Illustration Friday – Expired

My thoughts during my walk to the bus stop this morning:

The Slow Lane

The balcony at the indoor pool is the best place to eat lunch on campus during the winter. It's warm and cozy, almost spa-like, and although it's full of students most of them are sleeping or watching movies on their laptops, so it's way quieter than the eating areas in the Student Union Building.

Sitting on the carpeted bleachers overlooking the pool, I love watching the swimmers. The ones in the slow lane are perfect models for when I feel like whipping out my sketchbook to knock off a few minutes of drawing during lunch. This guy stopped to take a break against the pool's edge and I couldn't resist capturing his moment of relaxation. Ahhh...

IF – Adjust

I'm a bit late with this, but I haven't had much time to sketch these days, because... I've been biking to work. Crazy, I know. I'm loving it so much, except for the fact that without the need to pass two dreary half hours sitting in a bus seat each day, my sketchbook doesn't get much action.

The Illustration Friday theme of 'adjust' was timely for me this week. I've been feeling the growing pains of my bike and me adjusting to each other. It's proving tricky to figure out where I now sit between this new sporty me and the normal me who likes to wear pretty heels and not squish my hair in the mornings. My threshold for sloppy clothes and a generally haphazard appearance in public has changed significantly, and I've found myself not embarrassed in the least in situations I would have been before. The thrill of cycling leaves me walking around in a happy bubble sometimes. Especially when it's so sunny and everyone around me seems to be in a friendly-neighbour mood like they have been this week.

But there are moments. Such as when I left Laura and Michelle's place last night after dinner, dressed in my normal office outfit, except minus the heels and with helmet and sneakers quickly slapped on and pannier in hand, to step into an elevator full of preppy, critical-looking people. I felt very conspicuous and not at all like myself. Ick. Then I toppled over while trying to get on my bike. The first inevitable fall.

Adjusting, it takes a while...

Butterflies, pants, and hamburgers

As promised, the comic I drew for Raisa's baby shower.

And it doesn't lie, she's having a boy! The shower was lovely – it was fun to hear others' pregnancy stories. Most impressive and strangely inspiring was the story of Sue's sister, who hopped on her bike and rode to the hospital after going into labor. Whoa.

Thanks for the opportunity to collaborate on telling your adventure stories Raisa! Can't wait to meet the little butterfly kicker.

IF – Poise

Since spring is taking its sweet time getting here, I think it's fair to skip it and start dreaming about summer. I originally sketched this figure while sitting on a grassy hill outside jazz fest (or was it blues fest, or folk fest?) in Victoria last summer. The grass beneath us and the rest of the crowd was soggy but no one seemed to mind, relaxed as they were, sprawled out in various summer-chillin'-without-a-care-in-the-world poses. Poised to enjoy the summer.

I haven't pulled out the pencil crayons in forever, but tonight I just really wanted it to be me and a piece of paper, with no screen-staring involved (until the final moments anyway). It was fun.

Now, bring on the barbeques, swimming and picnics please!

IF – Intricate

Darryl and I went to the aquarium a few weeks ago, for the very first time. I passed three happy hours gazing into all of the intricate underwater worlds they had created for the fishies.

The plants captured my attention as much as the animals – all the underwater foliage seemed so curated, with shapes, colours and ways of moving coming together so beautifully. I love the ocean, the beach, and everything to do with it – the Pacific Northwest exhibit was one of my favourites, with the kelp and sea pens and all the life that thrives beneath my favourite swimming spots. If I had some magic abilities, I'd use them to shrink myself to the size of a little fish and learn to breathe underwater, so I could go strolling around that intricate terrain.

A side note – those bubbly shapes in the background were made with some NaturePrint paper my sister gave me years ago. I found myself at home on a sunny (!) afternoon yesterday and jumped on the opportunity to make a sun-photogram. So paper + little gold seed beads + sun became the perfect bubbly waves for my sea-scene.

IF – Time

I sketched this one afternoon in August, in the middle of a vacation-at-home. As awesome as it is to go away on adventures, I love the indulgence of taking a week off to do nothing special at all. Being in my usual space, with none of my usual routines to adhere to is the ultimate luxury. Oh how I miss the green grass and blue skies of summer!

IF – Climbing

So these two turtles were originally seen in the Darwin exhibit at the ROM, slowly cavorting around behind glass. Here I've imagined that the have escaped and are navigating the back alley obstacles, seeking their fortune – one more enthusiastically than the other.

The background is a photo taken with my new Holga camera. Michelle and I went out on an expedition Wednesday night, putting our faith in hand-holding and long roughly counted-out exposures, and it worked! You can see the rest of the images on my flickr. Oh foggy city nights, I love you...

IF – Late

Yesterday morning I was walking along Harwood Street, on my way to the bus stop as usual. I should have been rushing but instead was gazing up at all of the gorgeous leaves, reveling in a perfect sunny fall morning. Some mornings the sun is so bright at the end of the long street, filtering through all of the trees to reach me in a haze. So there I was busy in my head admitting that maybe fall can sometimes be almost as beautiful as summer, and *shock* there was a wasps nest hanging in one of my favourite small yellow-leaved trees, its leaves nearly all dropped to expose the evil bulbous papery thing.

I think it's way too late in the season to have to be confronted with such a thing. Aren't all the wasps supposed to be DEAD by now? If only I was so lucky...

Still it was a little bit beautiful hanging there with no activity, just another texture beside the leaves and trunk, eerie in that hazy morning light, a relic of the passed season.

Dresses: classic couture or Shanghai cool?

Besides the iguana, my favourite thing at the ROM was the fashion. I couldn't stop myself from drawing these two dresses. I fell in love with them about half-an-hour apart and in two different rooms, but they ended up on the same sketchbook page, standing beside each other defiantly.

The first is by Zang Da, a designer from Shanghai. I loved his stuff because it had such a basic and effortless feeling about it, but drama too. Neutral, minimalist, elegant, feminine and bold. The dress above was black. I can't seem to find an official website for him, but here's a couple of blog posts about him and his designs if you dig the dress and want to know more: Shanghai Style Icon and Zang Da in his Studio.

This was part of an exhibition called Shanghai Kaleidoscope – "Shanghai as a laboratory for 21st-century urban creation" – which also included some great video work. And again, the exhibition design was interesting, floating mannequins and all.

On the right is the Delphine Cocktail Dress by Christian Dior, 1956/57. I was so excited when I saw this in the textiles exhibit – it reminded me instantly of a vintage black dress I bought a few years ago to wear to a friend's wedding on New Year's Eve. Mine's not Dior of course, but the concept is the same (the sash that folds over and hangs down like a scarf, with a fringe at the bottom), and it was so cool to place it in time like this. How great would it be to wear the Dior one, so red and perfectly pouffed.

In this standoff between classic and cool, I don't really want to pick a winner – I want both. To be both avante garde and put-together glamorous, all at once, or at least in the same week.

IF – String

Just in time...

Click image to enlarge

Who knew iguanas were so cool?

At the ROM, my Dad and I almost skipped the Darwin exhibit. But it was so great! I surprised myself by being totally into the animals. I watched this iguana for ages. After a while he got bored with me and closed his eyes. Up close, I could see him breathing in his sleep. He woke to find me staring at his belly, smoothly heaving up and down.

The exhibit design was so awesome for this show. I loved how they had big "live!" stickers on each of the tanks that held a live animal (there were tons of stuffed animals and models as well). It reminded me of "As seen on TV!" stickers. I snuck a few photos of the graphics from the show.

IF – Sugary

While spending a week wandering around Toronto with my dad this summer, I did tons of sketching. This is the first one I've coloured (more to come, including lizards and giant sandwiches). I imagine these ladies like their tea sugary. Felt like I got to know them a bit watching them and drawing, sitting in the Bay Cafe high up over Queen Street. After this, we stumbled upon a seniors fashion show downstairs that was so charming and kind of unbelievable.

Illustration Friday – Clique

Doodling these cliquey girls on the bus ride home, I had a sudden impulse to chain them together. There's no easy exit from a clique...

My new favourite place

I was lucky enough to spend May long weekend on Quadra Island with two lovely girls and nothing to do but eat (veggie-chili-huevos rancheros, black bean burgers with mango salsa, sweet potato spoon bread), drink (whiskey sours, whiskey in coffee, porters, wine with mango), read (To Kill a Mockingbird – for the first time), reconnect with Mookie the dog, admire the cabin's collections of curious things, explore the beach and run through the trees, and... draw!

Illustration Friday – Communication

Last weekend I was lucky enough to see and hear Ruthie Foster perform at the Alix Goolden hall in Victoria. It was incredible. She had this huge smile that never left her face, communicating along with her voice. Near the end, she said "I don't know about y'all, but I've had myself a good time!" Me too! This is an attempt to represent what it was like to be there listening to her – warmth, joy, power, everything offered up with such intensity.