Happy Belated St. Patricks Day!

I meant to post this yesterday. It's a clip from an ad we couldn't send because of the elections in Alberta this past month. The mammoth is "moe", the Royal Alberta Museums mascot. I've illustrated him about a dozen times now.

Illustrators, Graphic Designers & Artists

Your business cards are needed by a student. Help her collect a couple hundred cards by sending yours to her. I think it's a fun project!

I adore...

Just a note on cool things I discovered today while hunting for a "Moo Egg" (did not find one...).
•Imagine a messanger bag made of painters canvas... see Timbuk2's designs!
•I'd also love to get my paws on one of Lucha Workshop's monster bags (or scarves... boo, it sold the other day!)
•I have a secret love affair with monsters as well as Matty8080's Zombies!...
•Geninne's birds are so elegant (wouldn't her work look great in my bathroom?)

halloween harvest

halloween harvest, originally uploaded by crystal driedger.

A piece for my portfolio and a reminder to vary my poses (see the last entry I made in which the girl is doing pretty much the same thing... sigh...!) Tunnel Vison.

Garden Stroll: Illustration Friday

Garden Stroll (illustration friday: garden), originally uploaded by crystal driedger.

A soft breeze fills Claires skirt with thick puffs of pink
The smell of lavendar tickles her nose
Butterflies pause as Frogs dance on the rich earth
Green leaves and stone tiles absorb the warm of the sun.
The sweet taste of vanilla couldn't be better appreciated
than on a summer garden stroll.

*made just for illustration friday!

Edmonton Sketch Crawl

I heard of an experiment that someone was doing in San Fransisco which they dubbed a "sketchcrawl". The idea is to go out and draw for an entire day everything that you do or things that you see as you go along. I was inspired and intrigued by the idea so I decided to plan one myself! I urge other illustration readers to plan one in their city. It's a great way to meet other aritsts in their community.

EDMONTON SKETCH CRAWL
(18th international)
SAT, MARCH 29th
11am
STANLEY A MILNER LIBRARY, Down town
(in the entrance if it's terrible outside, outside if it's glorious!)

Here's what the founder had to say:

"The basic idea: to record nonstop everything I could around me with my pencil and watercolors. A drawn journal filled with details ranging from the all the coffee I drank to the different buses I took. After a whole day of drawing and walking around the city the name seemed quite fitting: “SketchCrawl” - a drawing marathon. The crawl was more tiring than I imagined but also more fun and exciting than I had thought. Giving yourself this kind of mandate for a full day changes the way you look around you. It makes you stop and see things just a tad longer, just a bit deeper … needless to say I loved it.

I soon figured out it was much more interesting to do the marathon with a group of artists instead of all by myself! And so SketchCrawl turned communal. After a whole day of drawing it proved to be amazingly interesting and inspiring to share and compare other people’s drawings and thoughts. Different takes on our surroundings, different details, different sensibilities.
The next step was making the SketchCrawl a World Wide event: having people from different corners of the world join in a day of sketching and journaling and then, thanks to the Internet, having everyone share the results on an online forum.

Hope to see some of you out there!

The Dark Side of Crystal.

Perhaps it is the snow that never seems to stop coming down from the sky, but lately I've been a bit under the weather emotionally. Sad, for no good reason. This is why I've created these sketches, which are rather darker than my usual style, in the hopes of getting some of the darkness out of my system (yes, even children's illustrators get the blues).

Illustration Friday: Leap

Illustration Friday: Leap, originally uploaded by crystal driedger.

Maybelle, grown tired of her usual persuits, ties a bow round her head, paints some boiled eggs with patterns and leaps into the air with joy. Has she gone mad or has she just become the easter bunny?

(sketched exclusively for illustration friday, what a gosh darn treat!...)