Wraparound Squid

My first wrap-around illustration! I submitted this to Liberty Bottleworks, which makes some pretty sweet looking metal water bottles. The background colour may be just about anything or may be the metal colour. Fingers crossed that they'll end up producing it :).

I have a fondness for gigantic squid. Same goes for that swooshing Hiroshige-style wave! My Umami-hime piece also features those two loves.

-- Julia
Portfolio site

Macleans latest on newsstands!

This one is for a star track and field athlete who lived in Calgary and attended U of C, which is five minutes from where I live when I'm in Alberta. The design is reminiscent of the U of C logo with the books and flags:

I was going to make the racing track shaped like the shield but I ended up just liking the way the oval looked!

Sketch:

-- Julia

Portfolio site

Four favourite fragrances

Just bought this one on clearance at Winner's! Prada L'eau Ambrée is an elegant and versatile perfume. As the name suggests, it's a not-too-heavy amber fragrance.  L'eau Ambrée dries down very close to the skin and is light enough to be good for any season, day or night. I feel like this is the most traditional perfume I own (rose, patchouli, amber, vanilla). 

I've had Marc Jacobs Biscotti for a while. It's the only one I like from this particular collection, which includes other simple eau de toilettes as Ginger and Cranberry. Biscotti doesn't smell like actual biscotti -- no almond smell, which is kind of a shame. Mostly vanilla and orange blossom with a gourmand feel, with a bit of citrus. This one is super light and casual, great right out of a shower. Its immense 10 fl oz bottle encourages liberal usage!

I've written about Tom Ford Black Orchid before and I still love it, but it's too heavy for spring and summer. I don't want to say it's loud, but it does project quite far off of the skin. I have to be very careful when I use this, one spray can feel like more than enough. Patchouli, jasmine, vetiver, ylang-ylang... Not exactly light stuff! This perfume is crazy-go-nuts with fragrance notes (dark chocolate? Incense? Truffle?) but it all works, somehow. Great for fall and winter and for classy nights.

When I first wrote about Guerlain's Aqua Allegoria Flora Nymphea, I didn't actually own it. When I found out recently that Sephora no longer stocked it I panicked and ordered it off Amazon. A perfect spring and summer fragrance. It reminds me of honey (although I hate the way actual honey smells) in that it's sweet but not cloying candy sweet. Flora Nymphea is a simpler fragrance (all of Guerlain's Aqua Allegoria fragrances are) with only a few prominent notes so it's closer to Marc Jacobs Biscotti than the glorious cacophony of Tom Ford Black Orchid. This is a sun-drenched field of flowers in a bottle.


And here's the Best Health Magazine illustration I did a while back, featuring all sorts of new fall fragrances. It was fun to add a watercolour element to my work.

Do you have one signature scent or do you like mixing it up according to season, time of day, or occasion? Any fragrance recommendations?

-- Julia
Portfolio site

B n' B: Boudoir and Bathroom

Click image to enlarge

Here's the latest room I've created for my old-school adventure game! I'm pretty proud of the old-timey toilet. I feel like this room could use a few extra touches but I'm not sure what...

Click image to enlarge

A fixed up boudoir (click here to see the original). Improved the chair in the corner and made the room smaller because I kinda felt it was too large to be cozy. 

And here's the gorgeous Toulouse-Lautrec poster I snuck into the boudoir for an extra French detail :P.

I finally got around to drawing up a plan for this house so I know where to stick doors and windows. My next room is going to be an upstairs hallway. The challenge is to make it non-boring, and not so deep that the character's unchanging scale will look weird. Lots of considerations!

Here's a link to the stuff on my blogged tagged "digital" for my game.

-- Julia
Portfolio site