Birthday Present

Coloured pencil, marker and pen on bristol paper.

My sister's birthday is today and I made her this little lady to hang on her wall.

It's not a portrait of her, but it certainly does remind me of her. Me and my sister tend to always pose with our fingers intertwined together under our chin, we both went through a turquoise nail polish phase this summer, and I always think she looks cutest with her hair in a ponytail.

Autumn Spice

Here is a little Fall lady for you.

I am obsessed with deep green nail polish lately and want to cover all of my ladies fingertips with them.

Right now I'm wearing TopShop nail polish in Poison Ivy and I LOVE IT.

Some drawings

Before I went to Ireland I buckled down and bought my first Moleskin. I wanted to use it and keep very well written notes on everything I experienced and saw. Things that made me think, things that changed for me...

But if you know me at all, you'll know that I write down things on almost anything but bound paper. I did manage, however, to draw some femmes of inspiration in my Moleskin and here the lassies are...

click to make big

click to make big

click to make big

Ireland was fun, and beyond what I thought I would experience. I went beyond my personal boundaries and just enjoyed myself and what life has to offer. I really can't wait until my next adventure.

xoxoxo

colouring pages

Hi y'alls. Just some stuff I was sketching from old magazines.

I've tossed about 20lbs of old magazines and saved some loose sheets to draw from. Enjoy!

xo Alex

Paintings for Friends!

Hey y'alls,

I have a long long list of illustrations I owe to friends in lieu of money/presents/hair care (I love my life) and I've recently started to make a dent in the list.

Here are the paintings I created for my friends last night.

This was for my new roommate Christina's birthday.

And this husky little guy is for my friend Steph for keeping my blonde locks looking fabulous. Love you!!!

Man it's raining, that means perfect time for a movie and a nap!

xox

Getting Down to Business

Hi friends,

My new website is up and running!! It feels so nice to have everything up to date.

www.alexdavey.ca

And I got business cards printed today! A whole box full! Let's all have a party so I can throw them around.

xoxo Alex

Side 1

...and Side 2

Ahhhh so many thumbnails!

Tutormill

Hello again (miss me?)

So let's take a trip back in time, shall we? Let's go back to January 2010. Winter. Snow. Instead of 30 degrees, think -30 degrees.

Anyways, a while back I received a phone call from my past illustration teacher Gary Taxali. He told me he was starting an online tutoring program called tutormill and that he needed some help with the site, and asked if I could be their "beta tester".

I wanted to share with you the process and final work I created.

My tutors were Edel Rodriguez (genius) and Marc Burckhardt (wise one).

I took the Fictional Book Jacket Design Course and this is what came of it.

1984

My initial sketches included one image only. From here my tutors suggested a more "graphic novel" approach...

So from there I created a panel-like cover including images directed from the novel.

My tutors suggested cleaning up the images, use more hatching/ texture, and avoid added type.

The end result! I was pretty happy with it but I can definitely see further improvements....

HAMLET

For these two sketches, my tutors agreed the image of the skull wearing a crown was strong, but agreed the type in the first one was best suited....

So I mixed the two together and came up with this sketch....

They then agreed that maybe I should tilt the skull and keep the typography tight....

The end result... what we all figured was the skull looked like he was smiling... which is cool don't get me wrong. But not what we were going for.

A couple of months of sitting on it and I decided to go back to this. I'm afraid it's still not up to snuff. Let's check back in a few months shall we? Next,

The Catcher in the Rye

My sketches included a lot of focus on Holden in the city, more of a portrait approach.

My tutors suggested to take the image of Holden away and focus on what was of important significance of the novel.

I had this sketch of using a cigarette, his lucky hunting hat, and his luggage with skinny type. My tutors suggested a more minimalist cover....

And this was the result. My tutors, and I, agreed the luggage was bit fussy, close to the typography, and the scale in general was a bit off.

And so a couple of months later and I refined the cover again.

I was really happy I got to experience tutormill and definitely recommend it to new illustrators starting out.

Ok goodnight!

xoxo Alex