P r e t t y S k e t c h y

Discovery on repeat

Ignore the awful fan made video but listen.

Them & Me

I'll be spending my Saturday night with these two...

I'm still working like mad and that combined with an onset of sickness in the form of a very scratchy throat means that I am taking a lot of naps in preparation for the concert.

I Think, I Love

Well I'm a bit behind on the updates (as usual) but I wanted to show you guys a few pictures of the concert I went to last weekend. My aunt Linda and I scored tickets to go see Jamie Cullum (who is one of my favorite jazz musicians in the whole world). The last time I saw him was about five years ago in Seattle and it was hands down, the most incredible concert of my life. The second concert didn't disappoint. It took place in a vineyard about an hour north of Seattle, I had never been to a vineyard so I was really jazzed about that and Jamie is so wonderful. Of course I got super picture happy... sorry if it's a bit of an overkill.

 

Here's the lawn chair line waiting to get in... isn't that building beautiful? I went inside while we were waiting around and there was a wine tasting area inside and a dark dungeony area with a bunch of huge barrels of wine you could walk around and look at, really cool. Of course they had cheese and crackers and chocolate and a lot of beautiful wineglasses but since I don't drink, I skipped it.

 

And here's Linda...

 

The beautiful venue, there were chairs up front or you could bring blankets or chairs and have a picnic on the lawn in the back.

 

Jamie...

 
 When the sun started going down the theatre was all backlit and gorgeous, everyone was walking around with wineglasses and couples were dancing, it was all pretty magical.

 

I did manage to sneak up and grab a few closer shots...

 

Look at that moon, agh, it was all so lovely and romantic. Jazz, wine and sunsets (although for us it was jazz, dark chocolate and sunsets).

 

And one of the best close-ups I took, I got yelled at by some security guy right after I took it, ha.

And here's a video of one of my current favorite Jamie songs for you...
 

Lowana Wallace

Hey, I forgot to post this when I finished it as I was in the middle of teaching, packing and who knows what else. It's an album cover I did for my friend Lowana Wallace. I've heard the CD many times and it's lovely, you can find her on itunes or here but the album cover isn't up there quite yet.

 

Blammo! My third Album cover of the year! I've found that I actually really like doing them so if you need an album cover artist I'm your man (or woman I suppose).

Illustration & Recuperation

It's been a busy week of teaching, getting over sickness, working at Anthro and illustrating. I've just finished up a project for a musician friend of mine. We grew up in Canmore together and now he's a musician and I'm an artist and we decided to put two and two together for his new CD. I saved a few photos for you guys to check out...

 

The original scanned drawing pre-photoshop.

 

I sent Jamie in-process photos throughout the project to keep him updated on what was happening... here are a bunch of different versions of the title, drawn by hand and then scanned and colored (above).

 

The original drawn table as I started working with it in photoshop, we later removed the pictures from the wall, added a guitar leaning against the front of the table and cropped it a bit closer.

 

Another in-process screen shot.

 And here's the final cover...

 

Edit: Of course after finishing & me blogging this we had to re-draft again so here's the final final, ha...

   

This cover to me, proves not only that I am awesome, ha, but that I am getting a lot better with photoshop. It's taken a while but I'm pretty darn proud of my self-taught skills. There are a few other tidbits I have that will come together once the final layout of the CD is done, but I'll leave you with some candle wax art from the inside cover...

 

Jamie also decided that he wanted all of the writing on the cd and in the jacket to be handwritten so there will be a CD out there entirely in my handwriting, pretty cool (and laborious, ha). The CD will be out May first. If you want to check out his music you can do so here and if you want to see a picture of us going to grad in Canmore together (he was my date) you can send me $20 and a self-addressed envelope. He wore a Regis Philbin-esque tie circa Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.

Drawings & Soundtracks to English Classics

Well here I am again. I've been avoiding painting since finishing up my last commission, (despite the fact that I have a new one) and have been spending most of my time reading, drawing, starbucks-ing and working. Not a whole lot of blog-worthy material. I did finish 'East of Eden' and have moved on to 'JPod'. The vegetable or fruit-a-day resolution has gone well so far, to my knowledge I don't think I've skipped a day and I need to work a bit harder at the drinking more water thing (in fact excuse me while I go grab some water). Okay, I'm back, and now I think I'll show you a few sketchbook pages...

 
 
 Inside cover and first page, these usually evolve the entire time I have my sketchbook as I paste more and more things in.

A drawing and a few random sewn & collagey bits.

  The backside of the sewn page and a paper and ribbon square collage.

 A strangely discolored silver triangle blob. It seems that I have been liking geometrics lately. 

Sketching in church with my current favorite drawing tool: a silver pen that I got in my stocking at Christmas. I've been making up doily patterns. 

And last but not least, possibly one of my best organizational ideas to date, my march calendar drawing.

 I really like the idea of using an agenda but as I already carry a sketchbook, a too full pencil case, at least one book and a whole lot of other crap around with me all the time, it just seems like too much. I had been using the ical program on my computer which I really liked except that it was only helpful to me when I was at home on my computer. So I came up with drawing out a monthly calendar in my sketchbook. I always have it with me and the likelihood of me losing it is slim-to-none as I guard my sketchbook like a security blanket. Perfect! Additionally, it was super fun to draw.

In other news, I have been dabbling in the world of classical music lately and you should know that this is very uncharachteristic of me. I might just be turning into a bit of a weirdo but I am really liking it. Now I'm not into the full blown symphony thing, what I have been really liking is classical piano music. It all started when I went on a date to see 'Coco Avant Chanel' with my friend Travis and I just couldn't get over how beautiful the soundtrack was, so melancholy and lovely. I bought a few of the songs I liked the best when I got home by the artist 'Alexandre Desplait' and created myself a playlist called 'Reading English Classics' out of those and a few more I discovered on itunes. Seriously it was so perfect reading 'East of Eden' while listening to it. I've been adding more and more songs to it and I did a screen capture for those of you interested in duplicating it.

 

 I plan to use it as a soundtrack to reading my next english classic and suggest that maybe you do the same if you're interested. I think it would be fabulous with any book by Jane Austin, the Brontes, Dickens, Henry James, or even Virginia Woolf.