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

Pectin Priestess complete! -- Hydrocolloid Pantheon

Third of my personally developed series of jiggly deities: Hydrocolloid Pantheon. Just in time for summer!

Pectin is a fruit-derived hydrocolloid most often found in jams, jellies, and marmalades. Citrus fruits (particularly dried orange peels) and apple pomace are common sources. Common jam-related treats include thumbprint cookies, jammy dodgers, fruit tarts, fruit tarts, and jelly rolls.

Here's my attempt at doing a more painterly style. Something that'll require some more experimentation on my part :).

And here are the other two for the series:

Gelatin:

Agar:

Next up... Gum Arabic! The first one unrelated to food :P.

-- Julia

Portfolio site

The Horse Problem for the Weekly Alibi

Are horses livestock or pets? What should be done with the growing population of abandoned horses, as the economy has made it more and more difficult for families to feed them? Should the ban on slaughtering horses for human consumption have been lifted in the States?

There are lots of things to consider. Is it more humane to kill the horses in slaughterhouses or let them starve to death on their own, or ship them overseas to have them killed there? Is horse meat fit for human consumption, as so many horses are injected with drugs during their lives that may remain intact in their flesh after slaughter? Is it ethical to sell that meat to other countries for low prices, even though there may be health and safety issues?

I don't have any idea how it'll all work out so that's what I illustrated. One path to the slaughterhouse, one to abandonment, and one to an animal shelter. Whatever happens, it'll be humans leading the way.

Here's the original sketch. I didn't know what the dimensions of the illustration were so I started horizontally (most of my jobs for the Alibi have been either square or horizontal): 

After I got the dimensions, it was pretty easy to resize and shuffle around the elements to work in a vertical composition. To me, it's better to get started with the sketch and not just be sitting on my hands!

-- Julia
Portfolio site

Many Shades of Grey for the Weekly Alibi

One of the reasons I love editorial illustration so much is that I get to learn about all sorts of things I wouldn't think to look into otherwise. Last week I got to learn about the cultural roots of the banjo. I had no idea that black slaves brought the instrument and its music to America. Here's a link to the article. 

I wanted to show the luxurious plantation houses of the sweltering south and the crystal-clear lakes and humbly built cottages of the Appalachian mountains. Banjos have been in many different hands. Minstrel shows are a rather awkward bit of American history but an important bit nonetheless. I knew I wanted to include it but I definitely didn't want it to look offensive. 

The art director got back to me later to say that the article's title was "Many Shades of Grey", just at the time I was trying to decide how to colour the illustration. So I went with it!

Sketch:

--Julia
Portfolio site