December Calendar: Phantom Dancers

The December calendar is here! (With the invaluable support of patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel and paypal.me/tanaudel — if you enjoy the calendar and other art and have even a dollar or two to spare, it all helps).

If it’s all a bit green for you, I can only blame a combination of the colour scheme of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (quite a heavy influence this month) and I Capture The Castle, but I’ve also made an oat-and-mint version. Or, of course, you can colour it yourself.

The printable (for personal use) files are below. And so on to December!

November calendar: Scissors

Greetings from LA, where I have gone for the World Fantasy Convention. I have been heavily focussed on catching up for the last month (I was laid up with a very painful hip in September, which threw all my plans awry). But I am better, and here, with art for the art show, and even the November calendar! Brought to you with the invaluable support of my patrons.

This is sort of also a Halloween calendar, in part because of Morticia Addams snipping the heads off roses, but mostly because one of the scariest moments to stick with me from a childhood book is in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when the ship reaches the Dark Island and Eustace hears the giant scissors opening and shutting.

But ultimately, of course, it is about fairytales, and all the things that are shorn or cut or clipped away.

There is no repeating pattern yet (there will be!), but it is up as a print on a few items on Redbubble: Snip Snip.

The files below are for personal use and — as I mentioned — are done with the help of my wonderful supporters on Patreon (who also get sneak-peeks, variant colours, stationery, new Daleks, etc). If you’d like to join as a patron (from $1!) or otherwise throw a few coins in the tip jar to help the calendar keep happening, that would be very welcome — the calendar is fun, but takes a lot of time.

October calendar: Cold hands

Fairy tales are famously hard on the feet (per Kelly Link’s “Travels With The Snow Queen”), but they aren’t kind to hands, either.

So here, for Halloween (and with the very excellent support of my patrons) is a collection of specific and general fairy-tale hands: spindle-pricked, scissor wielding, changed to silver, unlocking doors… (I’m including a non-blue-handed version, for those less spookily inclined, but the black-and-blue really does look rather like the colour schemes in Edmund Dulac’s fairy tale illustrations).

I also really like the underlay-colours here. Still want to work up a design like this without lines, but I keep getting distracted by detail. I should start with silhouettes.

I’ve also created a repeating pattern of this design, and it is now up on Redbubble on notebooks, dresses, etc (as part of my Halloween and Fairytale collections) (and if you like fabric by the yard, I’m waiting for test prints from Spoonflower). Incidentally, Girls Running From Houses (from last October) is now a repeating pattern and is on there too.

Edit to add: I’ve added the blue background (pink hand) version to Redbubble, too: Take My Hands.

The files below are for personal use and — as I mentioned — are done with the help of my wonderful supporters on Patreon (who also get sneak-peeks, variant colours, stationery, new Daleks, etc). If you’d like to join as a patron (from $1!) or otherwise throw a few coins in the tip jar to help the calendar keep happening, that would be very welcome — the calendar is fun, but takes a lot of time.

Note re links: I’m experimenting with affiliate links, which means I might get paid a small commission if someone buys something after clicking a link on my site. This is my first attempt, so I’m really just testing out the program links at this point!

September Calendar: Dragons!

Somehow — somehow — here is the September calendar. I hurt my hip badly and have been largely horizontal for over a week, which is more than inconvenient for a self-employed artist — if you’ve ever considered supporting the calendar through the Patreon (or the tip jar at Paypal.me/tanaudel) this would be an incredibly helpful time. Even better, there’s a backlog of stationery and stories on the way for supporters at those levels, once I’m on my feet.

But this afternoon I managed to prop myself up at a standing desk for long enough to ink a few dragons, and then sprawl over the bed to construct the rest of the calendar — and it isn’t even (quite) September yet!

Below — for personal use — are two versions of the calendar: pre-coloured, or to print and colour yourself.

I have… quite a few extra dragons to work out what to do with now!

August Calendar: Woodland folk

Welcome to the August calendar! Brought to you, as ever, with the help of those of you who are patrons on Patreon.

This terribly busy design is what happens when I think I’ll do something quick and early, to get it out of the way before travel, and end up hiding out in Dartmoor colouring tiny bees (so many tiny bees) in between editing manuscripts.

But tonight, fairly unexpectedly, we went to see The Lord Chamberlain’s Men perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Killerton, and it was enchanting.

Below, for personal use, are the printable versions of the calendar — and if you do enjoy these and are inclined to support the calendar (for it does take a bit of time!), then support on Patreon or paypal.me is always welcome!

(I do plan to put together a repeating pattern from this once I’m home from this work trip).

July Calendar: Theft and Larceny

Ah, July. Season of… miscellaneous mustelidae conducting a heist. (Brought to you, as ever, with the support of patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel). Are they stoats? Weasels? Ferrets? Who knows — but lock your strongrooms.

I’m not sure which detail is my favourite. I think it’s the lock-pick, but this one has more comedy potential:

And below are the printable files: coloured and line-only (for personal use). I hope you enjoy them, and if you do, and have a few coins for the tip jar, support for the time (and ink) is always welcome: patreon.com/tanaudel / paypal.me/tanaudel.

June Calendar: Against the Flow

Mermaids for June! This is largely because I was doing the Mermay challenge (mostly linocuts: you can see the progression on Instagram: @tanaudel), and the only way I was going to get through the last few days AND get the calendar done was to double up (there’s… a lot on).

Rather excitingly, I inked it all with a brush, which is not my usual choice (especially for fine lines!). There are control issues, but the fluidity of it is delightful. Here’s a progress shot.

And below are the full calendar pages, pre-coloured or to colour yourself! If you enjoy the calendar and have a few dollars you’d like to support it with, then that is always very welcome! You can join the patrons who make it possible at patreon.com/tanaudel, or toss a coffee’s worth at  paypal.me/tanaudel. In any case, though, I hope you have fun with these folks.