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...

Supergraph 2015

Hi there, hard to believe I haven't posted on my blog in almost a year (pretty close)! Things have really been quite hectic, particularly of late when I started a new full time job (unfortunately not illustration) in January, which leaves me very little time to do the things I love most.

Still, things are progressing well for me regardless. The first work I have to share with you today is a piece of work I recently did for IA's (Illustrators Australia, of which I am a proud member) booth at Supergraph 2015. Supergraph is an annual event for all things Illustration held right here in fabulous Melbourne.

I had 3 copies of my artwork available for purchase at the booth during that weekend, alongside many of the other great illustrators in IA. A big thank you to the anonymous person who purchased one of my prints, I do hope you treasure it!

If your mental arithmetic skills aren't half bad, you've probably realised that this means I have 2 prints left. They're still up for grabs, so if you're interested, please get into contact with me (since I don't as yet have shop functionality, plans are in motion though) if you're interested in obtaining it/them. Details of the prints follows:

Size: A4 - 210 X 297mm, with a 10mm border for mounting
Paper: 300gsm cotton rag paper
Protection: Cello wrapped and padded envelop
Price: Prints are available for $35 AUD each (Shipping included)
Availability: There are only 2!

Now that I've given you the sales pitch, it's time to see the work itself.

The title is urban evolution, which is essentially the concept as well. Many birds adapt to living in the teeming cities around the world. I decided to take the idea somewhat further, trying to imagine what it would be like for a bird to evolve in a urban setting. Then I started to consider the lack of trees which would make nest materials somewhat scarce. So, what if the mother bird could actually fly around with her babies inside pouches until they grow enough to fly themselves? (rhetorical by the way). I was inspired by Australia's many marsupials, which carry their young in this way.
 

 

Design wise, the bird takes many cues from birds common throughout Victoria, particularly ones which live in Melbourne's CBD. Colour wise, I considered the overall colours of a city. Bluish greys with bright orange yellows (lights). The pattern itself was inspired by sky scraper windows.

Background wise I wanted to have something that was truly iconic of Melbourne. How could one not think of trams? (once again, rhetorical). I didn't want to draw any particular model of tram however, so various parts of the design takes bits and pieces of various tram models Melbourne has had over the last 100 years. For the route number I chose the 86, as it's probably the tram I've used the most and is probably one of the more well known routes. There's even a cafe called the 86, which the tram goes past.

Oh, you may have noticed things look a little different (no, really) when you perused this post? Graphic design for me is a continually evolving skill, just like illustration. For some time I was unhappy with my current logo and really desired a change. I'm really happy with how my new brand identity came out. Evokes all the things I want it to, which was a great challenge by the way. Still not 100% sure of the colours yet though, so don't get too attached, as they may change in the near future.

Still got some big plans for this blog and hopefully a future website too. I'm a bit rusty on HTML and CSS coding but I'm sure it will all come flooding back to me when I start looking into it.

I've now also got my own Facebook page dedicated to my illustration work as opposed to posting on my personal profile you'll now find it there instead. Check it out here

Well that's all now, see you 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 ^_^

Cull in the void

So today I have something very special to share. My very first professional job. I received this job through email after the lovely Lulu Rae saw my Loop profile. Let this be a lesson to all that you should keep free portfolio websites up to date, they are just important as the ones you pay money for.

I was stoked! I couldn't believe someone actually wanted me to do work for them! I was to illustrate a band for Happy, which is a NSW based blog and web-zine that promotes local indie music acts.

The band in question was Cull, a NSW band that classify their style as friendrock/dreamgaze. These are not genres I'm at all familiar with, so I would suggest you have a listen here. You can also check out their website. I'm going to be honest and say that I hadn't heard of them before I started this work.

"Wow, let me just say first! Amazing illustration!!
We all love it. Thank you so much."

After a few back and forth emails about the requirements for the image, I set myself into research mode, which is always the first thing I do. This involved going on the bands Facebook page, website and Youtube channel. The later was for drawing (Pun!) inspiration from the visuals in their videos and the music itself. I concluded the music made me think about the unknown, particularly the great unknown expanse of the galaxy and universe itself. I considered the emptiness and excitement of space exploration, the final frontier as Star Trek calls it (big fan by the way). This was also helped by the clip to their newest single 'The Sacred Burial Urn' which features footage from a 1960's era science fiction. So I did some research into retro sci-fi and spacesuits, since being a portrait I need would something for the band to wear. Research done.

So into my sketchbook I went, though the entire process of the final artwork was digital, I still find it easier to sketch on paper first. This took about 4 hours or so, which is pretty quick for me. The whole time I was listening to Cull's Youtube channel on repeat to really get in the mood.

"You're so lovely!
I'm so glad you're as happy with everything as we are.
We are stoked!"

When it came to the band's faces, I ran into some difficulty. I don't often base the faces I draw on real people, and the only times I do is in life-drawing. What made it more difficult, was the lack of good photo-reference on the net. To get more I looked up previous bands the members had been in...I felt like a stalker!


The next step was to use my sketches to work up the line work in Photoshop. I usually start quite rough and slowly develop the drawing as I go. You might ask why the line art in red rather than the traditional black (which is what I usually do)? I knew that the background would be space, which is black (no, really?), so I thought black lines would mostly be lost in the background. Next time I do an artwork I'll be sure to take some screen-grabs so I can show my process in pictures. Until then, you must wait.

Most of the rest of the process is fairly self-explanatory, but I'll go into more detail when I have pictures to support what I'm saying. After being happy with the figures I moved on to the background. Now originally I decided to have a space shuttle flying through behind the band, but after finishing the figures I realised it might make the picture look a bit busy (not to mention the size the image would appear on the website would probably render the the shuttle too small to make out properly) and instead opted for a planet (with bonus moon).

So I finished the final image after about a week of fairly continuous work and emailed it to Lulu. What happened next was something I did not expect...

Now I will admit that on a personal level I thought this artwork as one of my best to date. However I didn't expect the fantastic response I received. I've interspersed this post with a few choice quotes by Lulu from our emails (used with permission of course).

"Thank YOU so much Reiko, people like you make it
easy and such a pleasure for us."

Truly, I was awed by her words. I was not expecting such high praise! I've really felt a boost to my confidence as an artist: I never imagined my first job would go so well. But it got even better! I also received a lovely message on Facebook from Alex Sol Watts, one of the members of the band. To get a positive comment from the band as well left me ecstatic.

I hope every job I do from now on turns out as well as this one did. It was such a joy to do. ^_^

Until 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.

Rusty pipes and a piece of Melbourne

Greetings! I hope this day finds you relatively free enough to check out this update. Today I have two works for you to check out, both of which were presents for friends. I seem to do more of that than anything else, but that's alright. Doing work for friends always involves unique challenges since I have a completely open brief, but need to try and create something I know they'll appreciate. This can really test my knowledge of the people I know.

So this piece was for a fan of Mario obviously. Now usually I don't do fan art. The reasons for this are two-fold. Firstly that it can quite often not look as professional as original work and secondly that it removes the most interesting and complex part of art for me: Design.When one does fan art, the design is already well established, so there's less to do from a design perspective.

However there are times I love a game or anime so much that I really want to do some fan art. I decided though that the best way to keep design an integral part of the work is to insert an original character into an existing world.

In keeping with that rule, I created a new Mario brother, or sister in this case. Much of the design comes from feminising aspects of Mario's costume.Note the puzzle box earrings. Since my friend is a nurse, I wanted to make out that this character could be much like a healer in RPG style games, the idea being that from her magically bottomless bag she could throw out power-ups for her co-players to collect.

The background I knew from the very beginning would need to contain the iconic sewer pipe (when you google it, the images are mostly Mario related). So I decided to have them floating in the sky. I have  a penchant for flying things, just can't help it.

The last artwork for today was for a good friend and fellow illustrator going back to her home country after living in Australia for 5 years in which she attended the same university that I did. It's a fairly simple concept. I wanted to draw her something that would remind her of Melbourne and have a character eating cheese as she rather enjoys it. I chose Flinders Street Station, as not only is it a lovely old building, but also has a nice strong recognisable colour scheme that makes it stand out. I'm quite happy with the result, especially when you consider my last attempt at the building with my Flinders band piece, which can be found in the illustration section of this site. Levene loved it too!

You can check out her website here.

That's it from me, see you next time, in the blogs ^_^

New Year? and a foppish DI

Hi there, as you probably expect, the reason for this post is to show some new work. It's almost impossible to believe that I haven't updated since April, but that's the truth. So anyway here's the new stuff.
 

This first piece I did for the new year, but never quite finished it for a while. As you can probably guess, 2013 is the year of the snake. As with my 2012 artwork, I decided to keep a somewhat Japanese feel, but I also at the time on a whim decided to incorporate Art Deco elements in the clothing and bottle design. My sister thought the pattern on the kimono looked like stylised bamboo, which I'm okay with. I'm particularly happy with the design on the bottle, though there's probably way too much detail in the label, as you can't even make most of it out at 100%. Still it was fun to do, I just need to make sure in the future that I stop zooming in so close. I've included a detail shot of the bottle. Serpent's Kiss - Seductively deadly.

The second I have for you today is a present I drew for my mum. If there's two things she loves, it's her Tonkinese cat Bashir (As in Dr Julian Bashir) and murder mysteries. Enter DI Tonks! Being a cat I believe he would have a rather foppish dress sense and I also trying to incorporate fish into the design. The tail waistcoat was based on fish scales and the shirt is herringbone. Yes, that's a fez, just because, you know, fezes (what the hell is the plural of fez?) are cool. This was my first attempt at full background in watercolour, so I'm pretty happy.

Number three is my fifth work in my patented 'Quick Concept series,' This time combining a bird (vulture) with a sniper. The limited palette worked quite nicely I think.

Well that's it for now, I've got a few more pieces ready to upload but I'll do that next time
 Bye!