Alphabet series!

It had been working on a series of illustrations of the alphabet for about 5 months.

The theme was natural elements or objects and it took me about a month of research on appropriate terms for every letter (some letters took a rather long time and much debate). It got tedious at times since I wanted a variety of vegetal, mineral and animal elements (although no actual animals, only animal creations or products); it was a matter of keeping a good balance and not having too many flowers or rocks or of any given type of 'thing'. Each item had to be visually appealing in its own way and they also had to look good together.

At last, the last letter was finished last weekend! So here is the full alphabet poster design (each letter- and the poster- are available in my Etsy store, of course):

And here's the alphabetical list:

Acorn
Bur
Conch
Dandelion
Egg
Feather
Geode (as a gemologist, I have an especially soft spot for this one)
Hive
Ivy
Juniper
Kumquat (thank you cute little fruit for starting with the letter K)
Leaf
Milkweed
Nut (Pedant alert: The ones I portrayed are 'true' botanical nuts, not the ones commonly found in trail mixes. It's surprising to learn how many 'nuts' are in fact seeds, fruits, legumes, etc...)
Orchid
Pebble
Quill
Raspberry
Samara
Toadstool
Ulexite (very cool mineral. Get some: It's cheap)
Violet
Web
Xerophyte (funny enough, I had several contenders for the letter X; xylocarp almost made it but it would have been redundant with 'Nut' and it was neat to get cacti in there)
Yew
Zinnia

Barn Owl Illustration

Two more illustrations of animals: A barn owl and a giraffe.

My next idea is pretty epic (still fauna) and I'm so excited about it that it's going to take me a little while to plan out the layout and exact elements. I want it to come out perfectly. To be continued...

Blue Whale and Giant Squid posters

Two new finished pieces: A potential duo, appropriately themed- and sized- to be printed as posters (up to 16" tall). They were loosely inspired by Alphonse Mucha's art nouveau posters for plays and various products. At first, I wanted to put more text, like they were advertisements for the animals ("Blue Whale - Gentle giant of the sea!" Or some such) but in the end, I opted to leave most of the space for the fauna itself. I felt that too much text was taking away from the actual subjects.

Here's the majestic blue whale:

and the mysterious giant squid:

I'm working on more nature-inspired posters, but all I'll say for now is that the next one will either be an insect or a bird...

However, when I was looking for ideas and references, I ended up spending so much time admiring the amazing shapes and colours of various tunicates (the plant-looking animals underneath the squid) that I'm thinking I might dedicate an illustration just for them...

Benzaiten- New piece and Step-by-Step progress

I've created a piece to enter in a contest on an art forum. I was interested mainly for the possibility of a few entries to be included in an artbook. The theme was 'Ethnique- Women of Legend', so it was about choosing a female mythological or legendary figure from various cultures. Of course, I only found out about the competition 2 days before the deadline, but I do draw well under pressure ;)

As subject, I chose Benzaiten: The Japanese/Shinto equivalent to the Hindu goddess Saraswati, Benzaiten represents music, language, knowledge, poetry and speech.

Old Japanese prints were a big inspiration for style. The water and fishes represent the flowing nature of words and songs and the fact that both Saraswati and Benzaiten are associated with rivers. I've used chiefly tones of muted blues, orange and pink to represent the peaceful and feminine nature of the goddess. She is supported above the water by a moonfish (akamanbo) and accompanied by goldfishes: Both kind of fishes represent good luck, indicating her status of protector goddess and bestower of fortune.

Step 1- Pencil sketch (crappy digital picture, because I was too lazy to scan the large drawing in 2 pieces):


Step 2- Inking:


Step 3- A limited insight on the colouring process:


The finished piece!


A few closeups of details:


I've been wanting to draw a moonfish for a while now: I think they just look so gorgeous (and they're huge! Probably large enough for a dainty goddess to ride on, too!). Fishes in general are lots of fun to draw.


It would be awesome to be included in some anthology, but I'm quite happy with this one as a new portfolio piece, if nothing else. It was very enjoyable to create.

Cedar Waxwing- Birthday Gift

It was my mother's birthday a few days back, so we had a nice picnic to celebrate the occasion today.

Since she loves birds/nature (already having a lovely Robert Bateman limited print featuring a barn owl in her living room), I was inspired by my recent comments on the animals book and Cedar Waxwing birds. So I made a piece featuring that pretty bird (the whole thing is about 5.5" x 7.5") for her:


The artwork is in three layers, with the watercolour bird on smoother paper, the branch on slightly coarser paper and a heavily textured paper as background. I was quite happy with the frame I found, with the glass creating a 'floating' effect:



Now I gotta lay down and digest a pile of mini-sandwiches and chocolate cake...

World Animals Part 2 (Decisions!!)

I'm really trying to get this out ASAP. So after a bit of procrastinating, I'm working out some kinks in the final book organization and layout...

My initial idea put the emphasis on the world map and geographical areas, but I'm now wanting to showcase the animals more prominently. It's tricky in terms of space. The bigger the animals, the less space I have for text. So I'm thinking of downsizing a bit and featuring a maximum of 3 animals per region/continent (instead of 4). Problem is, that means leaving some cute beasties aside and, well, it makes me a bit :(

Some changes are easier to justify:



I initially had the Arctic Fox in North America, but found out it was better suited for Iceland (being its only native mammal). I had intended to replace it with the Bison (seen here not coloured yet) but I will drop it altogether for the 3-animals limit. I like the Racoon and Beaver designs best.

The Hummingbird will be changed to a Cedar Waxwing, which is more exclusive to N-America (I have yet to finish it). I will have to find another use for him!



The Caribbeans page doesn't look so crowded (partly because the land-mass isn't taking much space) but I want to try keeping the layout consistent. I love the Green Woodepecker, but I think I prefer making the other guys bigger (besides, there is another woodpecker in the Korea area... that makes it okay. ...right? I'll put you to good use somewhere, Woody; I SWEAR!!):



I justify my downsizing with Europe (BTW the texts here are still bogus filler text, obviously). With all the countries, it leaves the four animals just competing with the text for space. The Salamander is staying for sure because I want to include reptiles/non-furry-feathery animals. The Ibex is truly endemic. So the Pine Marten is probably going to get the pink slip... as if I don't feel like a jerk enough already...





I get a bit too personal with my art, sometimes...

Alright! Five regions left to finish!

Oh me, oh moai...

I upload some of my vector drawings on Istockphoto as stock images. I've noticed that despite the fact that I keep adding more, with various subjects and themes, none of them get downloaded nearly as much as my Easter Island moai pic:



It leaves all the others in the dust. I always thought it would be neat to know where all my stock images get used, but that one is an especially puzzling riddle. Where are all these moai going? (they have no legs!)

One of life's minor mysteries...

World Animals- Part 1 (whew)

The one project I'm really working hard to finish is a children's book on animals around the world (especially endemic animals). I wanted to make a book that would combine a bit of geography and the appeal of animals, as well as putting a lot of focus on the illustrations so it would look good as a coffee table book.

I am about halfway through as far as the animal artwork is concerned. I also have about half the pages laid-out. The animals are organized by continent or region. I'm hoping to have it out in both languages (English and French) by the end of the summer...

Here's a few of the animals so far. They're isolated on white here because the pages' backgrounds are HUGE files and it takes a long time to resize. Besides, I have to keep some of it a surprise, no?

Frazetta Tribute

It took me a little while, but here's a little piece done in honour of the late Frank Frazetta.



In memory of one of the greats.

New Vector Illos

Some day, I will make a lenghty post about how Inkscape is made of sheer awesome and unicorns. It's gotta be one of the most user-intuitive software I've ever used. It completely sold me on the idea that free doesn't necessarily mean crappy (to the great joy of my militant open source user husband Jacob). Anyways.

Here's my latest batch of vector illustrations. I tend to get into a vector mood and crank two or three in a row, then return to raster or analog for a couple of weeks...

The Little Mermaid- Some tests...

Among other things, I am working on a series of illustrations for a few fairy tales, one of them being The Little Mermaid. This story was always one of my very favorite (the original version), partly because the narrative is quite unique, as far as typical fairy tales go. For instance, it features no villains or foes, only unfortunate circumstances and consequences: The witch figure's only crime is giving the little mermaid what she wants, the mermaid's biggest fault is being naive and gambling everything for love and the prince means no harm by falling in love with someone other than the protagonist... It's not black and white. But I digress.

I want the visuals to be more asian-inspired than the european look more common to such tales. Here's a quick test for the mermaid herself and general feel:

The underwater castle still needs experimenting. The prince's palace will be similar to a Chinese temple, but I want something different for the sea palace. I'm trying not to fall into the giant conch pattern. I was inspired by the pattern of a shell made by amoebas, which looks a bit like a filigree egg (a spherical structure would also make a lot of sense under water):

The style on there is all wrong, but I think I'm on to something with the castle design. Needs more work...