Good Stuff.

Here are a few things I've been working on lately:

Below is a design I'm working on for a community art project called 'artspots'. It's to promote public art and celebrate cultural diversity in our local council (which includes big populations of italian, greek and lebanese immigrants). Designs are submitted and then 20 are chosen to paint their designs on a 1m round supplied object (made of either aluminum or plywood) and then they will be displayed by the local library. I chose the themes of language, music and food! great benefits of a multicultural society!



And here's a sneak preview of a grammar book I am doing some work for. Nothing too exciting, but at least it's giving me practice illustrating boys and girls and puppies etc. - lots of practice in fact, about 60 illustrations worth! at least they're all quite small and fairly quick to whip off.



And it seems my efforts a few months ago to meet more illustrators has paid off, or maybe it's just Spring, but everyone is coming out of the wordworks!

This past weekend I went to the first melbourne SCWBI meeting in two years. I met, just by chance, the author of the first book I ever contributed to, an educational book about The 7 Ancient Wonders of the World, and also met illustrator Jacqui Grantford, who's work is really amazing.

also had a more casual meeting with some local area illustrators from the aussie illustration forums which was good. always good to chat to other people doing the same thing!

so all is well in the land of illustration.

(as you were.)

I-Fri: Phobia

boredomphobia: fear of staying put, otherwise known as itchy feet. (ok so I made up boredomphobia but I'm sure there must be a name for it, i just haven't found it) But we all know those people... moving house every year or so, always restless, off travelling, never putting down roots long enough to really settle in anywhere. I used to be one of those people so I know it all too well, though I still don't know what causes it. Fear of getting bored? Fear of commitment? not sure. but I'm a bit more settled these days so maybe it's a curable phobia ...

This one is dedicated to the oft-maligned but oft-consumed snail (in france anyway), the eternal backpacker, finding a home wherever they are.

trying something new this week as I alluded to in my last post. I think I like it as the white borders help nullify the density of the black line in a nice way. I need to get some different paper though - 300lb watercolour paper is hard to collage with!! I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this new look.

And I just want to say thanks to everyone who makes a visit to this lil blog. Your comments are always so encouraging and I really appreciate the time you take to say hello in this crazy busy world. so thank you! xx

Building the collection

I went to this book sale where EVERYTHING was $5. it was great!! I got 6 children's books to add to the collection, 2 presents for soon-to-be-babies, and 2 novels for $50! I could have spent so much more but had set myself a limit before i walked in the door. it's the only way i could've gotten out of there with any money for groceries!! :-)

City Circus I got because it is a pictures-only book which I think is fantastic and rare and it is beautifully designed

My mum and dad make me laugh for the great patterns and textures

Who built the pyramid for the interesting linework

Creation for its cool looking illos, even though I'm not into creationist beliefs (i actually thought it was the aboriginal creation myths when i got it! )

Ben and Gran and the whole wild wonderful world for its whimsical illos and great page design

and The Duck Catcher for its technique. this is the one i'm most interested in actually, as it's something i want to try. it's written by Moses Aaron and illustrated by David Mackintosh, who uses an interesting method of collaging bits of painted stuff onto other bits of painted stuff. for instance, he might create this crazy cool background, and then collage the characters on top of it. like this:



this appeals to me because I love creating texture in my backgrounds but hate painting around things. so i'm going to try something like this for my next I-F piece. Phobia, hmmm.....

I surprise me

I was trying to do a birthday card for my brother-in-law, got to the black ink stage and impatiently didn't wait for the previous wash to dry. needless to say, the ink bled everywhere and totally ruined my little painting. but then, i just started brush-doodling, and had a lot of fun. i think i need to find a way to incorporate more loose and big beautiful brush strokes into my work. i feel like a japanese calligraphy master when i paint like this (though the results aren't so masterful!) but it's a lot of fun and I think I need to play more... below are my doodlespussycat with funny paws. but i love the stroke of his belly where the brush was a bit dry.
weird giraffe! looks like he has antennae.
birds which i quite like. weird to think i did them though. where did this come from? I surprise me sometimes. maybe something did stay with me from the one calligraphy class I did...

I-Fri: Change

I really don't know why this image popped into my head for 'Change', but once it did I really wanted to paint it. 'the smoke changed into a genie'? 'his life changed after that moment'? Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this one. Experimenting a bit with collage too - i always like the extra dimension it adds.

The painty bits were done with gouache. Even though I use gouache a lot like watercolours, I really prefer it for its versatility of being able to layer light colours over dark. I don't often use it like that, but in some cases it is necessary. Like with this piece, I got a bit carried away with the blue smokey part, and painted too much over the genie's face. I often like to let the background colour show through, but in this case the blue on the right side of his face made it look like a shadow, whereas I wanted the shadows on the left side. so hooray for white gouache!

It was a beautiful warm springy day here, and quite still as well, so I painted this in our backyard, in the sunshine, listening to the really pitiful band rehearsing next door. but I loved it. oh thank you sun gods and Vitamin D! oh how I have missed thee!

Editorial work

An editorial piece I did for a journal about reading comprehension. Done with gouache and painted ink, with the scanned text layered on in Photoslop.

Snail mail

Checking the mail on a daily basis isn't as exciting as it used to be (mostly bills, junk mail, and bills) but every once in a while you get a nice surprise!


I received a copy of the book I did a cover and other B&W internal illos for. I'm quite happy with it. This one is a bit of a milestone for me as it's the first job I did with with paintbrush and paper (watercolours) as opposed to digitally. It was a big jump, and I feel I've already walked down the path a few steps from here, but it was definitely a good start.

It even comes in it's own lime green carrying case and with some stickers! very cute. The only thing is spelled my name wrong in the credits... :: sigh ::

I-Fri: Farm

I wanted to put some text in the bottom corner that says 'Good morning on the farm' and know which font in my head but I can't find it for the life of me and now I've run out of time so I just thought I'd post it anyway and hopefully I'll have some time to finish it off later. phew. breathe. must go!

lil card

part of a lil wedding card for some friends. (--I seem to be doing a lot of illos with hearts lately-- not sure why?) unfortunately we can't make it to the wedding since it's in Sweden, so this card will accompany our present of a red star-shaped lantern. :-)

I-Fri: Safe

safe...? or caged...?

Father's Day

Tomorrow, no sorry, today is Father's Day in Australia, so here is one to celebrate dads:


Quite happy with this, except for my bl**dy writing! I was trying to think how I could do the 'weeee' part with collage but couldn't figure out how to paint over it without the collaged bits buckling, so just went ahead and wrote it in. it's okay for a card, but not for, let's say, my folio. hmmm. might post this to my critique group and see what they suggest... (or if you have any ideas on ways to incorporate text/collage, dear reader, let'em rip!)