she walks like a teapot - painted

I played around with this image quite a bit last week and this is the painted version.  I initially wasn't going to post it because the scan isn't very good, but since I put up the sketch yesterday I thought I should follow up with a color study.  I also took a quick photo of the actual painting so you can see where some of the details are missing in the scan, like the flesh tone in her face.  It's completely blown out in the scan.

scan:


photo:

she walks like a teapot

Here's a recent sketch:



Just before returning to Canada last fall, we went back to Edinburgh, Scotland, to visit some friends.  "She walks like a teapot," was a line that was said by our friend Melissa as a description for a lady she knew.  I got a visual in my head immediately and did these sketches shortly after. 

 

Then I forgot about it for a while and just recently decided it was time to bring my teapot lady to life.

july update

I realize that things around the blog have been a bit quiet lately so I thought I should pop in for a quick update.  The month of July has been a whirl of activity. We've had house guests, dinner parties, festivals, my nephew was born, and last week my husband and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. 

I have been sketching and painting as well, however I'm still having scanner problems :(  I may have to bite the bullet and buy a new scanner that is only a scanner (as opposed the the all-in-one that I currently use).  Can anyone recommend a really good scanner?

I also have some exciting new illustration projects in the works - more on that later.

printed maps

Front and back of the postcard:



Design by Platform

technical difficulties

I have a few images to show that I've been playing with during my recent studio time, but my scanner is giving me grief.  Hopefully I'll have the problem solved soon, but until then, here's s sketch of a boy and a tree.

great way to spend a day

As part of my husband's birthday gift (he turned 31 on Friday), I wanted to give him a full day of us hanging out and having fun. When we were traveling, we used to pick up snacks and spend an entire day just walking around, exploring new neighborhoods, drinking coffee... I wanted to do something similar in our own city so I chose the neighborhood of Inglewood, a cute and older part of town we haven't spent much time in.

It was great. Here's a recap:

• Saturday morning we picked up pastries from the French bakery near our house.

• ate them in lovely Central Memorial Park
• followed a path neither of us had ever taken along the elbow river into Inglewood
• spent some time browsing in a second hand bookstore
• went into all of the antique shops and cool furniture shops along 9th Avenue S.E.


• spent some time at Tea Trader learning about tea and smelling the different varieties. We bought two different types.

• had lunch at Spolumbo's - Italian spicy sausage on a bun with fresh tomato sauce and pickles on the side

• drank mojitos on a cute patio

• got a ride in a tiny convertible

• browsed around my favorite vintage shop in Calgary, Pretty Little Things, trying on hats and coveting a lovely refinished vanity.


• went to the recently opened Wurst and sampled some different beers.