Thursday sketchin'

I have exciting sketchy things in the works but, as the way things are with these things, I am waiting to sign contracts so I can't really share much yet, BUT I can share this potato.

One of my favourite places on this island is Auntie Pesto's cafe -- where you might find me eating breakfast (or lunch or dinner) quite often.

I love the Pesto's breakfast potatoes almost as much as I love the bacon. And that's saying something, because if the menu offered "Plate of Bacon" I would order that every day (and I am almost serious).

songsfortheday is my most visited blog these days. I blame Adam entirely for me clocking up a large bandcamp/itunes bill. Bad - but good.

And of course, don't forget Jordan Stratford's Wollstonecraft kickstarter! I am so excited to be spending some time illustrating these books.

Mary & Ada

 

Hey! I'm working on something fun and steampunky for author Jordan Stratford. I finished this sketch of the two main characters today. Ada and Mary. This has been such a great project. I can't resist drawing girls in pretty dresses. I feel like I'm 8 again when that's pretty much all I drew. Jordan is launching his kickstarter.com campaign on Sunday to fund the production of this fabulous sounding book:

"Wollstonecraft by Jordan Stratford

London 1826: The Advent of the Steam Age

11 year old Ada has a problem: her governess, Miss Coverlet, has quit her job to go get married (a dumb idea if ever there was one, if you ask Ada) and her new tutor Percy ("Peebs") is a total drip.  She'd rather be left to her own devices – literally – inventing things and solving math problems and ignoring people altogether.

She's also forced to study alongside the imaginative girlie-girl Mary, who's always going on about romance and exotic travels.  Fortunately, Mary's appetite for adventure leads her to propose the two girls open a detective agency, and when an heiress shows up with a case about a missing diamond, it's the perfect puzzle to coax Ada out of her shell.

This is the made up story about two very real girls – Ada, the world's first computer programmer, and Mary, the world's first science fiction author – caught up in a steampunk world of hot-air balloons and steam engines, jewel thieves and mechanical contraptions.  For readers 8-12.

This is a pro-math, pro-science, pro-history and pro-literature adventure novel for and about girls, who use their education to solve problems and catch a jewel thief.  Ada and Mary encounter real historical characters, such as Percy Shelley, Charles Babbage, Michael Faraday, and Charles Dickens – people whom the girls actually knew.  If Jane Austen wrote about zeppelins and brass goggles, this would be the book."

Sketchy on a Thursday

Wonky perspective, wonky technical drawing - but I like it anyway. Mostly I like the expression on the kid's face.

I've been digging Edward Ardizzone recently - for movement and expression. I remember not being terribly enthralled with his work as a child - preferring the clear lines of Babapapa and Richard Scarry et al. but I am making a gradual move away from digital dependancy and learning to trust my hand without relying on command-z, so anything with loose lines is encouraging.

Now, how to get that front wheel to look like it's turning?

 

Hand claps make me happy - Romance by Wild Flag is on repeat around here and encourages five year olds to air guitar, and I have a soft spot for Samantha Crain's It's Simple.

Growing up - Amelia has told me that almost all of her friends and girl class mates want to be vets at the moment. It's the career du jour for grade fours. Amelia tells me she wants to be a writer, a video game developer and an artist. Lily wants to be a rockstar, and a tattoo artist and an artist-artist. Luckily we moved to the right place for those little flakes. I think I might like to be some of those things too.