Tuesday's Victorians

Since my last post a whole pile of absolutely thrilling things has occurred.

Here, let me make a list of the highlights:

• Last Friday, I found out I'd been accepted into the Graphic Design BFA at OCAD, meaning I'll be a full-time student again come September.

• I became part of an art collective, and we're opening a working studio/gallery on Queen West in May (!!!). Stay tuned for WAY more information on this point of interest!

• I'm learning to use Dreamweaver (a web design program) while redesigning my dad's website. FINALLY beginning to understand CSS/DIV layers/all those code-type things.

And the most relevant one for this post,

• I've been drawing stacks of Victorian portraits, many of which will be on sale in the coming weeks on Etsy (links will be posted as soon as they're up)!

Thus far I've fully finished fifteen of these dudes and ladies, with many more to come (I'm hoping to make it to 60 or so by the end of the project).


Four of the men, showing how dapper they can be!

Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for more info on the Strange Victorian sale - they'll be super cheap and looking for new homes!

Sunday Wanderings

Today I was rifling through my many (so, so many - I think I have a bit of a problem) browser bookmarks, I found something I'd filed away ages ago, most likely soon after getting this computer (so almost two years back). The something was this thing, an application that lets one pop ordinary digital camera images into a magical little box, then play with a pile of controls to make said photos look like something out of a proper analog polaroid/lomo/toy camera. Needless to say, this little toy thrills me to no end and I have spent the last hour-ish dragging pictures from my photo library and prettifying 'em.

Cases in point:


Tiny Pacific Octopus, photo originally taken at Ucluelet Aquarium in BC.


Tentacles!


Jellyfish floating around inside the Vancouver Aquarium.


Gorgeous daylily from my dad's summer garden.


Whilhelm the merfox on display at my last show.


Watercolour palette.


Rocky Mountains as seen from airplane (on the way back from BC).


A pair of bears menace a poor, encapsulated merfox.

I fear this application may become quite addictive!

Collected Collection Collecting

Just as with my last show/project, I am making use of the incredible variety of imagery that zips through my Tumblr dashboard (as well as picking plum photos and links from other places on the web) to create a digital scrapbook, accessible from any computer and always sitting around, ready to zap fantastic, inspiring ideas into my brains.

Click through below to see a smattering of the things that have lately been providing me with inspiration:

COLLECTED COLLECTION: A Scrapbook

For those of you who'd prefer a quick overview, some of the latest additions:


Description, from Flickr: This armchair is where Charles Paget Wade, owner of Snowshill Manor from 1919-1951, would sit and listen to the radio. It's not in the main manor house itself but in a converted outbuilding called the Old Priest's House in the courtyard adjacent to the house.

MEANWHILE, THE DOLPHIN CLUB by Wendy MacNaughton
- a series of gorgeous watercolour illustrations telling a small, nostalgic story.


A microscopic stunner courtesy of Science is Beauty


A silly postcard, found on Flickr

Elsewhere

My lovely Freedom Clothing Collective ladies were kind enough to ask for one of my images for the header of their March newsletter. I ended up altering the scan of my first fully finished Seahouse into a suitable banner image, like so:



And the final newsletter turned out like so.

It's always exciting seeing my work wandering around, getting into places it wouldn't normally be!

See? Houses!

Another strange set of items from the weird world of R. W. Brackley, an amateur Victorian scientist and intrepid marine explorer whose many curious discoveries stunned the world in the late 1800s, but were then lost in dusty London archives for over 100 years. He's also the main character of the next project (see? More info is trickling out - gradually, but it's coming!).



Seahouse (n) - pronunciation: /si:haus/
Formations nearly identical to human-built Victorian houses, found sprouting out of the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Spain. First thought to be strange rock formations, but later classified as coral-like organisms due to observed feeding behaviour.







See? Houses! Seahouses!

#80: A Practice Celebration

Well then.

It seems as if I have reached my 80th post since it all started just over two years ago with some clothes-wearing bears. Back then I'd just gotten back into regular art production, having left it behind for four years while I studied English literature at university. Though I'd never really liked watercolours much before, they were the only colouring method I had on hand, so I picked them up and man - I've not looked back since.

Two-ish years, two shows and most likely more than 100 paintings of strange creatures later, watercolours are my dearest friend, providing me with glorious washes and intricate detail and the most curiously luminous colours a girl could ask for. So thanks for being you, watercolours - thanks a bunch!

Phew, That was more than enough sentimentality, don't you think? To cut the sugar of my ode to art & watercolour-y goodness, allow me to show you some sketchbook experiments I've been performing in recent weeks.

The subject?

PEOPLE.



Can you even believe it? Look around you! These are PEOPLE in Victorian clothing! No animals in sight!!



I made the tough (for me...people are way more intimidating to draw than animals/birds/etc.) decision to have the main characters for the next show/book be Victorian humans, as they'd give me more leeway in the curious creatures their imaginary studies could cover (on that note, there will be more detail about my current project coming in future entries...man, I'm excited for this one!!).





These characters are all culled from Flickr, which holds a rich collection of scanned vintage photographs, many of which contain the most incredible faces - stunning beards, whimsical moustaches, elaborate hairdos and glorious noses abound, along with a plethora of delectable dresses, waistcoats, military jackets and suits, everything providing fodder for a whole new artistic direction!





After making myriad sketches, I've developed just enough confidence to begin transferring my favourite faces over to watercolour paper, where they'll eventually become pieces for the next show. Below is a wee timeline of one such piece:



This is the sketchbook version of an as of yet unnamed woman, dressed in the regalia of a secret society (which you will hear more about in later entries!).



And here's the current progress of the 'good copy' - initial washes complete, ready for layers and miniscule detail!


So that's a peek into my sketchbook's most recent denizens - please do stay tuned, as I have another entry coming up quite soon, which will contain more peeks into the new project as well as a few more details about the project's theme and such.

Happy (Gory) Valentine's Day!

Don't be afraid - this grizzly bear means well, he just isn't very good at managing his claws/teeth:



Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Inspire Me With Your Insides

Since I haven't had time to do any scanning or photography (but want to try and start posting more than once a month), here's another episode of Things That Really Really Inspire Me Right Now, Hooray!

As noted in the last original-art post, I've been kind of obsessed with drawing the insides of things (thus far mostly fish, though I did sketch a human torso once). These images, therefore, are fantastic for both inspiration (the drawing style and the colours make me drool a little) and reference -







Amazing, right?

Inspiring Movement

As I embark on a whole new idea artistically (and, it so happens, in my life as well), I find myself seeking new sources of inspiration. Where my last show saw me rummaging for the bright lights of the circus and freakshow, this new direction has lately been calling for the muted colours of the sea on a stormy day, for tiny, detailed illustrations of scientific specimens, and for all manner of anatomical illustration.

To help collect the inspiring images that appear in the digital world, I have set up another Tumblr scrapbook - Collected Collection. Along with that resource, I have been absorbing stimulating images elsewhere, including at the movies. Just last night I made my way to a theatre to see L'Illusionniste, a thoroughly beautiful (and quietly tragic) film directed by Sylvain Chomet (who also directed one of my all-time favourite animated films Les triplettes de Belleville).

Though much more subtle than Les triplettes (which rollicked merrily along, skirting storms of darkness but never succumbing to anything less than manic, glorious fun), L'Illusionniste offered equally beautiful animation. The colours of the visual landscapes, which moved through Paris, London, the Scottish highlands and Edinburgh, matched the story's quiet, sad beauty with slightly muted tones, as if the whole movie was 'shot' either at the golden hour or during the soft drizzle of a newborn autumn storm.

I found myself immersed in the world of the Illusionist, completely enthralled by the detail filling every single frame, and inspired by the animators' use of colour. Cases in point:







Absolutely incredible, eh? If you've got a love for the wonders of traditional animation, make sure to see this one on the big screen, as the amount of detail put into every scene is unbelievable.

I promise I'll have a post of my own art ready soon - I've been sketching busily away in my book in preparation for actually starting to work on the new show/idea (the thrill!).

Oh, and as a bonus, here are the two trailers for the movies mentioned in this post (because the animation is even more amazing when seen in motion):





L'enjoi!

New Year, New Projects!

Now that 2011 has dropped its bags on my floor and moved in for the long haul (well, the next 300+ days, at least), my mind has also rambled along, onto exciting new projects that (mostly) don't involve circus freaks.

Here's a sneak peek of the main thing on which I'm working right now. It's in its very earliest planning stages, though my thoughts can't help leaping ahead to even more thrilling stages of the work. Sometimes it's an effort to keep myself confined to the sketchbook, making the necessary preparatory sketches.

Here's one of the more finished (a.k.a. watercoloured) sketch-beasts. Let's just say I'm currently finding myself quite obsessed with marine life, anatomy and cross sections:



Onwards, 2011! May you be full of fishes and sea-swells and the odd curiosity too!