I drew these for #theydrawtober as part of the They draw and cook IG challenge last October. There was an autumn drawing prompt for each day of the month. (That’s 31 prompts in total for the month!) I only did a bunch in October and then kept going after that all the way into the holidays. It was my first time following a series of prompts and I tried to stick with it even if it meant taking much longer and honestly going all the way into the winter season. I obsessively did them in order and satisfyingly checked them off one by one after I finished. I did 25 prompts in total. Not too shabby i think. I like the challenge of doing research on subject matter and drawing new things that I’ve never drawn before – like spicy cocktail. I didn’t know that a Bloody Caesar is like a whole meal!

I’m putting up some larger images of the bike, soda drink, fries and poutine illustrations from my biking in Prince Edward County map. I start my illustrations by using watercolour and pencil crayon on paper, and then digitize the artwork, and continue to refine the drawings on my iPad in Procreate. I used to do the refinements in Photoshop but since I bought a iPad Pro this year, I am trying out Procreate. The map shows the route that we took from Consecon to Jamie Kennedy’s Farm in Hillier. See here for the full illustrated map of Prince Edward County.

I got my 2nd vaccine shot at the beginning of summer. Fully vaxxed! Some kind pharmacists quickly ushered me in for an impromptu shot when I went to the drug store to buy hamburger buns for dinner – heh! Thankful for summer, thankful for the sun and warmth. I also just got an iPad Pro. The above is one of my first sketches on Procreate.

I made this colouring illustration as an activity for my church’s 41st anniversary that everyone can do at home in these socially distanced times. Families coloured a postcard with the above illustrations at home and made a paper bouquet of flowers to with the postcard. We all took pictures and sent them back to compile together as a memory for this year’s anniversary. We’ve been doing church virtually for over a year now!

One year later, and so much screen time. They look forward to playing Roblox on the weekends after 5 days of virtual school. In between, everyone has new bikes and we try to get out for fresh air after getting through a long Canadian winter in a pandemic. On the drawing front, I’m drawing more loosely and have taken to using my almost dried up brush pen (Dried up because someone always comes and helps herself to all my art supplies!)

These two can stay out playing in the snow ALL afternoon.

Welcome to 2020. The world feels pretty upside down. All the more reason to note the good things even if they seem small, ordinary or routine. “The purest form of joy comes to us in ordinary moments, and those moments can happen any place where gratitude is alive” – Brene Brown.

Fall time harvest: On my IG feed, I’ve been seeing all the fruits and vegetables harvested at the farmers markets. This gives me some subject matter to try out as I test out watercolour and pencil crayon on hot-press paper. So different from the textured cold-press paper!

I watched Iraville’s tutorial on mixing skintones and attempted to mix various shades without using any white. I like how these faces spontaneously came up!

Watercolour sketch that I did for the MATS Editorial class – thinking about calm, soothing drinks.

Watercolor with details added in Photoshop.