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...

Illustration Friday – Island

I love islands. I'd like to spend the rest of my life drawing islands, while hanging out on islands, all around the world. Mmmmm.

Illustration Friday - Worry

Illustration Friday – Garden

I went to Victoria for the weekend and spent a glorious hour or so in the backyard with my Mom, eating smoked salmon and pear salad and chatting about our summer holiday plans. The garden was as beautiful as anything could be – with bright sun streaming through the white sheets hanging in front of the laurel hedge, and yellow flowers budding, clematis climbing above us.... spring I love you! And you too Mom!

Illustration Friday - Grow

Kleenex is the new paintbrush

A while ago I found myself hunting through Loomis with Laura and couldn't resist buying some new coloured inks. Ever since I discovered these inks as an alternative to watercolour, I've been in love with them. You get intense, bright colours with all the translucent fun of watercolour. That day I picked up these gorgeous basic colours – Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow.

Then, a few weeks ago I made a mix cd and needed covers for a bunch of copies. For a quick but pretty solution, I chose to go with mass-production (photocopying a drawing) + customization (hand-colouring each one). As I sat down to ink them in, I suddenly remembered that all of my brushes were at work. Hmmm, how could I get the ink on there? I'm not sure why this was my first impulse, but I grabbed a kleenex, squirted some ink on it and started painting away. It turned out to be the perfect tool for achieving that happy, swirly, dreamy summer sky I wanted.

Illustration Friday – Geeky

On Saturday I wanted to go to the beach. Also on my to do list for the day was Illustration Friday – Geeky. I thought, great, there will be lots of geeky people at the beach I can draw! Hmmm. Turns out that really, sincerely geeky people don't hang out at the beach so much. Not at Sunset Beach anyway. So I spent the day looking around wondering, could she be geeky? Is he a geek? Are they doing something that could be considered geeky in any way at all? So here I present for consideration, a compendium of things that may or may not be geeky beach activities. You decide.

Illustration Friday – Twist

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!

27 Collage

I've been meaning to post this for ages – a collage I made for Erin's birthday card last month. More to come...