Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! Here's a backyard scene featuring some favourites. 

-- Julia

Portfolio site

Mass Cat Card Post

Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged anything. These cat cards are piling up. This first one is a tribute to my Halifax trip. Georges (no apostrophe, I checked) Island and its lighthouse, the ferry that runs between Halifax and Dartmouth, a couple drinks the bf and I had at The Middle Spoon (mine had a sprig of rosemary that was charred slightly and smoking when it was served to me!)... And DidoCat is holding the chilled seafood platter we enjoyed at Salty's. 

And here are the three cards I made for my aunts, who were visiting from Japan!

 

  

I don't think this one was posted before -- The bf likes Lucio in Overwatch so I cosplayed DidoCat!

 

And here is this year's Valentine's card. The little hearts are gold leaf, which doesn't really show up here. 

 

 Dad's birthday card, featuring his new favourite La-z-Body. And little Candy Crush candies! I think he's 300+ levels in both Candy Crush Classic and Candy Crush Soda :P.

 

Mom's birthday card with three birds of her choice. Featuring her delicious Swiss roll cake.  

Whew! I must get better at posting.

-- Julia

Portfolio site

Trinidad Trip

Last summer, the bf and I were lucky enough to travel to Trinidad for one of his med school electives. One of our Trini friends and his wife hosted us at their house! 

We were blown away by their hospitality and the hospitality of their families. 

Here are some sketches and photos of our trip. 

That first photo up top shows a couple Trini staples -- Blue Waters bottled water and Odomos mosquito repellent. On the left is my trusty watercolour palette!

I painted the exterior of their house. I later got it printed on a plaque and mailed it to our hosts as a gift. My realistic watercolour skills are a bit rusty but I'm okay with how this turned out!

Sketch:

And here's an interior sketch of their living room. Fans are a common sight!

Before going to Trinidad I had no idea these electric anti-mosquito racquets existed. Now that I know to look for them, I've even seen them in Canadian Tire! They are a fantastic way to murderize mosquitoes and will provide many an evening's worth of entertainment. 

Here is a close-up of the Blue Waters and Odomos. I like how the bottle has palm trees imprinted on it. 

We saw a Trinbago Knight Riders cricket match! It was the shorter version of cricket, not the multiple-day kind.

Nighttime doubles from a street vendor. Delicious curried chickpeas in flatbread.

 Palm tree in our host's parents' yard. And guava from their tree!

 Two Trini snacks: Zoomers and Chennet.

 View from Mount St. Benedict.

A house by the beach in Mayaro.

Beautiful Mayaro beach.

Overall I think it was our best trip ever. We didn't make it over to Tobago -- Maybe next time?

-- Julia

Portfolio site

Father's Day 2016

Here's my Father's Day card this year! My dad requested these birds, as they are ones he and my mom have seen this past year. 

From top to bottom: Sandhill Crane, House Wren (who has settled into this nest box at the end of the yard!), Kentucky Warbler,  and American Avocet.

The House Wren would try and get these long twigs into the nest box. Sometimes he succeeded!

-- Julia

Portfolio site

A bit of paint

I do a lot of my colours digitally but sometimes it's nice to get back to some good ol' real-life painting. The blue-green background I put in digitally (because who wants to waste precious paint putting down a flat colour :P) but everything else is as close to what the original painted piece looks like. 

I had to fight the urge to adjust the colours -- I kind of went all over the place and used too many different ones, I think. Maybe next time I'll practice more restraint!

Process:

-- Julia
Portfolio site

Valentine's 2014 card

Here's this year's Valentine's Card! Starring the tragic and creepy Ice King and his helpmate Gunter. Love this show so much <3 .="" p="">
If only there were Adventure Time Lego sets, my life would be complete...

Last year's Adventure Time themed Valentine's card!

-- Julia
Portfolio

Spring Wishes

It's been hideously cold for the past few weeks so I thought I'd cheer myself up with some pretty Spring colours. After years of resistance I feel like I'm set to give in to this pastel thing -- there's a pastel sea green that I've kinda fallen for!

I'm a major lurker on the Sephora site and here are a few things I'd love to try. The palette's colours are so Spring but I hear the pigmentation of the shadows aren't so good, pastels in particular.

Lip stains are my favourite cosmetics product but I'm wondering if a cheaper alternative couldn't be made of beet root powder. I already use olive oil, honey, and quick oats on my face so some beets wouldn't be much of a stretch!

Here are my other cosmetics illustrations.

Anyone else coveting stuff from the new Spring cosmetics collections?

-- Julia
Portfolio site 

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Here's Dido-cat perched on my mom's favourite birdwatching chair. It's always a huge struggle between those two for possession of the coveted seat! The yellow scarf is silk and was my mom's birthday gift from me :). In the background on the left is an immortal Xmas cactus and on the left is a dormant fig tree. Mom gets figs, too!

 

-- Julia

Portfolio site



Father's Day and Mother's Day 2013

Finally getting around to posting these! Since my parents have become such keen birders I have no shortage of ideas for my painted cards. Dido-cat is always looking to make new friends :). 

 Other bird-related cards from this year:

-- Julia
Portfolio site

X-Domokun!

This is the anniversary card I painted for my boyfriend. There are these super-cool DC themed Domo-kun blind boxes out now, and we have a vintage Batman, new Batman, new Robin, Two-Face, and an Aquaman. To even things out, I thought it'd be fun to draw some Marvel Domo-kun.

I'd never watched Domo-kun until I started watching Adventure Time. The DVR would catch  some Domo-kun bits and they kind of won me over. Those beady little eyes! That gigantic mouth!

-- Julia
Portfolio site

Happy 2nd Birthday to my Nephew!

Matthew loves his Duplo :). Must run in the family, because I'm a huge Lego fan!

-- Julia
Portfolio site

Owls for my Dad

This year's birthday card for my dad! Ever since my parents started birdwatching, deciding on the subject matter for these cards has gotten much easier -- I'd already run through all their hobbies! Plenty of birds left to paint :).

-- Julia

Portfolio site

Adventure Time Valentine's card

Here's the card I made for Valentine's this year! My boyfriend and I have recently discovered the magic that is Adventure Time. Such a fun, charming, hilarious show! We can both be super crusty and this show makes us happy :).

Good ol' Dido-cat is in the background, as usual.

Some of the other cards I've painted for family and friends.

-- Julia
Portfolio site

Happy Birthday Mom!

I painted a watercolour scene of some of the birds my mom has seen in the backyard. From left to right: cardinal (female), junco, cardinal (male), tree sparrow, song sparrow, red poll, and goldfinch. The red poll was a particularly interesting find (he's the one with the red cap!). Missing from the illustration is the Cooper's Hawk that's been hunting in our area. When he's around, these little birdies make themselves scarce!

The green thing at the top centre of the picture is the bottom part of a squirrel-proof bird feeder. The birds perch on the bar and eat out of the holes, but the perch won't take the weight of a squirrel and will make all the feeder holes close. Pretty ingenious! Of course, there's more than enough seed on the ground for the squirrels to feast -- but still, kinda cool.

I was very pleased that my mom could identify all the birds from my drawings. I'm no Audubon :P.

Here are some of the other cards I've made!

-- Julia
Portfolio site

Happy Birthday to my sister

Another Diablo 3 birthday card! And only a few weeks after my Dido-as-monk card. My sister plays a female wizard in Diablo 3 so I figured dressing Didocat up in wizard garb (including the lady wizard's signature ponytail) would be perfect. I chose the High Heavens level as the background for this card because I felt that the colours and elements would match well with the character. 

Diablo 3 is fun but I am super excited for World of Warcraft's next expansion. I'm a sucker for Asian themes and it looks like Blizzard is putting tons of content in for people who don't raid. The datamined Collector's Edition pet and mount don't look so hot to me but I'll be looking forward to the soundtrack and art book! Although it can be hard to listen to music that you constantly hear played in the background of  a game :P.

Here are the other cat watercolour cards I've posted.

There are a ton of cards I painted before I started my blog and they're all collected in this book I made.

Happy Birthday Emily!

-- Julia

Portfolio site

Nonquon Lagoons Birding Trip

My parents and I took a trip to Nonquon Lagoons in Port Perry, Ontario to see if we could spot any good waterfowl or shorebirds. They added a bird to their lifetime bird count! That's a pretty big deal when you've seen 212 different species and you haven't left Ontario. Here are two sketches I did from photos my dad took: The top is an adult black tern and the bottom is the juvenile version. 

Nonquon Lagoons is some sort of waste water treatment area. It smells like a public restroom. What makes it great (besides the smell :P) is that it's off the beaten path and doesn't get a lot visitors. You need to pony up $10 (per person) for an annual permit to visit the area, which is fenced off and locked. There isn't even any actual parking to speak off and it's at the end of a dead-end road. There are about half a dozen lagoons of varying smelliness and depth, which means there's something for just about any type of bird that likes water!

The town is doing some construction in the area so if you are thinking of visiting, you may want to go on a weekend when it's quieter. In the pic below on the far right you can see a big truck kicking up dust clouds. That guy was driving back and forth all day! He seemed nice and we waved each time he went by. Didn't seem to bother the birds but you never know. But don't forget to grab your permit(s) first! You need to go to the nearby transfer station (which may in fact be closed on the weekends, not sure) to get it, otherwise you can't get in. 

Also, July isn't the greatest time to go see birds. Spring/fall is best!

Here's one of the lagoons (courtesy of my iphone 3 + Instagram):

Plenty of bluets buzzing about. Here's a pic I took with my iphone 3 of a bluet shedding its old skin:

And here the list of what my parents spotted today:

Yellowlegs

Killdeer

Spotted sandpiper

Semipalmated sandpiper

Canada goose

Mallard

Herring Gull

Trumpeter swan

Black tern

Red winged blackbird

Hooded merganser

Red head duck

Ring billed duck

Goldfinch

Kingbird

Turkey vulture

Caspian tern

More of my watercolour stuff

-- Julia

Portfolio site

Diablo 3 Birthday Card featuring... Treasure Goblin!

Diablo 3 is a pretty fun game. Craig and I got it free with our one-year World of Warcraft subscriptions! He plays a monk and I play a demon hunter. So for Craig's birthday card this year I painted Dido-cat as his monk character! Here are the other watercolour cat cards I've blogged.

His favourite level/chapter/questing area is Bastion's Keep. It's a snowy area where your character helps defend the battlements from all sorts of horrific creatures. You have to light signal fires (as seen in the bottom left corner of the card), help raise catapaults, and kill dozens and dozens of demons. 

Any Diablo 3 player will be familiar with the Treasure Goblins. These poor dudes are occasionally found minding their own business in the game's randomly generated levels. Players must waylay these creatures and pound them into bloody chunks before they open up a portal into Treasureland and escape forever! Dido has got her paws on a Treasure Goblin and she's not about to let him go. I hope she remembers to collect his sweet loot and doesn't just bat him around for her amusement!

My demon hunter recently learned an ability I like to call Treasure Ferrets. It's a pair of adorable pets that scurry around and collect the gold that sometimes falls off of dead monsters. They also increase the amount of gold found on monsters by 10%. But mostly, they are cuuuuuuute!

This is the second game-related card I've made for him. The first is this Marvel vs. Capcom one I did for Valentine's last year:

-- Julia

Portfolio site

Father's Day 2012 card

This year is the Calgary Stampede Centennial, so I decided to paint my dad a Father's Day card to celebrate that. I painted Dido on a chuck wagon with the Saddledome and Calgary tower in the background! This year's Mother's Day card featured a chinese finger trap-looking bridge in Calgary and last year's Craig birthday card also included the Saddledome and Calgary Tower, with some rolling hills and distant mountains for good measure.

Here's a link to the other cat cards I've posted, and here's the book I self-published which boasts eight years worth of even more of them!

-- Julia
Portfolio site

Appa and Momo-Dido

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a towering achievement in animated television. Don't think of the live-action movie or even the James Cameron 3D 3-hour hardware demo -- Grab the animated tv series now! It's available on Netflix (even the emaciated version of Netflix we get up here in Canada) so if you have to, try Netflix for its free trial period and watch all the episodes and then cancel Netflix. The show is just that good.

Sure, you may think it looks like a typical kiddie cartoon; one of those anime that doesn't quite look like anime with horrendous voice acting and worse writing. Give it a chance! The fact that a kids' show that is this complex and nuanced yet accessible got made is simply incredible. 

A sequel series is coming this April and I can hardly wait. The Legend of Korra! Here's a link to the trailer on YouTube, although I must say I didn't watch it because I already know I'm going to watch the heck out of this show. I did the same thing with the Harry Potter movies. I knew I was going to see them in the theatre, so why bother with trailers that'll show the coolest scenes? Save it!  

This is a card I made for my boyfriend, with a mini-Appa (the larger horned thing), Dido-as-Momo (cat + flying lemur) and a turtle duck to round it all out. Because turtle ducks are the cutest hybrid animals ever.

Happy First Birthday to My Nephew!

January to March is a busy time for cat-card-painting. My mom's birthday, my dad's birthday, Matthew's (the aforementioned nephew's) birthday, Valentine's, and my first-date anniversary with my boyfriend. Lots of cards and lots of Dido (the kitty who features in these things)!

Hard to believe Matthew is already a year old and walking. Happy Birthday, Matty!