WE ALL SCREAM

I finished this ice cream dish doodle last night. Not sure what I'll use it for yet.

THE BENTO BESTIARY

I posted this on my other blog but it's been awhile since I've shared some of the art books on my shelf over here. This book caught my eye when I was browsing at Left Bank Books on my trip to St. Louis a little while ago. (And of course it came home with me). It is the latest incarnation of The Bento Bestiary produced by the fine folks at Nobrow. The book is full of clever descriptions by Scott Donaldson paired with fantastic illustrations by Ben Newman of some of the Yokai, an ancient race of Japanese demons.

Here's a short  video showing the printing process of the earlier edition of Bento Bestiary. I love watching printmaking in action.

EDMONTON FOR HARRY ROSEN

Canadian men's retailer Harry Rosen features a different city in their seasonal magazine with an illustrated map and some travel tips. I had fun illustrating the destination for their fall/winter 2012 magazine, Edmonton.

MIYAZAKI SWAP

You may or may not have heard because I think I sufficiently pimped out this swap enough on Twitter, but I guest curated a Miyazaki-themed swap for Ten Paces and Draw. It was pretty much an excuse for me to rally some of my favourite illustration peeps to nerd out together and draw some Studio Ghibli fanart.  I kept Chelsey Holeman's sketch of Kiki to finish up for myself! Here's how it turned out. You can check out the rest of the swap art right here.

PRO TIPS FOR MILWAUKEE MAGAZINE

I contributed another spot illustration to this month's Home section in Milwaukee Magazine. Had fun illustrating this little downtown neighbourhood. Great working again with art director Kathryn Lavey on this!

IMAGINARY MAP

I had the great pleasure of working with art director Laura Callaghan again in creating this map for the latest issue of Oh Comely magazine, a gorgeous British publication. The current issue has a feature about illustrated fictional maps.

I have to say that I struggled a bit coming up with a concept. I'm so used to doing hours of research about a city and plotting out all of the landmarks that when I was faced with the prospect of creating virtually anything, I found the freedom a bit paralyzing. Visions of pirate ships and mermaids and other cliché things like that kept running through my mind and I knew I wanted to push past these and create something quirky and weird.  This concept came to me at the eleventh hour and I had a ton of fun sketching it out once the idea popped into my brain.

I was thrilled to find my copy of the magazine waiting in my mailbox when I arrived home from work yesterday evening! Aside from Oh Comely being such an all-around beautiful publication, the feature included some fantastic maps by some amazing illustrators (including recent illustrator crush Charlotte Trounce). I'm honoured to be included amongst such great company.

ILLUSTRATION OLYMPIAD: DAY FOUR AND FIVE

Playing a bit of catch-up on the illustration a day concept. I enjoy drawing corgis is silly glasses. Watching women's vault now. It's nuts! Ladies sitting down and stepping out left and right. I feel like I'm jinxing them by watching somehow. Getting excited to watch mens 100m dash later! Bolllllt.

P.S. Speaking of adorable silly dressed up corgis, the summer Mini Boden catalogue had some great illustrations.