It has been some time since I have posted here, but I have been busy at work designing Edible magazines, and of course working on more illustrations. I have posted a new portfolio website, please drop by and check it out! I will be adding new illustrations every so often, and at some point I will revive this little blog, but for now, visit me here…

bambiedlund.com

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This spring I took a quick trip to Los Angeles, just to get away from the ordinary—which is something L.A. can certainly deliver on. While walking past a body shop I noticed this beauty sitting there and thought it was high time I did a new car portrait, so I snapped a photo. Granted, it took months for it to actually happen—but even now it conjures Beach Boys harmonizing.

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This is the first time I have done this, but I’m pulling forward one from the archives. The Illustration Friday theme this week is “clutter”, so the obvious choice was the first illustration in my collective nouns series, a clutter of cats…

I was asked last month to do a design for t-shirts for a local design company’s summer retreat. They were after a pig bacchus, which was right up my alley. I can’t wait to see it on the actual shirt, it will be screened onto an olive fabric, so should be interesting to see. Here’s the colour version:

The Illustration Friday theme for this week is “detach”.

See the rest of the pirats here…

Even foxes get left at the table to finish their vegetables, while everyone else goes to watch TV and eat their dessert. While young foxes are undeniably sly and crafty, their parents are sly-er and crafty-er, so they’re on to the spit-it-into-the-napkin technique, or the hide-it-under-the-lip-of-the-table move. And fox families rarely have dogs to slip food to. As a result, a good deal of a young fox’s life is spent mournfully staring at a plate of peas.

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I was lucky enough to spend my earliest years just steps from the shore of a beautiful lake. I spent my summers mostly in the water, and still love paddling around in a lake more than anything.

Because I spent so much time around water as a young kid, I was comfortable in the water from an early age. Which meant I missed out on one particular childhood experience that I desperately wanted to be part of: water wings. I remember other kids with their plastic puffy armbands lolling around in the water, and I always envied them. Water wings looked like the ultimate in warm-weather good times. Of course the cheapo 70’s versions probably sliced your armpits to shreds, but still. Water wings. Awesome.

Do they make adult-sized ones? This is something I’ll definitely have to look into.

My buddy John is going through a bit of a wildman phase. But it’s okay, I think he looks a little like Sweetums. Besides, I’m sure his kitten enjoys curling up in all that hair, and hey—I’m all for catering to the whims of a kitten.

The Illustration Friday word for this week is “foggy”.

I know, I know.

Forry.

The rental shops along the Santa Monica boardwalk, in addition to their stacks of boogie boards and bicycles, also offer segways. This strikes me as hilarious. Imagine the opening sequence of Three’s Company if it was filmed today…

Millicent is my cat, and her ratting skills are second to none. Summer has brought with it a new batch of wee roof rats, and she has been bringing them in at a steady pace—SIX last week, to be exact. Luckily the chipmunk trap I bought works like a charm, it has become part of the herding process. Four were rounded up into the cage and let loose in the same spot in the nearby ravine, to facilitate finding each other again. And, it’s lucky that I am writing this before I turn in tonight, as it is garbage day tomorrow, and I have just been reminded that I have the two unlucky ones in the freezer. Have to nip out to the curb before bed, methinks…

Well, it has been some time since an addition was made to the collective nouns series, so I thought it high time. And falling lambs seemed like suitable springtime fare…

So, we’re still waiting for summer here on the good old west coast. Curses and threats have proven useless, so it’s time to call in the big guns…

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Last summer a friend went camping on his own, not far outside Vancouver. He was just falling asleep in his tent, enjoying the peaceful solitude, when he heard movement outside. The movement grew louder and louder, and he heard what he described as “branches snapping, as opposed to twigs”. Knowing he would never manage to sleep in the tent for his visions of being surrounded by bears, he waited until the noise moved on, and bolted to the car. He managed to fall asleep once inside, but only after locking all the doors so he didn’t have to worry about them being opened from the outside. Little did he know…

Last year I was in Miami for a conference, and afterward I rented a car for a few days and drove down to the Keys. I had been wanting to go there for years; it was the stuff of Jimmy Buffett songs and Carl Hiaasen novels. It’s too bad that Key West is so heavily touristified, but the Bahamian Village gives a pretty good indication of what it once was. It’s fabulous. There are roosters running in the streets—you can never go wrong with roosters running in the streets.

I stayed in the Bahamian Village in a guest house called the Angelina, which was a once a bordello, and now houses the most fabulous pool ever. Not because it’s particularly large, which it’s not, or particularly beautiful, which it also is not—but because it is open for swimming any time, and if you float on your back in the pool at night when it’s dark, you can watch the stars through a perfectly round opening in the palm trees that surround the pool. It’s like looking up through a hole in a ceiling, while the warm wind rustles the palm fronds and the stars shine incredibly brightly in a pitch black sky.

Heaven.

This is the view of the back of the guest house, drawn while eating breakfast on the far side of the pool. One of the resident cats took up in the lounger next to mine while I drew, and any time I got too engrossed in my drawing, she would take a swipe at my plate, trying to nab what was left of my croissant. I think in the end the cat ate more of it than I did.

What could be better than a dogpile?

Granted they can be smelly, and noisy, and drooly—and very hot and flea-laden in the middle—but seriously, who wouldn’t want to be smack dab in the centre of this pack o’ hounds?

At long, long, long last, it feels like summer may actually be coming. Quick, everybody into the water, just in case it doesn’t last…

…kicking ass and taking names.

Seriously, why has Apple not pounced on this whole pet industry thing? Labradors are the perfect demographic for the Shuffle…

A friend mentioned that I have not done enough drawings of dogs, so I think a few mutts are in order. After all, it’s springtime, and all the puppies are out learning to ride the bikes they got for Christmas, so it seems appropriate to catalogue their efforts for posterity…

I’m going to be honest: I’m a little burned out. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, and the next post is my 200th, so I want to blow it out a little. I’m knocking off early this week, but I will be back next week with something appropriate for numero 200…

I have to say, to all of you who have written to say you have been involved in the design of a magazine, I officially doff my hat to you. What a process this has been! It has gone swimmingly well, and the team is tighter than ever, which I can imagine is not always the case. Granted, we are all in a bit of a daze, but hey—we just gave birth! The beast is uploading to the printer as we speak, and soon enough we will start the entire process again. I’m looking forward to it, but I need a hell of a nap first…

As mentioned yesterday, the header for “What the Boys are Drinking”. Fear not, we’re only tongue-in-cheek sexists, as I was one of the boys, and some of the boys were ladies for an evening. We are equal opportunity drunkards at Edible Vancouver…

So, the magazine I have been designing, Edible Vancouver, is very nearly ready to go off to the printer. We’re into the nitty-gritty details now: have all double spaces been found, are the fractions correct, are the temperatures in all recipes consistent, etc. One section is a review of local wine and beer, for which I am illustrating the header. I love working with silhouettes, so this has been a lot of fun. It’s not exactly how it will look in the magazine, but it’s a first stab at it. Boys are up next.

By the way, the girls were drinking Lotusland organic wines from Abbotsford, in case you’re wondering…

Sailor, bathing, business, space and birthday…