On Thursday night, March 1st, I attended the opening of my very first art show! So exciting!! I have the honor to be one of 13 artists to exhibit work at the Critical Content Art Initiative at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood from March until August. What an honor to be featured among so many talented and creative people! ♡ My brand new artwork for this exhibit is a series of six monochromatic acrylic portraits on 24”x36” canvases. These portraits are inspired by the classic Hollywood beauties and iconic women Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Greta Garbo, Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman. Strong women, with unique personalities and creative talent, who were able to evoke emotion with a simple glance. Their eyes could not be more different, yet each one could pierce the silver screen with a unique and identifiable well placed look. When I started thinking about what I wanted to bring to this exhibit, I knew I wanted to create a series of simple and minimal monochrome paintings. The glamour and style of the Hollywood Golden Age have always been a powerful influence for me, especially the monochromatic feel of black and white movies. While I was growing up in Eastern Europe, behind the dreaded 'iron curtain', my access to movies was pretty much limited to old classics - we didn't even own a color tv! Our photos were mostly black and white too, because color film was too expensive and hard to come by. Our entire life was lived in shades of grey, in more ways than one. Even though I grew up decades later, in many ways I was more connected to the 40's and 50's and to that aesthetic focused on shape, values and contrast more than color. Can you imagine the colorful 80's in black and white? I mean, the 80's! There was no color explosion for me during that time, that's for sure, and even as a kid I was drawn to grey, much to my mother's frustration :-) Of the six portraits I painted, I try not to play favorites, but Vivien Leigh is up there for me. With a simple raising of an eyebrow, she made Scarlett O'Hara an iconic and fierce character - her famous last line in 'Gone With The Wind', 'After all, tomorrow is another day' is filled with both sheer determination and hope. Katharine Hepburn is one of the strongest inspirations for me. Her quote 'If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun' is something I think about often. And I hope I am at least somewhat successful at having some of that fun ... Sophia Loren was quoted as saying: 'Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful'. What a great lesson in self-confidence! Believing in ourselves is definitely something we can all use more. 'I wish I were supernaturally strong so I could put right everything that is wrong' - Greta Garbo's wish to make all right with the world. Bette Davis believed you should 'Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work'. Fearless! 'I regret the things I didn't do, not what I did' said Ingrid Bergman. Follow your heart, do the things you want to do, and don't let anything stop you. Spending time with each of these leading ladies, getting to know them better as I painted their portraits was a big leap for me as an artist, and it certainly made me feel like I was not letting doubt or fear of the end result stop me from doing something I really wanted to do. I knew I would not regret pushing forward, but I would definitely regret not going for it. It's all about taking a chance and following your heart and your intuition. The opening was so much fun, and I was very happy to have reinforcements for moral support :-) A huge thank you to my awesome and always supportive boyfriend Keith, for always being there for me, in so many ways, big and small 😘 and to my cool friends Natalie, Quincy, Mimi and Norris who took time out of their busy schedules in the middle of the week to come out to West Hollywood on a Thursday night. I know it's not an easy thing to do after work, and in rush hour traffic, no less! Thanks for all your support and encouragement, you guys, on this night and always - love you all so much ♡ Thanks, Norris, for taking many of the pics and for the DSLR crash course, this iPhone girl is definitely a convert now ;-) Mimi even let me borrow some of her stylish photo poses, too, lol. Always so much fun with these two! My portraits will be on display at Critical Content until August and available for purchase. Thanks for having me, Critical Content! And thank you so much Colette Daze @cocolettied for your kindness and support, the opening was a huge success, you did an incredible job pulling it all together! Congratulations, my friend! 😘 If you’re not familiar with @CriticalContent, they produce some great shows like Limitless on CBS and The Writer’s Room on Sundance – check out their website at criticalcontent.com Last but not least, thank you to everyone who came on Thursday night to support the artists and the show! Congratulations to all the participating artists! You guys are amazingly talented and inspiring! All my best to you ♡ ps - The exhibit will be up through August at the Critical Content address below, if you would like to check it out:
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Painted live model Susan's fashion portrait last week for Week 43 of 52 Live Fashion Stories, which was so much fun! Love her head full of curls!
Live model Rachel was my inspiration last week for Week 40 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories. She looks right through you, with her clear eyes and ethereal gaze ...
Live model Aussie became my inspiration last week for Week 39 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories. Like a romantic and wistful princess in waiting ...
For Week 38 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories last week I painted live model Amanda's portrait again. I love her curls and this soft pose looking down, it feels very Wuthering Heights, very Bronte!
Last week, for Week 36 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories I painted live model Nicolle's portrait again ... and the funny think is she looks like another Nicole in this pose, a famous one (hint: Kidman ;-)
Last week I painted live model Nicolle's portrait, for Week 35 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories. What a great pose, I like the way her hands frame her face.
Last week, for Week 34 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories I painted live model Amy's portrait again, playing with a different flat brush for the hair texture.
Last week, for Week 33 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories I was feeling in the Christmas spirit, so live model Amy got to wear a red Christmas bow :-)
Another portrait of live model Eve, emerging from the darkness, last week on Week 32 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories.
A second portrait of live model Jennifer last week for Week 31 of 52 Live Fashion Stories, playing with a different hair texture.
Week 30 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories took place, spur of the moment, on Thanksgiving day actually. My bf and I spent the day in Huntington Beach with his mom, Joann, and I painted her portrait outside, in the beautiful early afternoon, after our yummy Thanksgiving feast (while a certain someone was snoozing, post pumpkin pie ;-) Not only did I get to paint live on Thanksgiving, but I was happy to spend a beautiful and (unseasonably) warm day for this time of year hanging out with no less than three puppies!! Shorts and puppies on Thanksgiving? Yes, please :-)) Luna and Body are two six-month old brother and sister puppies - and by 'puppies' I mean almost fully grown dogs behaving like three-month old puppies, while knocking you off your feet with their boundless energy and puppy-ness ;-) And Chase (technically not a puppy, but as cute as one) is the most adorable Frenchie who loves to play with any and all squeaky toys. The squeakiest, the better! <3 Keith and Chase stand off: man vs beast ;-)) Giving thanks for a day of 'too much fun' and wishing all of us as many of them as possible!
xo Cristina Last week, for Week 29 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories I had a back-to-back double feature of painting live portraits: at my house, with my friends Madison and Bryan, and at my new friend Colette's party! These two are always fun to be around! My friends Madison and Bryan are also architects, and old coworkers no less, and it's always nice to reminisce about what brought us together in the first place: architecture! We had a blast catching up, and I loved (finally!) getting to paint their portraits!
Thanks for being such great models, guys! ;-) And thanks for taking pics and videos and for the organic strawberries ... yummmm!! You sure know the way to my heart lol Colette's party the day before was such a blast! Here she is, a beautiful muse and gracious hostess, photo-bombed by her bf Aarun ;-) I met some awesome people with interesting stories, all from such different backgrounds than my own. Always nice to step outside the norm for a change. Thanks so much for having me, Colette! I had lots of fun, and it was great to meet everyone!
Inspired by an explosion of brushstrokes for Week 28 of 52 Live Fashion Stories and painting live model Eve's portrait last week.
Halloween week was such a blast, with tons of painting and creative inspiration and being out and about, exploring and having fun! Halloween painting inspo came courtesy of the fab Cara Delevingne @caradelevingne with her awesomely creepy pic with a tarantula on her face ... yup! She's fearless! (meanwhile I was shuddering while painting this lol) My pre-Halloween inspo came from @instylemagazine who featured Cate Blanchett with a sleek, 80's inspired hair do! Almost made me wish I had thought of an 80's costume ... but I stuck with our original plan for a couple's costume for me and Mr. K - see below ;-) Yup, it was Elvis and Priscilla this year :-)) We had so much fun at Clifton's Republic on Saturday night, they put on quite a show. And as per usual, we went out to dinner at a 'normal' restaurant before the party in full costume! It was awesome to see everyone stare at The King, haha! I've been asked where I bought my Priscilla costume, ha! It's all DYI, all the white on my costume is nothing more than duct tape! The mod touches on my basic black tshirt, on my skirt, the Peter Pan collar, belt buckle and earrings, all white duct tape. Including my boots, which I was completely taped in for the night, lol! On the homefront, it was my usual custom-made decorations - never not DYI-ing! :-) Even my front door peephole was decorated! The bathroom mood was 'eek' ... very appropriate ;-) My bedroom was all treat! But by Sunday I was pretty much ready to deflate Halloween, haha!
Next painting inspiration came from @dior makeup featured on @voguebeauty. You can never go wrong with gold!
The next day Reese Witherspoon was honored with an award at the 7th annual Innovator Awards hosted by @wsjmag. So inspired by her win, and her likeness to her daughter Ava Phillipe - they're like twins! Friday was all about having fun being tourists in our own city! Mr. K and I love exploring LA, and sometimes yes, that means making like a tourist and going to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills for selfies, fashion and illustration inspiration - cuz that's the kind of supportive bf he is :-) Stopped by Century City for a cappuccino at Petros for Mr. K and had the best lunch at the cutest yummy spot called Clementine in Westwood Village. While at the Century City mall, I managed to 'support' Madewell yet again: got another black and white tote! Surprise, surprise! The monochromatic obsession continues ;-) After a healthy dose of black and white, I was inspired by @mistyydowns featured on @imgmodels for a burst of pink and purple !! Painted her portrait while listening to the new @rachelplatten album 'Waves'
Saturday was all about Polo sunnies on @imgmodels! @thylaneblondeau is the lucky girl who got to wear these beauties! Oh, and they sparkle, too! May the sparkle, the stars, inspiration and the fun in your life keep coming! Loving minimal portraits - last week was Week 27 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories, inspired by live model Jennifer.
Less is more! Obsessed with bringing the face to life on paper with a minimal, edited amount of brush strokes!!
Week 26 of 52 Live Fashion Stories last Friday was inspired by live model Georgina. Live model Brittney was my beautiful inspiration last week for Week 25 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories - putting a spin on color - why are we humans so obsessed with the color of our skin? What if our skin were blue, or purple? Here is Brittney in reds and pinks! We come in all different colors, so let's paint the rainbow!
I was recently commissioned by Gracye, whose portrait I painted a few weeks ago at the Chris Guillebeau book signing in Santa Monica, to paint a portrait of her beautiful mom, from an old photograph on her wedding day. What an honor! Thank you, Gracye, for trusting me to create a painting of such a special memory for your mom!
I absolutely love painting portraits, and especially wedding portraits! <3 Last week, for Week 24 of 52 Live Fashion Stories, I painted live model Aurora's portrait again, this time from a different angle and in color! I gotta say, I'm loving the use of color - while still keeping things minimal and monochromatic.
Super excited to get my brand new MOO business cards!! I totally love them! Thanks MOO, what a fantastic job! Spoiler alert: new website coming soon! ;-)
Inspired by Katy Perry's Instagram stories, trying on makeup designs for her upcoming 'Witness' tour. See more on my Instagram page, and follow me for daily updates. See you guys there! This year I was most inspired by Desigual at New York Fashion Week 2017. The fun head pieces, the explosion of color, the playful designs, not to mention a runway full of movement! So much fun!
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WELCOME!
I'm Cristina Tudor, a Beverly Hills fashion illustrator. I paint live illustrations at fashion, retail, entertainment, bridal and lifestyle events for clients such as Chanel, Ferragamo, Piaget, David Yurman x Galia Lahav, Badgley Mischka, Bloomingdale's, Warner Bros. Studios, Diptyque Paris, Ted Baker London, Eric Buterbaugh x Beverly Hills EB Florals, and Survey Monkey, among others. FOLLOW CRISTINA:
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