Pet memorial stones

 My uncle's dog died suddenly and my mom wanted me to paint a memorial stone for him like ones I've done before. After I'd completed this stone (for Mei, who died in July)  my mom wanted me to restore Leo's stone, which looked like this:

I painted this just four years ago! Poor thing :(. It hadn't occurred to me to spray these things with a coat of clear acrylic. I got the idea while painting Mei's stone, so now I had to do the others!


Here's Leo's stone all nice and restored. After I took this photo I sprayed the stone with the clear acrylic so hopefully it'll last a little longer this time.

Here are all the cats that have come before! Poor Sparky died first, seven years old or so. She had heart problems. The unnamed cat we called Shiro, he was a feral cat that hung around. He had the loveliest colouring. We managed to capture a couple of his siblings while they were still young and take them to an animal shelter. While we like cats, huge feral colonies aren't that great if you love birdwatching! 

None of the other stones were as worn away as Leo's. But now with the protective coat on top, none of them will be!

-- Julia

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A lady's shoe in fourteen pixels

Here's a lovely walk-in closet to accompany the boudoir I made! Everything's a work in progress but it feels really good to be slowly developing the entire house. The first rooms took ages to create but I think I'm finally getting a handle on the process.

The matching boudoir:

Today I found out about an awesome artist who's been using Microsoft Paint to create works of art. Hal Lasko is 97 years old and used to be a graphic designer (he specialized in creating letterforms by hand). He's long been retired but still uses his discerning eye to produce terrifically pixellicious work. His family showed him how to use Paint a few years ago but he really took to it! The program's ability to magnify segments of an image for him to work on help tremendously because his vision is failing. Here's a video of this inspiring fellow!

-- Julia
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Macleans latest on newsstands!

The subject of this week's illo had a newly discovered talent for baking, beloved pet bearded dragons, and always smelled like campfires. He worked at a restaurant called Gracie Joe's -- I managed to find their logo so I could put it on the bass drum. Drumming was his first passion and baking was his second, so I wanted to combine the two. 

Here's the iPad version:

As you can see, the sketch was pretty different from the final piece :P. Not much room left in the centre first of all, and I decided not to include the building on the lower right, which is a landmark in Thailand. I was planning on contrasting the lighthouse (a local landmark) with the Thai building, but the whole thing ended up being too cluttered.

I kinda like it, too bad it didn't make the cut!

-- Julia

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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
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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