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Illustrator

Guide to Dressing Warmly in Winter

It’s February and getting to that point in the Canadian winter when people start to really complain about the weather. Mother Nature likes to play tricks on poor amnesiac Canadians at this time of year; she springs (pun intended) warm, above zero, spring-like temperatures on us and we get all excited, like: “maybe this year Spring will actually come in February!”. Then she hammers us with another deep freeze, 30cm of snow…or 75cm, if you live in the Maritimes (you poor souls).

Snow, melt, freeze, repeat. And every year Canadians whine about it and forget where they live.

So I thought it would be fun to make a little six-part guide on how to dress yourself warmly for the Canadian winter. This gave me a chance to draw most of my winter gear and plug some of my favourite made-in-Canada companies. I hope some of you will find it helpful.

While it’s not ideal having to own multiple wardrobes just because you live in this country, getting outside in the winter and embracing the season is the best way to survive it. So get dressed warmly and get outside!

Click on the thumbnails below to see them larger, and click again on the link to see them full-size.

Portraits, portraits

Drawing portraits is so great…especially ballerina portraits! Here is a bunch of new ones:

Spread for Avenue Magazine

I had the opportunity to work with AD Venessa Brewer on Avenue’s  holiday gift guide spread. It features my portraits as well as several line drawings that were incorporated with the product photos.

I had so much fun working on these drawings!

 

Sketches from Scotland

Joel and I recently returned from spending 3 weeks in Scotland. We saw many castles, mazes, big houses, puffins, weird and awesome landscapes, glens, highlands, rode horses, experienced volatile weather and rain. So. Much. Rain. Which is not at all conducive to outdoor sketching! Prior to our departure Joel and I had said we were going to sketch on this trip like it was our job; every other day. But due to rain, generally cold weather and midges (biting insects) we only managed half a dozen sketches! It was difficult to get a two-hour window without any of the aforementioned things to sit down and sketch.

I love how moody the landscape is in Scotland. I took many reference photos which you might see popping up in my work later on this year.

Here’s what we came up with:

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Doune Castle, where Monty Python & the Holy Grail and scenes from Outlander were filmed. A nice example of a restored 13th-century castle.

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Random house, just outside Pitlochrie.

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Urquhart Castle overlooking Loch Ness. I’d say skip this one if you’re not into ruins crawling with tourists. We were told not to sit on the grass here…which did not please me.

 

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Lovely Tudor building in Peebles, in the Borders.

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The kitchen at Glaschoille House, in the Knoydart Peninsula. We were waiting to go back to the mainland after two days on horseback and had an hour to kill. Midges prevented me from sketching outdoors so here is the one and only indoor plein air sketch!

 

 

 

Rhiannon

In preparation for mine and Joel’s trip to Wales this spring, I have be re-reading the Mabinogion (collection of Welsh folktales). I’ve always been inspired by Celtic mythology to create my illustrations, so I’m hoping that a trip to the actual place will add another layer of inspiration to my work.

This is Rhiannon on her white horse when she is first glimpsed by Pwyll.
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