Progress: Thief & The Fledgling

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Progression of my current ‘brand’ illustration, The Thief & The Fledgling. Baby dragons sure can be huge… Above is the final product, after some photoshop tinkering. See below for a few progress shots. Continue reading

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Pet Portraits: Meme Monday!

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I’ve been inactive for health reasons for the past while, but I’m back! Over this past weekend I decided to come up with a trio of portraits based off a few of the internet’s favourite celebrity pets. From the left, we have ‘Grumpy Cat’ Tardar Sauce, Lil Bub, and ‘Doge’ Kabosu. Mainly done with Promarkers, but added some final touches with Derwent Coloursoft Pencils and White Gel Pen. Below is a gallery of the WIPs, for those curious. Continue reading

Pet Portrait: Candy

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Did this as a commission for a gift in December, and now officially able to post it! This is the late Candy in her older years, hence the cataracts. This is actually my very first pet portrait commission, and what got me into the idea of making it into a specialization of mine. Still working on finding clients, though… a search kind of put on hold as I’m focusing on Montreal Comic Con stuff at the moment. Read on for some WIP shots and a closeup! Continue reading

Happy New Year: 2015’s gonna be busy…

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This is the year I really need to work on myself as not only an artist, but a freelance professional. I know what I’m good at, what I understand, so it’s time to focus on that and keep developing. The end of 2014 brought on a few clients, and, along with that, the hope and esteem that, ‘hey, I can make a professional artist of myself. I just need to work.‘ Key word there. Stop twiddling my thumbs. That’ll be my main resolution, methinks. So overall 2015 will hopefully be the year where I establish myself professionally. Wish me luck!

Now, aside from that, there are of course other smaller, more typical resolutions I’d like to conquer. Get back into ‘at home’ yoga, for example. I’m so bloody stiff it’s ridiculous. Also bum exercises, haha… Health-wise, that’s really it. The exercise. I’d like to think I’m a pretty good eater.

With a wedding on the way, I’d also like to keep my expenses at a minimum. Not so hard for myself, unless of course something shiny comes along…

Finally, get organized! Or stick to a schedule… something to help me manage my time and… well, everything! Again, with a wedding to plan and a profession to kick into gear, that is key. 

Oh yeah, and those three little chickies are frogmouth chicks, in case you were wondering ;)

Happy New Year! :D

Pet Portrait: Roosevelt

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Our family suffered a great loss recently. Roosevelt, our 15-year-old Maine Coon, passed earlier this week. He was, without a doubt, my dearest furbaby, and he touched all of our hearts like no other pet had. Difficult as it was, I decided to surprise my parents with a pen & marker portrait of our boy. The process eventually grew to be therapeutic, and I am proud to have successfully captured his essence (the eyes, in particular, were heavily worked on as they needed to be p-e-r-f-e-c-t). Read on for WIP shots and a photo of our beautiful & beloved ‘gentle giant’. Continue reading

Nature Sketching: Final Project

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Happy Holidays! The Evergreen Squirrel is what I came up with for our final Nature Sketching assignment, in which we had to invent a creature based on our previous class (or personal) studies. Considering the number of animals we had looked at, I decided first to come up with a little backstory. Where does it live? What climate does it have to deal with? What does it eat? And so on… My initial requisites where that it had to live in Canada, being able to survive our harsh winters. And, considering the time of year, I wanted to put a hint of Christmas into the design. Wildlife biologist that I am, it also needed to be realistic and above all else, believable! Read on for more research, sketches, and process (yes, ‘back’ pine cones ARE possible)! Continue reading

Nature Sketching: Rhinoceros Research

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Last week our homework for nature sketching was to research and draw a ‘large mammal’. During the class we studied from miniature models, subjects ranging from the great Canadian moose to the giant African elephant… while I love our national symbol to bits, the moose is quite the fuzzy animal, and I wanted to try something a little different… hence, the Indian Rhino. As armored as an armadillo, as warty as a toad. Perfect. Continue reading