Do we dream the same?

Uhh, so yeah...it's been close to a year since I've posted. No, it's not what you were thinking,  I haven't disappeared into some sort of inter-dimensional tear where everyone thinks art creates zombie werewolves bent on global domination. I mean, that would be one crazy story, but it's also complete fiction (this time). I do apologise for the long wait between posts, work has been taking more out of me than normal, but I'm hoping that will ease soon.

Instead, allow a post detailing my latest exploits into illustration grace you screen. I think you just might prefer that too.

So, the first piece I have for you today was created for a submission to a publication where the theme was one mere word: Dreams.

An illustration based on one word can be both a challenge and also extremely fun. On one hand it can be hard to come up with a good idea to fit the theme, but on the other it's always a great way to break out of your comfort zone and try something different: I often think of really different things I would never otherwise consider drawing and this piece is certainly no exception. Behold!

I started my design process thinking about things that are only possible in a dream, however I abandoned the idea pretty quickly as I felt that this would only lead to a confusing outcome and the link to the theme would be tenuous. I then decided to take a rather different direction; considering the many common themes people experience in dreams. I decided to see how many of the most commonly experienced dream images I could fit into one illustration.

See how many dream themes you can find in the artwork! Check your answers later in the post.

I always enjoy setting myself requirements for a picture. I often create a list of things that must be included when I'm sketching compositions. I find this a great way to work through the most important imagery and help develop the layout.It's a very methodical way to work, but it's what seems to come naturally to me.

It took me some time to get the composition right. I knew I wanted to strongly feature flight and falling, so I worked around that. I'm sure it's not gone unnoticed that sky features a lot in my artwork. I've always had a fascination with flight and that seems to transfer to my artwork.

Colour-wise I usually start with a main colour and decide on the rest of the colours with ones that compliment the main. I chose purple. I've asked many people. "What colour do you associate with dreams?" Some say black, but most say purple. so it was a nice, easy choice.

With the background, I was inspired by my first idea. I wanted to create a dreamscape, something accessible, but at the same time slightly odd. I settled on floating islands, I think it really helped the overall flight theme. The water is a common theme in sci-fi to give a visual representation of using technology to experience another person's subconscious, (think Ghost in the Shell). It is sometimes even referred to as 'diving'. You'll also notice ruins in the distance. I was inspired by some of the epic environments in the anime Bleach. Honestly, I really wanted to try painting some ruins and thought it would really fit nicely with the floating islands.

 

So how many dream themes did you spot? Check your findings here.

 

1. The teacher

The teacher himself is a major authority figure from our youth that can appear in our nightmares. The trigonometry textbook represents one of the most common themes I think everyone has experienced, forgetting to do school homework.

2. Revolver 

The teacher is chasing the dreamer with a gun, another common theme is a feeling of constantly running from an assailant that seems intent on doing us harm.

3. Food

Who doesn't like food? It's certainly the stuff of my dreams! Also it's a bit like the Portal cake.

 4. Spiders

Arachnids and other insects are very common. It's probably why they feature so strongly in horror movies. Pure nightmare fuel.

5. Fez & Gumboots

The clothing of the dreamer is that feeling of being under-dressed for a situation hence the mismatch of a fez (I'm a Doctor Who fan, so of course it needed to be a fez) with gumboots. Of course there's also that dream where you end up being in your underwear in a public space. Talk about embarrassment!

6. Quantum mechanics in ancient Rome exam

The only thing worse than forgetting to do your homework is feeling completely unprepared for a school/university exam. Especially when it happens to be on the most convoluted subject ever conceived: Quantum mechanics in ancient Rome.

7. The lover

We often daydream about romance and sex in our waking hours, so why should our dreams be any different? I'm not overly public about my sexuality, but I can always enjoy exploring it in this medium of illustration can't I?

 8. Snake arm cuff

Snakes and other serpents are also the stuff of nightmares.

9. Wasp sheet

Much like spiders (4). I find them particularly creepy myself. I haven't been stung in a very long time, so I'm mildly terrified of them.I chose paisley as it's a common pattern used on bed sheets.

10. The dreamer & Spitfire tattoo

A feeling of freedom is often experienced as free flight. It's that idea of the sky being without boundaries, as there are no walls, it seems open-ended. Hence the plane tattoo. Conversely, a feeling of falling can mean the exact opposite. Plunging into an endless abyss. I'm sure many of us have had those waking dreams where we feel like we've just landed on the bed after experiencing free-fall in our dreams.

11. The white rabbit

The white rabbit from Louis Carroll's Alice is a symbol of lateness. Most people really hate being late or having that feeling of being rushed (I know I do).  Almost everything we do in our lives is tied to the passage of time, so it makes sense that we would dream about it.

Did you find many? I hope you enjoyed this little game. I'll try to do more stuff like this in the future.

Since this work was going to be published, I created a short description.that was going to sit on the facing page. This was written back in October.

Dreams are such fascinating things, full of both wondrous and terrifying imagery. While their content can be as variable as there are stars in the sky, there are some common themes which seem to be universal to the human experience. Can anyone say they have never dreamed of falling or being chased by an unknown assailant? Or what about failing an exam or being inappropriately dressed in public?

 Well that's it for this post. You shouldn't have to wait too long for the next one. If you follow my Facebook  page you'll see I had some work published in a booklet developed for a youth homelessness organisation here in Melbourne. I have yet to complete a post about it, so look forward to it.

Keep drawing!

Desert lemons and a little red dot.

Hi Hi,

I don't know about you, but I think it's round about time I showed you some new work. Sound good? Let's get started!

My new work for today is a recent piece done once again for the lovely people at Happy. My subject this time around was Long Island band The Lemon Twigs. Once again, the scope being a landscape illustration to accompany a interview. These guys are full-on retro (both through music and style), so it was quite a unique one to work on.

Like with previous works, I'd never heard of the group, so like with the last two illustrations I've done, I gathered up their Youtube clips and left them on repeat, particularly while researching and sketching. I find listening to songs many times allows you to notice things that might not be picked up the first time through as well as discovering what really stands out in the imagery, (visually from the music videos and described in the lyrics). These make it onto a list (I like making lists) of things that I decide must be worked into the image. Then it's a matter of taking the elements and arranging them in a strong composition. It's a rather methodical way to work and probably the reason why I really struggle with whimsy and spontaneity when I'm working in my sketchbook. In short, I overthink things sometimes. Here's the image!

It's a little bit predictable to feature both lemons and a twiggy tree, but I just couldn't help it. My heaviest inspiration comes from the clip 'As long as we're together' I felt it really captured the glammy retro feel better than their other clips, which was exactly what I was going for. The colour scheme was perfect too. Soft pastel colours give that 'old school,' (do people still say that?) feel.

My first sketch just had both brothers standing next to each other, but I found despite the greater difficulty, I really wanted to draw Michael in a more animated pose. He's always jumping all over the place in the videos and it also makes for a more interesting composition.

Costume-wise I was originally going to go with something really full on, but decided on shirts. As always, I wanted to engage my penchant for pattern design and I thought it might be overkill to have costumes and detailed patterns in the one image.Even having complex 70's drop-repeat patterns on both their shirts made the eyes jump all over the picture, so I simplified Michael's patterning to just spots. It keep focus on Brian's shirt and leads into the rest of the image.

For the background, being a quick turn-around I needed something quick and easy, but also something I could practice painting with. I'm still relatively new to background painting, so it's one of my major goals this year to really get a handle on it. It'll really open up many more possibilities for things I want to create in the future. Desert was great for this: It's relatively flat and uncomplicated, but still has lots of hue and texture changes. The tree was also quite fun to do. I was going to paint it from scratch, but since I wanted it to stand out a little more I kept outlining in there.

Screen-caps from Happy's website where the article was featured when it was published in April. It was even featured on the homepage for about a week, which is pretty awesome.

Read the full article here.

Thanks to Happy and Tom Cameron for the opportunity.


In other news, I've made a sale! Down goes the auction hammer, BANG "SOLD!" - Though it wasn't an actual auction of my work, who can't help but imagine such a scene?

Back in May I had a piece of my work featured in a group exhibition held by Illustrators Australia, (or IA for short) in Collingwood Gallery, here in Victoria on a lovely Autumn day.  It ran from May 5th to May 30th and was called 'paper to pixel.' It was certainly a good turnout of illustration talent; 68 amazing pieces of art were on display, each one more different than the last. Check out photos from the opening night of the event on IA's facebook page here. The exhibition was even featured in the weather segment on channel 10 (a major television network here in Australia). It felt pretty cool to have my artwork featured on TV, even though it's not like it was dominant in any way.

Many artworks had already been sold by the end of opening night, which was great. Little telltale red spots stuck next to the works indicated a sale. Unfortunately, my work was not among them.

That was until early June when I received a congratulatory email from IA saying that my print had been sold! I was super ecstatic. I was having lunch in the meal room at my day job casually checking my emails when I saw it. I did a little dance in my seat and probably looked really weird to all my colleagues surrounding me. The money didn't feel that important, it was the recognition that did it for me. Imagining that someone looked at my artwork among all others in that gallery and said "I want to buy this" and spent their money on it. Thank you, whoever you are! Something that I created from nothing was worth something to another. It. Was. Fantastic.

The work itself was going to be a new piece I was working on specifically for the exhibition, but I challenged myself a little too much, given the limited time I have in my life for illustration. It's based on a project for a client that fell through, for which I'd already done some designs and sketches for. I really don't like discarding things I've put time into, so it was a perfect candidate for the exhibition.Time however, did not allow it's completion, so instead I had to quickly chose one of my recent works.
 

Remember this one? See the full blog entry about it here.

I'm a proud member of IA, see my portfolio page here.

Well that's it for another blog entry, I've been doing some sketching lately which I should be uploading at some point in the not-too-distant future, stay tuned for that. I'm not sure if I'll make a new blog entry, but it will definitely get a mention on social media. I'll also upload it into my sketchbook section on here.

Other plans for the future are a couple of designs I thought would make some great t-shirt. So I've thinking of vectoring them up and submitting to Threadless. I've got some other stuff to finish first however, so not sure when I'll get to that.

Thanks for feasting your eyes.

Bartering sheep

Hi there, you might hardly believe it, but I've just completed a new post for you mere weeks after the last. I have not one, but two new pieces to show. Shocked? I'm trying really hard to push myself to spend more time on this thing I love called illustration. "But what does this mean for me?" I hear you ask. Well to answer your question, I hope it means updates more often and more work to share. Now let's get into it.

First up, I've got an illustration I completed of local Melbourne musician Ali Barter. This was originally going to be for a client, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, it was never published. I left it alone for several weeks and then one day decided it was a waste of my time and effort not to finish something I'd already spent a considerable amount of time on. So here it is!

Colourful, no? I'd never heard of Ali before, so like I mentioned in my previous post, research was key. I found myself particularly drawn to the bright colours and style found in her clip of the song Hypercolour, so I that was my main inspiration. Just the term made me imagine super-bright and high impact colour schemes. The flowers were inspired by the same clip, though in this instance they're magically growing from the guitar itself. I think it strengthens the sense of 'hypercolour:' Almost sickly bright flowers.

In terms of background, the clip for one of her newest songs, Girlie bits features synchronised swimming, so I thought, how about a pool without water as a setting? I had a tight deadline originally with this work, so I had to keep things fairly uncomplicated. The tiles I think make a for simple but very catching design. I've always loved drawing environments where nature has taken over, so expect to see more of those as my background painting skills improve. I discovered working on this, that though guitars seem like a relatively easy thing to draw, they can take some time to get right. I'm still not 100% on spot with line drawing using my tablet, so it took a few attempts to get the strings where I wanted them. I'm particularly happy with the way the eyes came out.

Up next is a personal work I've been working on bit by bit over the last couple of years. As you can probably imagine, producing a work over such an extended amount of time often leads to many changes. The lengthy production period mainly stemmed from my desire to try my hand at painting the background. If you look through most of my work, it's either got no background at all or a very simple drawn one if any. I was very apprehensive to start it once I got up to that point. Which I know is kinda silly given that in Photoshop, everything can be undone.

I'm not entirely sure what I was going for with this image...I'm guessing sheep were likely the starting point. I think I was watching The Musketeers at the time and really loved their... shoulder capes? Which lead on to considering a striking heraldry logo: I started out in graphic design, so I always like to find ways to combine it with my illustrations. All this doesn't really fit with a simple sheep farmer, so let's just say that in this world sheep farming is considered a noble profession. The idea behind the glowing gem in the crook is that it in some way hypnotises the sheep to follow her. The design of her hair eludes me and is lost to time.

Working on a piece across such a long period of time was a great way to sense my progression as an artist, there are some things here that are quite different to how I do them now. Though I did try my best to change little to keep it in line with the original. The major thing I tweaked were the colours, mainly to harmonise them with the recent idea I had for the background. I was originally going to use a textured brush, but decided against it: I'd read from a few artists that it's best to start with the basic flat default brush until you get a feel for painting.

Considering it's one of my first attempts to paint digitally, I'm quite happy with how it all turned out. I think the sense of distance is captured quite well, particularly with the foreground grass. I'm always amazed with how plain background can be to still have a good feel of the environment. The stone sign, (in an unknown language so you know it's not Earth) shows the distance to the next city. Perhaps our sheep herder is taking her flock to trade? As a bonus to the detail shots I quickly drew up a completed graphic of the heraldry shield. Sometimes these things look better flat.

I'm currently trying out a 'sketch a day' exercise to speed up my drawing skills, So I'll probably make a new section or possibly add to my sketchbook section.

Well that's it for this post...next time I'm hoping to have something done from a galaxy far away. Thanks for reading!

The 3 P's - Procession, Pirates or Party?

Hey there blog watchers, I haven't seen you since January, (totally my fault). It's been some time, so I thought I'd do something exciting for my new post. Details below.

While I was designing my Chinese new year illustration for 2016, I came up with 3 distinctly different ideas. Usually this is a normal part of the design process: To pick one to finish and discard the rest. Then I thought, why not involve others in the process? I want YOU to decide which rough I should bring to finished artwork. I'm going to dub this idea "Choose the project," catchy title yeah?

Of course you should be possibly rewarded for your hard work, so 1 (one) lucky person shall receive a FREE A4 fine-art print of the finished illustration. I'll be choosing an entrant at random. If you would like to enter, please make sure you fill in question 2 so I can get into contact with you to send you your new art.

You can find the link to the survey below. It's only 2 questions and some contact info, so it shouldn't take very long at all...Unless you're the kind of person to agonise over which one to choose, in which case your guess would be as good as mine. Please make sure you do the actual survey, if not you're entry won't count and the hard work will be for naught.

Choose the project: Chinese New Year 2016
 

See the worlds of possibilities below. Remember, only YOU can decide the path I shall take. Will it be Pirates, Procession or Party? Happy voting and good luck for the draw (if you choose to enter). Just also keep in mind that being rough as these are, changes are likely to occur, (that's the nature of the creative process), though mostly this will be detailing, the basic design and structure will remain.

I'll be posting again in a few weeks to confirm the winning rough that I'll be taking through to finished art, so look forward to that.

Thanks for reading, be back real soon.

Transitions

Hi there blog watchers! Happy 2016!

It's been far too long, so I think it's about time I showed you a new piece of work. We'll blame work for that as it does really impact on the amount of time I have to do things I love doing. Still, I manage somehow and will hopefully continue to do so. But enough about that, you're here for art aren't you?

 

This new one is entitled 'transitions'. It's about change, specifically the changes we make in our lives that forever impact us. Often it's a choice and since we don't have the ability to see the future, it's a blind one; We don't know what will be on the other side of that 'portal' we choose to step through. In some cases there might not even be a way to retrace our steps and go back to how things were before, which can make that 'choice' all the more daunting, however it's also what keeps life interesting.

Things have changed oh so much in my life these past couple of years and I hope they will continue to do so. Most of these changes have been positive and have in most cases exceeded the possibilities of how I thought they would turn out. I hope that 2016 will be just as bright and bring with it even greater possibilities.

I'm quite proud of this piece. It was a good chance to really experiment with a strong sense of lighting, which I don't normally do. It was something of a challenge with how to actually do the shading and I wasted time with layers I probably didn't need to use.

One thing I struggled with, was whether or not to put in a deeper background. In the end I decided against it, because no matter what I tried I just couldn't get it to look right. Background is still something I struggle with and it will certainly be a thing I'll try to focus on overcoming this year. I've been sitting a on fantastic idea for an exhibition, but to really make it work I need to be much more competent with backgrounds, so I really can't wait to get there and start on that work specifically.

I was originally not going to put in a pattern on her top, but in the end I just couldn't resist. I love patterns and fabrics and if I didn't love fantasy and science-fiction so much, I'd probably be a textile designer. In illustration however, I can be both at the same time! I find that even the simplest pattern, (like the one above) can really bring some extra life to an image.

If you have any questions about this work or would like to obtain a print, just leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

Until next time...

Snow with friends

Hi there everybody,
sorry about the wait between posts, but I started a full time job in March and haven't had much time to do things of an illustration nature, which is a true shame. Still, with my contract ending in a week, I'll either be looking for a new job or hopefully changing to part time in my current job, either way I should soon have time for my real passion.

So today, I have once again an illustration gift for a friend. This particular friend loves penguins, (her house is full of penguin plushies). So it was pretty obvious where my direction came from in this piece. The main thing I wanted to try in this was to paint a background and I'm fairly happy with how that came out. I also decided on some very Scandinavian patterns, partly because I love geometric patterns, but also because I see it everywhere at the moment. So many people are wearing jumpers with these types of patterns. Th pattern on the scarf are snow covered leafless trees, I was impressed with how nice this simple pattern worked

I looked to colour starting with a purple, as it's my friend's favourite colour. this also worked in compliment with the oranges in the emperor penguin's colouring.

I was so happy when she decided to display it next to her television, to give it such a prime position, she must really love it.

How you enjoyed the piece, see you next time ^_^

Horsey with magic birds and a revival

Hey there people!

Posts seem to come with two and today is no exception! As per usual I have two new artworks for you today. So without further small talk I'll get straight into it!

 

So this first image was done for my traditional Chinese new year illustration. You might remember last years work for year of the snake? This year being horse, I had the option to draw a mount, which I always love doing. A bit of further research showed that one of the five Chinese elements is also associated with the year, this year being wood. There are also colours, symbols, seasons and even planets associated with the element. This gave me plenty of direction in my self-brief.

I thought this time I got through the sketch and line-work stages much quicker than usual, though I still think I could be quicker. The biggest challenge in this work was working out a good and stylised way to "texturise" the wood, which I think worked quite nicely.

Now to the story behind logo on the wind barrels. It turns out the planet Jupiter is associated with wood, so I wanted some way to include that in the art. I remembered from a previous piece of work that all the Roman gods and thus planets had a graphic symbol to represent them, and obviously what you see on the barrels is the symbol for Jupiter. Out of pure coincidence the symbol also looks like a two and a four for 2014! I love it when things like that happen.

As you might've noticed I've included detail shots, which I think I might do from now on. Often I have  details in my work that really can't be seen properly in these web quality versions.

Now onto the next work...

 Before

 

  
After

This next piece is a little different from my usual work. It's actually my take on one of my sister's creations. That's right, my sister is an artist of sorts too. She dabbles in collage and crafts, mainly sewing and knitting. She does some great work, though she won't admit it herself. I'd be plugging her website here, but she doesn't yet have one yet.

So as you've probably gathered, the top image is my sister's original and the after is my take on it. I simply decided to do this because I liked her character, but also because I wanted to try "complexifying (tm)" a quite stylistic design.  

I tried to keep as close to the original as possible, however I did tweak the colours a bit and decided for fun to add some birds, two of which are birds my sister likes (namely the fairy wren and the barn owl), the others are made up. The particularly daunting task in this image was the pattern on the skirt. I couldn't decide whether to opt for a scan of a illustration from the same book as the original or attempt to draw my own in the same style. In the end I though it might look at bit too busy full of really complex line work, so I opted to do it myself and rather pleased with the result.

Vicky was actually really proud that I used her creation, which made us both feel good!

One last thing to post, I lied. A while back I worked on a new version of my 2012 image (year of the dragon) So I though I really should update my blog with the improved version, so here it is.

Pretty much the only major change to the original is the pattern on the kimono, which was supposed to look like stylised fire works, but I don't think it really worked that well. Most of the rest are just adding more detail or tweaking shadows.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I've recently joined 'Drawcrowd,' a community site for sharing illustration and concept art with other artists. It was created by the ever generous Feng Zhu, who I ranted about before. He continually gives back to his industry in ways that are awe inspiring. So what are you waiting for? Check it out here! You can find a link to my page on Drawcrowd in the contact section of this blog.

Well that's it from me, time to get back to drawing. What's next you say? Well it involves penguins!

Thanks for reading.

Devonshire Tea in the Void

Hi there people who like art! Let's face it, you aren't here for my charming conversational-style writing. It's the artwork you want. Well today you're in luck, as I have for you not just the image you see before you, but also some new pages out of my sketch book. Not to mention some re-scans of a couple of other pages, that originally looked quite horrible.

So about the Gentleman Spacer. It was a piece for a friend's birthday. Quite simply I wanted to combine two things he loves, that being steam-punk and science-fiction. I immediately started wondering what a wealthy gentleman would look like if he wanted to go EVA while on a deep space cruise. I just couldn't resist the cybernetic arm, I also tried to incorporate the top hat into the helmet in some way, but just wasn't coming up with anything that looked too great. I thought the eyes in particular came out really well. I knew I wanted to incorporate some kind of crest in the chest plate, but I really wanted to steer clear of clichés like roses or lions, and instead opted for something no gentleman can be without, tea

So now the sketchbook pages...

 So that's it from me for now, in the next week I should have another piece to upload, just waited for my friend to receive it first. I'm sorry about the lack of updates, but I've been trying to find a job and haven't been having too much luck. Until next time...

The hard road of self-teaching

Hey there everyone in internet land. I've decided to share a whole heap of stuff I've been doing in the last month. I hear you ask "so what is it?" Well to answer your heartfilled question:

I've been learning fundamental skills. It got to the point where I would never stick to practicing things like perspective, digital painting and lighting. So I went for my ultimate in desperate measures and made up a uni-like timetable. Now I'm doing 9 hours of study every week day and I'm pretty impressed with the results thus far. Just having a formal timetable set up really helps to keep me motivated. However don't take my word for it, check it out yourself! Below is a selection of work I thought was particularly good. Remember to look in the 'sketchbook' section for more stuff

Thanks for looking and see you next time, in a reality much like this one.