KO Two Photography Logo Re-Design

Lately I've been doing some work for the super-creative Kendel, for her business KO Two Photography. Kendel asked me to re-design her "birds" logo into something a little more whimsical and playful. It ended up being a bit more complex, but charming, if I do say so myself! The image below is the finished result of what will become the cover of one of her photo albums she puts together for her clients:



If the background looks familiar, it's because, yes! I've used it for a few other things. Kendel liked this background so much she wanted to see it used in her business materials, as well!

To visit Kendel's home inspiration blog, click here! To visit her wonderful etsy shop, click here!

Etsy Shop: Thank You Cards

Coming soon to my ever-so coming soon etsy shop: thank you card three-packs! These cards will be available in a variety of colours and patterns. Link in the doobly-doo. Here's a little taste:







And the backs of the cards:

Project Port Dalhousie

Recently, my city approved a project called "Port Place" which is set to start development soon in the historic waterfront area known as Port Dalhousie. Port Place is a 17 story condominium, theatre, and a boutique hotel, which (I believe) will also feature a small shopping mall. Sounds great if you're a tourist or someone who happens to be loaded with the $400,000 - $3,000,000 the condos are set to sell for. If you're an average citizen of the city like me, however, you'd probably be lamenting the loss of a charming, nostalgic little area where you spent your summers growing up - hanging out on the beach with your friends, riding the carousel, taking strolls on the pier, traipsing the old candy store, having picnics and watching fireworks in the park, etc. The city plans on demolishing a large chunk of Port Dalhousie to make room for Port Place, which won't just ruin the historical aspects and allure of the suburb while running many of the businesses out, but will also cause the loss of it's friendly, local sense of place in exchange for massive amounts of tourist dollars. It's always ALWAYS about the money, in the end.

Anygoo, I've come to terms with the decision, and have decided to make the best of it by turning it into a little art/illustration project. I will be drawing historic Port Dalhousie building by building, to remember it as it was. I may not finish the project by the time demolishment has started and finished, but I've taken photos to work from so it won't be a problem.

The first: Murphy's seafood restaurant and inn, situated right on the corner of the block set to be demolished. I only ever ate there once as it was always out of my price range, but it was delicious.

I'm on Etsy!

Well, so far this summer has been one of ups and downs (yes, I know life usually is, but for the most part my life is pretty monostatic... not a word, but let's roll with it), but I have to say right now the UPS are definitely winning out:

-successfully completed a month's worth of pilates + on Couch to 5K week 4, have not died yet! + eating better = lost 8 pounds of blubber!
-completed an interiors drawing course at Sheridan College and rocked it, of course
-GOT MY LICENSE finally finally finally and can now drive my own arse to wherever the hell I want to go and won't have to suffer cabin fever in the crazy-making winter months!
-POOL PARTIES POOL PARTIES POOL PARTIES POOL PARTIES... and BBQs!

The big news that is relevant here, however, is that I've finally worked up enough chutzpah to start my very own little etsy shop!:


I'm starting off with a few prints of older illustrations (these are currently in the print shop), and I'll soon be branching out with newer illustrations, plus stationery, etc. For future use, there's a linked picture in the sidebar, or you could just bookmark me. As you can see, I don't have anything for sale yet, but I will soon enough so stay tuned!

New Project...

I was just doing some free-drawing today when I started illustrating some text, which led me to a new project idea. I tend to produce ideas, get really excited about them, and then trash them later, but I *hope* I can stick to this one (but alas, I've said this many times before, of course). I'm not going to say what it is I'm scheming up quite yet, but you can probably get a good hint from the pictures.

Crafting: Stamps!

Last night I attempted creating my first stamps ever. I used Speedball carvers a Speedball Speedycarve rubber block. It was surprisingly simple, as the carving block cuts like butterrrr. The stamps themselves look pretty amateur, but they stamp quite nicely (and I love the look of white ink, but unfortunately the pad I bought was super cheap and isn't ink-y enough):



I'm addicted! I've also created two trees, a skull, a mountain, and the letter F... which I'll have to re-do as I forgot the number one rule of stamp-making: always carve things in the reverse! Anyone have a use for a backwards letter F?

English Country House

Also, I carved my first stamp today! I made a very basic one - a small lightning bolt.

Faux Patterns

Some faux-patterns, inspired by Liberty of London and Julia Rothman. This image is a little blurry, I'll try to replace it with a cripser one later.

Houses and Things

Wedding Invites - Map

I was recently asked to draw the map portion of the invites - just a simple version of an image I was given. Here is the result. This will be *very* tiny, in the center of the invites, so detail was not too important or encouraged. It's pretty basic.

Wedding Invites - Progress

Wedding Invites - Barn & Church

More work for Kendel's invites!

Wedding Invites - Rough Sketches

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I've been commissioned to illustrate a friend's invitations for her wedding next August. This has been kind of a daunting project for me as it's the first time I've ever undertaken a project for someone else (and one I am being paid to take on - doubly daunting!). Having never been to art school AND having given up on art in my teenage years only to pick it back up again nearly ten years later, I don't have too much confidence in myself as an artist (and wow, what a horrible sentence). So, though this project is kind of scary, I'm hoping the successful completion of it will give me that little extra boost of confidence I need. Also, I'll have something REAL to show for all my drawing and doodling! Finally!

The above is just a bunch of doodles I did while only half paying attention to what I was doing. I was trying to get a bit of a feel for the text I'm going to be using for the invitations. Messy, yes. I've come up with something a little better since this. And also - yes, I did absentmindedly misspell my middle name. Whoops.

Like the bride in the previous post, this groom was also for practice. What I learned from this is that I need to learn how to draw suits, as well as figure out what the heck the groom's arms/hands are going to be doing in the final drawing. I often end up shoving my character's hands behind their backs because hands are such a pain in the rear to draw, but it's such an unnatural stance.

As the bride and groom will be driving away in an old-fashioned truck after the wedding, they thought it would be kind of cool to feature that truck in the invites. I drew this a few months ago when I had no idea what the actual truck looked like, but this ended up being pretty close. If only I could photoshop the little b&g outta there I might be able to get away with using it, after I spiffed up the image a bit.

Wedding Invites - Bride

So, I'm designing a friend's invitations for her upcoming wedding! My first actual commission. Exciting! This is a practice drawing for the "bride" - the final drawing of the bride will feature her in her *actual* wedding dress, which is a lot more detailed than this simple one I've drawn here. I'll probably use this speech bubble, though, as I really like the text.

Work in Progress

It isn't complete yet, but I haven't posted anything in so long that I thought a little "work-in-progress" post might keep things up-to-date a bit (for the record, however, I haven't made any art in months):



This is the second piece in a three or four piece series.