June 17th 2011

I've been staring at my palette for the past few weeks. Nearly every single day. It's always at my right, beside my elbow. And I don't usually think there's anything particularly beautiful about it; that is until you take away everything around it and focus on the little bits of light and colour.

It keeps me excited about all of the painting I have to do in the next little while!

I should take more photos of my desk while I'm working. I'll plan to do that in the next few days or so and post it to show you what a mess it is!

June 1st 2011

Happy June, everyone!

The weather here in Toronto is gorgeous right now, so it's difficult to sit at my desk and listen to the sounds of the school kids out the window playing and the birds singing and not run outside to frolic a little.

But I have a fun project to work on, so that makes it worthwhile. I wish I could show you what I'm working on! But it will have to wait a couple of months. I can't wait.

A friend posted a link to this video on Twitter earlier this afternoon. It's of Mike and Bianca, the couple behind print studio Kid Icarus, and when I watched it, I realized that my Fig Newton print in all it's print stages is at the very beginning! Fun! It's a beautifully made video, filmed by Stillmotion, and so nice to see the wonderfully creative couple talking about their work. (They're the best!). Enjoy!

kid icarus // the screen printing duo from stillmotion on Vimeo.

May 25th 2011

I took the night off last night to go to the movies and along the way we stopped somewhere that I've been meaning to go for ages; Little Nicky's Coffee Shop.

I have a new favorite place! I'm in love! They make some of the best coffee and their own little mini-donuts with this fantastic old donut making machine, the 'Donut Robot Mark 1'! I think I need to find more excuses to go down into the Entertainment District more often... that, or find myself a 'Donut Robot' for our home.

May 19th 2011

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through".

— Ira Glass, (found on 'The Nouveau Romantics')

May 18th 2011

Here are those drawings I'd promised. I sent these off to Amsterdam a few weeks back and they arrived safely, in time for the 100 Euro Show.

We were asked to send four original drawings, and I included the sketch for the Little Burgundy cover I just did, the sketch for the first cordyceps painting in the series I did for The Dazzle last summer, and the drawings used for my Woodland and Springtime Tea Party GOCCO prints.

Here is the finished work for the Little Burgundy cover, which is out in Little Burgundy stores here in Canada now,

as well as the inside illustration and some spots I did for them.

That's all for now, but before I sign off; one final thing. Today is the 7-year anniversary of my first date with Chris. Happy anniversary Chris B! (He says the anniversary is reset now that we're married, but I'm going to celebrate both!)