July calendar: Starcatchers

My continued thanks to all my patrons on Patreon who make this calendar possible!

Apparently catching stars is about as easy as herding cats. So it made sense that the birds responsible would be some of the more unimpressed and harried birds of my acquaintance, who when not pretending to be sticks can be found in bushes, howling (we used to call them murder-birds, at uni). Bush stone-curlews really do look and sit like this. They also find their own reflections entrancing. And (Triple-J language warning) one used to be pretty accurate on Twitter.

IM NOT SCREAMING IM JUST REALLY GLAD TO BE OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

— Bush Stone-Curlew (@FeralCurlew) July 29, 2013

So here, to print pre-coloured or for colouring, is the July calendar. (Don’t forget to support on Patreon, if you’d like to make sure the calendar can keep happening).

 

June Calendar – pomegranates

It is the beginning of winter here, so I thought something Persephone-esque would be suitable for the June calendar (brought to you with the help of my patrons – join us!). Also, between Gone Girl (which we were teaching in one of the subjects I tutored this semester) and John Wick Chapter 2, I’ve been thinking about allegorical after/underworlds. With cheerful little moths.

I’m working on a pretty little repeat of the pattern ($7+ patrons are helping me decide on colourways). So here it is, for colouring or pre-coloured.

The calendars are free, but a lot of work goes into them, so if you’re able to throw a few dollars in the Patreon, even if just for a month a two, that would be a huge help. If you can’t, it would be great if you could tweet or post a link to my Patreon now and then – every bit helps. Plus, you get behind-the-scenes glimpses and other extras, and one day, when we hit that goal, more Daleks.

 

 

 

May Calendar – Wyvernia

For the May calendar, a folly of wyverns. This calendar was made with the support of my patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel, and if you’d like to help bring out future months, that would be wonderful!

You can get the calendar early, there’ll be sneak-peeks of future projects, printable stationery… If I get enough support, I may even be able to restart the Dalek Game.

In the meantime, here is May, to print pre-coloured or for colouring in.

 

April Calendar – The Goose Girl, and other enchanted waterfowl

Since it is fine weather for ducks here in Brisbane, this is a very fitting calendar! You can support these calendars through patreon.com/tanaudel – my thanks to all the patrons who have made them possible so far.

“The Goose Girl” has long been one of my favourite fairytales, although it is one of the few with quite ordinary waterfowl. It’s more common for wicked usurpers to go around changing true royalty into ducks, a habit I first encountered in “The Three Dwarfs in the Wood”.

Sometime’s it’s swans.

But my favourite waterfowl (today) are the plain but helpful ones of “The Enchanted Princess” (also featuring bees and ants that pay their debts).

I read all of these first in two astonishingly-illustrated volumes of A Treasury of the World’s Greatest Fairytales, edited by Helen Hyman and with illustrations from Fratelli Fabbri Editori, although the individual illustrators aren’t identified.

You can download the images below to print at home (either pre-coloured or to colour in yourself). And if you do feel like throwing a dollar or two in the hat at patreon.com/tanaudel, I would be very grateful (and if you support at $3+ a month, you get the calendar early).

 

March calendar

I just… love that dormouse so much.

Hello, and welcome to the March calendar. It has been brought to you by my wonderful patrons – you too can support calendar development and even have the option of getting calendars early, and stationery based on them, as well as behind-the-scenes glimpses and the thrill of patronising me.

I based these folks on Sir John Tenniel’s most famous illustrations for Alice in Wonderland, although I decided I was not really feeling like drawing legs on the teapot. One day.

By Sir John Tenniel

I didn’t used to love Tenniel’s design for Alice, but I’ve grown to. He captures so very well what many versions fail to: Alice is neither a terrible human being who never says thankyou, nor a precocious innocent.

She’s simultaneously a child trying to make sense of an adult world, to enforce upon it the rules she’s been taught (falsely) exist, and the only remotely grownup person in the make-believe chaos of Wonderland. In some ways, I think, she’s a rather close cousin to (some interpretations of) Susan Pevensie.

There will be some products and prints available soon. I’ll update, or you can keep an eye on Redbubble and Spoonflower.

As ever, you can download the images below for personal use for this month’s calendar: pre-coloured or to colour in yourself. And if you’re considering chipping in on Patreon, I’d be delighted to have your support!

 

February Calendar

As you may have noticed, I’ve started a Patreon account. That lets people be involved with the process of creating my personal art – like this calendar! If you’d like to join in, that would be lovely.

This month, with the input and support of my patrons, I decided on Sleeping Beauty (it’s also the current fairy tale under discussion for the Australian Fairy Tale Society).

I will be developing it into a repeating design, but I had a couple of other end-January deadlines, such as finishing the first round of edits on an Australian Gothic novella! In the meantime, this version of it is up as a print, t-shirt, etc on Redbubble. (N.B. Patreon support helps there be more time for calendars and patterns:)

You can download the pages by clicking on the images below to print at home (no commercial use, please, without prior arrangement with me), either pre-coloured or to colour yourself.

 

 

December Calendar

It’s the last of the calendars for 2016. But there will be more next year!

For now, however, we’ll take the year out with the Twelve Dancing Princesses.

This fairytale has been on my mind because it is was the latest topic of discussion for the Australian Fairy Tale Society, and I was surprised at the number of people I’ve met recently who weren’t familiar with it. It’s also felt rather iconic to me, but perhaps that was the visual texture of it: leaves of gold and silver and diamond, all those worn out shoes, the gowns…

Conveniently, as there are twelve princesses and twelve lanterns, the colouring-in version can also function as a 25 day (if you include the background as the 25th element) or 12 day Advent/Christmas/Holiday calendar.

Clicking on the links below will take you through to the individual images for printing.

I love being able to make these calendars every month and provide them for free. However, I’m self-supporting these days and these calendars do take up a lot of time. So I’ve just started a Patreon. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a system that lets you be a patron of the arts at any of a number of levels – you can pledge as little as $1 per month to support this and potentially other projects. In return, you’ll get all sorts of little behind-the-scenes perks – and at some levels, some not-so-little ones.

The Patreon is open, but still under development, so get in touch with me if you’ve got any questions or any of the puns seem particularly cringeworthy. But since most people who read this post are pretty ardent supporters of the calendars, I wanted to let you know first.

I’ve also uploaded this month’s image to Redbubble, if you want a higher quality print than your home printer can manage (well, mine only exists to hold up the scanner bed, yours is probably more modern), or a fairytale shirt or notebook.