Cloe M.Z Wagstaffe

Based in Burlington, Ontario, I’m a traditional artist that uses ink, gouache resist and wet-on-wet techniques to create scratchy, chaotic work that stands out in a crowd. A lot of my work is inspired by music and films, which are the focus of my most recent work. I lean into making “mistakes”, believing that a human touch is the most important part of a piece of work and makes it better—not worse.

My cultural background also makes its way into some of my paintings as well. Traditional Croatian tattoo symbols sometimes border my images, blend into the background, and are used as a sort of signature when applicable.

The Reader’s Digest Foundation of Canada Award For Excellence in Editorial Illustration

Album Covers

I created album covers for a variety of music from different genres, matching the textures and imagery of my work to the feel of the individual albums. Of the ten or so I created, these are the ones that stood out the most to me.

Movie Posters

I chose a few of my favourite films to create posters for, using different genres much like the album covers. I used different techniques depending on the type of film to make the image match the feel of the story.

2022 Thesis

During the winter semester in 2022, I created a short book using poems given to me by a close friend of mine. The images were made to match the short poems, using characters, texture and, colour to tell my interpretation of the stories. Here are a few samples that I feel best represent the poems they were made for.

Sketchbook Samples

Because I work traditionally, most of my work requires a lot of sketching and thumbnails before I move onto the finals. These pages should give you an idea of my process.