Jane Eyre cover

Ever since I've bought my Wacom tablet, I've been pretty excited about developing my digital style. Here's another sample book cover I created. This one is for Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, one of my favourite books.

Here's a detail:

And creating all these new samples has inspired me to update my website at www.clairelouisemilne.com.

In craft news, I'm on the waiting list for City of Craft so I may or may not end up with a spot. I will definitely be at A Handmade Holiday, though, a show organized by Kid Icarus. Here are the details:

Show Details:
Saturday, December 3rd, 2011
11am to 6pm at St. Stephen-in the-Fields Church
(located off College on Bellevue St.).

I'll remind you about this show closer to the date and show some photos of the wares I'll be bringing.

Read more...

Buying Handmade - part three

Very moldy business card case

This post is all about gifts for guys. Harder to shop for, right? I think so anyway. I used to think I could just get Bradley anything with a robot on it and he would be happy. But after I asked him to look for things on etsy he thought guys would like, I was surprised by the results. This is the history of keywords he looked up:

zelda triforce, musette, tour de france, cycling, lumberjack, axe, army of darkness, new pornographers, wolf parade, animal collective music, band of horses, grizzly bear, firefly mal, walking dead, himym, the wire hbo, deadwood, community troy abed, cuff links, dice, deck cards, wooden pen, wire puzzles, geocaching, camping.....robot friend


Not everything had results but maybe that gave you some ideas! My general suggestions are: wool socks, wristwatch, toiletry bag, coffee cup, coffee cup cosy, messenger bag, ipod cosy, ipad etc. cosy, artwork, passport case, notebook, pen, wallet. Anyway, here are my picks:

ELINtm:

ipod touch sleeve in felt with mold decoration

I've been admiring this shop for some time now, fascinated by the notion of embellishing handmade items with crocheted mold and lichen. And the results are stunning! I love how Elin captures a variety of textures with her choices of yarn and stitches. Each piece is a beautiful microscopic landscape.

anotherjamiedavis:

green tree toiletry bag

Jamie takes vintage items and adds her own wood grain embroidery. What a great idea! The embroidery really updates each piece and makes it so cool. I like them myself, but they're definitely manly. Practical too, this would be the perfect toiletry case to take on a camping trip.

Kate Pugsley:

ice fishermen gocco screen print

For artwork I picked one of Kate Pugsley's gocco screen prints. The details are actually hand-painted with watercolors. This print has an elegantly subtle palette and charming naive style (and I thought the ice fishing would be a good guy choice!) Kate's artwork is occasionally embellished with collage elements such as pretty patterned papers, and I love the seaside themes, with mermaids, fish and snorkelers.

The Maple Ridge:

antelien original ink drawing

And another piece of art, this time an original ink drawing. Click on the link and read the description yourself, very funny. And, also, how affordable is this original artwork? The mind reels.

So I hope my post gave you some ideas about shopping for guys. If you have any ideas yourself I'd love to hear about them in a comment!

Read more...

Needle Book blog - Spring Giveaway

Call it wishful thinking, but I've decided to have a little Spring Giveaway. It's actually in honour of my 400th post! I can't believe I've written that many, what on earth have I been nattering on about?

Anyway, just in case you think I don't appreciate my readers, here's the giveaway. It includes a set of my bird sketch notecards, a wee pincushion made with the sweetest Japanese deer print:

 and a one-of-a-kind peg doll:

She has a little feedsack skirt with lace trim, a brown knitted sweater, and a purple wool felt kerchief with tiny pink button.

All this cheerful Spring goodness for free, just leave a comment and I will pick a winner on March 15th. Please include your email address in your comment so I can reach you if you win.

p.s. I haven't put any of these pincushions in the shop as they are too fat to send letter mail, so they cost $6 to ship. Which is silly because they are only $5 to start with. So if you'd like to add one to any Needle Book Shop purchase just send me an email or etsy convo.

Read more...

OCAD Whodunit

One of my donations to OCAD's Whodunit show,
pen & ink and watercolour

With all my rushing around last weekend I didn't manage to attend the OCAD Whodunit sale. This sale is an annual fundraising event that features artwork by students, emerging and established artists that are not named until after the show. Each piece of artwork is the same size, 5½” x 7½” and may be purchased for $75.

I was emailed about donating to this show, and I had determined to do it. Unfortunately I hurt my back near the deadline so I ended up staggering down to the OCAD building to deliver my artwork at the end of the last day it was due.

Today I found out that one of my paintings was chosen for the Gala Silent Auction and I was invited! The email didn't get to me in time as it was sent to the wrong address, people often miss the "L" in my email.

My other donation to OCAD's Whodunit show, featured in the Gala Silent Auction

I felt so flattered to be picked for that, it made me really happy as I was pretty insecure (as always..it's exhausting) about my artwork. I don't know yet if my two pieces of artwork were sold, but if they haven't they will be returned and I'll offer them for sale myself.

Read more...

Crafty shopping - part 2

This item was also found in a new online art/craft shop. This one is a beautiful little art print by the talented Gemma Correll purchased from Bakers Dozen. I found this shop after visiting Fieldguided who is also featured in the shop.
This one is still available if you'd like the same print (from a limited edition). The bubble is made from actual tissue paper. I just have to find the perfect frame for this little treat. For now it's perched on my studio shelves for inspiration.

Read more...

Happy House books

Recently I received the printed copies of a set of books I illustrated for a publisher called Happy House in South Korea. I loved this project so much, although I was a bit busy at the time and had only 2 weeks per book. It's hard managing your time as a freelancer, sometimes I have too much work and sometimes (like lately) too little. But receiving copies of books that I've illustrated always makes me happy.
For this series of educational books my favourite was called Bunny Buzz and the Ladybugs, how cute is that? On every page the bunny character plays with a bunch of ladybugs friends and we learn about the letter "U".
For my website books page I made a collage of some of my favourite illustrations from each book along with an image of the cover. This is the one for Bunny Buzz and the Ladybugs:
You can click on these pictures to see them larger. The other books that I illustrated were titled Baby Bears: Have you Seen?: Higher and Higher: and Faraway Land:Unfortunately you can't find these books at a bookstore since they're educational books sold directly to schools. I'm hoping someday I will illustrate a trade book - which is what they call the books you can buy at bookstores.

In the meantime my website is currently hosted by Yahoo Geocities which is closing. I need to move it in the next month or so, does anyone have any recommendations?

Read more...

Yellow-breasted chat

After all this time I've decided it's finally time for a new header. Here's a detail of the pen & ink and watercolour illustration I made, which was inspired by my post on our illustration blog for the topic "yellow". Our talented Anette has been suggesting topics each week for our little group to post about to help us keep up with the blog.

Earlier this spring I saw a shrub with black berries on it which was very picturesque and have been meaning to add it into one of my illustrations sooner or later. Berry branches are always good backgrounds for bird illustrations since they like to eat them! I would have taken a picture of the shrub but I generally don't carry my camera around.

This bird is the yellow-breasted chat, I chose it because I liked the charming name and its bright yellow breast with light grey/brown feathers on the back.

Read more...

A Friend for Mr. Granville

This is the latest book I've illustrated, called A Friend for Mr. Granville by Gillian Richardson, published by Scholastic Canada. My copy from the publisher arrived amidst all the busyness of December and I've been showing it to friends but am just getting around to posting it here. I'm quite proud of this book, I really loved the story and I enjoyed working on the illustrations. There were 24 greyscale illustrations to do for the inside as well as the colour cover.

This book was first published in 1997. My edition is a levelled reader (called Moving up with Literacy Place) to be sold to schools. This means you can't buy this edition in a bookstore, which is something I still aspire to.

Here are some more of the illustrations: The story is about a boy who visits a senior's home with his class. He notices one man who is always sitting looking out the window on his own and only lights up one day when he sees a family playing with a dog outside. The boy decides to try to arrange for this man to have a dog of his own. Of course it doesn't happen easily, the boy and his friends do extra chores to try to earn the money for the dog, only to find out that the senior's home won't take him!I tried to make the dog the kids chose look as lovable as possible. Who wouldn't want this dog??And here's a detail of the cover. For me, finally seeing printed copies of books I've illustrated is one of the best parts of being an illustrator. My other thrill is getting new projects to work on and knowing I'll be busy. I just found out this week that I have another project coming my way from one of my favourite clients which made me feel cheerful about the new year (although very busy because I'm still working on another book while we're trying to assemble our IKEA kitchen!). Starting out as a freelance illustrator a couple of years ago turned out to be my most difficult "new job" experience ever, but definitely the most rewarding.

Thanks for reading!

Read more...

Eastern bluebird

*click on the image to see it larger*

This weekend I finished a commission for an original watercolour painting of an eastern bluebird. I decided to try a square format for this one and I like how it turned out. As before, I use sepia pen & ink first before painting.

The original painting will be a gift for a 1-year old, which I think is a really lovely idea.

Read more...

Bird sketches

I just finished a new series of bird illustrations, this time done in pencil. At the risk of sounding odd, I was excited to rediscover the 3B pencil. I got into the habit of using a 2B because it doesn't smudge as much, but the softer pencils do shading beautifully, and you can get nice dark black tones as well. The image above is the layout I decided on for greeting cards that I'm planning to have printed today.

In case anyone is interested and doesn't know, the typical yellow pencil that everyone commonly uses is the HB. But artists generally prefer a softer lead, the larger the number in the B range, the softer the lead is. Ie, 6B is a very very soft drawing pencil, nice for shading and can create very dark black shadows. It also smudges very easily (can be good or bad depending on what you want) and the lead can also break more easily and need frequent sharpening. The H pencils get harder as the number goes up, so for example a 3H pencil may be good for drafting where you want light clean lines, no smudging and no need for dark shading.
This one is the Eastern kingbird.
This is the Tufted titmouse. He's my favourite. Not my all-time favourite bird, which is the robin, but my favourite in this series.
This one is the Yellow warbler.
And finally, a goldfinch.

Read more...

Cutie Mary Blair coaster set project

This is a little project I just finished which is very easy - anyone can do this for sure. I started out with an old coaster set from Goodwill. It had a plain wooden box and all the coasters had the same Kate Greenaway illustration. I love Kate Greenaway, but this particular image was a little bland, and also they were all the same.
I found my new illustrations from an old Golden Book anthology. Before you are horrified, please note the very bad condition of this book! (Still hard to cut the pages though). The reason I used a book rather than illustrations of my own are because I needed something professionally printed that wouldn't get damaged if it got a little damp. I wanted to be able to actually use the coasters!The next step was to trace the coaster onto a piece of white paper, then cut out the rounded square shape. This gives you a little window so you can frame the exact part of the illustration you want to have on the top of your coaster. After you have determined the placement you can trace an outline in pencil then cut it out. I find that it's best if you make it slightly larger than the coaster, then trim the image once it's attached to the coaster.
I attached the images to each coaster with a little pva glue. I found this kind of glue at an art shop, but other glues would probably work. The tricky part is to brush on enough glue so that your picture adheres everywhere, but not so much that it ends up wrinkled. Try doing a small amount first, then if it's not enough gently lift the paper up and reapply a bit more glue. I found the best amount is the amount you would apply if you were painting the coaster. I didn't add glue to the top of the image - this isn't decoupage - you don't want damp glue on the bottom of your drink!

Finally I primed the wooden box and painted that white. If you already have the glue, an old book you can cut up and some paint, this project can be very cheaply done. I only spent $1.99 at Goodwill for the old coaster set. And look how cute the finished set is!
These illustrations are by the wonderful Mary Blair. Look to vintage Golden books if you'd like to see lots of lovely illustrators. I found some other stories in the book illustrated by Garth Williams, and some by Richard Scarry. It inspired me to see earlier work by these artists (and cheered me up). Just a reminder that most artists aren't overnight successes.

Read more...