vigilant panda

Vigilant panda possesses incredible powers of vision and insight. It is ever alert and prepared for adventures and mighty deeds. An unusual commission from a few months ago.

He wears an Inverness cape, in homage to the super sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Prior to this commission I would not have known what an Inverness cape was. Oh the things you have to learn as an illustrator.

Space Neuron

Probably should be pronounced as
Spaaaaaaaace Neurrrrrrron
with an echoing dramatic kind of voice

It has been far too long since I've posted here. So here's a snippet of artwork to get back into the swing of things.

Space Neuron was intended as a quick editorial illustration to accompany an article written in memory of a sci-fi fan. I wanted it to have a bit of an enigmatic spacey vibe. Note the gratuitous lens flare - so cheesy, but I couldn't help it.

Christmas cover collage

Robot space santa battles the time bombs of destiny

Ethel the aardvark, the MSFC bimonthly fanzine, is now off to be printed.

For graphic content old images were collected based on the themes Christmas, time, and space... and koalas. These and all the scissors and glue I could get my hands on, were shared with a bunch of fellow sf fans. We spent the evening constructing collages.

Theirs were done with honest scissors and glue, mine were done digitally. 

Here is the zine cover art featuring a robotic father Christmas.

Christmas Whale

A Christmas whale wearing a beard and hat, accompanied by his antlered Christmas dolphin friends.

Brush and ink, coloured digitally.

Originally designed for a theme suggested by Illustration Friday - Whiskers

Yep, it's a Christmas card and can be ordered on-line 

So the theme was 'whiskers'. Being close to Christmas time and all, the obvious plan was to put a Santa beard on some sort of character. The least likely character I could think of was a whale.

Illustrators Australia 9x5 exhibition

Carnivale

the 17th 9X5 Exhibition held in Melbourne!

Once again members of IA get together to exhibit an amazing array of unique and original works of art on 9X5 inch wood.

View the members works on display at Carnivale 

View the students work on display

Farewell to Flesh

Here we have a Plague Doctor. Stencilled acrylic and shellac on ply.
The exhibition theme Carnivale can be translated as Farewell to Flesh.

Carnivale

Where

SPACE 39, Lvl 2, 39 Little Collins St, Melbourne

When

Saturday and Sunday the 10th and 11th of November 2012

Gallery & Illustrators Market

Exhibition open and illustrators selling their wares -  perfect to pick up some unique christmas pressies!

an image for Halloween

Cthulhu menaces the planet Earth

This photograph was taken to go into the October/November Edition of Ethel the Aardvark, the Melbourne Science Fiction Club's bimonthly fanzine, for which I am currently the layout guy (so I get to decide on what artwork goes in - oh the power!) It was intended to go into the zine as a random art image with vague Halloween overtones. You will be happy to know I put the photo on page 13.

All taken in-camera, except for the grungy texture which I found on the underside of a baking tray.

I bought the pink Cthulhu plush toy off KRin Pender-Gun of Pink K Designs at a club mini-convention a couple of years ago. The globe is actually a pencil sharpener a friend lent to me, the stars were cut out of aluminium foil and the background is a velvet garment.

Here's the concept sketch

more Beautiful Soup

Silly me, I didn't think to post any images of the print I created for the Beautiful Soup exhibition. So here are some pics.

back foot of a Northern hairy-nosed wombat
lino cut, block ink, kitakata paper

Northern hairy-nosed wombats are one of the most endangered large animals in the world with only 138 individuals remaining at the last count. So their footprint on this world is a very tiny one indeed.

The exhibition is still on for a while and the wombat's foot is only one of the 56 prints in the show, so if you are in the area do go have a look. There is so much beautiful, original artwork there and it is all for sale.


St Heliers Street Gallery
10 October – 4 November 2012
The Abbotsford Convent
1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford, VIC 3067
open: Mon – Sun 8am – 4pm

Beautiful Soup

Hey, I am part of a group exhibition!
An exhibition of prints by 56 artists, curated by Rona Green.
If you are in the area of the Abbotsford Convent pop in for a squiz.

Beautiful Soup showcases an amazing array of all kinds of prints including etchings, linocuts, woodcuts, drypoints, screenprints, lithographs and more, by a host of wonderful artist printmakers. Of all the beautiful small scale works on exhibition there is only one of each artists prints framed and available for sale, so works on paper collectors are advised to get in quick – this is a great opportunity to do some early xmas shopping! Prices range from $130 to $400.

Visit www.ronagreen.com/soup to view the online exhibition catalogue
launched 14-10-2012

All are welcome to join the artists for celebratory drinks at the official opening from 2-4pm on Sunday 14 October – entry to this event is free.

St Heliers Street Gallery
10 October – 4 November 2012
The Abbotsford Convent
1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford, VIC 3067
open: Mon – Sun 8am – 4pm

illustration Friday - burst

Sunburst - a burst of sun shine.

Brush and ink coloured digitally.
Whipped up for illustration Friday theme 'burst'.

spuds and staffies

I know it is a bit cheesy doing faux stencil and splatter images, but digital art is usually the quicker and simpler way to do a freelance illustration gig. The customer wanted grungy street art style imagery so I created vector images which look like hand painted stencil art.

These images are part of a range of graphics for a fish and chip shop.

stencil art style potato with wings 

stencil art style Staffordshire Bull Terrier who has eaten some fish and chips