Jane Eyre cover

Ever since I've bought my Wacom tablet, I've been pretty excited about developing my digital style. Here's another sample book cover I created. This one is for Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, one of my favourite books.

Here's a detail:

And creating all these new samples has inspired me to update my website at www.clairelouisemilne.com.

In craft news, I'm on the waiting list for City of Craft so I may or may not end up with a spot. I will definitely be at A Handmade Holiday, though, a show organized by Kid Icarus. Here are the details:

Show Details:
Saturday, December 3rd, 2011
11am to 6pm at St. Stephen-in the-Fields Church
(located off College on Bellevue St.).

I'll remind you about this show closer to the date and show some photos of the wares I'll be bringing.

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Crafty shopping - part 2

This item was also found in a new online art/craft shop. This one is a beautiful little art print by the talented Gemma Correll purchased from Bakers Dozen. I found this shop after visiting Fieldguided who is also featured in the shop.
This one is still available if you'd like the same print (from a limited edition). The bubble is made from actual tissue paper. I just have to find the perfect frame for this little treat. For now it's perched on my studio shelves for inspiration.

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A Friend for Mr. Granville

This is the latest book I've illustrated, called A Friend for Mr. Granville by Gillian Richardson, published by Scholastic Canada. My copy from the publisher arrived amidst all the busyness of December and I've been showing it to friends but am just getting around to posting it here. I'm quite proud of this book, I really loved the story and I enjoyed working on the illustrations. There were 24 greyscale illustrations to do for the inside as well as the colour cover.

This book was first published in 1997. My edition is a levelled reader (called Moving up with Literacy Place) to be sold to schools. This means you can't buy this edition in a bookstore, which is something I still aspire to.

Here are some more of the illustrations: The story is about a boy who visits a senior's home with his class. He notices one man who is always sitting looking out the window on his own and only lights up one day when he sees a family playing with a dog outside. The boy decides to try to arrange for this man to have a dog of his own. Of course it doesn't happen easily, the boy and his friends do extra chores to try to earn the money for the dog, only to find out that the senior's home won't take him!I tried to make the dog the kids chose look as lovable as possible. Who wouldn't want this dog??And here's a detail of the cover. For me, finally seeing printed copies of books I've illustrated is one of the best parts of being an illustrator. My other thrill is getting new projects to work on and knowing I'll be busy. I just found out this week that I have another project coming my way from one of my favourite clients which made me feel cheerful about the new year (although very busy because I'm still working on another book while we're trying to assemble our IKEA kitchen!). Starting out as a freelance illustrator a couple of years ago turned out to be my most difficult "new job" experience ever, but definitely the most rewarding.

Thanks for reading!

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Drawing and painting

Thank you for the nice comments on my last post, I've been wanting to reply but your email addresses aren't usually linked to the comments I receive so I didn't manage to. Sometimes I reply to questions in the comment section but I don't know for sure if anyone sees.

So to answer about the craft sale idea (thanks again for asking where I'll be!), I was thinking of the One of a Kind sale but I've heard it's a bit expensive and I felt a bit intimidated to start there. I decided that I'd like to try the sale at the Tranzac Club instead - The Artisans Gift Fair. I used to live in the annex and went there a lot for events. It's on Brunswick Ave. just south of Bloor St. The neighbourhood is familiar and it's easy to get to the Tranzac from our new house, and the tables are really affordable. I'll keep you posted once I apply and know which date I'll be there.
So what else is new? I just finished a promo (above) for our Illustration for Kids group (and posted on our group blog about it) and did another little illustration (at the top of this post) for the Picture Bookies showcase theme "asleep". And I've been updating my online portfolios.

And speaking of painting, I've almost finished painting the kitchen cabinets. It looks so easy on Take this House and Sell It, but it certainly wasn't for me. It's taken ages: removing the cabinets, removing the old hinges, washing the cabinets, filling the holes from the old knobs that were in the middle of the doors, sanding (sort of) and priming the cabinets, painting, painting again, painting a 3rd time, attaching the new hinges (more drilling as, again, the holes were not quite in the same place), drilling holes and attaching the new knobs, attaching new drawer handles after enlarging the holes which were just a teeny bit too close together, and finally touch-ups galore. Phew! Pictures to follow in a new post...

Also, I managed to scrape the stucco off of our bathroom ceiling so that it's now nice and smooth and will look great once we fill some small holes and paint it. This was in anticipation of putting up our new shower kit, now that we've put in new plumbing (see new faucet above). In case you ever want to try this, our stucco wasn't ever painted which means all it took was some spritzing with water and gentle scraping with a putty knife. And hours of clean-up once the ceiling ended up on the floor!

This was the old faucet - covered with a peeling chrome laminate

Once all this drudgery is behind us (someday, not sure when), I look forward to having fun with decorating. Design sponge has created a bunch of Flickr sets that have really inspired me. This beautiful bedroom. This pretty craft corner. This living room. And now come on, this little guy is just adorable.

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Eastern bluebird

*click on the image to see it larger*

This weekend I finished a commission for an original watercolour painting of an eastern bluebird. I decided to try a square format for this one and I like how it turned out. As before, I use sepia pen & ink first before painting.

The original painting will be a gift for a 1-year old, which I think is a really lovely idea.

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Cutie Mary Blair coaster set project

This is a little project I just finished which is very easy - anyone can do this for sure. I started out with an old coaster set from Goodwill. It had a plain wooden box and all the coasters had the same Kate Greenaway illustration. I love Kate Greenaway, but this particular image was a little bland, and also they were all the same.
I found my new illustrations from an old Golden Book anthology. Before you are horrified, please note the very bad condition of this book! (Still hard to cut the pages though). The reason I used a book rather than illustrations of my own are because I needed something professionally printed that wouldn't get damaged if it got a little damp. I wanted to be able to actually use the coasters!The next step was to trace the coaster onto a piece of white paper, then cut out the rounded square shape. This gives you a little window so you can frame the exact part of the illustration you want to have on the top of your coaster. After you have determined the placement you can trace an outline in pencil then cut it out. I find that it's best if you make it slightly larger than the coaster, then trim the image once it's attached to the coaster.
I attached the images to each coaster with a little pva glue. I found this kind of glue at an art shop, but other glues would probably work. The tricky part is to brush on enough glue so that your picture adheres everywhere, but not so much that it ends up wrinkled. Try doing a small amount first, then if it's not enough gently lift the paper up and reapply a bit more glue. I found the best amount is the amount you would apply if you were painting the coaster. I didn't add glue to the top of the image - this isn't decoupage - you don't want damp glue on the bottom of your drink!

Finally I primed the wooden box and painted that white. If you already have the glue, an old book you can cut up and some paint, this project can be very cheaply done. I only spent $1.99 at Goodwill for the old coaster set. And look how cute the finished set is!
These illustrations are by the wonderful Mary Blair. Look to vintage Golden books if you'd like to see lots of lovely illustrators. I found some other stories in the book illustrated by Garth Williams, and some by Richard Scarry. It inspired me to see earlier work by these artists (and cheered me up). Just a reminder that most artists aren't overnight successes.

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