April Calendar: The Go-Betweens

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 printable April calendar, here are an assortment of crows — or ravens, or interchangeable corvids, as the case may be — carrying messages and tokens.

This is partly because, for reasons associated with Flyaway, I’ve been talking to people about the fairy tale of “The Seven Ravens”, but mostly because when I was going through all my sketches for possible calendar ideas, a crow started calling outside my window.

(The Go-Betweens were, of course, also a Brisbane band, possibly most famous for Streets of Your Town, but also here is a lovely Winterpills cover of Bye Bye Pride).

And it’s also up as a print and a repeating pattern on Redbubble on cushions, throws, clothes, etc: The Go-Betweens. (Spoonflower to follow, but I have to wait for the sample swatches to arrive).

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.

February Foxes

Welcome to February, and a busy crew of librarian foxes, foxes in libraries, and general bookishness!

This calendar is brought to you, as usual, with the support of patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel, and if you’d care to see art and calendars early through that and help them happen, please feel very free to check out patreon or toss a few coins in the jar through paypal.me/tanaudel.

I’m hoping these sketches will turn into a bigger project, and I’ll put a repeating pattern up on Redbubble and Spoonflower as soon as I can (I’ve been out of action for a few weeks and am now scrambling to deal wth deadlines). I have put it up on Redbubble as a print: Library Foxes, but there’s a bit of tinkering involved to make it repeat pleasantly.

In the meantime, below for your personal February-planning purposes, are the printable pre-coloured and colour-sheet versions of the calendar. (And of course, a tip through patreon or paypal.me never goes astray).

May Calendar: Concert

The printable May calendar page is here, brought to you with the support of my patrons (and if you’d like to toss a few coins in the hat, they are always welcome and keep the calendar happening: Patreon (ongoing); paypal.me (one-off)). And also by a few episodes of This Podcast Will Kill You.

I’m not sure yet if the bilby was a marsupial too far, but I’m quite pleased by its rocking approach to playing the lute. And I do like the idea of bats swaying in the branches, playing their ukuleles at sunset.

Anyway, this is a trifle sillier than usual, but it’s my birthday month, so why not have a snake playing a lagerphone?

The images below link to full-size .jpg files that you can print at home: 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.

UPDATE: This “Be Bold, Be Bold” is now up on Redbubble as well, as a print, journal, etc.

And here is the calendar!

SaveSave

September calendar – harpies

September! It is spring here, so this month’s calendar is all harpies and flowers.

They’re all based on assorted pigeons, and some of the flowers are real. Ish.

As ever, they are brought to you by my dear patrons at patreon.com/tanaudel: for as little as $1/month, you can get the calendar early – and other news and updates.

And an update! Last month’s coracle race is now up on Redbubble on scarves, t-shirts, etc.

August Calendar: Coracle Race!

I have been travelling for weeks, and still feel like I’m in motion. So, for August: a coracle race! (Also brought to you by a coracle-bound mouse in Kij Johnson’s forthcoming The River Bank (illustrated by me!), late-night discussions of Narnia and Reepicheep while at Readercon, and by all my supporters on Patreon, who get the calendar early – you can too!).

Edit: I left this open to confusion. These calendar mice are not specifically in The River Bank, but the monochrome fellow below is, and the book does of course feature certain folk Messing About In Boats.

You can see more River Bank illustrations at Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis, or preorder the book from Small Beer Press. 

I had to research coracle races for this calendar, and the energy expended is hilariously disproportionate to the speeds achieved.

As usual, the calendar is below – you can print it in colour, or in black and white to colour it yourself.

Edit: The repeating design is now up on Redbubble (all sorts of things) and Spoonflower (fabric and wallpaper.)

If you like the calendars, please do consider supporting them on Patreon. $1 a month adds up and goes a long way towards keeping your friendly neighbourhood illustrator sufficiently caffeinated to get them done!

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).

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.

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.

Edit: Now up 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!

November Calendar: Unicorns

Days early, it’s the November calendar! I was going to do something complicated with hands, but then I thought: you know what would be easier than something for which I have reference on the ends of my own arms? Unicorns. Unicorns would be easier.

Then it deteriorated into reportage on rampant unicorn-theft, and here we are. (Unicorn… foal? unicornlet? corncub? I suppose it depends on the design).

You can download the design to print pre-coloured or to colour yourself by clicking on the images below. It’s also up as a print on Redbubble: Unicorn Thieves.

I’d like to keep doing these calendars and similar extra art next year, because I love them and hope you do, but they do take time out of my paying deadlines. I’m considering starting a Patreon, hoping to keep a version of the main calendar design free but to give supporters extra behind-the-scenes details, input and material. More detail in due course!