tania howells

illustration Friday - multiples

I have not done Illustration Friday in ages, so I thought today I would. It is a chicken wishing for multiple chickens. Just like in the Sound of Music. They can sing songs together and do crafts, eat supper together and have a laugh.

I have been pretty horrified watching the news about a historical and favorite part of my city, burning to the ground.
I spend a lot of time here, travelling back and forth to work and home, going into the shops and I am so sad at this loss, for everyone involved.

I have not done anything for Illustration Friday in ages, but I also haven't done any doodling in a while either so I deiced to give it a go. I seem to remember some project I began where I would pull a word from a dictionary and draw something from it... that lasted long! Anyway, the theme this week was "remember" and since I am all about me this month, I remembered birthdays from my childhood. Cupcakes, grape hyacinths in the garden and a generall mood of exitement. That feeling of such little things being very precious to you, like a tiny rock you were sure was gold, saving the icing on the cupcake till last and the small world of your home being everything, with all it's nooks and crannies to hide in.

buzzzzz!

click to enlarge! Coincidentally, the illustration friday theme this week is buzz and I just happen to have the perfect drawing. Before Christmas I helped do a new bee for this lovely kids shop Honey Bunch. My normal way of working means I do a ton of the subject over and over till I get one I am happy with, and so the bee parade! The final one bee is coloured and I look forward to seeing how it is applied to things.

illustration friday - phobia

Oh the horror! Phobia of knitting swatches, of the stitches falling off the needle, of being wrapped up and tripped by the yarn. Life is full of danger and trouble! Run!
The Illustration Friday website has become so profesh! I haven't particpated in ages and wanted to take it up again. We'll see how long I can keep it up!
This was one of the not included images for the forthcoming book for Interweave Press. (YAY!) I did a different version where the stitches did not look as though they would fall off at any second.

illustration friday- e is for...

Egg of course! Wacom tablet attempt #3. I love eggs. They are so easy to startle, especially with leaves falling. Just like the cats and a plastic bag!

illustration friday-imagine

click for bigger view...

I found this in some drawings I did. It was on the same page as the alone drawing. I coloured it in and it fits with the "imagine" theme. I bet I was trying to draw a person in a position other than standing stock still looking straight ahead, which is how I always draw people. I am not actually "one of those cat ladies" who take their cats out in a baby carriage. I do imagine it sometimes though! Wouldn't it be cute? I often have dreams that I am at a mall or somewhere, going about my business, with a cat under each arm. (I must be broody) Especially the girl cat. She lets me pick her up and hold her any old way- upside down, over the shoulder. Totally laid back! I love it. Kind of like this great cat!

illustration friday - small

*click to enlarge!*

I was rummaging around in some old papers and found this little picture. I must have done it 5-7 years ago, I can't remember! It is good for illustration friday this week though. *small* I have been so out of the habit of doing drawings lately what with all the making of stuff for xmas. I have warm thoughts of a cozy new year where I will do more of these drawings again. It is a mentality of inwardness and stillness that I need to do them and currently I am so all over the place filling orders, folding cards ( more just in from my printer-yay! ) and general holiday making plans and prep. Soon there will be the xmas dinners and parties at work! I love them, a couple are free food and there will be big fat shrimp to eat...And then after Dec 11, I can just be Christmassy. Thats the last crafty show.

I am happily receiving all the cards I have been drooling over! I got my Kingpod cards (previous batch) They are BEAUTIFUL! Then today I received my pack of Rosa's wonderful cards. I just love how graphic and simple they are. I already have had Hillary's patchwork cards in my mitts for a few day now. I don't actually plan to SEND many of them out, they are too pretty! Some are for gifts though. My mum will LOVE the kingpod ones.

PS,
happy thanksgiving to all you Americans out there! Would someone mail me a turkey leg? haha...kidding.

illustration friday - lost

The Illustration Friday theme this week is lost and as part of my getting back into the swing of my routine, I will try and do a picture *each week.

*might not happen, knowing me.

This little raindrop on the cloud has lost his way! Oh boo hoo! Really he is just a younger raindrop and needs a little encouragement.

illustration friday - fresh

When I thought of fresh, this is what came to mind. Ofcourse I always draw clouds, leaves and raindrops, but thats ok. It sure is fresh out today, we almost were blown away on the picket line, chilly! My friend and I treated ourselves to sushi for lunch. Then I went and got a bag of polyfill! There is something so promising about a new bag of polyfill, especially since I have never bought one. I had been using the stuffing from an old Ikea pillow for all the simmy's and pincushions. Of course, I had to also buy this fabric. Only 2.99/ yard and a pretty print to boot.

illustration (friday) - dreams

(click for bigger view)

I so admire the collages that Kim and Keri do that last night I tried to do a bit of collage of my own. I used to do a lot of it in high school, but it has been ages and whenever I tried, it looked wierd. I liked this one and it fit in nicely with the theme this week. I haven't really had a dream like this but dreams are so crazy sometimes that I could have!

❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉❉

We did bike all the way to the Leslie Spit today, phew! It was far, but really neat and fun. We had brunch on the way there and beers on the way home.
Last night we wimped out of going to the party and I finished my lockout poncho instead (pictures tommorow, promise!) and I baked brownies! Out of a mix, but still good. mmmm.
I hope to get over to the picket line early tommorow, so I can get my baby fix in the afternoon. I haven't seen him in 2 weeks and I am having some withdrawl symptoms. Stop the shakes! Pass me the baby!

illustration friday - tranquility

My picture for Karma also would have been nice for this theme too, as that is what I picture when I think of tranquility. However I decided to sit down for a change and try to do a drawing in a book I was drawing in daily for a while last year. I thought about taking up that habit again, it never seems to last! So this is what I came up with. Home is a big deal for me and it really is a facet of tranquility. I love my home! We have a chance to move to a quieter leafier street, pay 200$ more in rent and maybe it will be a smaller place too. It IS tempting only because it is so loud here on the main street and there are odd characters milling about down there, we don't have a yard or trees.
I have lived here for nearly 8 years and apart fromt he bother of moving all the junk we have, the thought of leaving my home made me sad! We do want to leave one day, but hope that will be a day when we can buy our own little house someplace nearby.
So tranquility to me is my home, I love my kitchen, my piles of cd's, the place I sit on the sofa, the books and blankets, my cup of tea and my bowl of sugarcubes. Seeing the silppers by the bed and the
keys on the pegs makes me happy and feel at peace.

illustration Friday - black and white

Black and white was a nice topic because all the things I draw start out in black and white! So I didn't get too conceptual with it, but went totally literal. These are two very rough initial sketches among a bunch I did last year for an article on kids and summer in Today's Parent Magazine. I don't even think I saw them printed, but I think some other ones were used instead of the above images. Anyway, I liked these ones for today!
They go with last weeks topic of summer too.

Thanks again for all your kind words after my last post! It always helps to have back-up!
:)

illustration friday - summer

I actually missed this topic deadline, but what the hey. Here is my late entry for Illustration Friday. Really, today is Friday, so it feels right.

It is a tiny detail from an ill-fated kids book project that gave me night sweats it was so stressful. In fact the images haven't seen the light of day since I did them for the project that never happened. I won't even get into it because I am still afraid of the night sweats coming back to haunt me.
So as the kids say , "'nuff said".
It's cute though and if it wasn't late, it would have been perfect for the summer theme. I really liked the whole entire book, it was all cute.
:)
Anyway,
it is yet again the wondeful day called Friday, as I may have mentioned, and I love the weekend.
We have plans to loaf, stroll, look at junk at a mega garage sale in the park, check out a friends art show, go visit Karina at her fun parkette installation, and generally chill out man.

have a lovely weekend everybody!

xo

Illustration Friday - Digital

illustration friday- aquatic

I happened to have this picture that I drew in 2000. I used to like drawing lots of pictures of people and things swimming. I love swimming and just got back from my aquafit class - too bad I stink like chlorine...
Boy, isn't it hard to get back into things after a holiday? I can't seem to be rid of my jitters. Why worry about all these tiny details? It just seems to be a state I get myslf into from time to time. I'm waiting on final approval for an illustration job that I hope to tie up by the end of the week. Finishng that up may sweep away a few of the jitters, but
there will always be more to worry about! That is the amazing talent of the chronic worrier! And I love the saying - "Worrying is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but gets you nowhere".
Ahhh yes, time for a cup of tea.

illustration friday - mischief

illustration friday - ambition

After I drew this little picture, I started to think about ambition and how it can be a lot like a cloud. You try and reach goals and they change and shift and ambition is never satisfied. It is a constant race around to try and prop your ladder against another cloud only to have it evaporate again. It's all part of my plan to remind myself to enjoy where I am now and to try and remember to keep doing that, despite the little ants of ambition nibbling at my feet all the time. The main thing whispering in my head a lot these days is: "Pick something and stick with it". I try and remember that on those days I think about quitting!

***

Thanks for all the thoughts on the skirt!
:)
I can't wait till I can wear it... brrr...

illustration friday - alone

At first I thought the topic "alone" was too gloomy, but yesterday I got the chance to sit quietly alone and I remembered that it can be a wonderful thing. I sat on my brother's front steps waiting for Paul, looking at birds, watching the sky (see below) and generally decompressing. I went from feeling rather terrible and grumpy to feeling nicer and calmer, exited about the shadows the sun made through bare branches on roof tops and the color of the darkening sky. I got back into myself instead of fretting and comparing myself to everybody else.

illustration thursday - crowded

I think this is the theme this week...

illustration Wednesday - bloom

Here are some flowers for Illustration Friday's bloom theme this week. I have been rather remiss with the whole thing lately so I decided to hop to it. ( No Easter pun intended! )

Here is a sketch I did at the greenhouse last February. The above is a part of this though you can't see it very well.

Illustration Friday: flight

This is an image I did a while ago and it has been hanging in my hallway. I love drawing planes, rows and rows of them. This is only one, but it has a ladder to get to it.

illustration Friday: year of the rooster

I always like to think of roosters as beligerant over nothing, just huffing and puffing over some imagined wrong doing.
Apparently in Latvia, this is what roosters say. What do they say in your language?? I would LOVE to know! Leave a comment about that if you can!
:)

***

This exhibit looks like it might be interesting. I don't know much at all about the history of Canadian craft - I am rather curious...

illustration friday : gluttony

...or is it a page from an old sketchbook because I couldn't think of a thing to draw...
Well, regardless, this picture made me think of being a kid and trying to cram as many red gumballs in my mouth as possible. They were my favorite. That must fall under the category of gluttony.

illustration Friday : Seasons

I drew these guys, I think, back in 2000. They were a possible mail-out promo that I never did. Now they finally get to see the light of day, and I am glad I had them to use for Illo. Friday! It is remarkably cold here. I am always amazed when it gets this cold, - 23C. That's nothing though, in Ottawa I hear it is -42C. My favorite cold story is from my friend Lia, who said, as a kid it got so cold that as she waited for the bus to go to school, her glasses broke in two!

Illustration Friday : Balance

Here is a quicky picture of what baby squirrels look like, trying to learn to walk on the wires. They sometimes lose their balance and fall right off! In the spring, I was walking down the street, and I heard a "plop". When I turned around, a surprised little squirrel was looking around all embarrassed and then he rushed off. Poor little guy!

Illustration Friday : Disaster relief

I had not intended to draw anything this week, as the topic is too big, and anything I thought of seemed trite. Here I am though past midnight (I never stay up this late if I can help it) and drawing this. So the relief I can offer is sending my love. That's all I got. Time for bed.

Illustration Friday : magic

How else could a red/orange bird land on a girls head? I LOVE this print on these underpants from Old Navy.

***

Happy New Year!

Illustration Friday : Adoption

I could not think of anything to draw this week, so I googled "adoption". I came across the House Rabbit Society! It was so cute, so I drew some of the buttons on the main page. A few years ago, I had actually visited this site considering the idea of adopting a bunny as a pet. You can litter train them! In the end, my mum and I share the two cats. Whenever she went away, I would take them. Now we seem to share them 50/50.

Illustration Friday: bubbles ( I think )

I am pretty sure this is the theme this week! I knew I had a bubbles drawing from a long time ago on a cd. I was trying to learn Illustrator, and I don't think I have used that program since! I just never got used to it I guess. Those crazy wiggly curves and stuff! eek!

The girl cat.

I always think it is so darn cute when the cats act like such stereotypes - Sitting in boxes, freaking out over yarn. Sigh. So cute.

*A place to talk about why you LOVE Toronto!I hope they will eventually post everyone's responses.

*I Visited Eva and kris and Karina at the One of a Kind show last night. Their displays looked awesome and it was great to see them! I visited Monster Farms too and was impressed to see their shelves almost empty from selling so many of their cutie pie monsters! Way to go!
I only had time to race through the almost 750 exhibitors booths but liked the looks of Viola Blanca and of the Candy Factory. So much crafty goodness!

Illustration Friday: Vintage

This is Paul's 1960's cruiser bike that he only rides on special occasions. Let me tell you, it is a sweeet ride.

And International Desk day also falls on Illustration Friday! Who knew?
Here's some little gift tags and X-mas cards as well as regular scissors, pens - probably looks pretty much the same as last time...

illustration friday: snazzy

Ahh. I am feeling my old self again today. It is rather silly that usually this time every month I feel wriggly and grumpy, and every month I am surprised and annoyed to feel that way. 2+2 = 4, it's called PMS, as if I didn't know. Ladies, I think you'll understand. So, I am cheerfully replying to emails and rummaging - or I think grandmas call it puttering. Goodness I love to putter.