I’ve been rather bad with the updating of the blog this year, and this one’s another belated post. This was done for the Wall Street Journal’s Ask Teri column and it’s probably the fastest job I’ve turned around so far.

It happened that the 4th of July fell on a Monday this year, so lots of places were closed for the long weekend. As a result, I got the brief a day later than usual, but still had to turn out the final by the following day. So, I had to rush out a couple of sketches to the art director, then go straight into the final art in the evening. The article was a question from a senior lady who wanted to know what to wear that would be appropriate for her age but not frumpy.

The people at the Journal were very nice and helped give me some suggestions about what to draw.

Below are the two sketches I sent off.

Eye glasses were added on later. I originally had her with white hair but the editor felt that made her look too old so I changed it to a light blonde instead.

It’s Fanexpo time! Fanexpo (not to be confused with UFC Fan Expo) is Canada’s largest nerd prom, a 4 day extravaganza of comics, games, art, sci-fi, horror… and a lot of people wearing very strange costumes.

I will be at P006C, on the left side of the hall (according to the map). Here is a closeup of where  I will be:

For more information on the event and more maps, schedules, ticket info etc, please visit www.fanexpocanada.com

Will be selling some sketchbooks and prints. Please drop by and have fun!

P.S The Skywalk from Union station may be partially closed so you might need to hoof it on the street to the South Building. Check Twitter to see what’s going on during the day itself. Hopefully it will not be so crowded this year.

Went life drawing at Keyhole Sessions yesterday. Keyhole Sessions is a life drawing session in Toronto that is more risque than the usual classical life drawing. They typically have 1 to 3 models in a variety of outfits (or lack thereof) doing poses. Last night’s theme was ‘shag’ so it was a bit more shagedelic than normal. The girl wearing the handlebar moustache standing in for the ‘man’ wierded me out a bit (not the girl, but she was a nice slim girl and the moustache provided too much juxtaposition!)

Clicky click the image above to see the sketches in more detail.

Another Journal piece for the ‘Ask Teri’ column. ‘Ask Teri’ is a question-and-answer column where readers ask the fashion editor, Teri Jones, for her advice on different things.

For this piece, the reader was a 40-something year old lady who said she was a size 12 and fit, and wanted advice on what swimsuit to wear. The editor suggested a few things, including a one-piece with cutouts.

Now, size can be a tricky issue. Being a size 12 does not have to mean a person is fat, and these days it’s even more important to depict various weights as acceptable so long as the person appears healthy. But that being said, in a fashion column, people are usually depicted as extremely thin. So I try to maintain a balance by depicting someone who’s not fashion-model skinny, but who probably isn’t a true size 12 either.

The Journal usually has a fast turnaround – I get the brief on Monday evening and expected to produce 2 – 3 sketches by Tuesday morning. The approvals come some time on Tuesday afternoon and we shoot for a Wednesday morning delivery so that everything can be put together for delivery in the Thursday paper.

Considering the short timeframe, I sometimes do roughs and sometimes I just got straight into a sketch. I did do some roughs for this piece. Roughs are usually not shown to the client, they’re just my own ideas for layouts:

I pick 3 roughs to work on and did them up. Here are the sketches I delivered:

The final artwork was done up in Illustrator and imported in Photoshop for additional touchups and to enhance the soft edges.

Now that Summer is here once again, I figured that I may as well make the most of it by trying to hang outdoors more. One day while eating pizza, my husband and I realized that the little sitting area outside of Bloor-Spadina is actually pretty darn good for people watching. So I brought down my materials (and more pizza) and spent a couple of hours drawing various people who stopped by.

Since I got my tablet, it’s become a lot more pleasant to sit in bed and surf around. One of the apps I use is Pulse, which is a neat news aggregator/reader. I’ve configured it to pull the feeds from some fashion blogs, and I’ve been just drawing people who show up on these blogs. It’s pretty neat since these are, for the most bit, normal people who have been deemed fashionable by whoever runs the websites.

Limited edition print - The White Stag of Scythia

Buy Sword & Swocery for iPad / iPhone - Click here

Now that it’s been announced – here’s the print I did for the 2nd run of the Sword & Swocery vinyl EP. The print features the ‘white stage of Scythia’ and this piece is probably the most ethereal project I have worked on to date.

If you haven’t already heard, Sword & Swocery is a beautiful and amazing game for the iPad and iPhone. Created by Superbrothers and published by Capybara, the gem of a game has been making waves for its unique qualities and sheer awesomeness. The game also features a kickass soundtrack by Jim Guthrie. Well, soundtrack is a bit of a loose term, the music (so I am told) was created not so much for the game as WITH the game.

I was pretty much given a blank canvas, so I ended up listening to the soundtrack and watching the game on a borrowed iPad. By chance, I happened to read up about the legend of the White Stag and I thought that it was a great idea for the print, considering the game A) has deer and B) has a Scythian as the protagonist. Or THE Scythian.I wanted to do something with Rorschach patterns because I liked the idea of working something subliminal into the image, and I ended up just pouring paint and squishing it as the soundtrack played in the background.

Anyway, if you would like to get your paws on a copy, you’ll have to buy the lovely vinyl from Jim. Or if you prefer your music digital, you can get the music off iTunes as well (sadly, that doesn’t come with the print).

Buy the soundtrack from Bancamp - click here

Keyhole sessions - see more images below

Went drawing last night with some friends to the Keyhole Sessions at the Great Hall. The Keyhole Sessions is a cool, edgy life drawing, uh, class, although no one teaches you anything there. They have models who are dressed in more risque outfits, though last night’s selection was actually more towards the ethereal side. The Great Hall is a rather large hall that is hidden away in what looks like another bunch of unassuming townhouses down on Queen Street. It is rather nice,with a large upper balcony that unfortunately we could not go up to.

More images below, click to view.

Was invited for an almost impromptu zoo sketching session yesterday by Mike DelMundo and Vince Chui. We tromped around the Toronto Zoo for most of the day, putting up with temperatures reaching a high of 37 C / 99 F, and then had to put up with an amazing about-face with buckets of rain and hail on the way home! But we did have a great time sketching the animals, and talking about illustration and stuff. Watch the guys’ blogs to see their sketches when they post them!

Another one for the Journal. This was about getting special offers and things on your smartphone. Was a bit surprised that they asked for this concept, but I guess it showed off the phone with the mannequin better than the sketches where you could see the lady’s face.