My head is filled with song: Part 1

FLEET FOXES: Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

I've recently been working for a painting company (yes, houses, walls, solid colours...) to generate some income, and have been finding it tricky to make time anything creative. To get things flowing again, I've started a project for myself. Every two weeks, I'm going to try and make an album sized illustration based upon a song that I really like or has affected me in some way. The first one is inspired by the Fleet Foxes' "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song." It's a neat image, but I think it could reflect the song a bit more. I don't think the illustration quite has the same feeling as the song does... I will do better on the next one!!! AHA!!!

Some flowery patterns

Here's a couple of patterns I made up a while ago from a pen and ink drawing... Just for fun!

New shirt design ideas!!!!

Ok... I've been itching to do up some more t-shirts, and here's some designs I've come up with! The last one says Gadzooks! and while I like the idea of splitting it into three rows I'm wondering if it's too confusing that way, or if it really matters if it can be read easily.... So I was thinking maybe just two rows. Thoughts?

These are of course just the black and whites which help me figure out how it my ideas will work as stencils with no floating white spaces and whatnot. Once I cut out the stencils and go to silk-screen them they will be all colourful and much more exciting!

Now all I have to do is order me some shirts. Oh yes, and figure out ways to actually sell them.... sigh...

from a foggy frosty day

It was a very foggy day and when I left the house I noticed how lovely and frosty the pine tree out front was and took a few pictures of it. SO PRETTY!!! It is my goal to post something at least every week soooooo... yeah. Here goes.

The light of the moon!

As in Edward Lear's poem, here are the owl and the pussycat going to sea in their beautiful pea-green boat.

What happens to leftover paint.

Some experiments in me sketchbook!

Sketchy sketchy sketchy

Oh wow! It's been a while! Eesh! So..... here's a few sketchbook pages.

Boo!

It is (was) Halloween time and this year I seem to have had cyclops' on the brain! Behold! A cyclops pumpkin and sketches for an alphabet made entirely of wonderful one-eyed monsters!!!

Illustration Friday - Frozen

A silly painting inspired by perhaps my favourite thing to eat. ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!

Sketchy!

Just a couple of neat pages from my sketchbook.

Chicken and Fish

This is just an experiment based on a silly drawing from my sketchbook. It's painted with gouache. I kind of forgot about it. I suspect it's something I will be using more often in the future!

Mumble Tease

So this is the name and logo I have finally some up with for the t-shirts that I've been printing in my basement and selling to wonderful people who think the shirts are also wonderful.




These are the tags I made for the t-shirts I'm selling at a local boutique. Each shirt comes with two tags, a small one with a silly drawing on the front and the logo on the back, and then a large one with a blurb about the shirts on the front and the size on the back. FUN!!!

I've never painted on a road before...

This was a volunteer project I did for the community I live in. They are celebrating 50 years as a community. I painted the white outline on the road, and then kids in the neighborhood painted it in. They were lots of them and they were very speedy and I had trouble keeping up!

Collaboration with Chika!

Chika and I were part of the group show "Ampersand" at the Art Life Gallery in Calgary in August. The show featured 14 different pieces, all of which were done collaboratively. It was a blast! What you are seeing here was actually our second attempt at it. The other side of the board, which is about 2 by 4 feet, has our first attempt on it, which we abandoned after deciding we didn't really like the direction it was going... The piece was done without any planning, and I must admit partly under the influnece of delicious rum. Good times!!!

More T-shirts!

Yikes! I'm bad at keeping up with these things. I'm selling the shirts at the Freshlife Boutique in Calgary.

New Stuff

This is a late birthday card that I gave my sister at the end of our travels. I thought of all the most memorable moments and the neatest things we did and saw and drew them on the card.

This is a card my sister and I sent the parents from New Zealand for their 34th wedding anniversary. All I had was pens to draw with. I chose an animal from each of the countries we'd visited and had them relaying the message. Then on the back are my sister and I wearing cute dresses we'd picked up along the way, saying hello.


This is a commissioned painting (2 by 6 feet) I did for a friend. I saw where the painting was supposed to live, and then was given complete freedom to do whatever I wanted. This is what happened. All the white trees were silk screened onto the wood, and the bottom stripy part is scrap fabric from an old sweater of my mother's that I shortened so I could wear it. So much fun!