tania howells

quick doodles for a winter week

A segment of my sketching for my current project...

Attempting to paint/sketch everyday ...

Even just a ten minute quickie!

todays painting sketch

 

 

In the theme of blue, a nice stripey tee shirt always comes to mind first.  Feeling of dreaming of whats inside again, of things to grow in spring and of

hope. #12monthsofpaint

 

my style icons

I have been sketching the outfits the 3, 4 and 5 year old girls in my sons class wear.  They put together the most fantastic combos of prints -stripes, hearts, polka dots- with such un-selfconscious confidence.  I love it! They are my style icons!  A few of them will pull on a favorite frilly skirt daily - probably from frozen- on top of every outfit.  Many incorporate elements of halloween costumes - capes, wings, ears, and sometimes they have names for their outfit of the day ( My cat princess outfit, my bubblegum outfit).  It is endlessly amusing and inspiring for me.  I'll add colour to some more of my sketches and share them here for you in the coming weeks.

Christmas tomatoes

Not sure why lovely ripe tomatoes on a baking hot day came to mind today when I sat down to do a doodle on my last free afternoon before xmas holiday, but there you go.  Perhaps in places like Australia, tomatoes are getting very nice around now?  I made it a bit Christmassy with the message!I am enjoying a cup of tea (ofcourse) and some remarkable baked things from a friend!  My mind is being blown with every bite- nanaimo bars, sugar snowflakes, lacey oatmeal pistachio cookies and butter tarts!  This lady is a magician in the kitchen!!  Thank-you to her!

I wish all of you a calm, warm holiday with lots of peace and harmony!  I am wishing for no fights, yummy food, warm quiet days and family all around.  I don't know if it is getting older but I am regularly so so very grateful to live in a peaceful country where I don't have to fear for my life, as so many in this world do.  I will pray for those people this year and hope for some comfort for them.  Sometimes I stop and notice how lucky we are to be able to wander down the street, grab a coffee, chat with friends at the school yard and live without fear here.  Thank-you Canada!

Finch is exited for school to be over.  We want to go up to an intersection we discovered where the freight trains go by right at street level with a new to us, railroad crossing that goes DING DING DING.  What a thrill!  It looks almost like this drawing he is doing.  Maybe we will try on Monday morning.  You just never know if one will come, so wish us luck!

Happy Holidays!

patterns

I am taking a doodle break, because I was craving patterns! I have been doing up quick little patterns to store in my paint bucket fill tool in photoshop because one of the roles square plays in the book, is as a quilt piece!  I get a bit zoned out spending long periods of time cleaning up my files, moving eyes this way and that, erasing lines that are too thick or patchy, all the teensy things I need to do before I can colour in my pages.  I get colour hungry!  So coffee and patterns break!  I think I doodled this for Finch at lunchtime one day...it's me coming in to hug him! 

good day!

A little doodle to comfort myself this morning.  Monday's are hard to get into!  But a little red gingham and tea helps!  Just polishing up the last of the rough drawings for the new book.  It is going to be called "Starring Shapes!" and I am trying to get it just right, which is happening somewhat.  There is always one page, this being the second to last page, that poses some tricky problems and never quite feels right!  But I will take a little break and come back to it after lunch with my little boy.

for fun

I love Pinterest for clothes!  It's the first time I have found clothes I like online, I never knew where to look before. I waste lots of time enjoying myself with my nice to wear folder, getting inspiration and just window shopping.  This morning I am playing around with a drawing of an outfit I favour, comfy and easy.  I go to clothing swaps and end up with tons of stuff I might not buy but cheerfully take for free. I like playing around with what to wear.  I like to cut and fix up stuff and refashion what I have.  I also have been making this and that.  I have made three Wiksten tanks, to some success.  I think I need to find the right fabric for it to hang the way I like...perhaps I will show those in a row like above!  I have also made one McCall 3940 tank top, which is a super easy pattern.  Its maternity but I love that baggy drape.  I want to make the dress version in a cozy grey polar fleece for layering in winter.  I am super inspired by Ivy Arch and her year of making clothes and by Sonya Philip and her 100 acts of sewing project.  Amazing!

random sketch friday

I got a lovely little sketchbook at Christmas from my friend who runs Artistry Cards 

and Pixel Print.  I have been trying to do a bit of a doodle every day or so.

 

So much to say that I can't think of a thing to say... 1 hour till preschool pick-up...maybe some sewing...

bright city

click for bigger image!

I am loving overlapping patterns and colours, and using patterns I created for spoonflower as fill in photoshop images.  Also trying to heave myself out of this endless winter mood with some springy brightness.

 

today we've got a...

This has been one crazy winter!  Between ice storms, weeks at -15C or colder and endless snow, I'd say I am ready for some springtime!  I do like February though.  I like the pinks, reds and hearts of Valentines day, I love the spring flowers coming in at the supermarket and the bags of mini eggs tempting me from the candy aisle!

spoonflower!

Its been ages that I have wanted to faff about on spoonflower and upload some designs, just for the fun of it!  Its neat to see your design repeated in a few different configurations and to preview it in various ways, like as fishie wallpaper!

yay!  Finch is in preschool 3 mornings a week and I am delirious with the freedom of it.  At first it was a horror show of screaming and clinging, and that was just me! (ha ha - sorry thats my favorite joke and I think I have overused it already...)  I DID shed a tear or two listening to the wailing but now he is grand and likes to tell me he is proud of himself,  going to preschool.  I can't tell you the RELIEF!  I want him to like school and I hope he will.  So far so good.  So here I am, coffee in hand, alone at the computer and then at 11:30, so so happy to see my little boy again.

colour color coleur

Finch and I go to the library at least once a week and I just love ordering books into my own branch.  The Toronto Public Library system is one of the most used library systems in the world... is that right? I am sure I read that someplace...You can get almost anything.  So my latest request was this bo0k which I had noticed while leafing through a years worth of quilting magazines from my lovely friend up the street.

I loved looking though the book at lunchtime, though I wanted more more more color pictures of all the gorgeous quilts and sweaters and paintings.  It is an autobiography so there were lots of words obviously, and the ones I managed to read were very interesting- what a life! I will just have to order in more of his books.   Still, I had to immediately do some drawing and of course Finch has to do whatever I am doing and we had a lovely 12-16 minutes on the porch partaking in this.  Nothing lasts long with a three year old.

Unfortunate crappy iphone pictures but you get the idea.  Some doodling was done and Finch did his drawings all for me, which was a sweet ending to our art moment.

It leads beautifully to the pair of socks I have started with Kaffe Fassett for Regia sock yarn that my mum gave me for Xmas 2010.  I only just finished these socks...

...which I started in 2009.  Five years... thats a pretty decent time to take to finish a pair of socks don't you think?  ( haha)

Hooray here they are all done, and just in time for a chilly spell. I love them so much!  Cozy and colourful.  I am just thrilled though, with the way the new pair are coming out.  How did they ever figure out how to die yarn so it makes a lovely stripey ziggy pattern when knitted up?  Will wonders never cease...  It has been nice to do a bit of knitting again, mostly when Finch watches tv or plays in the sandbox. 

Trying more doodling-  These are super quick pencil sketches and then colors just blabbed on top, over multiplied layers and more layers.  It's fun because it gives me the impression I like from seeing layers in silkscreening.  I think I like the first one from yesterday...I am quite a bit more interested in all the patterns and shapes going on in the background and less in the girl...maybe I should forget the girl next time...I will try it and see.                                                                                                                     

This had a picture of a wonky bicycle next to the girl, that I took out, and originally said " The me I used to know- knitting socks, long solitary walks, books and bike rides, mangoes, observations, coffeespoons, night moons, poetry and sleep.  empty days, full now" The only reason I edited it was that I scanned it fast and the rest was cropped out.  It was some ramblings from  night when I was so exhausted but wanted to try and get something for myself done, wanted to get a few pages of quick sketches down so I could later scan them in and do this! Ha! goodnight.

I was exited to have the energy last night to do some doodling.  It occured to me the other night, after I had told my husband that I might just quit art altogether and go into something simple like being a receptionist or a secretary, once Finch is in school.  I do so love filing and getting offices in order ( I am not joking at all there!) and he, horrified, said I mustn't quit! ( thanks babe)  So it occured to me that IT IS ALL THERE.  All the ideas are still in my head, all the images and ideas I liked as a kid, still turn me on.  The colours, patterns, themes and objects.  I still like birds and tea cups and clouds and cakes.  So along came some ideas for drawings I wanted to try that have a lot of layering similar to what I like to do with watercolours.  I like what came out!

Here is a little painting I did for my friend Chandi to announce her return to work after Mat leave.  It goes with the other images she commissioned earlier on.  I had fun adding layers of pattern and colours here too.  Photoshop's nice because you don't have to wait for the paint to dry!

Okay now to get the lunch on and turn off my best friend,  the TV! 

A little doodle I found on the back of one of my scrapbooks. I still love my paper scrapbooks even in the age of pinterest and flickr, etc. If I feel sad or lonely or whatever, I love to flip through these books and see all the pretty pictures i have collected that inspire me. You can see a few pages I uploaded ages and ages ago over there on the sidebar in a gallery. I am working away here on borrowed nap-time time, finishing the final pages of the next book. Amazing how suddenly Finch is napping again, just when I need some extra time to get this work done. Maybe its the warmer weather but I am grateful for it.

happy new year!

friday village

click for bigger

I've got my watercolors out for a little illustration job and so I felt like doing a little doodle as well!

Boy, it has been a while- drawing for fun!  What a novelty!  I just love my Friday's.  I also love all my free time - those mornings on the weekend when we sit quietly reading the paper, strolling around town, stopping for a tea, reading on the couch on a sunny afternoon-  because I know how soon it will be MUCH busier around here!

I don't know if I ever linked to this site, which I drew a few little illustrations for.  She is a child psychologist and I love how she set up her site.  The little girl goes in all shy and nervous and comes out feeling much better.  Today's work is also for another child psychologist's upcoming website- will post once it is live!

I keep a little book in my bag and draw stuff now and then, here are a few sketches from the last number of months!  I drew the second last one a few days ago.

Right now, girl cat is purring on my lap and I have never been more happy to have her!  The week started out horrible, and by some freaky good timing, I was off work that day.  Just after I would have left, she was gasping for breath, turning purple!  She had been coughing for a few days, but I thought it was another hairball. I rushed her to the vet in a a taxi and feared this was the end, but after oxygen, x-rays and diuretics- her lungs had filled with fluid and heart enlarged - she started to improve and by the next day I took her home !  She was so glad to be home and ate, drank and scratched her favorite spot on the rug.  Today I dare say, she seems her normal self again!  On drugs, but meowing like old times. PHEW!  It was so scary.

Oh girl cat- snorgle.  It's not time to join your brother in pussycat heaven just yet!

 

I like...

...finding a scrap of paper at work with a note on it, and drawing a picture to match.  Of course, that is ME as the junior world hockey champ.  Never mind that I was only ten years old in 1985.  There's girl cat helping me score the winning goal!  Never mind that she never goes outside.

Ahhh Friday!  My new schedule includes Friday's off!  Who could have dreamed of such perfection.  Its so easy to get used to a four day week, scarily easy.  I woke up really early because I was so exited to not have to do anything worky today.  I have a lunch date with Karina!  Yay!  She is in town to install her latest and greatest, Organisms and Orifices show!  Last Friday I had lunch with Krissy.  So lovely to catch up with my ladies.

Today, after my lovely lunch, despite the blustery, rainy mess that is the weather, I want to pick up some earring hooks to go with some beads I got last week, get some cat food- her higness suddenly hates her normal food- , grab a dvd or two for the weekend and perhaps later have a NAP! oh the decadence.

I think I am getting the hang of the new schedule finally, and perhaps friday posts might be my new plan.

I swear, a month or two out of the loop and so much has changed.  Typepad is all new, AGAIN, when once I felt cutting edge to have a new blog, now I am frightfully behind the times not having twittter or a blackberry or any of these newfangled things going... who has the energy?  I am just so happy to have some time to read a book, have some tea and go for brunch on weekends with my sweetie.

Bon weekend peeps!

I had big plans to turn this doodle into an animated gif but I have already forgotten how!

So just picture the swallows swooping around and her eyes

blinking and I will go look for a tutorial again.

I remembered again something I liked about blogging back at the start, which I had forgotten.  If I post about some silly little things that cheer me up, I will feel cheered up.  It doesn't matter if it seems pointless, the act of recording things that make me happy, makes me happy, so I might as well carry on with it!  We had baked yam fries with a veggie burger for dinner last night and rhubarb and ice cream for dessert.  I think I will have a sandwich for lunch after I finish my iced coffee...it's really the little things.  Oh, and a massage after work! Yippee!

lum te tum dum

 

Some doodling to reflect the inside of my head lately.

One minute I have ideas, the next they are gone.  One minute I feel good about the uncertain future and jobs and the next I am all scared again.  Worrying is an olympic sport in my family and we are gold contenders.  I like to picture the day in series of time slots these days.  If I can make it through the next five minutes, the next hour, the next afternoon, I am doing well.  Then, every night I go over the nice things in each day and say thanks.  Worrying is all about the fear of what might happen, it always seems much much worse that it will likely be and if I can only remember that right now things are pretty much a-ok, I start to feel better again.  I have made a big decision that things are starting to look up in July!  One foot in front of the other and onward, ho!  The year gets better starting right now.           

Happy weekend!

pattern

I am playing with patterns.  One of the girls in my book will have a dress with a variation of this one.  I have dressed all the characters in clothes I wish I had!  Especially the teacher.  She is actually loosely based on Sally Hawkins character in "Happy Go Lucky".  I really liked that movie.  I mostly liked her, actually!  Such a "cheerful by necessity" character.  As though she quite consciously decided at some point to be cheerful, to combat the never ending gloom that can suck you down if you let it!  A role model of sorts.
Well, happy Friday!

Boo!

I have had a bit of a week-My job that I have had for 9.5 years at the CBC was made redundant, just like you have read in the news.   We were told our department was presently safe, so this came as a big shock.
I am not sure how much they will save by cutting part time me, but there you go.  My vision of life as a great game of snakes and ladders is proving true.  Where is my next ladder?  Who knows.
For now I am enjoying putting finishing touches of my forth coming kids book, and I still have work ( and benefits) till the end of July.  Keep calm and carry on, as they say...or to use my favorite Dead Dog Cafe quote:

"Stay Calm, Be Brave, Wait for the Signs"!

well hello Spring!

What a nice surprise to see you here! 

Just a quick hello from the desk.  I am madly drawing, drawing,
but now it's lunch time! yippee!
I have some squash / sweet potato soup and some leftover rice that
I plan to unite, along with a nice piece of toast...how exiting.
Sadly, all the Easter chocolate is already gone...no restraint!

bricks to dresses

I recently created this image for a magazine.  Its about hospitals and philanthropy and I had to make a pale brick pattern to make the hospital look nice.  I ended up liking that pattern. ( You can't really see it, I had to make this image small because typepad cuts off the right side of everything too big!  click for bigger)  Since my usual default is bright colors and brash patterns, I was momentarily inspired by the idea of having a (somewhat) neutral wardrobe.
 

It would be nice to have this tunic-y thing in a lovely light jersey that won't get all stretchy and saggy later on.  Wear it over short jeans with my favorite shoes and maybe even a short sleeve top, dare to dream!  For now it's still a long sleeve one, but today might be 12C!  Yippee!
I suppose this outfit is not really neutral at all, but it would be comfy.

sunny day doodle

sunny day doodle, originally uploaded by tannie annie.

A doodle for a sunny day.

and some links!

Patouche! Adorable baby and kids clothes made by my knitting neighbor! She will be at the Green mom show here in Toronto this Saturday at the CNIB.  It looks like it will be a great show!

Chi Chi Bean is a cute baby shop for which I designed a little logo.
Super cute things!

w.i.p.

Doing some teensy little fruit paintings with girl cat.

It is a rainy spring day here! I don't mind, it will bring the tulips up faster. My Baking class yesterday was fun again. Here are icing leaves to add to our roses basket. And here is the basket, for which we used all our roses, from last week- a centerpiece of hard icing. Here is my CAKE! Well, it is a styrofoam one. We all got to ice our own and I was bursting with wanting to squeeze that icing out of my piping bag. I was the first one done of course which ended up being a good thing. I scraped off all my icing for the next girl to use because our bowl was empty by then. The only bad thing is now I have a stryofoam cake shape all naked.
This I swear happend all by itself , naturally. I had taken Mr. Tibbs out of his cage when I got home, for a little cuddle. The girl cat jumped up and plonked herself right down next to him! I could not believe it. I think she is a little bit worried Mr. Tibbs is my new best friend so I make sure to tell her "You are my favorite!" a few times.