Botanical Silhouettes

When I worked full time as a designer I found myself spending most of my time on the computer. At the end of the day or on the weekend, my creative juices were tapped and I rarely had much motivation to create things for myself. Now I'm pushing myself to put hand to paper again and create and experiment, explore and discover. It's been a nice change of pace but I miss the quick key commands and I want to keep up my proficiency with my software.

Today I played with one of my watercolour backgrounds and created more silhouettes in the same style as my first. Here is a collection of botanical imagery, Fronds, Phlox and Purple Coneflower.

 

 

 
It's been nice using Photoshop again for more than just image adjustment. I also have some plans for a sketch to be developed further in Illustrator. The perfect way to merge the hand made with my software is a zine. Something I'll think about but not rush until the right story and imagery come together.

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Living By The Ocean

A little background information for this post. I was born in Winnipeg and then spent nine years in Medicine Hat. Our family moved to Saskatoon for a year before settling in Regina. I moved to Ottawa when I was twenty-three and it was the first time I had ever lived outside the prairies. I still define myself as a prairie girl when, ten years later, someone in Ottawa asks me where I'm from. Since I don't think I'll be referring to myself as an 'Easterner' or from central Canada, I will happily tell people I have returned West.

I am very excited about this migration back West for many reasons. Mainly, because our new house backs onto a path that leads to a small creek and we're a short drive away from the ocean. While we have day after day of snow in Ottawa, my mind has been wandering to thoughts of the the vegetation and creatures we'll see on our walks. I'm excited to hear the ocean, find beach glass and discovering the native plants & animals with my kids.

Thinking about waves and the ocean. Marker.

 

 

Shells. Marker.

Looked up native fish and discovered Rockfish. Also a practice in marker/strokes/patience.

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Friday Love: Cardinals

In Ottawa I lived in an older section of a suburban area. It isn't very far away from reserved greenspace. This close proximity to natural habitation brought along all sorts of interesting wildlife that I would and would not expect to find in the 'burbs.

Sitting on my front patio in the evening during the summer I would often see either a groundhog or a skunk make the same, daily trek across a few of my neighbours yards. There were also the easily startled but increasingly brave and determined racoons. We had bunnies that snacked on the leftover birdseed with chipmunks who filled their faces so full, I'm surprised they could scamper away. The black squirrels and the occasional grey squirrels bullied the birds away from the feeders. We had a lovely hawk visit us for a while one day, probably keeping tabs on the large amount of chickadees and sparrows. We had bluejays who are lovely to look at, but not as nice to hear. The cooing doves, who always look slightly confused and the starlings, who I really don't like because I was traumatized once. Maybe I'll tell you that story another time.

By far my favourite visitors were the Cardinals. They are easy to spot, since the male is such a beautiful, bright red. His partner was almost always nearby, blending in more easily because she was brown with touches of warm red. They visited often this past summer and it made me happy every time. I will miss my little red visitors.

 

Male Cardinal. Pen and marker.

Female Cardinal. Pen and Marker.

After doing a few illustrations in my sketchbook I started to skip around the internet looking for Cardinal related imagery and handmade goods. It's nice to see that there are many other people who share my love for this adorable bird.