I almost never capture someone’s likeness on the first try. I only nail a portrait after a lot of calisthenics (unrelated mark making). Drawing, like any art form, involves a ton of unseen labour and practice. #BrushPenArt #SharpieArt #Caricatures
Practice Makes Better
Originally published in November 2022 in Blog
Does your boss make you work weekends?
Originally published in July 2022 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
It’s important that our bosses and clients don’t set Monday deadlines that pressure us into working on the weekends. (Working for yourself is another story). By speaking up en masse, we can steer our culture into recognizing that weekends are sacred time that are meant to be spent how we see fit: napping, doing laundry, […]
Happy Pride!
Originally published in June 2022 in Blog
During Pride Month, I’m remembering Keith Haring, one of the gentlest humans to have walked this earth. We owe it to ourselves to keep his irrepressibly hopeful art dances going. Cue up Keith’s friend, Madonna: Everybody spread the word We’re gonna have a celebration All across the world In every nation It’s time for the […]
Working For Free
Originally published in April 2022 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
Building your castle on someone else’s land is deceptively simple and attractive … until the landlord changes the terms on you. Etsy sellers are facing a 30% hike in their transaction fees. The plugins exist to go out on your own. Sure, it will take time, but what you get back in pride and ownership […]
Kay Thompson
Originally published in April 2022 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
Art Classes: Cocoa & Paint
Originally published in March 2022 in Art Classes, Blog, Toronto Illustrators
Elsie de Wolfe
Originally published in November 2021 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
Elsie de Wolfe on the shoulders of her French fitness instructor. Elsie was one of the great characters of the early 20th century. As they say, she was up for anything. Daughter of an American father and a Canadian mother, she ran a successful interior design firm on “Toity-toid” street in New York, […]
Hyper-realistic vs. suggestive drawing styles
Originally published in November 2021 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
Hyper-realistic or suggestive? In high school, I was OBSESSED with drawing objects so accurately that the viewer might mistakenly try and lift them off the page. I liked certainty. This copy of a Clinique eyeliner ad was a case in point. While I was making this, I remember slicing my Staedler eraser […]
Paris in Muskoka
Originally published in August 2021 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
Last week, we had the most delicious croissants, crêpes, and coffee from the food truck, Frenchie’s Bakery and Crêperie. You can find their truck parked on the sparkling shoreline of Huntsville inner harbour. You don’t go to Muskoka to leave it, but while the food was on our plates we WERE IN PARIS! We dedicate this drawing of the […]
