Come'on It's Love-ly Weather For a Sleigh-Ride Together, With You!

Hey, since i'm not going to use this design for my christmas cards...finaly, i'll post it here already.

This is it...i have officially passed on to fully nut-case-christmas-mode. 

All i think of is getting my live-tree next week, and how to decorated the house...and print christmas cards and look outside at the snow. (!)

Turns out this design was, one, not really joyous enough, or me enough....and my parents both thought it has a little something "funeralesque" so i decided to make something else, more joyous, peaceful, and me. In the meentime, i've become addicted to rice pudding. (i make it myself with brown rice and all sorts of wonderful things, like chestnuts, vanilla, cocoa...) It makes the best christmasy breakfast. 

I also epically failed at making a "beet pie" this past week end. but havent said my last word, in terms of deserts, me and cab spent sunday afternoon making a million cupcakes of all wonders, mine were chai-tea and cream cheeze icing. (OMG)

I'm dreaming of a white-christmas.

This is a sketch i did a couple weeks ago. I like it, but i just dont know where to go with it...does that happen to people expept me?

I was really in love with this picture. (ok i apologies, total lack of credit. i totally just got that on google image...i wont do that again. :) the colours, the lighting, the equestrianity (?), the model...all of it is just great. to me.

i dont know, i think i was missing sketching out all the details by hand. something i dont really do anymore. and i was nostalgic...but the thing is, i dont really know how to colour that thing.

ok, enough soul searching...haha.

And this is some sketches, i did for a book i'm working on. (i wont use those, they were totally out of line...but i think those lanthers, are oh so pretty...)

i drew those at Cab' s house, and by the way, i'm really stoked that she joined our art collective , that you should check out!

And while i'm at it, with the talented great people...a friend has this cutesy style blog, that i didnt know of until this week, it is a total inspiration too. She has a great sens of style, that miss Pearl.  I beleive she should be an art director, or a stylist. (actually drew her before and should do that again.)

Let It Snow.

where is the snow? almost december and not one centimeter yet?? i have really nice -north face- knee high boots that are still in the box. i guess the weather has been pretty mild lately. and incredibly sunny too. im not complaning at all. i only like 'the idea' of snow i think, as soon as its on the ground and bugging me in my motricity, i hate it. (for the 8 months to come)

but right now...i could use some puffy white magic sugar on stuff.

 

also, i think this sort of looks like frankenstein's bride-ish...or radioactive sea.

and here what i had in mind, in terms of having the 3 together, or sort of. since this was originaly for Joel, i used his weird office wall colour as bg. :)

xx t'aime.

I'll be home for christmas.

WOW, 2 posts in the same day? when did that ever happen??

I am aware that those images arent that complicated and skillfull..but, there is some days when you just want that quick result...and today is one like that.

this is a second image of the "octopussy" tapestry project, for my lover Joel . I will try my best not to overwrite on this one like i did the first one , flatenning my high-rez like im 18 again. I dont know if i'll actually be able to make something out of this...since so far, 50% of the stuff is 72dpi...but oh well. i felt like colouring this one. It made me think of my friend audrey (-joel, no, i dont fantisize about squid-audrey) and since she had a rough day today, i felt like thinking of her and making something out of it. so here it goes, two for one!

***is it just me or blogger makes ALL images seem much more desaturated? i always have to boost the levels and contrasts and hues and stuff, for it to look even just a little as bright as it does on my application screen....am i going crazy? what is this phenomenon...we're talking about the same computer screen.

Christmas Totoro. > <

It's beginning to smell a lot-like christmas...

This is the second, completed illu for the hair serie. Thanks to my friend Sam, for being kind enough to pose for me. I'm pretty pleased with it, since i've been gossing on the CURL? one for a while, with nothing near any results.  (seeing LAME? on top of my own head...)

But, lets not despair. The very cool blogger Rosie , was so nice to play around take pictures just for me. And i do love some of the pics she snapped, so i'll manage to make them into what i want, soonish i hope. In the meentime i'm busy with other stuff. And haven't really done any stationary for xmas yet. well, not actually printed and ready to send, that is.
Also, I'm pretty exited about starting an art collective with some of my friends, around the world.
check us out in a little while (there isnt any art per-se yet...) at Le Drawing Happening dot blogspot dot com. I'm very happy to have had such an enthousiastic response from them. and i look foward to seeing what we come up with. Me and my Crazy-Joel are also setting an ESTY SHOP so you'll be abble to buy buttons, pins, prints, and all sort of cool things with our art on it soon.

I wish i had a river i could skate away on.

*

*

Prince of Monaco

As I've mentionned before, i collaborated with the online brit magazine Ballad Of... last summer.

The theme of the submition had to be "Eclectic Few Days Off". I was happy to use joel since i hadnt drawn him for a long while. (he insisted that this is not resemblant since his jaw is too rounded. but ME thinsk it still looks just as handsome as him. doing exact portraits is hard and slightly boring to me.)

Anyways. im putting this up now since the mag is out! (you can purchase it online for a decent price but the shipping to canada is killer.) I still think its a very cool magazine with lots of talented artists. And they were terribly lovely to work with.



i'm off to doing as much as i can before hallloween frenzie is here. (we are attending two halloween nights, which will probably ruin my skin for a month. my costume involves face paint.)
++
I've been sending Halloween promo cards this year, i love the result and i'll put up the design of it on friday for people who wont have one in the mailbox.

I do not know, Sir.

Something i had in mind for a couple weeks, before sitting and getting to it. I wanted to do a couple of those, hair-related sort of. Like, Colour? Perm? Hair-Spray?

I dont know if those are catchy. I dont know if i like this one as much as much as i liked the concept in my mind. I dont know if the colours are too drab. or just cool and cold. (what i was aimming for.) I feel very uncertain... :)

So let me know what YOU think.

ta.


***
ps: thanks, model: sashi.
title of the blog: hommage to Data.

For Joel.

***

i did it...i just over-wrote my hi-resolution of that. so stupid. i feel like im back 5 years ago.
i intended to print this at some point...now its 72 DPI. F&CK.
i dont think so but i wish there was a way to go back in your computer's brain memory and find other versions of files you saved over by mistake. god that would make me happy. but, no.

toua et moua

ME IN COLOURS!

Sam coloured my sketch. like i had hers. this was a very enjoyable game and i would very much like to do that again some time.




In the mean time, i went to british colombia, canada. (our wild west). i even saw mile 0. (the furthest west point of canada.)
we spent a long week end in victoria to spend some time with Joel's family and friends. and traveled for a short trip to vancouver.

here's some pics of our adventure.






***

and a little panoramic view experience...
didnt turn out quite as successfull as i thought when snapping away, in the aqua-bus. (see far right, those things are awsome, and expensive..)

grrrrrrr, I'm mmmaad.

Remember when i was talking about that sketch swap? this is my friend Samantha's sketch of herself. I coloured it my way. it was actually a little more tricky then i thought to apply natural ways of colouring onto someone else's lines. defenetly a grown up colour-book feel. i like that little skull pattern and im actually using it for an illustration of mine im working on right now. that has a lot to do with halloween, and pumpkins. :)

and just for some added atmosphere, mushy sloshy rain falling to anticipate ugly montreal spring days. like way in advance.



listening to: joel's harry potter audio book through the office door.
eating: home made celeri soup
drinking: grapefruit juice
reading: margaret atwood, "the year of the flood"
thinking about: commercial illustration

september baby

i've been a little out of it, drawing-wise. i was sort of out of ideas i guess.

BUT... i have been working (and that was a delight actually) with angie of I HEART NORWEGIAN WOOD. im not talking too much about it, first of all because the secret is always more fun, and second, just cause...but here is a little sneak, its not the real thing but something that came out of the work i did for her. I really dig her creations, and i reeeaaaally liked working in collaboration with someone so talented/creative/articulate.




talking about nice people....
i also had a little play-time with boum. we're doing a sort of drawing swap. we both have to colour a sketch from the other. we actually chose to draw self-portraits, in our sketching style. but then have to colour the other's line art, in our colouring ways...that should be interesting, and maybe hard. but i think its great.
here's what i came up with this afternoon, i dont have a berry tattoo like that, but whatev.



and lastly, a little doodle, that i might finish, and might not. im also suppose to make new business cards...since my email/phone changed, and that TA DAH, i have a website. but im sort of out of it for that too.....
shake it!!

mmmm....

almost done.
I really wanted it to look like a bathroom self-portrait kind of thing. so i was trying for a ceramique wall in the background.
but i think i like the wall without anything better. its warmer??

i think i'll keep playing with it a little more. im not satisfied in therms of being faithful to my palette.

but for now i need to lunch.

drawing: augustine, eating: paula-red apples, drinking: starbucks coffee, reading: millenium3, watching: jean-luc picard.

Ok, i have a couple more ideas in mind, that i want to get through for my porfolio update.

first of all, i did last week a submition for the cool folks at Ballad Of... magazine.
its quite cool, but i wont post it here just yet, first off i dont know if i'll make the cut, and if i do, i'll wait for it to be printed out and out and all that. but let me just say that it involves, pictures from Monaco my parents took this summer, joel posing for me, pipes, and retro bikes. :) im pretty happy with it and its just another bullet in my new body-of-work.

i've been really inspired by this to-die-for-cuteness web-zine lately, small. this is their blog.

and, since i said i was gonna draw something with those awsome colours i fell in love with making cherry jam...
here it is, work in progress. working with yet another cute pic of friend Avy.


i've been pretty kept by this:



and its taking some of my days actually, i'll be glad to have all my time back when im done!
i actually do recommand those books to everybody who knows how to..hum...read.

and lastly, here's another pic of our sweetheart of a doggy. just cause he's adorable.



for joel's take on the matter, or a view of what we-jolly-pair do when not watching star trek in bed or eating slow cooked meals, watch some more pics here.

WEBSITE!

pauleillustration.com

:D

many thanks to sam for all the the hard work that went into this baby.

have a great september. do eat an apple a day.
xx

we're long before blossoms.

this is a portrait of a friend, Kristina-Pearl, i was playing with this for a couple days, i like it, even though i dont know exactly what i wanted with the blossoms. i left them sketchy, i dont know if i should go very realistic, or detailed on it.

i also wanted to put a tattoo of sparrows on the left side of her chest. (left as in her right side, under the shirt and coming out a tiny bit) i kept trying to make it cool but it failed, so i left her chest blank.

like i said, i dont know just yet where exactly this is going, i might work on it more.

ta

***

worked on it a little more already.

august.

I'm struggling.

i've been working on that nectarine-drawing, that was the second choice of the "drew last summer but never got coloured" portraits of avy. For some reason this seems SO hard. I'm having the hardest time with the background. I actually erased and started over like, half a dozen times....i'm using a really cute ref. picture that i took near my friend Geneviève's house, around Lavender Hill in london. I cant seem to pin point why, but this image doesnt inspire me enough to get somewhere with it, and it has become more eagerness then anything, and im getting cranky. i just dont know if ill keep at it more. I have other things in my plate, and this is more leisure then anything, i am thinking/in the process of revamping my portfolio. but i doubt this would ever make the cut at this point.




on a more positive note, last week i made jam, with this bag of black and white cherries that my mum had dropped here before leaving for France. I added a peach and a plum that were going mushy as well, mapple sirup, nutmeg and cardamone. its pretty great actually. but those colours....THOSE COLOURS!! i am so inspired. i felt the need to take a dozen pictures as the berries kept on turning more and more charming shades of all purples and reds. those colours are so autumny and even though i do like august a lot, im so impatient to feel fall coming. i dont know yet, but i will make something with that palette. soon.





...
and just little pics of my males.
we are having the loveliest time with toto around. he's gonna be missed big time if he goes back to trois-rivières at the end of the month.
and isnt that the most blissfull breakfast?? god, i do love blueberry bagels. (geneviève: événement remplir votre sac chez metro....t'en rappelle?? :) But arent they ever so caloric....yes, still are.

staying in.

header maybe-baby

this is a drawing thats been hanging out on my desktop for the last week. i've been on and off working on it. (thats never the best in my case.)
it sort of is a self-portrait. a little idealistic...for those who know me personaly, my hair is still jaw-lenth..i did not get massive hair-extensions overnight. but ive been fantizing over growing it long since i saw the watchmen, twice, last winter.
i'm seriously considering adding another hole in my face, the nose one. im still thinking it through. this type woudnt leave any scars if i would end up not liking it, not that i worry about that too much anyways.

i dont know if i like the background colour. i was working on a white background for the whole time. i played around afterwards, adding that texture and all that. this colour reminds my of my new kitchen walls. if you have brilliant ideas as of what colour would flatter that waxing skin tone, go for it, suggest, right now maybe its a little bit too close. im thinking of using that illu for the header of a potential website. so it sort of matters.

anyways.
ta for now.

ps: here's a little bit ahead of this too.