*2013*

*Désolée, ce post est seulement en anglais. Ça faisait beaucoup à traduire...*

*Sorry for my not so good english, ah!* 

2013 started abruptly as I lost the full time job I had for the past year. I got an e-mail from the company I was working for, on January 2nd, saying the company was going bankrupt. I was working from Montreal on mobile games for a company based in San Francisco. Sadly a bunch of the games on which I was working will never see the light of day… Though, it was a great experience, I learned a lot and had the chance to create really cute games.

  

 

Some character design I did for a game that won't come out. Check out more here

For a moment I was really lost; what to do? where to look? will I ever find something else? Etc.

I was even more confuse because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. At this time, I was still finishing some electives classes to get my degree, and I didn’t know exactly where to head; should I keep working in the game industry? But I studied animation, would it be better for me to work in the animation industry? What about illustration, am I good enough? Etc.

So many questions! Finally, I decided to take my time and see what life would bring me. I ended up working on a bunch of fun freelance projects, like a guest comic for Garfield (Boom! Studio), which was pretty fun to do!

  

Here are some exemple of the Garfield comics I did

In May, I went to Paris for 2 weeks to visit, but more importantly, for the opening of the Girls Drawin’ Girls exhibition at Arludik! It was my first time ever going on a trip alone and also my first time in Europe. Paris was amazing, of course (!!!), I seriously fell in love with this city, I would go again, anytime! It was a great experience to travel alone too. I met wonderful people and while I was there!

   

I also went for a weekend to London, which was also incredibly gorgeous (and OMG the english accent <3 !!!) I met with the talented Gillian Reid, her boyfriend Matt Timms as well as Maxwell Oginni, it was lots of fun to meet with internet friends! I also met with the great Andrew Hickinbottom, who gave me a tour of London!

  

The opening reception of the exhibition was amazing too! The owner of Arludik are the sweetest persons ever and it was a blast to hang out with the girls from the group, which I never met before, for most of them! It was my first going to an art opening, in which I was exhibiting. It's great memories I will never forget. I was also honoured that the gallery chose my illustration for the poster <3

 

After I came back from Paris, I had a super fun contract to illustrate a cover for Adventure Time (Boom! Studio)! They are awesome to work with, I had a great time working on this!

And practically 2 weeks later, I left Montreal, again, for a in-house workshop at Imaginism. It was a great month, I met 3 amazing artists Jennifer Llewellyn, Fernando Henrique and Karlene Francois, and not to forget our great teacher Thierry Lafontaine. It was such a great experience, I learned a lot about digital painting and made great friends! I would recommend this workshop to anyone looking to learning about digital painting, lighting or that are just looking to get better at all this! I didn't know how to do digital painting AT ALL when I got there, I basically just knew how to use photoshop and look at what I accomplished!

 

Some exemple of the work I did during the workshop

When I came back from the workshop, it wasn’t going so well with my boyfriend at the time, and we decided to end up our relationship. So the summer was a bit rough, it was a lot of stress to deal with at the same time as managing my contracts, the release of my book Mignonnes, the conventions, etc. So I went through some kind of a burn out. A good chance I started dancing at the same time, it helped me a lot to deal with all this and also to meet a bunch of new and amazing people!

During September and October I decided to take some time off and try to relax (I had too…) But I realized that I'm really bad at taking time off, haha. I ended up saying yes to some really fun contracts. But still learned that I can take contracts, but not necessarily work like crazy all the time.

 

My book Mignonnes, on sale here!

Then came November and CTNx!!! OMG! How amazingly awesome was it? I met TONES of great, inspiring, EXTRAORDINAIRE artists!!! I made friends, connections, met tones of people that where following my work online (I’m always amazed when people tell me they follow my blog or twitter! Thanks by the way!) I also shared my table with the talented Nic Ter Horst, we had the most kick ass pin up booth! We had an huge fangirl moment when Shane Glines bought both of our book and also when we, finally, on the last day, decided to go talk to Chris Sanders. It was fun to share all this with her! I also met with Cale Atkinson, who helped me create VMAT (Very Merry Art Trade). We made a bunch of postcards and pins to promote this year art trade! I think it worked, as we had more than 200 participants this year!!!
Unfortunately, I can’t mention everyone I met here, though I wish, but you know who you are and you are all the best!!! Thank you for inspiring me and for all the good times! I left Burbank with my head full of ideas and my heart full of inspiration! I will go back for sure next year and the years to come.

 

 

Then back in Montreal, November and December were pretty relax. A few really exciting projects on the way and some to come. I try to enjoy life at it's fullest, find more time to spend with the people I love and dance as much as I can. 2013 had awesome memories and some tough times, but in the end, I learned so much on myself that it’s all for the best. I’m really looking forward to 2014, I feel like I changed so much in 2013, that I’m looking forward to see where it’s going to lead me!