new scanner / she walks like a teapot

I finally got around to purchasing a new scanner this past weekend. My previous one produced terrible quality scans. See this post to see what I mean.

I bought the Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner and so far it works great. Does anyone else have this scanner and if so, any thoughts? I found a lot of reviews for it in terms of scanning photography, but I didn't find anything about how it works for scanning art.

I was finally able to scan my 'She walks like a teapot' image that I painted back in July.  Here it is:

my latest promo

This is the front side of a promotional postcard that I sent out last week. It's the image that was printed in the Work/Life 2 book. The back side is black and white and features the same characters doing another activity.

european picture book - la coda canterina

Here's another book from the collection of picture books I picked up in Europe.  I got this one from Italy last fall, and it's about a little boy with a tail.

I love the images in this book so much.  They're simple and beautiful.  I really love the contrast between the black and white textured areas of the drawings and the flat, graphic hits of red.  It really inspires me to try adding flat graphic areas in my own work.  Some of the drawings are a bit unusual and I enjoy that too :)

she walks like a teapot - another solution

Here's another version of the lady who walks like a teapot. 

I got a tablet for Christmas last year and when ever I have some free time, it's fun to play with combining digital elements and hand made textures / line work.  I actually did this a few weeks ago, at the same time as I was working on the painted version. 

I spent last week working on a really fun project for a client that had me playing with different techniques, and color palettes.  I can't post about it yet, but once I get the go ahead, I have lots of process to share :)

And, of course there's still that exciting bit of news that I mentioned in a previous post.  I'm just waiting for the contract to be signed before I share it.

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.