New Nature Alphabet Book

At last, it's ready!

When I first thought of making a series of nature-themed images to illustrate the alphabet, I was also thinking it would be neat to make a simple, informative children's book out of it. I was trying to find a way to have it printed as a rigid board book (sturdier for young tots) but it seems like all printers of such books are large factories in Asia. They're cheap- by the book- but I would have had to order cases of 1000 or something, which wasn't an option.

So I went with Lulu, the self-publishing company. I was very impressed with the quality, considering how easy the process was. Fortunately, my book had enough pages to get a perfect-bound spine, which I think looks much better than saddle-stitch and closer to my original board book idea; nice, square and flat:

It's titled 'Acorn, Bur, Conch' and has a little, simple blurb on each natural element chosen for each letter, an array of fruits, plants, animal elements and minerals. I think it's pretty cute and it's dedicated to my daughter- who is, conveniently, currently obsessed with the alphabet- Penelope.

Available for sale through Lulu's site. There's a preview as well.

Individual letter illustrations are available in my Etsy store.

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

Magnificent Frigatebird

Here's a new finished illustration. A Magnificent Frigatebird in flight. The male inflates a bright red pouch to court the female. I thought it looked a bit like a big red heart in some angles, which was a bit like the bird carrying a Valentine around to his belle ;)

It is available as a print on my Etsy store... as many other illustrations of mine. I ought to advertise about it a bit more about it :P

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...

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 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?