Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone.
This is one of 13 images I illustrated for a 2009 calendar for Workopolis.
I worked with Creative Director Carolyn Verkuyl.
Below are a few more months I created.
I used a silk screen background and very minimal colour.
The Light bulb image below was inspired by Saul Bass, one of my favorite designers.

Perfect is the Enemy of Done

I've been reading The Huffington Post Complete guide to Blogging over the holidays.
It's full of all sorts of helpful advice such as "Perfect is the Enemy of Done".
In that spirit -- my first new year's resolution is definitely to be more done than perfect.
One of the contributors Gretchen Rubin also explains that it's easier to blog every day than it is 3 or 4 times a week because you get into a rhythm, loosen up and stay engaged with the topic.
So in the spirit of that thought -- my second resolution of 2009 is to try to blog atleast 5 days a week. Why do i feel like about 823 people just typed the same thing in the last hour?
Happy New Year dear readers. May 2009 be wonderful for you.

Press: Wish Magazine Winter 09

'Orange Scissors' silkscreen in Living Room



Lovely family.


'S is for Swing' print in Simon + Henry's bedroom


"An Intelligent woman's guide" Penguin book cover print in hallway

The home of my fabulous friends Liz + Steve is featured in this month's issue of Wish magazine.
The article which was written by Tanya Linton is entitled Fabulous Family Style with the tag line
" Anyone who thinks a cool pad and kids don't mix hasn't had the privilege of seeing when it does". Several of my silk screen prints appear in the spread including Big Orange scissors, S is for Swing and one of my Penguin book covers.
The shoot was produced by Suzanne Dimma -one of my favorite interior designers.
The issue is on newstands now - sadly it's Wish's last issue!

Press: Canadian House + Home

My Room of One's Own print appears in the December 08 issue of Canadian House and Home.

It's partially blocked by a tray of donuts (very glamourous).
Here's an image of the print in full as well as a shot of it "in situ" to give you a sense of the scale of it.

Artist's Gallery on BlogT0

Blog TO set up an artist's gallery and asked me to participate.

Inspiration: I met the Walrus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmR0V6s3NKk

Back in 1969, 14-year-old Beatles fan Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto. Armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, Levitan convinced Lennon to do an interview. 38 years later, director Josh Raskin created an animated film using Levitan's original interview recording.

Written directed and animated by Josh Raskin
Pen illustrations by James Braithwaite
Computer illustration by Alex Kurina

Love the combination of Barithwaite's 'yellow submarine-ish'pen + ink drawing with victorian ad cuts, newspaper articles and photographs.
Also love how Raskin animates the character of Jerry Levitan solely by opening his mouth like an old fashioned marionette.
A lesson in less is more.
Beautiful and witty.

New Work: Prints

I've been silk screening up a storm this weekend.
Love being with my squeegee and ink.
Completed a 3rd edition of my underwood typewriter
and printed 2 new pieces Birdie and Eloise shoe.

New Work: Aries girl

This is an illustration I just finished for a book I'm working on.
It's published by Penguin Books and will be released in the Spring.

Candid Obama shots

Happy Election Day

Go Obama Go.

New Work: Ad for Air New Zealand

Here is the full ad as it appeared in Extra magazine.



Art direction: Ron Spohn at Spohn Design (nice guy)

Animation of my typewriter

Marc Whiteway and I have begun collaborating on some animations using my illustrations and his flash skills.
Here's the first one.

Dwell Bedding

I'm working on a Baby themed gift card.
For colour inspiration I've turned to the baby collection of Dwell Bedding.
I love their sophisticated palettes and interesting colour combinations like the grey, ochre and turquoise in top sample.
Gorgeous.
Have you ever seen more a sophisticated rug for a newborn?

New sketches: Shoes

New Work: T is for Tap dance

New Work: Financial Post Magazine

Art director Brianna Freitag

Sarah Palin Flow chart

from the fabulous swiss miss.

New work: Peggy Olson from Mad men

Mad men

Am obsessed with Madmen at the moment.

Michael Bierut 79 Short Essays on Design

I'm reading Michael Bierut's 79 Short Essays On Design

It's a collection of his essays which have previously appeared in Emigre, Adbusters, I.D. and mostly on his blog Design Observer.

Anyone who saw Michael Bierut in the documentary Helvetica knows that he is both hilarious and really smart. His humour and insightfulness come through loud and clear in these essays which range in topic from art to politics to commentary on revered figures from the 'design pantheon' including Paul Rand and Tibor Kalman.

I really groove with his insistence in the first essay that designers (and illustrators by extension) should push themselves to learn about much more than design. As he states " The more things you're interested in, the better your work will be."

Real Simple "How to Dress" Story

I have 6 illustrations in this month's issue of Real Simple magazine.
Here is the opening illustration for the story.



ps. I'm back from New York and can be reached at 416. 515. 0628.

Contact

I'm in New York for the summer and can be reached at 212.874.0706.

The World is round again

From cbc today
With Globalization the world was flat for a while but now with the oil shortage and high gas prices the world is round again. (ie. people are becoming aware of the actual distance products need to travel) This is a good thing.

Mr. Boddington's Studio

Inspiration for both writing and design: Mr. Boddington's Studio
http://mrboddington.com/
Through Design Sponge discovered this fantastic and very unique stationary company
which brands itself as Couture Correspondence.
They design and produce stunning personal stationary, wedding invites, baby announcements and "calling cards' many with very witty copy.

The copy on the website also includes several witty surprises .
(am too tired to think of another word for witty)
For eg. When the first page loads "WHERE TO FIRST? pops up on the screen
and when you click on the Contact button It reads "PLEASE DO". cute.

The real Mr. Boddington is Rebecca Schmidt-Ruebensaal.

Graham Roumieu

Illustrator/writer Graham Roumieu
was on Q (on cbc) today promoting his new Big Foot book

one of the few illustrators who also writes.
he explained that Big foot represents all of us who feel at odds with society
I think his strengths are
capturing the feeling of modern day alienation and
skewering pop culture. (black berries, facebook etc)

New sketches: Incorporating fabric

Inspired by Quilter Denyse Schmidt and Spanish Illustrator Begona Chezz I am experimenting with adding real fabric to my illustrations.
Here's the Real simple sketch with paisley fabric.

Denyse Schmidt

Denyse Schmidt quilter extraordinaire never fails to inspire.

Her new line of fabrics called katie jump rope have the vintage charm of flea market finds combined with a distinctly modern appeal. The collection includes lots of happy dots and cheerful floral patterns.

Sketches for Real Simple Opener

for an article on dressing for every occasion
am attempting a cropped off figure similiar to my bellboy illustration
as i think the cropping adds a level of sophistication