September 30th 2011

It's the last day of September, (already!), and I have a little bit of news.  Actually, a big piece of news!


It's only about one more month until the release of my next illustrated children's book, Grand-Remous, with Mélanie Tellier and publisher Bourgeon.  The website has a preview of the cover of the book that I wanted to share (above).


In a week I'll be heading to Montréal for the release party for the publisher's fall editions, so I'll finally get to see the book fresh from the presses!  I'm even more excited about the release of this book than I was for the last, if that's even possible.


When I return home, I'll have a giveaway for one of the first copies of the book that I'll send out on the release date.  To enter for a copy, please go to my Facebook page post and leave a comment!  I'll do a draw and mail out a copy at the beginning of November to the lucky recipient!

September 23rd 2011

{ VIDEO }


I've been doing a lot of image reference for tilt-shift photography, (it's so simple, but it still baffles me!  Everything looks so tiny!).


In the process, I stumbled upon some really pretty videos, and this just happens to be one of my favorites.  It's by a film maker named Felix Holderer from Freiburg, Germany.  It really does look like a pretty little snowglobe!


{ * It was brought to my attention after posting this video that it began playing every time the page blog page was opened, so I've taken the video down and replaced it with a link to the video.  It's a beautiful video, so I hope you'll click through and watch it!  And my apologies for the soundtrack on the blog.  Oops. }

September 19th 2011

My hand is cramped.  I spent the three days following our Boston trip catching up on some work.  I had a fairly rushed job that I finished up late last night, that I can't wait to share.  It was a pretty big job, and I'm so happy with the results.  I don't believe it'll be published until November, so I'll have to post it when it becomes available.

In the meantime, I wanted to post a couple of images that I'm completely in love with.  Back in August, Chris' Dad gave me a book; The Paper Garden, for my birthday.  I haven't had a chance to read through very far, but have flipped through the pages to look at the incredible images scattered throughout the book.  It's about a woman named Mary Delany, an English aristocrat, who didn't begin her life's work, cutting gorgeously intricate botanical illustrations from paper, until the age of 72.  Her work is incredibly deft and accurate, and can still be found at the British Museum to this day.  (This is surprising, because she created them during the 18th century, and didn't take care to properly archive her works; delicately crafted out of hand-dyed onion/ tissue papers).


I'm always appreciative of work that is incredibly detailed, so her work really stands out to me.  I love her use of deep, ink-black backgrounds.  They make her work look so rich.

September 17th 2011

Here are the illustrations I did, published this week in The New York Times Magazine Education Issue.  This was such a fun job to do!  I was asked to do a small series of paintings from an article that included short stories about personal school experiences written by Michael Bloomberg, Wes Anderson and others.  You can read the article here.

I got the assignment while I was out at a Blue Jays game with Chris and some friends, then to add to the excitement of the night; we ended up on the JumboTron!

Chris and I just got back from a trip to Boston.  It was a great trip away, (we both needed a little break from things), and I'll be sure and post photos when I get my film developed.  It was an even more beautiful city than I'd imagined.  I'd love to go back some time.  Our next big trip will probably be to Iceland in the spring!  I want to start planning already!

September 7th 2011

Last month I was asked by Brooklyn Magazine to illustrate in the style of Adolphe Millot three full pages of the species of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. I've always wanted to do a scientific botanical illustration, so I was very excited to work on it. They sent me a list, which you can view here, of the species to be included. Sharks, pythons, and lions? Really!?