Solstice Celebrations

Hello! In the Northern hemisphere we just enjoyed the longest day of the year. I’m celebrating (and not dwelling on the fact that we have six months of shortening daylight ahead) by bringing out some artwork that’s inspired by my sunny backyard.

The nasturtium is blossoming, flowers and strawberries are everywhere, and our tiny pond is hosting a whole lot of birds. With this comes a constant flow of bird drama which I try my best to stay out of. I’m waiting for a frog to show up; most years one just appears and hangs out for the summer.

A Peek Into My Sketchbook

Brush Pen Houses and Houseplants

Some little brush pen houses and houseplants done as a warmup exercise

Icon Set Thumbnails

Sketches for an illustrated icon set about bird watching (the finished set is here!)

Something Cool I Saw This Month

A titan arum (corpse flower) recently bloomed near me! This photo is from two days before it opened. Seeing one in person was on my bucket list, so this was more exciting for me than my family had bargained for. I drove them one Rhode Island hour* each way on a hot day just to see it.

The Horridge Conservatory at the University of Rhode Island, where this titan arum lives, also had a nice setup of carnivorous plants, a lovely series of outdoor gardens, and a greenhouse devoted to plants with medicinal properties. It was small but neat!

*If you’re not familiar: Rhode Island is a tiny state. It is very densely packed. In certain areas, driving somewhere four miles away can take half an hour. However, you can drive across the entire state in the span of an hour. This warped navigation scale tweaks your head over time so, if you live here long enough, a drive to another town begins to seem like a Really Huge Undertaking.

Cold November Rain

A Pattern Per Season

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Recommendation Corner

I’m re-reading The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle and every paragraph is a stunning reminder of how much I love this book. It’s full of lush descriptions and heartbreaking metaphor. I am still in its early chapters, so it might be a gamble to recommend this one, as I haven’t read it in a very long time…Does it harbor rude antiquated morals? Will it still hold up? Fingers crossed that it’s as sweet the whole way through as I remember it being.

(More) For the Birds

Bird Artwork for Licensing or Buyout

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Recommendation Corner

I’m throwing in a monthly recommendation of something I'd like to share with people.

This month's recommendation is a podcast. For about a year I've been an avid listener to "You're Dead to Me," in which wonderful host Greg Jenner brings a historian and comedian together to discuss a topic or time period in history. It's always funny as well as wildly informative.

Two stand-out episodes this month were India Between Empires: The Long 18th Century and Viking Women: Wives, Weavers, Warriors. My confession is that they were stand-outs because they were the only two episodes of YDTM that I had time for this month. But this means I can soon gleefully catch up on past episodes.

Until next time!

Birds When Possible

Colored pencil goldfinches from photo reference

Hello! It was a rocky entry into September but we’re mid-way through and I figured I’d check in. I haven’t had much time to draw for fun, so I’ve been trying to keep it fresh when I get a chance to grab my sketchbook. What that means, apparently, is one page of colored pencil drawings.

Our garden has a few echinacea plants that went wild this year. They’ve been attracting tons of goldfinches, which makes for super pretty flashes of yellow outside of our window. Unfortunately I’m not stealthy enough to get close to draw them from life, so I’ve been looking at reference online.

Coo, coo, coo

Meanwhile, I’m raring to make a repeat glorifying rock doves (uhhh, pigeons). I have time for a few photo-referenced ballpoint pen sketches but that’s as far as it’s gone so far.

This week my kid’s in school for the fall, so I should have some time to work! Hah! Famous last words! I have just jinxed myself into becoming in charge of something absolutely unmanageable. See you in October when I have found out what that is.

August Goes Poof

Here I am, laughing at the past version of myself who thought August would be chill. It’s halfway through and I feel like I’m behind on everything! So this is a quick check-in to say hello, I’m still here, and that I’ve been sketching some florals.

Drawing Trees, Drawing Dogs

Work Things

The summer has been filled with logo design work and some chill sketching. My favorite note from the kickoff call with my logo client is this: “There are a lot of hawks around, so they don’t board small dogs.”

Didn’t I promise (myself) some big, bold florals appropriate for wall coverings? Yes, yes I did. I’m getting there. One thing at a time, I guess.

My day is a success if I did about 75% of the things I planned for. I give you permission to do the same. Especially if one of those planned things is simply, “Enjoy a good lunch.”

Life Things

I'll be teaching two yoga classes in person this month! My sole experience so far has been teaching online, so it will be nice to see students in life-sized heights and all three dimensions. Wish me luck!

And if you think that I might be adding an occasional short, free yoga routine for Desk People* into my future newsletters, you may be right.

*Are you at a desk right now? Have you spent a chunk of time at desk in the last three days? Then you, too, may be a Desk Person. We Desk People need some stretches to keep the aches at bay.

Wild Cats Puzzle Concept

It’s June! Very soon, I’m coming into some big swathes of free time. I’m planning some new portfolio pieces (a wallpaper series? yes, please) and also revisiting old ideas. This sketch from the archives is calling my name: it’s a mood board for an 18”x24” puzzle concept that didn’t get picked up.

Greyscale sketch of map layout

Naturally, Wild Cats of the World is a puzzle theme after my own heart. I don’t consider myself a “cat person,” but I truly love cats. They probably hold such a fascination for me because they make a lot of beautiful shapes with their weird, bendy bodies. It makes them fun to draw! Do you think more illustrators consider themselves cat people rather than dog people? I have my suspicions.

One of my favorite cat facts is that their collarbones are free-floating: they are not attached to the rest of their skeletons except by muscle. In many other animals, the collarbones are attached by tendons or joints. This disconnected quality is what allows them to squeeze through extremely tight spaces relative to their body size. If their skull can fit through, the rest can probably squeeze by.

Okay. Enough cat facts for now.

Color Study

Without the pressure of a deadline, sometimes a project needs to percolate for a good, long while before you see where it’s supposed to go.

How To Use Reference Photography

Sketchbook Whales

No matter how many times I study photos of humpback whales, their bodies never make sense to me. And, no, seeing how their skeletons work does not help.

Using photography for reference is a way to gain understanding of the things you’re representing. Unless you have taken the photo yourself, or have express permission from the photographer, photographs should not be transcribed into drawings. A photo—even just part of its composition, like the pose its subject takes—holds its own copyright!

To make sure you’re not simply copying photos, here’s a useful approach: Work out the composition of the illustration in your sketchbook before looking for reference. Once you have that sorted, gather your reference imagery for the parts that need to be accurate. Or for moments when you realize you just don’t know what a blender looks like off the top of your head.

I make many sketches unrelated to my composition so I can wrap my head around the subject. If you need to understand something specific, like how a giraffe’s leg bends, then explore that specific part of your reference through a series of focused sketches.

While you’re working on fixing your initial compositional drawing based on your new knowledge, put your reference imagery away! No peeking! You can work from small parts of your sketches, but cobble a variety of bits together to create something that works for your initial vision.

If you’re lucky enough to have cool reference photography that you shot yourself, try to apply these techniques anyway. I know I never got anywhere creatively by simply copying a photo.

Finished Artwork

My rendition of humpback whales ended up extra squishy-looking. I love you, chibi whales.