an autumn cover for @gythapress made in late summer last year. fun to make something YA oriented and to work with archie! cat fell asleep with me while i read this issue (and the other issue i did the cover for which i’ll post later!). my friends and peers have worked with gytha too, it’s a good one to know for all you comics folks out there ❤️🔥
when @suzannejarvie and I first met to talk about her album cover, she began by describing a woman with a baby in one arm, and a sword held low in her other… and although I hadn’t heard her concept before then, I flipped to a page in my sketchbook where 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘵. if that isn’t fate telling you to work together, I don’t know what is. eventually we arrived here with Suzanne’s vision, layered with meanings, depicting her and her children (and her partner in the form of a heron) in the deep woods. our shared love of Watership Down lead to populating all the empty spaces with rabbits, including Suzanne’s own Casper, the black and white one.
this was last year. a detailed piece at just 10 x 10 inches, in ink, with some digital editing to make sure it holds up when it’s enlarged for vinyl. Suzanne’s voice is beautiful, and this album is called ‘mother’s day’.
last year I worked on the internal illustrations for Yann Martel’s Son of Nobody and it was a true pleasure to collaborate on. I admire Yann’s sensibilities both in writing and in art direction (which often overlap, such as with the portrait of a giraffe treated as an exotic marvel during the Trojan war, “a creature caught up in a war not of its making, a creature gazing mournfully from three thousand years ago”). biggest thank you to Jackie Kaiser at @westwoodcreativeartists for the connection and trust!
the book is out March 31st and I recommend it to anyone who’s enamoured with ancient mythology, is yearning for a story of contemporary love and grief, or wants their heartstrings pulled… I loved it.
the striking cover is by @rafiromaya
#SonofNobody #YannMartel #greekmythology #bookillustration
learning watercolour, loved working on certain parts of this. turns out heavy arches paper has a lot of learning curves too (never had paint bleed under tape before & the gummed tape I used to stretch it tore!).
the originals of these small artworks and others are available for sale on my website, linked in my bio 🪶
the available collection and the rest of my website include drawings i haven’t shared here yet.
the ‘available works’ page begins with an artist statement… i write all the time in a journal but i rarely write for others to read and it takes a very long time to choose the framing and find the words. so it feels rusty to me but it shares something about how i think about the work and i’ve always wanted to share more.
i sincerely hope you enjoy looking! each piece has a story and some of them are especially meaningful to me.
you can also follow my newsletter to hear about available works or other big news. again, link in bio. reach out if you have any questions / would like to share thoughts… always open for talks about the work.
#torontoartist #penandink #blackandwhiteart #symbolistart #illustration #graphitedrawing #inkdrawing
i have a few small works that will be available for sale soon. dm me if you would like to be added to my email list for an early link to the collection (and to be notified of available work in the future)!
wild coyos mate for life. i’m beginning to do some worldbuilding around animal transformation and its symbolism for a body of work. soon i’ll write about those tied textiles you see on some of my animals. #illustration #drawing #conceptualillustration #dippen #penandink #inkdrawing #analogueart #coyote #symbolistart
