Agents of Good Ornaments

I had the pleasure of working with John and Jen again at Agents of Good this winter to create custom, handmade Christmas tree ornaments as a gift for 11 of their clients.  Each one is unique and illustrated based on the community work each client does.  All the organization have such great causes, it was so wonderful to learn a bit more about each of them as I created the pieces.

Environmental Defence

WoodGreen Community Services

Habitat For Humanity Waterloo

Ontario Nature

The Redwood

Second Harvest

Special thanks to Jesse Ewles, for helping me when I was in a mad panic cutting up tiny bits of paper, and trying to get everything done in time.

Framed Prints At Scout

I was super excited when a new gift boutique opened up real close to me on Roncesvalles.  Scout has such a great selection of cards, accessories, jewelry and household items.  I'm thrilled that, over the past few weeks, I have had a number of framed prints up among all the goodies. The owner, Leah, has been doing such a great job selling them, I'm often scrambling around trying to frame up new prints.

Each piece is unique, because I use carefully selected vintage and thrifted frames.  The artwork is sometimes reworked a little to fit the frame.

Many of the pieces shown in these photos have been sold, but I keep bringing in new ones to replace them.  If you're in Toronto, definitely stop by Scout and take a look around!

Christmas Cards

This year I wanted to make a winter greeting card that I could put out into the world ... for sale!  This is the first time I've done this, and it's been pretty exciting for me.  I really want to keep coming out with new illustrated products to sell in my etsy shop, as well as in select stores.

I decided I wanted the theme to be a festive winter scape.  The illustration is of a crowned, masked girl in green riding an arctic fox, led by a bright red cardinal.  It almost gives me the feel of the Three Kings traveling through the wilderness.

 

The cards are sold in sets of 8, measuring 4.25"x5.5".  The set comes with snow white envelops.  The inside of the card is blank and ready for your personal greetings to your loved ones.

Gypsy Summer Framed Original

Lately, I've been working hard framing up a bunch of pieces.  I'll be putting them up for sale in my Etsy shop as each is completed and photographed.

Here's a new original illustration I've put up on my Etsy page, entitled Gypsy Summer.  It looks really great in the painted white, vintage frame, with lovely scalloped edged details.  The artwork is 9" x 12" and is behind unbreakable, gallery quality Plexiglas.

I had a great time cutting out and making each little flower.  Lot's a great details in this piece.

The Bouquet Framed Original

I've been adding more and more items to my Etsy shop lately (just in time for the big gift giving season!). Today I just put up my framed original of my illustration, The Bouquet.

This piece measures 9" x 12" and is framed in unbreakable, gallery quality Plexiglas.  The frame is an antique, art deco, gold toned wooden frame with lovely carved details.

Shawn Clarke : Stray Birds CD Design

Here's the new CD package art and design I created for Shawn Clarke's new EP!  I pitched the idea of doing a fairly limited colour pallet with strong design.  The artwork is all carefully done in paper cut technique with scissors and an exacto knife.  I wanted to be sure it had a hand done look (and not be too computery).

We're still waiting for them to come back from the printer.  I'll post photos of the final product once I get my hands on them.

Come to the CD release in December, here's the facebook invite!

Hand Knit Gloves

Candy Cane

Butter Cup

Blue Berry Muffin

I've started posting a new batch of hand knit gloves in my Etsy Shop! I have a few more colour ways that I'll be posting over the next couple of weeks.

The gloves measure approximately 6  inches from tip of middle finger to bottom of palm (not including wrist), by approximately 3 1/4 inches width of palm. Measurements are taken from the glove laid flat (not with hand inside). Because it's a knit, the gloves are quite stretchy.

The gloves are knit in the Duke style of the Sanquhar pattern. The wrists have a cute little knitted bow (traditionally the wearers initials would be knit here).

The yarn is a lovely, hand dyed, merino lambs wool from France. The wool company is Renaissance Dying. And they use natural plant based dyes.

Framed Prints

During the end of the summer, my art prints were hung in a great little coffee shop in Lake Country, British Columbia.  My mom did an excellent job finding old, quality frames, cutting mats and putting it all together (thanks mom!).  I'm super pleased that they got such a great response, and 10 framed prints were sold in a short 2 weeks.

This success has inspired me to contact a few, select, coffee shops and restaurants around Toronto, Ontario.  They sure do add some nice atmosphere!

My prints are also available in my etsy shop, and you can pop them into your own new or vintage frames.

Stand Fast

Stand Fast

I'm proud of my Scottish heritage, but as I'm from British Columbia, I feel a very strong connection to the BC mountains and wildlife.  In this illustration I wanted to meld both together.

I included a bunch of BC wildflowers, including fox gloves, lupines, indian paint brush, wild strawberries just to name a few.  The birds in the trees include a robin, steller's jay and cedar waxwing.

The Gordon Clan's motto is "Bydand", meaning "Stand Fast".  And our crest is of a stag with a buckled belt.

The print is now available in my etsy shop!

Natural History Museum Sketches

Elk Sketch

Bison Sketch

I'm a huge fan of natural history museums.  So this summer I went on a short trip to Banff and Lake Louise, and was thrilled to visit the historic natural history museum.  It's housed in a traditional log cabin, set up to look like an old fashioned study, with antique animals from the early 1900's.

I could have spent the entire day there sketching, but there's so many other beautiful places to go in Banff!

Illustrated Map of Nelson, BC

Nelson, British Columbia Illustrated Map

I spent the first 17 years of my life surrounded by mountains in the small city of Nelson, British Columbia.  Since moving away, I've visited at least once a year and I find myself appreciating it more and more.  I'm always thrilled by the beauty of it, mountains, clean water and great people.  Plus it's chalk full of outdoorsy things to do!

In the map I wanted to include some of my favorite places as well as some heritage buildings and of course, local wildlife.  I'd definitely suggest clicking on the image and seeing a larger view of it.

Also, I included my mom's house on the map.  It's the white one with blue trim just below Gyro Park.  In fact, I found it hard not to include a hundred more places and buildings.  It's so hard to be choosy.

Dad and I trail biking

Savary Island Sign

My summer of painting continues ...

While I was visiting British Columbia this summer, I decided to whip up a sign for my dad's cottage on sunny, sandy, Savary Island.

Kayaking just off Savary

I've been going there every year for the past 5 years now.  It's so beautiful!  It's a great place to bike, kayak and walk in the ocean.  And one of my favorite things about it is that there's no scary predators on the island (bears or cougars)!  But there's plenty of other lovely wildlife.  On the sign I included a humming bird and a robin (as these a plentiful).

Portrait Oil Painting

For me, August was the month of oil painting!  My over the top talented sister, Kristy Gordon, taught a three day oil painting workshop in Nelson.  I rarely paint in oils, and I hardly ever get to paint from a live model, so I was super excited to take it.

Above is the outcome.  And I must say, I'm pretty happy with it.  The model, Amber, had such a great look.  In my painting, she really looks like a proud viking woman.

It feels so great to keep pushing my skills and trying new techniques.

Marfa Texas Map Illustration

Marfa, Texas Illustrated Map

Here's a map illustration I did for Anthology Magazine appearing in their summer 2011 issue (out now!).  It was art directed by the wonderful Meg Mateo Ilasco, whom I've enjoyed working with before.

This is my first map, and I LOVED doing it.  Really it was so great to learn a little about Marfa, Texas.  It made we want to go visit!  As well as do more map illustrations ...

British Columbia Wildflowers

This summer, I decided to sublet my apartment in Toronto and spend 2 months in my home town of Nelson, British Columbia. I took all my art stuff, including my computer and scanner, so I am available for illustration commissions!

I've been hiking damn near every day with my dad. The snow line is around 6,000 feet, so a lot of the hikes are partially in the snow. But I've been photographing all the different flowers I come across! And I plan to use these for flower reference in a new personal illustration I've been working on.

I'll post more about this new piece soon. Enjoy the flowers!

Her Nashville Cover Illustration

My Illustration is on the cover of the July issue of Her Nashville Magazine! The theme was Choose Your Own Adventure and features a flip book style of illustration. It was a pleasure to work with the art director, Heather Pierce, again.

Molly's Style

I was contacted by the lovely, Carley Seale, owner of The Gypsy Wagon, to create a custom illustration of their stylist, Molly McBride. The Gypsy Wagon is a super cute woman's clothing store in Dallas, Texas. They have a section on their website called Molly's Style, where Molly selects pieces from the store to create perfectly put together outfits.

It was great to work with them on this illustration! They had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted. And I'm glad to say we were both very happy with how it turned out.Above are two sketches I made before I started the final.Carley also asked me if I could recreate the Molly's Style logo in a hand done way.

Children's Book Giveaway!

So, last week I received a stack of copy's of the children's book that I illustrated, I Was In My Mommy's Tummy. And, as promised, I'm doing a giveaway to one lucky reader!

For a chance to win a copy of the book, simply leave a comment below (maybe telling me about the best gift you gave/received at a baby shower, but any comment will do). PLEASE MAKE SURE THE EMAIL ADDRESS provided with your comment is working and current.
I'll close the comments on Monday the 23rd, and use the Random Number Generator to select the winner! Good luck!
Here's a final sneak peek of an interior spread. One of the best things about this book, is that there are 2 clear pockets to insert a photo into. In this way, it becomes a more personal story for your child.

*UPDATE* Congratulations Sierra! You won the giveaway!

Sleeping Baby

As promised, here's another spread from the book, I Was In My Mommy's Tummy!

I really love how this one turned out! We wanted it to have a very cozy/bedtime feel to the spread theme. It was really fun working with all the different patterns used throughout the book.

Above is a sketch of the baby used for a different spread later in the book. I'll do one more blog post of this book next week. And I will be doing a giveaway as well!

The book is available for purchase here.

I Was In My Mommy's Tummy

I'm so excited to finally be able to show off some artwork from the children's book, I Was In My Mommy's Tummy! Lee Mes, the author, and I have been working on it for the past year. And we're both very happy with how it all turned out.

It all started when Lee contacted me back in January 2010. She had written a children's book that she planned to self publish, and she asked me to illustrate it. We had a couple of false starts with the spread designs, but in the end it came together with just the right amount of scrap book and photo album details.

I'll be doing a series of blog posts about some of the artwork and spreads. I decided to include some of the sketches, to show a little of my process.

Above is the sketch of the expectant mother. And bellow is the final of the spread. We liked how this one turned out so much, we reused it on the cover.

I'll post another spread soon! You can get your copy of the beautiful, hard covered book here.

Odds And Ends

Here's a logo I made for an ice cream & sorbet company based in Texas, Wanderlust! I only wish I could have sampled their delicious looking treats.

Here's the business card design I whipped up for my good friend and excellent musician, Shawn Clarke.
And lastly, a quick image I put together from some existing bits and pieces of my illustrations. It's for an upcoming seed bomb party. We'll have wild flowers growing all over Toronto this summer.