Pretty earings

Although I've been familiar with Etsy for a while (my friend Karen has stuff on there), I had never actually shopped on it for anything. A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a vintage locket, decided to check on-line, stumbled onto Etsy and found so much cool and affordable hand made treasures. I don't even usually wear earrings but I was so taken by how pretty and delicate this pair from Timeless Treasures was that they were my first Etsy purchase. They just came in the mail today - I love them.

July update

I have no images to post at the moment, but I will have some soon as I have several projects on the go. I'm doing a series of portraits for my husband's band, Ahnabith Gish, that they hope to use on their new album. I've completed 3 of the 4. I'm very happy with the first 3 - there's a pretty good resemblance - but the fourth guy is proving to be more of a challenge. I took some more photos of him the other day and with a fresh perspective I am confident that I can pull it off.

I'm also collaborating with the guitarist from the band on the art for the front of the album. He draws and did a really cool sketch, but doesn't know how to finish it. So I'll be painting his drawing. I've never done that before so I'm excited to see how it turns out.

I also just got an editorial assignment for a magazine that I've been wanting to do work for for years. I'm very excited about this one. It's a direct result of a promo mailing I did in May. It's really nice to see your promos (all the time, effort and money) actually pay off and attract some work. I'm a happy happy girl.

On an unrelated topic, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview my favorite band on behalf of my husband this month. He writes for Beat Route Magazine and was doing an article on The Weakerthans. Unfortunately, with them being in Europe on tour it was hard to find a time to talk with them. Because my husband had to go to his day job and was unable to do a phone interview at the only time the band was available, I did the interview for him. I got to talk to guitarist, Stephen Carroll, and he was very nice and very cool. I feel really fortunate - how many other people have the opportunity to talk with a member of their favorite band? You can read the article in this month's Beat Route or right here.

And now I'm off to do some sketching...

Printed CD

I finally got a copy of the CD that I designed and illustrated. It got printed at the end of April, so I've been anxiously waiting to see it since then. I never got to see a physical proof, so I was really hoping that the colours would turn out. I'm pretty happy with the printing. It turned out alright.





The photographs were taken by my friend, local photographer Wes Raymond. Thanks Wes :)

some lovely flowers that were sent to me

They come from a local flower shop called Pease Blossoms. I love the arrangements they make.

another sketch of my hubby

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

more sketchbook fun

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

sketchbook fun!

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

Housing Handbook - printed copy

Here's the cover of the Saskatoon Housing Handbook that I illustrated back in April.

This week...

• I went to the private reception for the Work/Life book at Uppercase Gallery on Wednesday. I've been looking forward to this book since I first read about it last fall. The book is so well designed and beautiful. The content is good too. Reading it got me really inspired.

• Thursday was Art Attack, a fund raiser for design scholarships at ACAD. I am happy and relieved that the piece I donated sold. Live auctions always make me a bit nervous, but it went really well.

Nature Girl

©2008 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

This piece was born of a sketch I did one Sunday afternoon in March. I just felt like drawing so I drew this girl. Once I had the girl, I wanted to do something a bit more interesting so I came up with the idea of tree branch antlers. Perhaps to represent the girl's connection with nature. I added the bird to the sketch later, in photoshop. It seems natural to put a bird wherever there is a branch. Originally the bird was on a branch to the right of the girl, but it seemed a little less predictable to put it on her head.

I'd wanted to paint it since I finished the sketch but only recently found the time. I really wanted to keep the colour scheme simple and I thought about colour choices for several days before putting paint to paper. I've done a few paintings where I've left the person's flesh white and I like that effect. I thought it might reinforce her connection to nature if the colours of the nature around her (the pink of the bird and the green of the leaves) were also the only colours on the girl (her cheeks and shirt). I also wanted to try a colour combo I hadn't used before. I like how the simplistic colours turned out. Sometimes it's hard for me to know when to stop adding colour.