This and That

I've finally gotten around to finding a local place to have my book journals printed and as a result I could have many more printed and they are much more affordable for me to sell now! I don't know why I didn't do this ages ago, I guess just because it's intimidating for me to go to printers. Anyway the books are back in my store now!


I bought some beeswax spoon salve from Herriott Grace and gave my spoons and cutting board a once over as soon as it got here. I smells nice and it's very satisfying to tend to my spoons, it's such an easy thing to just never get around to actually doing! I only have one really nice spoon right now, I'd like to build my collection.

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Plant Love

I wanted to share another new drawing for my show at Tilde (opens April 6th).

I swear I'm not as obsessed with plants or gardening as this blog makes it seem, it's just making me happy right now. What I'm actually obsessed with is baking bread; I've made bread in some form almost every day for about two weeks. I'm sure I'll start doing drawings featuring bread soon enough...

Have a good weekend everyone!

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Weekend Bits

Sarah & I met the best cat ever on a walk this weekend! She came running right up to us and was so fluffy and friendly, we both just wanted to take her home. Look at her face!
It was a good, if gloomy, weekend; On Monday Aradan and I went to Olympic Provisions for lunch (we hadn't been in ages), then to the Russian food store where I stocked up on tea (and we got some rum flavored wafer cookies that are perfect for dipping in superstrong tea). We've also been making our way though the most recent season of Doctor Who (that is finally on Netflix). So much fun.

If you've been following me on Twitter than you already know this but I started a new blog just to talk about plants and gardening etc. It's called My Little Plant Love.

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Payne's Gray

Can you tell I got a new color of paint that I'm obsessed with? My last three entries have heavily featured it. I actually only use about 5 colors of watercolor and just use different shades of those colors or mix other colors that I might need from them. However I recently bought Payne's Gray just to play with and I love it. It's a mixture of gray and blue, so really it's perfect.
(by the way this little drawing is for sale in my shop)

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Guardian

This is the first piece for my show at Tilde in Portland!

The loose theme for this show is guides and guardians. There will be animals protecting people, people taking care of plants, and some tricksters who may or may not be helpful. I'll post the rest of the pieces here when the show opens. I'm really excited about the drawings! I've felt like I've been having a major creative dry spell since about August, and it feels great to be working again and actually making things I like!

Should you be in Portland the show opens on Friday April 6th, from 6-9pm. Tilde is located at 7919 SE 13th Ave Portland.

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New Webite URL

I've finally had my website switched over to www.juliannaswaney.com yay! (and thank you Lauren)
Hopefully this will make my actual website easier to find, and also help people associate my artwork to my actual name. I sort of want to leave Oh My Cavalier behind, as much as I can anyway what with my blog and shop going by that title (I sort of like my blog called something else, and I don't want to switch my shop again, I've already done it once).
It's been bothering me when I see my images on the web only credited to "oh my cavalier", like that is a brand or company, it's totally my fault of course, but I'd like to start trying to correct that.

Anyway if you have my website linked anywhere it would be so helpful if you would update your link. Eventually the old website will automatically redirect you, but it's still there for now. Thank you!

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Warm Fresh Bread

I felt like I needed, and wanted, a more simple style to use sometimes. This is what I came up with, and I'm really happy with it!
Sometimes I'll have an idea and it just doesn't work or looks like a mess with the more complicated people & animals I draw. Plus I think it's good to have a few styles too pull out when you need them. I've actually tried this before and never really been happy with the result. I think this fits with my other drawings, it still looks like my work, but definitely has a different feel. It's much cuter, which is what I was going for.

By the way, I think my main inspiration for this drawing came from this candy packaging I got at the Asian supermarket:

I have no idea what's going on but I love it (the candy is really good too).

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Green Things: Desk & Windowsill Plants

I bought a handful of new pencils and a fancy pencil sharpener, new supplies can be so invigorating. I wish I could show some drawings I finished this past week because I'm really happy with them. But, I'm going to wait until my show opens at Tilde next month to reveal everything. Well maybe I can show you one...stay tuned!

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Well Dressed Wolf Logo

I'm so happy I can finally share one of the commissions I was working on recently!

The owners of this small children's clothing design label came to me with a whole character and back story behind their brand & they wanted their logo to illustrate that. Sometimes it's nice to work for someone who knows exactly what they want because it pushes me to do things I'm not comfortable with, drawing a wolf from head on so you can see that he's winking for instance. I'm really excited about how that turned out, "cheeky" is how the shop owners described him. Anyway they've incorporated him into a cute website, they're just getting up and running but if you're in the market for simple sweet children's clothing you may want to take a look:
The Well Dressed Wolf Shop

I thought you may want to see some of my process for this logo:

Early sketches

Rough draft and final wolf, testing colors

Some samples of options for the lettering

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