use art to pay tribute to my favorite films stars from the 1920′s through the 1960′s.

Veronica Lake from silentsandtalkies

6. Where do you do your work?

In my bedroom! I’m actually in the process of re-doing the room because right now it is primarily a bedroom and I’ve been working so much lately that now I need it to be a studio first and bedroom second.

7. Is art your full-time job, or do you also have a 9-5?

I’m a very lucky ducky… I wanted to be an artist ever since I was about three years old, and my mom always said I could live at home as long as I wanted. A lot of moms say that and don’t actually mean it, but mine did. She and my dad let me live at home and work on my art full time! I might be a little biased, but I really think I have the most awesome parents on the planet.

8. Any words of encouragement for artists wanting to sell their work too?

Go for it! There is nothing more satisfying than creating artwork, and selling it. I suggest starting an etsy store, because it is a lot easier to get traffic there than if you had your own domain name. Also, uploading your artwork on flickr and starting a blog have helped me a lot. I love getting feedback on flickr, and support from fellow artists. But always remember- even if you don’t have sales right away, keep creating!

9. Which is your fave flapperdoodle picture?

Hmm… I’m partial to three of them: Eloise and Ramona ride their two seated bicycle , Unlike Eloise Ramona has mastered the hula hoop, and Eloise and Ramona vamp it up for the cameras .

Eloise and Ramona ride their two-seated bicycle

10. Where are you located? Do you ship everywhere?

New Jersey, and I ship absolutely everywhere! Even Mars, believe it or not!

Thanks Kate! Readers, shop for flapperdoodles here . Many sizes available (and pocket mirrors! I die).

kate gabrielle June 8, 2009 at 12:43 pm Thanks so much for asking me to do the interview!

Thanks so much for asking me to do the interview!

Down and Out Chic June 8, 2009 at 3:09 pm eloise and ramona are fantastic! i’m off to check out the shop. thanks for introducing me to such a wonderful artist.

eloise and ramona are fantastic! i’m off to check out the shop. thanks for introducing me to such a wonderful artist.

fresh365 June 9, 2009 at 1:21 pm Oh my goodness- these are SO fun! I think I like the two seated bicycle and the ice cream drawings best.

Oh my goodness- these are SO fun! I think I like the two seated bicycle and the ice cream drawings best.

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1*hundred inspirations

79 ideas

a cup of jo

apartment #34

apartment #412

aubrey and lindsay

bliss

brooklyn limestone

bryn alexandra

casa brasi

coco + kelley

common readers

create girl

design crush

design*sponge

desire to inspire

down and out chic

effortless style

elements of style

emily a. clark

everything leb

high street market

ill seen, ill said

isabella and max rooms

isuwannee

kendi everyday

kotori

let us go then, you and i

liever

like a hamster on a wheel

little green notebook

live creating yourself

lolalina

madebygirl

makeunder my life

my little apartment

perfect sentiment

plush palate

posie gets cozy

shock the bourgeois

sweetie pie style

the decorista

the good life for less

twig and thistle

unclutterer

what i wore

whatever

when i grow up coach

you are my fave

young house love

{frolic!}