January 17, 2012

One of the perks of my job is that I'm privy to things like receiving an advance copy of an album from one of my long time favourite musicians, Kathleen Edwards. This album is a bit of a shift from her last few in that's she's expanding her sound, which also means there's an opportunity to go in a different direction with album art. The album is called Voyageur and everything about the album is perfectly linked conceptually as if it were some sort of musical version of a survivor's guidebook.

On a personal note, I really love the title and art for this album because right in the middle of working on it I was on my own voyage into fatherhood. The artwork serves as a mental snap shot of one of the things I had going on the moment my life changed.

Here's some of the sketches at various stages of the project.



Below are a few of the final paintings. During the early phase, we were thinking that the rowboat would be the cover image, hence the extra colour option. Ultimately, the Great Lakes illo ended up being the main cover and the whole package was designed by Jud Haynes. More pics soon.

January 15, 2012


Print Gocco on found paper, 5" x 7.5"

December 4, 2011

Personal pieces, mixed media. 5" x 8"

November 29, 2011

This is just a quick experiment to see if my work, which is always 2D, could be used in 3D environment. I enjoy
that something like this could help add another application for my work and simultaneously keep me interested in it, which is often a challenge for illustrators who work in a certain way for long stretches of the long road that is a career.

Oct 7, 2011

A school of fish, a murder of crows, a plaid of designers.

— @darbooth

September 29, 2011

A few photos from Grade 1, 2 & 3 of my childhood School Day Treasures book. Now that I've fulfilled my dream of growing up and drawing cats, I think I'll retire.

September 29, 2011

A few days ago I came across some of my old drawings from elementary and high school. Although they're from 20 years ago I can still remember some of the thoughts that were running through my head while working on them. The drawing of Ken Dryden is still one of my all-time favourite drawings that I've ever created.

1. Goalie - Age 10
2. Horse - Age 12
3. House - Age 14
4. Doc Martins - Age 14
5. Rectangle - Age 11
6. Triangle - Age 11

September 29, 2011

Here's a few progress shots from the cover for Kathleen Edwards' 7" vinyl titled Wapusk.

July 25, 2011



Feel free to download the Truth wallpaper for your iPhone, iPad or computer:

iPad: Meow
iPhone: Meow
1280 x 800: White // Black
1440 x 900: White // Black
1680 x 1050: White // Black
1920 x 1200: White // Black
2560 x 1440: White // Black

If you don't like Truth, you could download my Work/Life wallpaper for your iPhone or iPad:

iPad: Meow
iPhone: Meow

June 19, 2011

This is my poor cat, Doug. No matter how much you brush her, every summer her fur gets matted and becomes painful. (It's over 4 inches long). I decided to get her shaved this year but it turns out there's a month long waiting list for a groomer to do this. So, I took matters into my own hands…with scissors.
It turns out she's much skinnier than I thought she was and although she's a bit lumpy looking, she's as soft as anything again and she no longer cries anymore when being petted.

June 3, 2011

This week for Follow Friday (#FF) on Twitter I felt like doing something different so I created handmade #FF's and tweeted them. For something that only took a few minutes to make, the response was amazing and I'd like to add a few more in the coming weeks. Oh, then this happened.

May 24, 2011

It's refreshing when you get an opportunity to create work that's outside your usual realm in terms of content or it's end usage. In this case, I had the chance to do both for HHMI Bulletin's recently launched iPad app (available here for free via iTunes). With apps being so important now, there's plenty of opportunites for creatives to have their work used in new ways. Jennifer Lee at VSA Partners wanted to use my work because it was different from the work normally associated with this type of content. (They commission some fantastic artists, btw, ie: Josh Cochran, Chris Silas Neal, Jillian Tamaki). Although it's just a simple interactive animation, it allows content to go much deeper than it could have with print, and that's one of the reasons I really liked working on this assignment and I'm glad to have it in my portfolio.