May calendar — Frog princes

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 or buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/tanaudel — I’m extremely grateful for all your support.

Welcome to the May calendar! Frog princes, this month. It’s not a story that usually leaps to mind as one of my favourites, but it keeps recurring — I love the murky gleam of it, the promises, the consequences. It underpins “Undine Love”, and was one of my earliest repeating patterns and has infused my PhD.

But it’s a challenge, too — it’s an odd story, and greens and yellow are complicated to pair in art as pleasingly as they go together in life, and frogs’ hips are wildly improbable.

I’ve also wrangled it into a repeating pattern, which is now up on Redbubble! (I will put it on Spoonflower, too).

(The April calendar design is also now up on Redbubble and as a print on InPrnt.)

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 by buying me a coffee or two through Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/tanaudel.

April Calendar: silver and gold

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 or buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/tanaudel — I’m extremely grateful for all your support.

This is a collection of fairy tale imagery — part of a slightly larger collection, all inked with a no. 8 brush (just taklon) and Dr PH Martin’s black ink. I coloured them digitally and very simply, because it was almost 1am by then, but I love the feeling of old endpapers.

It was a good and educational brushwork workout. But also I have been setting up a new studio area and it was really nice to be able to just reach for all my reference material and leaf through it or turn it to the light, and incorporate the bits I wanted. I also like the calligraphic effect of the lines.

These are the inks in progress. They are on a light box with the pencil sketches on thin paper underneath.

Because the background was fully-inked, linework is a little difficult to extract, and retains some digital tracery, alas. Notes for next time, especially as inking the entire background takes a really long time.

Edit: This design is also now up on Redbubble and as a print on InPrnt.)

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 by buying me a coffee or two through Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/tanaudel.

March Calendar — Rondels

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 — I’m extremely grateful for all your support.

I was cutting it fine on this month’s timing, so I decided to do the most complicated of many ideas (the other main contender was a simple repeat of dandelion flowers and leaves).

As for this design, of stars & moths, grasshopper & dandelions, heron, crown, bees, spiderweb, goblet, fox, moon, cat, bouquets, and a snuffed candle — oh, I like self-contained worlds, and objects that could belong to tales, and old endpapers, and a sense of being watched, and silver-and-bronze, and blue brocade, and arrangements that could be the best sort of game… There are a couple call-backs to other illustrations I have done, including for Holly Black’s Folk of the Air trilogy, and Angela Slatter.

Pencils vs final

Edit: It’s also up as a print on Redbubble.

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.

February calendar — beside the seaside

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. 

Welcome to February! It had been a little while since I did a mermaid calendar (here’s a round-up of the last four years of calendar art). And for some reason, I thought I should hand-draw all those little waves. (They were all drawn in black ink — I changed the colours digitally). I’m still on a midcentury-inspired colouring kick (see also January).

Fish are one of the subjects I find unnecessarily effortful to draw. This time I decided I didn’t care about accuracy, and instead went for a Seuss/Baynes effect. I rather like them.

As you can see, I’ve drawn it to work as a repeating pattern. I have not yet made it actually repeat, mostly because I was working on my PhD confirmation presentation (first year milestone — the presentation was on Friday). I will put this up on Redbubble, etc, when the pattern is completed. So stay tuned if you’re into art on things!

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.

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.