3...2...1... SOFT LAUNCH TIME!

I finally did it!!

After a year of multiple free two week trials I have finally committed to the purchase of my new website! Can you believe it? It's about time! I am saying that I've softly launched it as I haven't had much time to do any uploading of art and am going to do some more customization to the pages. Let me tell you this, my friends. My updates will be MUCH more frequent. Feel free to visit my website more than once a year and know that you'll see something new!

So, as if you wouldn't know, my website is www.clairemanning.com. Let me know what you think so far!

I completed a promotion for Three in Box last week with the theme of fairy tales. I knew that I wanted to go with The Ugly Duckling as my tale but had a hard time trying to nail down a concept. I wanted to use a twist to the story and thought of doing a "guide to being different" as told through the duckling story. I could not for the life of me figure out a layout that I liked with this idea so I went back to the drawing board and focused more on design. I was very happy with my end result. Fingers crossed that others do too!


I've also had my work in the Octopus Project show since my last post. Here are a few shots of my whole piece. The inspiration of the piece is the sound of a phone ringing and a man picking up to say "hello?". I however, heard a male killer whale on that phone instead.




This week I am painting a piece for yet another show- this one is themed "manimals!". The idea for this one came fastly and furiously and I can't wait to show you the final product. I'll be sure to post it soon!

A little sneak peek.

Guess who missed the early bus to work again today? Me! This is my first day back on transit after two glorious weeks of driving my sister's car to work- I miss it already!

Anyhow, that combined with a late night of painting my piece for the upcoming Octopus Project show caused my body to fail at the waking up thing this morning. Good news is that the painting turn out just the way I wanted it to. Does that ever happen to you? It doesn't usually for me. Here is a little preview. If you want more, come out to the show!


Next up is the final art for the 1/4 page I'm doing for Today's Parent magazine. Roughs have been approved so it's time to get going on it!

I really love being so busy with my art!

Have you tried a blood orange yet?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Claire loves... Sicilian blood oranges!

I do!
This is the first year I've had the chance to try these tasty oranges and I am truly addicted. The flavour is very sweet and they're really juicy. I am not one to pick the orange over other fruit but these tasty guys are the best. Plus, they come wrapped in a ninja turtle wrapper! I highly recommend trying them while they are still in season.


I am super busy with lots of exciting art projects, one being an illustration for June's Today's Parent and the other being a painting for a group exhibition in Toronto this weekend. The show is called the Octopus Project and they put on different themed shows every once in a while. The one happening this weekend is themed "Hello!". The show happens at the Case Goods Warehouse in the Distillery district in Toronto- click the link above for more info and directions. Hope to see you there!

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.