Website a-go once more!

Here it is, folks! My very first blog post on the road! I am sitting at the GO transit terminal having failed my first attempt at catching the early bus to work (late by two stinking minutes too! I suppose the bus waits for no man) and thought I would use my time wisely. So, here we go!

The (hopefully) image above is a shot of the progress I made over the weekend on the site I was meaning to do in January. You may have noticed that I've changed this blog background to white (thank you, Ronaldo) and I really like the change so I've decided to continue with it on my work site as well. I'm hoping it won't be too hard to shake off my old hosts for the new ones so that this new site can go live sooner than later.

That's it for now- let's see what happens when I hit publish!

OOPS! Got to give credit!

OOPS!

I just realized that I posted a painting done by my dear friend Bradley Leitch in a photo last week and did not mention it. He does not have a website yet, so I can't give you a link, unfortunately. Well, here it is again, and I apologize for not giving props last week.


Sorry, Brad! You are a super talent!

My week of freelance illustration

I'm well into my second week of work at my new job, and I'm still getting used to the transition from a 15 minute commute to a 90 minute commute. It's certainly having an effect on my accomplishments in the evening time, and just on general sleepiness. I am feeling supper sleepy, by the way. Anyhow, I have 3 hours of travel time to fill, and this weekend I went out and bought myself a handy dandy iPhone. I have downloaded the blog application on to it, but can't figure it out yet. When I do I will be writing here at 7:30 in the morning on a bus with a load of snoozing executives.

This post is about cool #3: illustration work!! I adore illustration work- it's my first love, even above embroidery, and my educational background. It's been ages since I've had any, and I was getting antsy. As I said last post, my "week off" of work ended up being a week on. 2010 brought me another sweet present! I had two jobs I was working on, one has been published already and I can share it with you and the other I will only show a snippet and you will have to wait for the rest.

The first job I did is an illustration for the National Post (a Canadian newspaper) to accompany their February calendar on Monday the 1st. I went totally Valentine's on their paper, with an Olympic/ black history month flare. I was allowed to do whatever I liked and I did just that! Here it is:


And this is a shot of my desk as I worked on the second illustration project. And yes, this job was done in full vector! I really am turning into a digi-Claire. Note the glass of delicious apple cider. It was my week off, after all, so I treated myself to a sweet treat.


Update on the tea towels at Model Citizen next time!

No Problems!

You will all be happy to know that I have survived almost a full week at my new job. Perhaps I should clarify that I survived almost a week of a 3 hour daily commute on public transit. I feel like if I can get through the week like this then I should be good to go until I can buy me some sweet wheels or find a carpool buddy. Anyhow, what I mean to say is that I am really liking the job so far and my co-workers have made me feel right at home.

That aside, you may be surprised that you didn't hear from me again over my week off (well, really, if you follow this blog at all it's not THAT surprising) but it got crazy like a horse busy as soon as I hit "publish post". Lots of new illustration work to show you to make up for my poor blogging. That is for another day.

Today, I want to mention cool thing #3 (and yes, 2010 is still the shiznit) which is the first completed painting of the year.

I will start by telling you that I try to do a painting for one special loved one every year for Christmas. It's always a one of a kind, never scanned for future usage, special made piece for that individual. This year I chose to make a painting for my old college roommate and brother from another mother, Brad. This is his painting, which he seemed to really like.


It's based on an old t-shirt he's had since grade 5 that he is proud to say is still in his wardrobe today. Here is the original:

And here is my take on it. I made it a bit ghetto cool as Brad is what you would call "hip".

Oh, and I didn't end up getting anything up on etsy again- shucks. I will continue to look for time to do so.