Sneak Peek at My 2027 Calendar!

Hello, My Beautiful Butterflies!

It's so wonderful to be writing to you in April, which is officially my birthday month! I was always so cautious and hidey about my birthday. I didn't want the attention, or hot take, I was afraid to ask for the attention and have no one come to the party....but after having Leonora, I am all about the birthday! I want to set an example for her, and I want her to celebrate her birthday without fear!!! So, I've been trying to emulate that for her.

In honor of my birthday month, I'm sharing something I've been tinkering away at....a 2027 calendar!!! You read that right! I will be doing another calendar for next year. I LOVED making the 2025 calendar. So many lovely people reached out to ask if I was doing a 2026 calendar, but unfortunately, I couldn't find the time to put one together. I didn't want that to happen again this year, so I decided to start early! I've been sketching to my heart's content, and I just started painting the January illustration.

The theme this year is cozy animals enjoying yummy treats that I associate with each month. As an example, my favorite cake is Carrot Cake, so April features two little critters enjoying a beautiful carrot cake.

Rough Sketch of my April Illustration

November is Leonora's birthday month, and my girl LOVES that Nutella, so November will have a croissant and Nutella moment.

Rough Sketch of my November Illustration

March is my momma's birthday month, and she loves lemon...so I threw in some Lemon macarons. You get the gist, right?!

Rough Sketch of my March Illustration

On months that don't have a special someone's birthday, I thought of the snackies and treats I like to enjoy. I also tried to mix it up with salty and sweet, even though my immediate inclination was to go full sweet.

I always start brainstorming ideas in list format

I wanted this calendar to be a celebration of each month. I want to be excited to turn the page each month to see the next illustration (even when we hit the months that seem to drag on). To celebrate and be grateful for all the things that only that month can bring!

Initial Thumbnail sketches, trying to figure out the direction of the calendar artwork

Whoa, am I putting a lot of weight on a mere calendar or what?!? But it's these ideas that get me excited to work on a project!

I expanded the thumbnails into larger rough sketches once I had my general art direction figured out.

In order to give you some more sneak peeks. Here is the sketch for January. We're thinking critters in sweaters dipping a cookie (pistachio biscotti in this case) into a warm beverage!

Sketch of my January Illustration featuring two critters enjoying cookies dipped in coffee

I'm onto the painting process now, so I transferred the sketch to watercolor paper.

My sketch transferred to watercolor paper.

And now the painting begins!!!

The beginnings of painting my January Illustration.

Eeek! I'm so excited for these. Stay tuned!

Hope you all have a great April!

I will see you all in May!

xoxo

Rachel