tania howells

hello!

Boy, is it nearly March?  How did all that time go by?  Here is a lemon poppy seed illustration

I recently did for some packaging.  It was really quite fun as I had to do it in someone else's style!  I think I pulled it off.

This is my motto going forward!  It's a page in my scrapbook.  Now that I am over 40, I am thinking about health and longevity- I want to be strong and be here for my son.  I am trying to do more yoga and go to my aquafit class weekly, eat well and be positive. I hope people are having a good new year-  January was a dark grey month and
it seemed a lot of people were having a hard time but we are emerging into the sunshine now.  Spring is on our heels and the days are getting longer and lighter!

I am still working some on my art journal...

This is how I felt the other day after a nice cup of tea. 

I had been off caffeine for a few months after feeling scared by heart palpitations. 

They have gone away and I am slowly having some tea and decaf coffee again and its so good to have it back!

 

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colours

My friend Chandi Fernando is a child psychologist!  She has a website and over the years has hired me to do a few illustrations as promotion.  It was so fun to do this latest one because I was encouraged to go with my default settings!  Bright colours and bright patterns!  She wanted something simple and cute and childlike,  to remind clients she was available and that winter is OVER! ( sort of over, it's freezing today!)  I really liked the way it turned out.

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.

well hello!

Hooray!  This month the 2014 nominees for the Forest of Reading were announced and to my surprise, Willow Finds a Way was nominated for a Blue Spruce award!  I had assumed it was past eligability as it came out in 2013! I really am thrilled and honoured to have been chosen! 

 

 

 

 

 

 Another map recently, Parkdale!

I was contacted by the Neighborhood Arts Network here in Toronto, who give out an award yearly to..." an arts organization that has made a significant contribution in Toronto by working collaboratively with culturally diverse communities, youth and community groups that create opportunities to access, and contribute to, arts and culture."   Its a great thing!  This year the award went to this group - Mammalian Diving Reflex .  It was fun to make this map because it, coincidentally, is also my neighborhood.  I even added my house, my favorite cafe and of course the library.

 

Im lately loving this show - Around the World in 80 Gardens.  It thrills me to listen to people chatting about plants with such enthusiasm!  It is so refreshing and so uplifting somehow.  I can't explain it any other way, I have always adored gardening and I know many others do as well, but to hear it on TV, well it makes me so happy.  Perhaps it is something in the way the host describes things!  Wonderful.  Something for ME.

 

Which makes me happy to have rediscovered Helen Lehndorf again all the way over in New Zealand.  I "met" her way back in the olden days ( 2005?) when she had a blog called Stripey Sock Studio and nowadays she writes alot about (among many other things including her fantastic writing),  gardens and plants and again, I love it!  Every now and then I get a momentary thrill thinking about the joy of discovering a new interest in life.  One you never really paid attention to before but was there in front of you all along.  How freeing to realise, suddenly, it is not the same old routine, there are plants and they look brand new for some reason. 

I've just finished reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton and my goodness I could not put it down!  It was a wonderful read and again, about a garden and about women's lives.  I am always hunting and digging for details about other womens lives, about how we all do it.  It is a research project as part of my very fabric, as part of not wanting to feel alone in this journey. 

 

 

and another map...

Here is a nice little map I did this summer for a forthcoming book about this neighborhood of Huron Sussex in Toronto.  It is one thing I do love about this city, the very distinctive neighborhoods.  We live in a very diverse and leafy city full of melodious languages and amazing foods!  Right around here I can get Portugese tarts, Ethiopian injera, Vietnamese Pho, Mexican churros, good old Pizza and of course Tim Hortons coffee.  I will never forget being stuck at Newark airport for hours and hours and hearing some guys talking in Chinese. It was comforting because it reminded me of home!  Good old Toronto.

1001 posts and a few maps

I created a map portfolio over here.  I am waiting to hear about another map job, the third this summer!  My friend Marlena has always been the Toronto map creator, but she is taking a map break and so, kindly passes things along to me.  It's so very appreciated.  Perhaps I can get this stay at home thing to be a tad more lucrative.  I am going to try and remember how to update my actual website to add a link from there.  Its amazing what a person can forget how to do after having a kid.  I can't even remember now all the things I have forgotten.  But I do know pretty much all the car and truck names that there are.  That's got to be worth something...at least to my kid...
Oh and this is my 1001 post! Thats crazy!

oh ha ha!

I had been grumbling to myself that no one was buying my traffic prints and I need some money and blah blah blah.  Well what do you know, it was my fault!  I am in too much of a hurry most of the time, with a 3 year old hammering on my keyboard, to read the fine print- Etsy items expire after four months and my shop has been empty since... March!!! Duh silly me! Anyway, they are up again, along with a few old chestnuts I forgot about.  

Now I am going to savour a little time alone to work on a painting!  I haven't painted in years and years and I am working on this thing- it is 4x3 feet on an old cavas i found in the garbage 7 years ago.

Again, terrible iphone pic- sheesh- its a direct rip off of this coveted wallpaper seen in Elle Decor:

But I think thats ok since I am just doing it for myself to have something to do and to hang in my home! Also , it's not very good so it will never be a real copy of the gorgeous wallpaper.  It's nice to have something to do that has nothing to do with money makin' or kiddie wranglin'.  Off I go!

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! 

Hello!

I am hoping it's ok to reveal the cover image of the new upcoming book Willow Finds a Way!  It will be released in Spring 2013 and I am pretty sure the publisher is circulating it around, as it has already been picked up for North American French rights by Les Editions Scholastic! Yippee!  It would be so nice if this one was also picked up in Korea and Japan like Willow's Whispers was and vice versa, if Les Editions Scholastic went back and picked up Willow's Whispers to do en français, n'est ce pas?  Mais OUI!

traffic

   My husband entered me into the annual AWOL Gallery Square Foot show here in Toronto, without asking me first!  I spent a minute or two huffing and puffing  about it and then got down to work.  This is a not very nice scan of of my entry, which I did at the last minute, because I had forgotten to do so prior to the due date day.  Anyway, much to my delight, it sold!  It is a bit of a sloppy first try ( I didn't even sign the original! )  of some print ideas  I would like to get going and sell on etsy as well as in my friends gorgeous shop Pixel Print.  ( She does great printing of all kinds if you are in need and local! )  I want to get some personal work going again and I hope that since my little boy is so passionate about cars and trucks, many other boys must be too!  I think I have mentioned this before...

   It's interesting how I am finding again, very slowly, my (new?) voice, post baby.  My baby is nearly two and a half and I am enjoying it more and more every day, and for that I am very grateful.  I had rough time of it in those early newborn days, it was like being swept up into a tornado sometimes, so seeing light and so much joy now is a huge, huge  blessing.  Today he said to me "I'm a little zebra putting on a jacket".   If that doesn't melt your heart , I don't know what would!  Multiply that by a billion times every day and you get the picture.  Grateful grateful.

do you remember skipping?

I kind of do- I remember my plastic pink skipping rope with the stripey pink and white handles and the boundless energy of being a kid at recess...  I watch Finch now running around in circles after dinner and then being completely asleep half an hour later.    It's so amazing to watch this kid grow and learn so fast!   I had three glasses of liquid cheer- red wine at dinner, something I really never do but boy did I need it today. Up since 6 am, no more naps- going, going, going, all day long!  Finally its my time.   I always have so much to say , in my head, about being a new mum, but I never seem to write it down.  It is the most crazy roller coaster ride ever.  I get to the point where I figure, what's the point of talking about it, since its something millions of women experience.   On the other hand I always have my eyes open for mums experiencing similar things as me, so perhaps writing it down would be of value somehow.  Yet this blog has always been about my work and so perhaps i will start a new blog with all my free time!  Another mummy crowing about not getting enough sleep or being tired of sandbox battles with the trucks.

  Anyway- I managed to lose my iphone this week.  Can you effing believe that?  Never lost a thing in my life really, not a wallet or a diary or anything and then, my new toy that I only got in May.  Oh it was a horrible day and I won't bore you with the panic I went through.   But what does my dear hubby do but buy another  used one on Ebay for 80$ that very night!  I got it today and its great.  ♥  Thank-you darlin'!

And in conclusion, wine ( and coffee )  is great, toddlers are exhausting and absolutely adorable, summer is half over and I am finished my book! " Willow Finds a Way" will be out in spring 2013 and here is an image from what I hope are the final, final revisions!  Phew, how did I do it with that kid running all over-  I remember being so anxious that I would not be able to do it and I did.  There, wow.  Time for bed.

 

woo hoo another nap!

Furiously coloring in!   Well I am sure it would surprise and delight my little kid self to know I get to color in pictures as a grown-up...  If get all anxious I try and look at it that way.

I tidied things up around here and took away all the ancient links, even though they were good ones, and brushed away some of the cobwebs.  I wanted to get this blog back to more about me with the hopes of generating a little more income from  "coloring in".  I need to fund my energetic project that keeps me at home and knee deep in cheerios.  Seeing first hand the passion my kid has for vehicles,  I want to create some small prints in that theme perhaps.  I really am out of the loop technology wise though and I am not sure blogging even makes a peep anymore!  Especially when I only get in here once in a blue moon!  However, until I get my iphone and twitter and TIME, I will limp along in my regular way.

the other things I do...

I have been working with my brother the past year or so, on the re-design of many of these Ozery products!  I am linking to the US site, even though they are based right here in Toronto, because I am not 100% sure the new packaging is here yet...  It has been really nice to do.  My part has been very simple, I draw the little ingredients at the bottom of the bag there!  Also, various little sandwiches and things for the other product packaging.  My brother does all the heavy lifing!  The perfect scenario, a bit like being the kid sister in real life.  That was what those "apukies" were for a number of posts back.

Prince's Trust / Start UK note book sequences from Jonathan Howells on Vimeo.

Here is the doodles I mentioned in the last post. My brother put together this amazing animated book for the Prince's Trust organisation called START UK and I got to do all the doodles and hand writing! I am very impressed with the end result. My brother is very clever with this movie / animation stuff. Does that make me three degrees away from Prince Charles?? I wonder...but probably not!

another runner...

It's been nice doing these little drawings for the running club!  It is what I consider my
"older style" but I guess its not really that.  I just don't often do these types of watercolors anymore, unless asked specifically. 

***

I managed to get over to Leya's blog for the first time since I was preggers- Now we both have little baby boys!  I loved scrolling though all her posts about him and her new life and it made me feel a bit sad that I have not done the same.  I think I may have blogged more if the sleeping thing were better- ie: if i didnt go to bed at 7:00 or as soon as I got him down for his first 7 or so months.  Pure exhaustion.  I guess I also thought I might not like to plaster him all over the internets.  Oh well- choices made-  it almost feels like my experiences arent as real if I dont put them up here! Thats how long I have been blogging!  It gave me a wierd sense of regret not havng documented his growth here more.  However, that does not mean we dont have pictures! MY goodness, kids of the digital age are the most documented ever, n'est ce pas?  I love the little movies we take as well...

Anyway- all that to say HI! I am still here!  Finch is 11 months this week - extraordinary.  He is babbling away, moments from taking his first steps and getting quite opinionated about certain things like not wanting to get out of the bath or sit in his high chair until he is good and ready.  He wants to go through all the kitchen cupboards and loves trucks and dogs when we go for our walks.

hello february...

...and hello you!

A little post to let you know I am still swimming in the pool... or something.  Here are two pages from my friend Chandi's new website - it turned out very nicely!  She is a very talented psychologist.

Kids Space Psychology 

 

 

view from here

A teensy view of a map I got to draw this fall, mercifully, when I really needed the money.  You can click to see bigger, it's downtown Toronto for a magazine called "downtown steps" that I can't seem to find online mysteriously.  It was nice because I didn't have to do anything like it really is, just fill in the space.  I did make sure to add the major things - City Hall, Art gallery of Ontario, Sky Dome, CN Tower - but otherwise just a scattering of little buildings- fun!

I still need some money, anyone else need a picture drawn of something?
:)

I aim to post more often but alas, you mothers out there understand how hard that can be.  When I do get a chance, I am too tired, etc.  Finch is 8 months old today , if you go month by month.  I had been going by 4 week chunks, making him 9 months on January 19th, but now I am confused. Surely by one year , you lose the weekly thing and just go by month, but now I don't know how old he really is!  Is he 8 or 9 months, gosh darnit?  Either way, he is very cute and sweet.   I am a lucky lady.  He's learned to clap and wave, is sitting up nicely, can "crawl" backwards and in a circle, and says mamama dadada nanana wehwehweh and likes to turn the page when I read a bedtime story. 

 

 

ok- I am over the hazelnut creamer...

Here is a tiny picture I recently did.  Mercifully, some $$ came along with it.  I swear, i feel like i am running and running and i guess this is motherhood.   Get the dinner made, get this done, that done before the baby starts fussing. Gotta run right now...

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!

yippee!

In the mail last week I received the Spring 2010 catalog for Kids Can Press and lookee, there on page three, is my new book!  What a wonderfully nice treat to see it there!  So here it is  - the first look at Willow's Whispers!  You sh0uld be able to get a better look if you click on the image.  Very exiting!  It comes out in February.  The designer and editor decided on a very spare look for the book and colorful kids, tres bien!  It is about a "soft spoken little girl who struggles to find her own voice".  I can relate!

 

Obligatory Dufflet treat picture from last Saturday...

In knitting news, this baby hat which I made for a friend's shower last week.  It is a bit big for a newborn and was supposed to look like an acorn.  Can't win 'em all!

I also have had this kicking around on my desktop for ages.  It's Pippi longstocking by the amazingly talented Lauren Child.  There are a few artists / illustrators who make me... what's the word...fidgety, wiggly agaitated! - with admiration.   Her sketchy style, groovy patterns and adorable images just make me nuts.
Don't even get me started on the awesomeness of Charlie and Lola.  The English accents just kill me!  The point of having found this image was that I was Pippi for Halloween, not a stretch for a gal who owns 7 pairs of stripy coloured tights already, but still.

Happy Friday folks!  I am on my fourth cup of tea and just got out of my PJ's at lunch time.  I know, spoiled rotten, and loving it!  I did get a load of laundry and the dishes done and hung a new pair of curtains too though.  Time for groceries now I believe.

evolution of a drawing

I don't think I have done this kind of post before.   I saw one like it somewhere and thought it was interesting!  This is the evolution of a drawing I recently did for Maisonneuve Magazine.

Because it was a straightforward map, of the Place Des Arts neighborhood in Montreal, it was a reasonably simple progression from sketch to final.  Many jobs require three or more rough drawings, if a concept is being hammered out, as well as some revisions and changes to the final piece too.  Above is the sketch the Art Director originally sent me, to show which businesses were important to include.

I used Google maps to figure out where everything went- what on earth did people do before that came along?  The rough in this case is nearly the same as the final.  I then traced it and made it a bit neater and nicer.

I scanned it in and colored it up in photoshop, using the colors the Art Director was using in the layout on the facing page.  Of course I added a bunch of birds in to make it a teensy bit cute.

I believe this job was passed on to me by my friend Marlena, who sends me map jobs if she is on vacation.  Thanks Mar!

philanthropy

(click for larger)

I did this picture back in March for an article in a magazine for SickKids hospital about philanthropy and hospitals.  I had forgotten all about it until a cheque came in the mail a few weeks ago.  I love when that happens!  Also, I have uploaded the last of my pages for the new book to the publishers FTP, so I can do things other than that suddenly!  It is possible there will be some small tweaks left to do, but for now I consider it done. 

Today I updated my website a little bit. 
I recently went to an interesting panel discussion about Children's book illustration.  I had grand plans of introducing myself to the two publishers there, but simply had no voice to use that night.  Updating my website is part of that process.  After a strong coffee one day soon, I intend to contact these people for real.
It never hurts to have your work on file at various places. 

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.

school library journal

 

Yippee!  Berkeley has been reviewed in the School Library Journal!

mug for the camera

I made six mugs for the craft sales and sold them all!  I only managed to take a picture of the last two though.  I was pleased to have sold them as they seemd a bit shakey- it's hard to draw on a curve.  They are done with the magical porcelaine pen.




Here are some sketches of the possibilities.  The city of craft was awesome and a big thanks to Jen and Becky for wrangling it into shape! 
Sunday was also a fun little neighborhood sale in my knitting neighbors home. Tres bien!
And now all that is done I am starting work on a new picture book!! Yes, that is my special happy news- I got picked to do another one and I am so thrilled.  That might be all you will hear about it for a while as the publictation date is not until far far off into the future.  Lots of deadlines in between though, with thumbnails, then roughs, then revisions, then a mock cover and one final page and then finals, more revisions and all of it due in June.
I will be a busy duck, starting now. Yay!

murmur junction

I recently completed this map of the junction area for the murmur project .
Murmur is awesome- this is what it's about.  I think it is such a brilliant project and I was so happy to be a part of it.  My friend Marlena usually does their maps, but she was on vacation so I got to!

Introducing Berkeley!!

I am so proud to show you the cover of the forth coming picture book! It will be released in September in Canada and October in the states, but don't worry, I will remind you! It is published by the nicest people I have ever worked with, Kids Can Press. This is something that I have been working on for the last eight months, from the very first thumbnails, to a number of roughs, re-workings or finals and now this! The final images are set up with the great story written by Tera and I am thrilled. Phew! For the most part, the working soundtrack consisted of Stephane Grapelli and Django Reinhardt because they play such happy music. It helped me draw pictures of a happy owl who loves to dance!

Here is Berkeley standing with Bo and Bree, but you will have to read the book to find out about them! I send out a big huge thank-you to Yvette, my editor, for being so nice and on the ball and for picking me in the first place, to Karen, our designer for doing such a beautiful job with it all and to Tera for writing such a cute story! Did I say, I am thrilled? woot hoot!

tea by tea, day by day

I found this lovely blue yarn in Victoria on our trip and just finished a little scarf- there wasn't enough to really make anything else. You can see it in progress on the porch picture below. My newest friend is this rock I found this past weekend at sandbanks. He already had two eyes and all I needed to do was give him a smile. It wasn't easy, he didn't laugh at all my usual jokes so I had to get creative.

Another tea time, another day. It was a bit grey when I made my cup of tea this morning, so the picture is not great. It was a very good cuppa though, my old standby regular tea with milk and sugar. Tea always tastes better when you have really earned it. I have been working away here trying to organise details, colours, sizes. I won't elaborate incase it is top secret but I have been hired to illustrate a children's book and it is a big honour to have been chosen. I am feeling quite tense with the desire to do a good job and somewhere buried deep is a joy at having a lovely project to do. My horoscope today says "Enjoy your challenges. They are making you clever and creative." So at times when my free time seems to shrink down to zero, I tend to go small. These are some things making me happy right now.
-wearing socks in the house again
-my new cups for tea
-going to sleep
-dreaming
-my flickr surfing time during my afternoon tea break
-sufjan on the itunes
-chatting with mum regularly now that she is home
-dishes getting done
-comfortable shoes

brush your teeth!

I just did these kiddies for a dentist who wanted an image to send out to his kid clients on their birthdays. This also went with the teeth zodiac images I mentioned previously, which turned out pretty good after I accepted the fact that teeth are mostly all white, except for the rosy cheeks.

simplification

I somehow had the right sort of energy last week to actually update and simplify my website! I figured out the whole simpleviewer thing and even figured out how to customize it a bit with a whilte background instead of black and pink navigation arrows, of course. I am happy with this now, it is what I always had wanted but did not know how to do. Though simple, my old layout of having 3 or more pages to scroll down through was unwieldy. This feels nicer, to have it all in one spot and having a cauliflower directing the way? Well that's just plain sensible.

These are the soup and chili imges I have been working on for the last number of months. One a week for however long, with two still to go. I have been waiting until I had enough to make a nice grouping like this!
You can click here to see it nice and big.


I have been spending some time updating my website with the soups and cleaning up my dusty shop a bit.
I am still thinking, as always, that I could spruce up my website with a new design. Perhaps using a template from this site. It looks quite nice and is far beyond anything I could do with my meeger HTML skills. I shall look into it again...