Eeeee, I’m having a very fun month for exciting packages arriving in the mail… Nina Saab just sent me copies of our book, Bookie & The Scoliosis Diagnosis, yippee! Everbest printing did a great job on the printing, it has a nice feel to it and the colours turned out very close to the original artwork. You can purchase the book here (CDN$21.95), and proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Children’s Hospitals Orthopedic Divisions. Nina also has launched a Scoliosis Diagnosis website with information on scoliosis you can check out here.

I’ve been itching to do a study of this little Bébé dress by Minihaha… here’s the finished piece as part of my illustrated diary of Hera’s stuff. I used acrylic on a piece of old Pantone 178 paper by Letroset… below are a few scans I took in between the layers of painting.

First, I lightly penciled in the outline of the dress onto the pantone paper… I left the pantone details along the edge attached as thought it would be nice to remember how old the paper is.

Next, as it was such a busy pattern I painted the corderoy fabric without its pattern to establish the texture & shading.

Then, I spent quite a bit of time studying the pattern… it was so complex I left out a lot of interesting shapes & colour combinations, and tried to capture the gist of the pattern

Lastly, I added a little more texture on top of the painted pattern to knock it back a bit, and added a few white highlights to the trim.

I’m taking a little break from pen & digital colour doodles to have some fun with acrylic again… here’s the latest illustration of baby sleepers for my illustrated diary of Hera’s outfits. It’s really nice working on a colourful background even if it’s just for a simple study like this… I used acrylic on a piece of old-school Pantone paper.

Since Hera’s started solids a whole new world full of bibs, plastic spoons, rubber-bottomed-bowls and sippy cups has opened up to me… so many drawing possabilities! Here’s the latest illustration for my illustrated diary of Hera’s stuff, some of her baby bibs. (Illustrations are done with a black pen (Staedtler Fineliner 306 S) and colour is applied in Photoshop.)

I’ve done a few more illos for my illustrated diary of Hera’s outfits, here’s illustration #40… I’ve a bunch of new things to illustrate she’s grown into, my, our little girl just grows like a weed! (Illustrations are done with a black pen (Staedtler Fineliner 306 S) and colour is applied in Photoshop.)

I really enjoyed reminiscing while drawing this illustration… it’s from a photo Ben took of me in India being guided by an old widow through the Abhaneri wells in Rajasthan. Illustration is done with a graphite pencil, white pencil, and light blue pencil on a piece of warm coloured scrap paper, which really makes the blue of her sari pop out.

This is a study of some beautiful marble latticework we saw in India… took me ages to capture the pattern, can’t imagine how much time it would have taken to carve this by hand hundreds of years ago. I put my green designer thumb to use for this illustration, using a scrap of orange construction paper to draw on, which adds a lovely crumpled texture to the illustrated study.

I’m taking a little break from my pen & digital colour drawings of Hera’s stuff and doing some sketches from photos we took on our trip to India last year. This sketch is of a bunch of different memories of our time in Udaipur.

Eeeeee! I just received a box full of copies of my latest book, “The Little Boy’s Smile,” written by Tom Krause. I just love how it turned out, Trafford did a great job with the publishing & printing, the colours especially coming very close to the original artwork. Even Hera’s thrilled, cutely sporting her baby balloon dress :)