My first WaWe & I-F: Satellite

I have joined Watercolo(u)r Wednesdays! It is watercoloury version of Illustration Friday. (Coincidentally, this piece works for IF too this week!) Themes for WaWe are more involved than IF's one-word prompt however... for instance last week was 'my strange pet' and this week is 'Archimedes or Galileo'.

I reckon Galileo must have started out like this....

Had some fun with ink this time, which i haven't played with for a while, as well as watercolours (of course) and collage. Hope you enjoy!

Ripple

Here is my contribution to Kelly's Light's Ripple - where every donated artcard is sold for $10, with the money donated to help the terrible oil spill in the Gulf.

It is number 423 on the blog. **sold.

Thank you Kelly for helping us all to do something positive, no matter how far away we live!

wise words

"If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams."

Yann Martel in Life of Pi

Christmas in June

I recently took a trip to Sydney to visit a friend, but also did some business while I was there. I met with my editor at HarperCollins who is publishing the book I just finished illustrating - True Blue Santa - an aussie christmas story. I felt so little and nervous walking in there - check out this imposing building!

Anyway, it was all okay-- the editor was lovely as was the designer-- we had cups of tea and chatted, and then looked over all of the layouts. It turns out my timing was good as it was going to print that week, so I was able to go through it with a fine tooth comb and make final tweaks. I have to say I am VERY happy with how it is looking, and.... very proud (*blush*) of this being my first trade book. (eeee!)

So, it is due out in October! But I reckon it's about time I give you a sneak preview.... this is one of my favourite paintings from the book.... santa heading home after his australian adventure...

work-in-pirates

I've gotten into the habit of doing a quick colour study in Photoshop before starting a new painting. I generally work out a colour scheme using either the Kuler plugin in Photoshop or the colour scheme designer which is very cool, or sometimes I'll even take it from the collage paper I want to use. Here is the one for Ashton's pirates painting which I am keeping in primary colours:

here's how it's looking at the moment: