recent doodles

latest promo + updated website

A couple weeks ago I sent out my latest promo.  This one was mostly sent to potential editorial, advertising and design clients as opposed to potential clients in the children's market.  I'll put out a promo targeted to those clients in a month or two.

I also did a small update to my website.  You can check it out here.

warren hellman portrait for swerve magazine

Here's an illustration that I did for this past weekend's edition of Swerve Magazine.  It's a portrait of Warren Hellman, a millionaire in San Francisco who put on a music festival so that he could play the banjo on stage with his musical idols. Here's a link to the article if anyone is interested.

back matter

The picture book that I've been illustrating is part of a series called 'Tell-Me-More'. The books in this series have a 2 page spread at the back of the book (back matter) where one can find educational information about the subject of the book. Because the story that I illustrated is about butterflies, the back matter in my picture book contains information about butterflies. I made several spot drawings for the back matter and I thought I'd share a few of them on here today. 

I approached the illustrations for the actual story in a playful way, but because the back matter is facts, I was much more representational with those images. I haven't painted realistically in ages as I find it much more enjoyable to be loose and playful with my illustration work, but this was a nice little change. I also proved to myself that I'm still capable of painting more realistically if ever I want or need to.

Although I'm waiting to share the full color illustrations for the story, there's one painting in particular that I did for the back matter that I spent a lot of time on. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and decided to share it today as well.  It depicts a butterfly with eye spots on its wings.

double spread of charlie and his dad walking

Things got a bit chaotic around here as soon as I finished up the art for the book, but I think they've calmed down now and I should be able to resume posting more regularly.  I've been meaning to post this spread for a couple of weeks now, so here it is:

This scene takes place near the beginning of the book.  Charlie and his dad are walking home from getting groceries and having a conversation. I added some interest by putting things in the windows of the buildings that line the street.

finished!

Those of you who follow me on twitter or facebook already know, but for the rest of you, I finished painting the art for the picture book a couple of weeks ago.  I packaged it up and shipped it off to the publisher right away.  They're currently scanning everything and colour correcting printouts to match the colours on the original paintings.  Once they're finished, I'll get the digital files back so that I can do some touch ups and then the artwork for the book will be done.

It's been so exciting to see the images come together.  I can hardly wait to hold the printed, bound book in my hands.  It's slated for release this June.

'the children get a package' spread

Happy New Year everyone!

Although I was able to take a much needed short break over Christmas to spend some time with my family, I've been hard at work in my studio ever since.  I'm so happy to announce that I'm almost finished the artwork for the picture book that I'm illustrating: Bye, Bye, Butterflies.

Today I'd like to share another sketch from the book.  It's one of my favorites because I really enjoyed drawing all the little faces.  In this scene, Charlie and his classmates have just returned to school from spring break and have found a package waiting for them.  I thought it would be fun to show all the kids excitedly huddled together, looking down over the package.  On the facing page, I drew the actual box.

The thumbnail:

The sketch of the children:

Other than a few adjustments, this image really didn't change that much.
The final spread looks like this:

I decided that since the children were looking down at the package, that it made more sense to show a top view of it.  I also gave it a more dynamic placement.

the good stuff from 2011

With all of the travel and adventure that I experienced in 2010, it was one of the best years of my life and will be pretty much impossible to top.  Despite a severe lack of travel, 2011 has been really good in a different way.  The stability of staying in one place has made it possible to have a proper studio again, with access to my art supplies and papers, computer, printer, scanner, drawing table, good lighting... all things I went without while we were traveling.  I found ways to get around needing those things, but it's been nice to have everything at my fingertips again.

The beginning of 2011 saw us move to the city of Calgary, Alberta, into a fun, trendy, and central neighborhood.  We settled into an apartment with a studio space and enjoyed staying in one place for a while.  It was nice to reconnect with family and old friends.  But we also made many new friends this year.

I did illustration work for a bunch of new clients.  I got a part time job to get me out of the studio and to take some of the pressure off of illustrating.  And I learned a ton about spices thanks to The Silk Road Spice Merchant.  My favorite dish that I learned to make this year was Louisiana Shrimp Gumbo. Yum.

The biggest joy 2011 brought was definitely being commissioned by Fitzhenry & Whiteside to illustrate the picture book Bye, Bye, Butterflies.  It's been a goal of mine to do that since I graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2002.  It took 9 years, but I did it!

Happy New Year everyone!

the 'caterpillar' spread

Things have been a little quiet on the blog as of late, but believe me when I say they've been quite busy in the studio.  The picture book that I'm illustrating, Bye, Bye, Butterflies, is coming along nicely.  I'm currently painting spreads and I look forward to sharing some of the finished, full color images down the road.

For now, I'm going to share another sketch. 

I really struggled to find a solution for this particular spread.  I didn't want to be literal and draw exactly what the text said so it was quite a challenge to come up with something that was a bit abstract but still appropriate.  Probably because it was such a struggle, when I finally came up with my solution I was especially happy with the image.

Here it is:

It might not look like much here, but try to imagine a bunch of colorful and interesting caterpillars marching across the page in this lovely shape. 

Unfortunately, this is the only place where it will see the light of day.  Once I submitted my sketches to my editor, we realized that we needed to shuffle some things around and the only way to make it work was to combine this spread with another one.  It broke my heart to have to change it as I really enjoyed the graphic shape moving across the page, but it was all for the greater good.  The spread at the climax of the story now works much better because of this change. 

This is what the new spread will look like:

alberta by numbers

Today the postman brought me the December issue of AlbertaViews Magazine with my work illustrating the Alberta by Numbers section on the back page.  It was a fun little assignment to do and the art director was great to work with.

Also today, after almost exactly 5 years, my blog has reached 100 followers. 
Thanks for being interested in my work everyone.  It means a lot to me :)