The painted owl belly cast is finished! I sculpted the flower from scratch (it's not a flower dipped in plaster) and am quite happy about how sturdy it feels, never having done sculpture before. The belly looks so beautiful, so amazing! The even more amazing part is when my doula, Suzanne Moquin (of Gentle Touch Birth Services), came for a visit today to help present it to the new mom, touched the cast and could feel how the baby had been positioned inside her body- where the bum and where the head was. So ridiculously amazing. What a way to capture your pregnancy, hey? Can hardly wait to get these casts professionally photographed!
There's a couple of new things happening in the studio these days. First of all, I've temporarily moved into a lovely office at The Met Agency while I do some technical illustrations for a few weeks. Secondly, I volunteered to help co-ordinate a free family day event in our local community. Here's the poster - if you're in Edmonton, pop on in and I'll paint your face for you.
My role of mom and now as a community volunteer is ever evolving. Being an entrepreneur has it's great advantages - I have chosen to work from home as well as cut down my hours so that I can be with my son full time. I've started a playgroup (now in it's second month) and am enjoying it immensely, including creating ads for it (see below).
Anyone in the Edmonton area... stop by for a free visit on me!
The first advertisement featured this sketch:
To start off this "big update", here is a collection of Christmas cards I did last year for the Royal Alberta Museum (their mascot is a mammoth and the museum is stationed on a long hill, pictured in the painting). They are up for sale in the museum gift shop as a set if any there are any local readers interested in purchasing the set.
- SCROLL DOWN FOR ALL OF THE NEW CRAZY IMAGES! -
It's been quite the summer!
My big project with Alberta Learning is being wrapped up this week, giant files transferred and details checked over to make sure everything is just so. I've never been such a large part of the creative on a project of this scale - people helped turn my drawings into vector characters that are to be animated and turned into an interactive game for grade eight social studies students across Alberta.
I'm so happy to announce that I'll be back posting regularly on my blog - it's been over a month since my last post - something I have not skipped out on since creating my blog two years ago. I will not be able to post any images from it until the Alberta Learning team has published it to the web, which will not be for many months. I'll keep you posted! Until then here's a few reject drawings:
Things that happened over the summer -
1) I was commissioned to do a
children's book for a publisher in the UK. A wonderfully complex pop-up about a garage and it's mechanic, cars and trucks.
Unfortunately the project was put on hold 3/4 of the way to the end of the project which was a blessing as well as a
disappointment (I had taken on too many projects and was quite exhausted). I have attached one of the character designs I created for the main character (Bumper), which later changed to a different model of car. After I get word from my agent about posting more images I'll let you know!
2) I did a marvelously complex vector illustration for a forestry company called
Millar Western (a local Alberta company) and adored doing all of the little animals in the picture - here's a sample - I highly suggest you click on it to see the details:
3) Here's some images from a grade 3 math text book I worked on as well -
Thanks to those who are by blog "followers" now too!
If any of you recall the Paws & Claws Gala painting that I completed of Barnes, the shelter cat, you may notice that he's featured on the front cover of Creatures All, a magazine about animals. I'm rather happy that they've chosen to do such a bright border for the painting. I'll be running a series of advertisements in the magazine this year as an experiment to market my work locally. I'll let you know how this goes.
I've been sketching my creatures (I promise!) but I am too busy to scan them right now... I'm in the process of getting ready for my second show of the year and one of the best ones to be involved in if you live and craft in Edmonton... The Stop & Shop Show (Scroll down for more info)!
I have a bunch of new prints & cards as well as some original designs that have remained top sellers for me... Stop by the show early and be one of the first 25 in the door each day and you'll receive a goodie bag that includes a coupon for my booth (there's always a line out the door for this show so be early).
Print off this coupon to get $2 off admission to the show!
I heard of an experiment that someone was doing in San Fransisco which they dubbed a "sketchcrawl". The idea is to go out and draw for an entire day everything that you do or things that you see as you go along. I was inspired and intrigued by the idea so I decided to plan one myself! I urge other illustration readers to plan one in their city. It's a great way to meet other aritsts in their community.
EDMONTON SKETCH CRAWL
(18th international)
SAT, MARCH 29th
11am
STANLEY A MILNER LIBRARY, Down town
(in the entrance if it's terrible outside, outside if it's glorious!)
Here's what the founder had to say:
"The basic idea: to record nonstop everything I could around me with my pencil and watercolors. A drawn journal filled with details ranging from the all the coffee I drank to the different buses I took. After a whole day of drawing and walking around the city the name seemed quite fitting: “SketchCrawl” - a drawing marathon. The crawl was more tiring than I imagined but also more fun and exciting than I had thought. Giving yourself this kind of mandate for a full day changes the way you look around you. It makes you stop and see things just a tad longer, just a bit deeper … needless to say I loved it.
I soon figured out it was much more interesting to do the marathon with a group of artists instead of all by myself! And so SketchCrawl turned communal. After a whole day of drawing it proved to be amazingly interesting and inspiring to share and compare other people’s drawings and thoughts. Different takes on our surroundings, different details, different sensibilities.
The next step was making the SketchCrawl a World Wide event: having people from different corners of the world join in a day of sketching and journaling and then, thanks to the Internet, having everyone share the results on an online forum.
Hope to see some of you out there!
Last year I had an idea to raise funds for the Edmonton Humane Society (they are building a new shelter for their animals, called the Margaret Chapelle Centre for Animal Care, named after an Edmonton Artist who gave the largest dontation in history to a Canadian Animal Shelter). I thought: "What if I could gather a group of artists that would create art featuring shelter animals and hold a gala which people could come and bid on said art?"
Well, after much planning and hoping, the gala is going to happen! Held at the beautiful Mayfield Inn in Edmonton on April 12, 2008. It's going to be in conjunction with Coventry Homes for Hounds and the seats are are going to sell out fast. To purchase tickets please contact Leslie or Kara. Please keep in mind that you'll have to pay via cheque or cash (made out to Homes for Hounds).
These fine artists & illustrators have been invited to participate:
Michelle Schwengler, Amanda Woodward, Igor Woroniuk, Nicola Pringle, Rachelle Miller, Suzanne Stevens, Marcus Cutler, Drury Stratiy, Amie Kerman, Danielle Inglesias and Michelle McBride.
I've chosen a rather fluffy black and white cat called Barnes and have already started painting his portrait (I forgot he didn't have a tail so when I went in to photograph him again I was quite surprised... needless to say I'll be painting his tail out of the picture, poor chap!).
Here's the real guy! So shy, but so big and fluffy and huggable!
I have two copies of my 2008 calendar to give away to two different blog visitors (plus a surprise gift!). Here's the rules: Post a comment on the following topic and I'll draw from the names of people who comment on or before January 31st for the prize. Then once I've contacted the winner you'll be sent the prize (please don't leave your address in the blog comment section but rather leave a website or blog address/email where I can get this from you privately)!
Here's the topic:
"Green Illustration & Design" (what are you doing to make your illustrations and office more environmentally friendly? Any links to good office crafts out or recycled goodies? And if you're not an illustrator or designer what are you doing to make your home more eco-friendly?)
This TribuneStory makes me so sad and mad.
Sad that Doreen Tudela abused her position. Sad that she forgot how important it is to keep personal and professional separated. Sad that our kids, who deserve the best, had a principal who made a big mistake. I'm glad she's paid back what she took, and admitted what she did. I don't doubt that she's used her own money for school things a lot and never kept track, but that isn't an excuse, either. It's just a shame, and it will be hard on the students who must now process that their principal, whom they respected and relied upon, has let them down.
But I'm also mad at the underlying story. That Barney's Pizza pays to put pizza into the schools. We already have an obesity and diabetes problem in the CNMI. We don't need our kids eating junk food like greasy pizza. And Barney's paying to feed it to them is a double corruption.
I'm disgusted.
Absolutely stunning!