Musical Bear

I just finished a commissioned piece for Ottawa area musician Catriona Sturton. Catriona is multi-talented, but harmonica is one of her favorite instruments. I haven't done any vector illustrations in a while and I had forgotten how much fun it can be.
To learn more about Catriona, hear some clips of her lovely tunes, or purchase a harmonica playing bear t-shirt please visit her website. Thanks for sending such enjoyable work my way Catriona!

Process / Progress

Early stages of fawn painting 

And further along...

Sketchbook Friday

I haven't posted in a while, but I have actually been sketching, as well as doing pre-press on some more cards and prints for the shop...I also started loading some images into my shop at Society6, which has been empty for a couple of years, well, really since I opened it. More is coming soon, but the place that scans my work is located next to the University of Ottawa, and they are bogged down with end of term student projects and therefore working more slowly than normal. Next week, I hope!

Work in progress on lichen drawing

I have started an Art Wall in our living room, where we can hang stuff and critique it...

Sorry for the reflected light...I took the curtains down to wash because we are having house guests next week...

Work in progress, but almost finished! Feather Rose:

And last, but not least, my baby Daniel is turning three on Sunday! Happy Birthday, little man!

Owl Love

An owl has moved into our woods! We often see him/her in the evening watching the long grass for mice. I decided to celebrate this development with a painting - a heart made from owls! I think its face looks like it should be smoking a pipe...

Sketchbook Sunday: Lichen Deer & Rabbits

This week was fairly unproductive drawing-wise. The welcome spring weather brought a minor but unwelcome flood to the basement, my children had colds and the ignition switch on the car started to malfunction, causing it to turn itself off while being driven...all in all I spent a lot of time vacuuming water, wiping noses and not drawing.

I found this silk screen print of an earlier version of Hybrid which I made at the Martha Street Studio in Winnipeg when we were still living in Manitoba. For anyone living in that area, the Martha Street Studio is a wonderful place to hang out, take classes, meet new people and so on.

Sketchbook Friday has now become Sketchbook Sunday, but onwards and upwards! Included below are a couple of sketches I have been playing around with:

Lichen Deer

I am really interested in lichen from a visual standpoint, but I recently discovered it is actually a composite plant, consisting of a fungus and its photosynthetic partner, usually an algae, which I find vaguely off-putting.

Rabbit sketch for a piece I am planning called Migration

Sketchbook Friday: Kaleidoscope

I am hoping to post something from the week's sketches here each Friday, as a way to encourage me to sketch, as well as to share drawings with anyone who might be interested. When I was a student we were required to produce five sketches a week which were part of our final mark in drawing class. Thankfully I had old sketchbooks from previous studies which I could pilfer from in lean weeks, and if my teacher wondered why so many of the sketches in my book were taped onto blank pages he never said anything. Sketching is good, since the sketches of today usually end up being the finished pieces of tomorrow or a few years from now...

Process/Progress : Biota

Having just finished (finally) a panoramic piece called Biota, I thought it would be nice to post a few pictures of the process to complete it. For those interested in these kinds of things, a Biota is the combined flora and fauna of a region, from the Greek word bios, meaning life. Cards and prints featuring art from Biota are now available in the Butterbean Design Studio Shop.

Detail of finished Biota piece. 

Detail of finished Biota piece.

Early painting stages. 

Early painting stages.