×

Illustrator

Guide to Dressing Warmly in Winter

It’s February and getting to that point in the Canadian winter when people start to really complain about the weather. Mother Nature likes to play tricks on poor amnesiac Canadians at this time of year; she springs (pun intended) warm, above zero, spring-like temperatures on us and we get all excited, like: “maybe this year Spring will actually come in February!”. Then she hammers us with another deep freeze, 30cm of snow…or 75cm, if you live in the Maritimes (you poor souls).

Snow, melt, freeze, repeat. And every year Canadians whine about it and forget where they live.

So I thought it would be fun to make a little six-part guide on how to dress yourself warmly for the Canadian winter. This gave me a chance to draw most of my winter gear and plug some of my favourite made-in-Canada companies. I hope some of you will find it helpful.

While it’s not ideal having to own multiple wardrobes just because you live in this country, getting outside in the winter and embracing the season is the best way to survive it. So get dressed warmly and get outside!

Click on the thumbnails below to see them larger, and click again on the link to see them full-size.

Portraits, portraits

Drawing portraits is so great…especially ballerina portraits! Here is a bunch of new ones:

Spread for Avenue Magazine

I had the opportunity to work with AD Venessa Brewer on Avenue’s  holiday gift guide spread. It features my portraits as well as several line drawings that were incorporated with the product photos.

I had so much fun working on these drawings!

 

Plein air sketches – around Westport

This past summer was the hottest summer on record in Westport (and everywhere else by what I gather). As much as I love plein air drawing with Joel, we really are at the mercy of the weather. I’m very intolerant of heat, so as a result I only have two sketches to show from the summer, one of which was drawn in September.

perthroadvillage_sketch_web

Seemingly abandoned storefront in Perth Road Village, ON.

athens_sketch_web

Stedmans was a longstanding general store in Athens, ON until fairly recently when it closed.

 

Victorian ladies

One of my favourite things to do in my sketchbook is to draw from old black & white photographs of Victorian ladies. I like to imagine the colour their outfits would have been, and I’ll often add or subtract details to the costumes, hair and faces. Most of these are drawn on Stonehenge paper in ink, pencil crayon and white gouache for accents.

Here are a few recent ones:lady4_web

dancing_weblady2_weblady3_web