Merry Lamb

I'm posting a few things I created for Uni assignment work completed in my final semester at the end of this year. This assignment was based on an identity for a baby and toddler wear brand (fictional). I created a retro style lamb logo, associated website homepage, swing tag, tshirt illustrations and even screen printed a couple of t-shirts as samples. It was a really enjoyable project to work on and it was particularly eye opening to find out just how much work is involved in screen printing your own tshirts!



The Merry Lamb logo uses a full colour illustration with hand rendered text below.



This little retro cowboy illustration was created as a possible tshirt design.



These are the two tshirts I printed at Megalo. The illustration is based on a painting I completed a few years ago.

Elizabeth Rohm Illustration

It's been waaaaaaaay too long since I last made a post and that's mainly because I've been busy doing uni assignments. Now that assignments are done and dusted, I can post up a few projects I've been working on. These illustrations are to accompany an article on Elizabeth Rohm (Angel, Law & Order) in the next issue of Lip magazine (http://lipmag.com/) I kept them in a comic book style as I think it suits the shows she appears in. I look forward to seeing how the magazine comes together with a collaboration of various different illustration styles and techniques.

GRAPHIC 2011 - Sydney Opera House, sketchnotes




Sketchnotes sample from 'Oz comics show and tell' panel

 



Sketchnotes sample from 'Oz comics show and tell' panel and my lunch break!

 
I had a fantastic weekend at GRAPHIC held at the Sydney Opera House. I found the weekend very inspiring and learnt heaps of tips and tricks for comic making. The panel was great this year, very engaging and added a voice to comics from their creators. I also joined Mandy Ords table for the 'Comic Making workshop' which eventually dwindled down to two participants since no-one was aware it was a 4 hour workshop and most folks had booked into another event at the same time. It was like a one on one tutorial (with two - ummmm) I got loads out of it including creating two A5 pages of a comic in half an hour which got the adreniline pumping! Mandy has those pages and might print them up into a mini comic and post a copy. If she has time! I imagine she'd be pretty busy with more serious comic making projects :-D The Gotye concert with accompanying animation was just brilliant! The new album has a very cruisy, layed back feel so think I'll be grabbing me a copy. I finished off the event with a Jim Woodring http://www.jimwoodring.com/ pen and ink workshop where we completed a few drills and got the basics on using nibs plus plenty of advice on the best nibs, paper, ink and reference materials to use. When I get a spare moment (!) I'll give it another shot. Can't wait for GRAPHIC to roll around again next year!

Illustration Friday - Obsession and Perennial



Obsession



Perennial

 I didn't quite get last weeks illustration finished in time so here it is with this weeks. A Perennial Hibiscus flower is worn in the hair of my retro style tattoo lady. 'Obsession' captures unrequited love. She'll continue picking the petals from daisies until she receives the answer she wants!

Illustration Friday - Gesture

During Restoration England, women often used a fan to perform gestures.

Fist Full of Comics - Part Two

For those who went out and bought Fist Full of Comics issue 9 with part one of my 'India Ink' comic (thanks for your encouragement by the way!), issue 10 is out now with the second part of the comic. Go grab one!

Fist Full of Comics cover - issue 10

India Ink, part two - sneak peak

Illustration Friday - Stay and Remedy

Stay



Remedy



I didn't finish 'Remedy' in time to go up last Friday so I'm posting it with this weeks submission. It's based on those 1940's adverts for amazing cures for everything you can imagine with long, complicated names. I have a collection of magazines from the 1900's through to the 60's and got some inspiration from those for both of these illustrations. 'Stay' is an illustration of a very well travelled lady from the 1920's who's just arrived at another destination.

Illustration Friday - Midsummer Night, Launch, Swept, Shadows, Asleep & Soaked

I've been busy at work and had winter bugs so I've stock piled a mega load of illustrations for Illustration Friday, starting from most recent to oldest. Enjoy!



Midsummer Night



Launch

Swept




Shadows




Asleep



Soaked

 As you can see, it's a real mixed bag! I had a lot of fun experimenting with different styles, although, I keep coming back to colouring on the computer as a favourite. I'm now up to date, hooray!!

Comic Meet Postcard

Just so you know I haven't been completely lazy, I designed a postcard last week to promote the comic meet group. The text is all hand drawn then scanned and the Archie comic circa 1978 image superimposed on the background and featured in the text. It was good fun to do!

Fist Full of Comics Vol.3 Number 9

It's been a while since I posted anything due to a variety of winter illnesses going around. Finally feeling a bit more human again and shall soon be posting some drawings once they're done. In the meantime, my comic about India has been printed in Adelaide based comic 'Fist Full of Comics'! It's great to finally get something out there, done and dusted. It's been broken into two parts and will continue in next months edition. Here is a link to their website if you'd like to know how to find a copy: http://ffocomics.yolasite.com/store-locator.php



Cover of Fist Full of Comics, Vol.3 No.9



Sample of the first page of my comic titled 'Indian Ink'.



Illustration Friday- Safari

This is a mural I painted around 1995/1996 (yes, yeeeeeears ago!) which has a safari theme and I thought was appropriate for this weeks Illustration Friday. It was painted on the wall in the children's ward of a public hospital. They were after something bright, interesting to look at and cheerful. I have no idea if it's still there to this day but I remember I really enjoyed painting it over a few weeks during a very hot summer! It feels like I've cheated a bit this time around but it's been a pretty busy and exhausting week so thought I'd give myself a little rest whilst still putting something up.

Illustration Friday: Beginner and Lesson

Beginner (this weeks topic)

Lesson (last weeks topic) click to see larger

Last week turned out to be a pretty hectic week so I didn't make it to the deadline but got it finished by Saturday so got pretty close! Two very different styles. 'Lesson' reflects the hundreds of life drawing classes I've done over the years. Art rooms always have a chaotic and often eccentric feel to them which I wanted to capture in this cartoon. Aside from the chaos, life drawing lessons tend to be really quiet as everyone is so intent on what they're doing and in their own little worlds so much that there's rarely time to chat.

'Beginner' looks at the intent focus and effort babies go through when they're first starting to explore the world and put two and two together. Everything is new to them so they're a beginner at every little action they fulfill. The look of concentration just to stack some cups is the same you'd see on a concert pianist. I like the simplicity of just sketching with a mechanical pencil for this one with no bells and whistles.

Comic Meetup drawings for May

I arrived late and only stayed about an hour but still got a couple of drawings done. No topic this time, just a free for all. I tried out drawing a cute monster type creature without pencilling first (I always pencil first so it's a challenge to get stuck in with markers and fine liners straight up!) It didn't turn out too bad. Still get the fine liner running into the marker so figure I'll have to invest in a copic fine liner in a thicker grade than my 0.05 for outlining. I also drew a comic style chick only using the copic liner and marker which seems pretty sharp. I guess I should start moving on and experimenting with some other techniques for a bit of variety!

New pens

I finally went and bought some new pens and markers. Copic markers in Special Black, Warm Grey No.5 and soft Greenish Blue. Also a refillable copic multiliner in 0.05 and a Staedtler triplus fineliner (tends to bleed a bit in combo with the markers) Below is a 1930's style portrait experiment with using the markers to create shade areas which I usually add in using InDesign. It has a bit more of a watercolour feel to it that I can't achieve in InDesign (without tedious amounts of faffing about that is!) I drew this whilst watching the Royal Wedding where I got plenty of inspiration for pomp and glamour!

Illustration Friday - Bicycle

Long time between blog entries and I blame it on Easter Eggs. I decided to try out Illustration Friday for the first time http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ where a new topic is posted each Friday giving you a weeks deadline to come up with an illustration based around the topic and submit it to the website along with hundreds of other folks. This weeks topic was bicycle. A tough one for a first off as I always seem to struggle to draw bikes and miss finer details such as the chain! I decided to go for a 1960's look with a cowboy riding with his toy bunny perched on the handlebar and light. I hate drawing round shapes freehand and if I was seriously doing this drawing and had loads of time to faff about, I'd probably dig out the French curves (after dusting them off of course!) This was fun to do and a good challenge. I'd like to give it another try again soon and even allow myself more than a day... maybe.

Fish Police

Todays challenge for the comic meetup was 'Fish Police'. I started sketching this one whilst I was at the pub then inked it at home and added a spot of colour in Photoshop. I didn't know where I was going with this one! I had to google Fish Police when I got home to figure out the reference (comic nerd fail!). It's a comic from the mid 80's to early 90's based around law and crime in a fictional underwater metropolis. I'm not sure if mermaid beauty/cop really fits in but maybe she could have a bit part or possibly play an extra!

Another film star

Since I was in the mood and still inspired by the 1927 Picture Show Annual, I created another film star illustration using ink washes, drawing pens and gouache. Again, I really like the dramatic lighting and contrast and romantic poses too.

Here is the cover of the book itself for those interested.

Film stars

I bought a beautiful old 1927 film annual at the book fair last week and got inspired by all the dramatic sepia tone photographs. I love the poses and stark lighting effects. Here is the drawing I came up with last night using ink washes, gouache and drawing pens.

Along the same lines, I created the painting below a couple of years ago, acrylic on canvas of a 1940's film star.

Godzilla visits Parliament House

Here it is, the postcard you've always wanted to buy from the Parliament House gift shop, 'Godzilla visits Parliament House'. Todays challenge for the Comic Meetup for March was to draw Godzilla attacking any Canberra landmark of your choice. Here is my interpretation...

In pursuit of the ultimate cute baby illustration

For ages I've been attempting to create a cartoon version of a baby that actually looks cute... yes, I know, a weird pursuit but believe me, they're actually quite hard to draw and previous attempts have ended up looking like fat, cranky old men or seriously ugly looking sumo wrestlers. I created this one below using reference material from photos and catalogues and it seems to be getting there in terms of cuteness factor. I think it's all to do with the size of the eyes and how far apart they are (I could get into Hello Kitty philosophy here) and the chubbiness aspect. Hmmm, fascinating stuff! Let me know if you think this is a successful attempt or not and if you've also struggled to achieve ultimate cuteness in your own drawings (I'm sure there are some self help guidebooks out there somewhere).

Robot Reject

This is a little robot I created last week as a proposed image for a web graphic but he got rejected in favour of some clip art so thought I'd post him up here instead so he can get seen somewhere! He's a cheery little fella. I sketched him out first then scanned the drawing and used that as a template layer in Illustrator. I basically redrew him using bezier curve tools and shapes for solid colour areas.

Lady with cat drawing

Here is a drawing I pencil sketched at the Wig and Pen at the beginning of February during a Comics Meetup and finally decided to finish it off yesterday on a rainy afternoon. I just used a felt tip brush pen for the thicker outline strokes and added the details with a 0.1 felt tip. She could be some weird Bond villain otherwise just some chick with bizarre hair! It feels good to get some drawing happening again and hopefully I'll keep it up, even if it's just dodgy doodling whilst watching telly.

First post to Strawberry Sketches!

Here it is! Finally, I have set up a blog to post some of my drawings, paintings, comics and sketches. I've spent a good hour just fiddling about with the look of the blog which is pretty entertaining in itself. I haven't done anything too amazing but it's a start. Hopefully I can figure out how to drop in my own banner later down the track.

Currently I'm not working on anything creative besides a funky robot which John West rejected. I'll post that one up shortly. In the meantime, here is an illustration I completed last year as part of a competition to see Neil Gaiman at Graphic held in the Opera House, Sydney in August 2010. I won two free tickets which was pretty damn awesome! Shame they were dodgy seats up the back near fat smelly blokes who walked out 10 minutes into it but you don't win something everyday. Plus there's the adrenaline rush just trying to get the entry in on time. The entry had to feature Neil Gaiman so I went for the indy comic approach ...

For those interested in the execution, the illustration was drawn by hand using paint brush, black ink and fine felt tip drawing pens. I scanned it at high res as a bitmap tiff, dropped it into InDesign and added the colour using three pantones and bezier curve tools with layers.

By the way, what's with the name of the blog? Well, I've always loved eating strawberries and I also love sketching. Put the two together and you get 'Strawberry Sketches'. It helps too that the title wasn't taken, gotta try to be original these days and that's a challenge. Catch you soon with more pictures.