Reader's Digest Illustration

I was away in British Columbia for most of July. So there's a couple things I haven't gotten around to blogging about. Such as, I illustrated a full spread for Reader's Digest! This was art directed by Annalise Dekker, who was really lovely to work with.

I also wanted to share my sketch for the spread. I sketch by hand, but I love to shift things around when I scan it into Photoshop. I find it helps me a lot with sorting out a composition.

Animals of Canada Illustrated Map

Animals of Canada Map

I made a blog post before about the illustrated map of Canada I created for Nature Canada.  Now I wanted to show you how I completed it as a personal art piece.

For the client artwork, I scanned in all the elements separately, so they could be moved around and scaled down as necessary to fit with the text and the layout.  After the job was complete, I took my time illustrating more animals and slowly planning out and pasting down all my little critters and foliage pieces.

Below is a photo I took of my messy studio space while in the throws of it.

At the end, I decided it would be nice (and a little educational) to include labels of the names of the animals.  I wish I could have included even more animals to the final artwork ... but I suppose there's always a limit.

I have prints of the Animals of Canada Map up in my Etsy shop! The print is 11"x14" which is a standard size for easy framing.

Nature Canada Illustrated Map

Fewf! I'm super happy to show you all this illustrated map of Canada I created with John Lepp of Agents of Good for their client, Nature Canada.  This was a large spread for the Nature Canada 2012-2013 Annual Report.  Take a look at the full report here.  John did such an amazing job on the graphic design, I'm so thrilled with how this all came together.

I particularly enjoyed researching and illustrating the handful of Canadian animals.  After this commission was finished, I filled up the map with yet more animals.  I'll be showing you how the completed original turned out in an up coming blog post!

Nature Canada Thank You Card

This was a really fun commission I received through the wonderful people at Agents of Good.  It's an illustration for Nature Canada to be printed as a card and sent out to people who had donated to the organization over the last year.  The client wanted to include water, trees, people and animals.  But it was important that it could look like anywhere in Canada.

I thought the final turned out rather well!  I love doing outdoorsy illustrations.

Winter Holidays

So I'm celebrating my winter holiday back in the West Kootenay's with my family.  I've been cross country skiing and merry making, and I intend to do plenty more over the next week!

It's been a busy year for me filled with drawing, illustrating, framing, reading, writing, teaching and generally working hard.  I'm thrilled with what I've accomplished over the year and excited for what's coming next.  But it's so important for me to fit in as many outdoor expeditions as I can manage around the edges.

I hope you all are enjoying your own picturesque Christmas!

Woodrough Lodge

Woodrough Lodge

I've been living in Ontario for so many years now (11 years maybe?), I thought it was high time to create a special, Ontario cottage country dollhouse.  I wanted to include lots of the great local wildlife.  Some highlights include a moose, beavers, coyotes, red wing black birds and black bear.

I was really pleased how it all turned out matted and framed!  It's hard to tell from the photo, but the frame has nice textured bark detailing on it.

Thanks to Jesse, for taking the photo, it's so hard get a good picture of art behind glass.

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