Dancing Shoes

I have big giant feet, so any love I have for shoes must be limited to the fairytale variety. So the September calendar features an assortment thereof. As usual, this is brought to you by my very dear patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel — you are very welcome to join us, and get the calendar early(ish) and other things. (Also, anyone who has signed up at the $15+ supporter level before the end of August also gets an enamel pin, while stocks last).

Feet and shoes are not something I naturally find easy to draw, so I used to sit in cafes and draw people’s feet as they queued. Hot tip.

(Also, August’s deer design is now a repeating pattern on Redbubble, with Spoonflower fabric to follow).

And here are the printable files — pre-coloured or to colour yourself (for personal use only).

(for personal use only)

August calendar: Sacred deer

I am home from Brittany, and Les Rencontres de l’Imaginaire de Brocéliande, which among many mysteries and delights (a purple castle! the Lady of the Lake’s lake!) included an art exhibition about myths of the Sacred Stag, which duly inspired this month’s calendar. (As ever, supporters on patreon.com/tanaudel have seen the behind-the-scenes development of this and other projects!)

I am also rather horribly jetlagged, which apparently affects my colour picking abilities — so there are a couple of colourways for this one. I’m oddly enamoured of the hot pink.

And don’t forget, you can support the continued existence of the calendar, as well as other projects, on Patreon: patreon.com/tanaudel.

 

July Calendar: Strolling

 

A selection of fair pedestrians for July’s calendar.

I have been in England for three weeks, and many of the details are from events that have happened here: flowers from fields and the Blenheim Flower Show, keys from cathedral libraries, damselflies and English magpies, Regency soirees and Tolkien exhibits, tea and Old Weird Britain.

The colours and offset colouring style are drawn from old advertisements and the ironwork in the Oxford Natural History Museum.

As ever, these are brought to you with the help of patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel, who also get the calendar early and other extras, should you wish to help support it!

You can print the calendar, pre-coloured or to colour, by clicking on the images below.

June Calendar: Firebirds (feed the stars)

Firebirds for June! A few white ones in there, as a nod to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. 

‘m working on a series of bird illustrations for my MPhil novella “Flyaway”, so it was practice for that, as well. You’ll see one or two Australians in there.

The asymmetrical shape is to allow the design to fit into a repeating pattern. Here’s a glimpse (dodgy late-night photo!) of how it was constructed (Julia Rothman’s introduction to repeat patterns is a useful explanation).

As ever, the calendar is brought to you with the help of my excellent patrons, who get previews, process shots and stationery, among other things, from $1/month – if you’d like to join and support the calendar (and the soon-to-return Dalek Game!), it would be a lovely birthday present:)

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May calendar: Selkies!

Selkies for May!

These calendars are brought to you with the help of my patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel, and if you’d like to contribute, or are trying to think of a birthday present for me (it’s in May!) joining Patreon would be a great way to do it. Levels start at $1 a month, and there are many extra behind-the-scenes things, as well.

The colours were tricky for this one. Selkie pictures tend to be very muddy brown or too green. I worked towards these colours after consulting a number of William Morris designs and several photos of seals on beaches at sunset.

The page can be printed coloured or to colour yourself, from the files below. And please do consider supporting the calendar on Patreon!

(Oh, and the Angela Carter foxes are up on Redbubble as individual stickers and many other things)

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April Calendar: Magic Mirrors

The April calendar is brought to you, as ever, by my delightful patrons, who keep art in my life when the exegesis is nearly due. (Patrons also get the calendar early).

This month I decided for magic mirrors. I don’t quite remember why, but here we are. I had several ideas, but they kept turning into Dissertations Requiring Comprehensive Research on Aarne-Thompson Classification Systems. So I stripped this back, kept it pretty multi-purpose (there are a few specific references, of course), and tried to add a hint of Gorey. I particularly like the bat.

It is in two colourways: a nice wine/plum, and a horrible peasoup green which is one of my favourite colours because it reminds me of Ruth Park’s Playing Beatie Bow. (By the way, if you like Ruth Park, Australian literature, creativity, writing history, etc, I highly recommend Ann-Marie’ Priest’s small, delighted, indignant book A Free Flame – and there’s a podcast episode here with the interview that made me buy it: Avid Reader Podcast).

So here they are, printable for personal use, whether pre-coloured or to colour yourself.

 

March Calendar – Be Bold, Be Bold…

This month’s calendar, brought to you with the support of my patrons (who get it early, and you can too!) is for the folktale “The Story of Mr Fox“: “Be bold, be bold, but not too bold, lest that thy heart’s blood should run cold”.

Mr Fox has no actual foxes in it, a feature in common with one of my other favourite folktales-with-a-rhyme (“the bough did bend, my heart did break, to see the hole the fox did make”). That one is about murderous university students, at least as I heard it, although there are many variations on the theme. But it had been a while since I drew foxes, and I wanted to update my fox-and-flowers designs. I’ll add some of these to my Redbubble store once uni deadlines ebb a little.

The picture is also, of course, an homage to the authors who do such marvellous versions of this school of stories, such as Angela Carter and Angela Slatter.

The full, printable calendar images are at the bottom of this post – pre-coloured, or to colour in.

In other news:

Patreon support has just crept into New Dalek Territory, which means I’m restarting the Dalek Game! It’s just for supporters on Patreon (at all levels) for now, until I build up a reserve.

Also! The clockwork birds from February’s calendar are up on Redbubble, with the original version, one with a dark background, and a blue and white variation. They are in my queue to add to my Spoonflower shop, too, but…  I have an MPhil to finish.

And here is the calendar!

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