2020 Calendar Art Roundup

Here is all the calendar art for 2020! Bees, library foxes, giants, crows, unicorns, groves, sewing equipment, Australian wildflowers, Regency games, a skeleton orchestra, mysterious plants, and a sky of starry animals. If you go through the calendar tag you can see close-ups.

All this art (and more besides) was made possible with the support of patrons on Patreon.com/tanaudel (from $1 a month) and those of you who threw a few coins in the tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel — thank you very much to all of you!

Many of these designs are available as prints and on phone cases, scarves, etc at Redbubble, and a few of them on fabric at Spoonflower.

I’m not sure what my personal favourite is. There are elements of all of them — the library foxes amuse me, and the tiny bee drawings make me happy, and there are small allusions and entertainments in all of them. I’m probably best-pleased with the wildflowers, because I was trying something a little different, and because I made it to celebrate the publication of Flyaway.

And here are the last four years all together (I was doing calendars before then, but I don’t think I did any round-up posts).

I just noticed that there’s a regular progression of one less bright month each year, so if I don’t take care, by 2022 it will probably all be dusky twilight.

December calendar: a crowded sky

Note: This calendar is supported by patrons, who get it a little bit early, along with other sneak-peeks and behind-the-scenes art: patreon.com/tanaudel, and also by those very kind people who throw a few dollars towards it via the tip jar: paypal.me/tanaudel. 
Further note: If you’re looking for books or gifts this time of year, I have two books out! Flyaway is a short Australian Gothic novel, and Travelogues: vignettes from trains in motion is a set of poetic notes from train windows.

This design began as sheep from fairy tales, then stars got involved, and then more and more animals from other fairy tales, and then it started looking like something out of Mary Poppins… But it is finished, and if the animals are a bit odd, at least they are celestial.

It also came together into a repeating pattern, which is now up on my Redbubble store on e.g. scarves and cases and shirts.

And here (for personal use) are the printable versions. If you like them and/or like supporting the arts, you can contribute to the calendar (and get it and other behind-the-scenes things early) at patreon.com/tanaudel (starts at US$1/month!) or through the tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel.

Also, if you are after an advent calendar, I have posted a bird-filled one here: Countdown — an older advent calendar.

Countdown: an (older) advent calendar

The December calendar is coming soon, but in the meantime here is a picture I drew a few years ago for patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel, designed to double as a printable advent calendar, as there are 25 birds to colour in.

There is also a 12-day calendar here, if you’re doing Twelfth Night (or starting late).

Note re support: This picture — and a lot of the art that happens here — is made possible by patrons on Patreon.com. If you’d like to see more and/or if you like supporting the arts, you can do that (and get it and other behind-the-scenes things early) at patreon.com/tanaudel (starts at US$1/month!); there is also a tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel.

November calendar: house plants

Note: This calendar is supported by patrons, who get it a little bit early, along with other sneak-peeks and behind-the-scenes art: patreon.com/tanaudel, and also by those very kind people who throw a few dollars towards it via the tip jar: paypal.me/tanaudel. 
Further note: Travelogues: vignettes from trains in motion is out now to buy from Brain Jar Press and most of the usual online places, and is also just the right size to post to people who like words and trains and travel. And Flyaway, my Australian Gothic debut, is also out now for purchase (Tor.com and Picador).

I — possibly alone in my generation — have not acquired any house plants this year. But people won’t stop talking about them, and they started creeping into my thoughts.

There are a few tangential allusions in here, as well as some plants I just wanted to draw.

And here (for personal use) are the printable versions. If you like them and/or like supporting the arts, you can contribute to the calendar (and get it and other behind-the-scenes things early) at patreon.com/tanaudel (starts at US$1/month!) or through the tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel.

October Calendar — Musical skeletons

Note: This calendar is supported by patrons, who get it a little bit early, along with other sneak-peeks and behind-the-scenes art: patreon.com/tanaudel, and also by those very kind people who throw a few dollars towards it via the tip jar: paypal.me/tanaudel. 
Further note: My first book, Flyaway, is out! It’s an Australian Gothic story (so perfect for October), from Tor.com (US) and Picador (Aus) and is available through most of the usual places. And my second book, Travelogues: vignettes from trains in motion comes out in October. It is available to pre-order from Brain Jar Press and most of the usual online places, and is also just the right size to post to people who like words and trains and travel.

Welcome to October! It is spring, here, so it’s difficult to get properly spooky — the trees are turning purple and red and white and the bush stone-curlews are sobbing in the shrubberies.

So here, for this month’s calendar, is an orchestra for a danse macabre.

And I’ve made it into a repeating pattern, so it is up on Redbubble on various things (shirts, scarves, phone covers, etc).

And here (for personal use) are the printable versions (including a bonus purely pumpkin-coloured one). If you like them and/or like supporting the arts, you can contribute to the calendar (and get it and other behind-the-scenes things early) at patreon.com/tanaudel (starts at US$1/month!) or through the tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel.

September Calendar: Wreath-toss

Note: This calendar is supported by patrons, who get it a little bit early, along with other sneak-peeks and behind-the-scenes art: patreon.com/tanaudel, and also by those very kind people who throw a few dollars towards it via the tip jar: paypal.me/tanaudel. 
Further note: My first book, Flyaway, is out! It’s from Tor.com (US) and Picador (Aus) and is available through most of the usual places.

It’s edging into blazing spring here in Brisbane. 

The September calendar comes from a simultaneous reading of The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer, A  Surfeit of Lampreys by Ngaio March and The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker, with a lot of reference to Diana Sperling’s sketches (which you can find as Mrs Hurst Dancing), especially for the yellow gloves.

Originally I was going to make it a more romantic scene, but between Diana Sperling and the Lampreys (and of course the general influence of Diana Wynne Jones, whose characters can never quite escape their families, whatever magic is going on) a family rivalry became more appealing. 

The structural reliability of these flower-wreaths is questionable, but it is based on various games like the game of graces and the single-stick version (serso?) in the illustration below (I’m not sure of the source of the picture which seems to be fairly widely shared without attribution).

And here (for personal use) are the printable versions. If you like them and/or like supporting the arts, you can contribute to the calendar (and get it and other behind-the-scenes things early) at patreon.com/tanaudel (starts at US$1/month!) or through the tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel.

August calendar — wildflowers

Note: This calendar is supported by patrons, who get it a little bit early, along with other sneak-peeks and behind-the-scenes art: patreon.com/tanaudel, and also by those very kind people who throw a few dollars towards it via the tip jar: paypal.me/tanaudel. 

Flyway is officially published, and sighted in bookstores! So for August’s calendar I wanted to do something that would be a nod to it. 

I thought about illustrating the mysterious lanternbush, but then decided that since I so often play with fairly European-inflected fairy-tale plants, I should try my hand at some more Australian varieties. So this improbable vine has flowers to varying degrees suggested by many of my favourites — bottle brush and Geraldton wax, banksia and silky oak and flame tree, rice flower and native jasmine and several varieties of wattle, bluebells and gum and box, something that hangs over fences near here, and everlasting daisies.

I particularly like the undercolours on this, and one day I will remember to design for that first.

I’ve also put it up on Redbubble as a print, as well as a repeating pattern on various items (including masks):

(I have to wait for the test swatches to be printed and posted, but it will be on Spoonflower fabrics/wallpapers eventually — they also have pre-made masks and mask-making kits.) Edit: It is now up on Spoonflower: Wandering Wildflowers.

And here (for personal use) are the printable versions. If you like them and/or like supporting the arts, you can contribute to the calendar (and get it and other behind-the-scenes things early) at patreon.com/tanaudel (starts at US$1/month!) or through the tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel.

July Calendar: Sew a fine seam

Note: This calendar is supported by patrons, who get it a little bit early, along with other sneak-peeks and behind-the-scenes art: patreon.com/tanaudel, and also by those very kind people who throw a few dollars towards it via the tip jar: paypal.me/tanaudel. 

For July, here are threads and bobbins and awls and wax, and the daily tools so often adjacent to fairy tales: bodkins for poisoned lacings, winders to hold the thread for clues, needles and pins to choose your path by…

There are no scissors, because I wanted this to tie in to the scissors calendar from November last year. I kept the colour scheme, but added pink (for the clover flowers and other details). And I’ve had a few requests for a repeating pattern for the scissors, so I’ll try to do both at once. I’ll let you know when they’re up. In the meantime, both this design and Scissors are up on Redbubble as prints, masks, cushions, etc.

And here (for personal use) are the printable versions. If you like them and like supporting the arts, you can contribute to the calendar (and get it and other behind-the-scenes things early) at patreon.com/tanaudel (starts at US$1/month!) or through the tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel.

June Calendar: Ominous Groves

Note: This calendar is supported by patrons, who get it a little bit early, along with other sneak-peeks and behind-the-scenes art: patreon.com/tanaudel, and also by those very kind people who throw a few dollars towards it via the tip jar: paypal.me/tanaudel. 

For the June calendar — a series of ominous little groves, each with their own story — some allusive and some elusive.

(This one, above, is the sketch from the post More Legs Than Strictly Necessary).

And here (for personal use) are the printable versions. If you like them and like supporting the arts, you can contribute to the calendar (and get it and other behind-the-scenes things early at) patreon.com/tanaudel (starts at $1/month!) or through the tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel.

May unicorns

Note: This calendar is supported by patrons, who get it a little bit early, along with other sneak-peeks and behind-the-scenes art: patreon.com/tanaudel, and also by those very kind people who throw a few dollars towards it via the tip jar: paypal.me/tanaudel. 

A little joy, if twilit, for May: a frolic of evening unicorns.

These are just because it had been a few years since the last unicorn calendar. I’d revisited some old silhouette unicorns recently, and started drawing them in the margins of my notebook, and the design is always an interesting one to play with. These are a bit horsier than usual — I think my favourite approach starts moving past goat into greyhound.

And it’s also up as a print and a repeating pattern on Redbubble on cushions, throws, clothes, etc: Twilight Unicorns. (Spoonflower to follow, but I have to wait for the sample swatches to arrive). Edit: It is now up on Spoonflower as fabric and wallpaper.

And here (for personal use) are the printable versions. If you like them and like supporting the arts, you can contribute to the calendar (and get it and other behind-the-scenes things early at) patreon.com/tanaudel (starts at $1/month!) or through the tip jar at paypal.me/tanaudel.