Space Neuron

Probably should be pronounced as
Spaaaaaaaace Neurrrrrrron
with an echoing dramatic kind of voice

It has been far too long since I've posted here. So here's a quick artwork to get back into the swing of things.

Space Neuron was intended as a quick editorial illustration to accompany an article written in memory of a sci-fi fan. I wanted it to have a bit of an enigmatic spacey vibe. Note the gratuitous lens flare - so cheesy, but I couldn't help it.

Christmas cover collage

Ethel the aardvark, the MSFC bimonthly fanzine, is now off to be printed.

For graphic content old images were collected based on the themes Christmas, time, and space... and koalas. These and all the scissors and glue I could get my hands on, were shared with a bunch of fellow sf fans. We spent the evening constructing collages.

Theirs were done with honest scissors and glue, mine were done digitally. 

Here is the zine cover art featuring a robotic father Christmas.

Cthulhu menaces the planet Earth

This photograph was taken to go into the October/November Edition of Ethel the Aardvark, the Melbourne Science Fiction Club's bimonthly fanzine, for which I am currently the layout guy (so I get to decide on what artwork goes in - oh the power!) It was intended to go into the zine as a random art image with vague Halloween overtones. You will be happy to know I put the photo on page 13.

All taken in-camera, except for the grungy texture which I found on the underside of a baking tray.

I bought the pink Cthulhu plush toy off KRin Pender-Gun of Pink K Designs at a club mini-convention a couple of years ago. The globe is actually a pencil sharpener, the stars were cut out of aluminium foil and the background is a velvet garment.

Here's the concept sketch

more Beautiful Soup

Silly me, I didn't think to post any images of the print I created for the Beautiful Soup exhibition. So here are some pics.

back foot of a Northern hairy-nosed wombat
lino cut, block ink, kitakata paper

Northern hairy-nosed wombats are critically endangered. Their footprint on this world is a tiny one indeed.

The exhibition is still on for a while and the wombat's foot is only one of the 56 prints in the show, so if you are in the area do go have a look. There is so much beautiful, original artwork there and it is all for sale.


St Heliers Street Gallery
10 October – 4 November 2012
The Abbotsford Convent
1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford, VIC 3067
open: Mon – Sun 8am – 4pm

Beautiful Soup

Hey, I am part of a group exhibition!
An exhibition of prints by 56 artists, curated by Rona Green.
If you are in the area of the Abbotsford Convent pop in for a squiz.

Beautiful Soup showcases an amazing array of all kinds of prints including etchings, linocuts, woodcuts, drypoints, screenprints, lithographs and more, by a host of wonderful artist printmakers. Of all the beautiful small scale works on exhibition there is only one of each artists prints framed and available for sale, so works on paper collectors are advised to get in quick – this is a great opportunity to do some early xmas shopping! Prices range from $130 to $400.

Visit www.ronagreen.com/soup to view the online exhibition catalogue
launched 14-10-2012

All are welcome to join the artists for celebratory drinks at the official opening from 2-4pm on Sunday 14 October – entry to this event is free.

St Heliers Street Gallery
10 October – 4 November 2012
The Abbotsford Convent
1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford, VIC 3067
open: Mon – Sun 8am – 4pm

spuds and staffies

I know it is a bit cheesy doing faux stencil and splatter images, but digital art is usually the quicker and simpler way to do a freelance illustration gig. The customer wanted grungy street art styled images so I created vector images which look like hand painted stencil art.

These images are part of a range of graphics for a fish and chip shop.

 

book cover illustration for The Artemis Effect

A little while ago I was asked if I was interested in designing a cover for an ebook.

The book is The Artemis Effect by author Kasia James. It is a character driven story set in the near future, and follows the adventures of three people in different countries who must survive a world-wide collapse of communications, technology and society.

How could I say no?

We all know a cover isn't just a pretty picture with some text - it is one of a book's most important promotional assets. So I read the book, then the author and I had a number of discussions. Based on these discussions I presented a selection of rough concept drafts before we settled on one, which was then worked into final art.

Our priorities were to

• indicate something of the story's content, style and genre
• create a design which communicates to the right audience
• for the title and author's name to be very clear, even when previewed at tiny sizes

I could go on about all the careful cover design choices made, but actually I don't want people to see a bunch of design decisions, I simply want people to think "Yeah, characters I can identify with dealing with an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario... this book is for me!"

Do you think we succeeded?

You can buy The Artemis Effect here (Kindle edition)

You can find Kasia James' blog here

devil prints

Spent this morning printing some devils. No, not demon figures with horns, but the furry marsupial variety. Tasmanian Devil - marsupial carnivore the size of a small dog with a large mouth and big teeth. They are facing extinction in the wild because of Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

I designed this stencil as one of two options for a joint show I am involved with. I ended up going with the other option, a linocut of a wombat's foot, but now I am unsure of my decision. Such nagging doubts.

The stencil is based on a photo I took ages ago.

stencil paper
scalpel
acrylic paint
sponge
elephant dung paper

scanned and available as printed cards on Redbubble

found in local shop

Today while checking out the local second hand shops I was surprised to spot a couple of familiar faces.  Designed these little toys years ago as characters for collectable ranges.
I immediately bought them of course, but what am I going to do with them now? Dunno. Cool to find them all the same.

Dinosaurs asleep - poster illustration

Dinosaurs Asleep is available as poster art via my Redbubble shop

The Illustrators Australia A3 print show is over and I have picked up my prints.

And a big surprise, I recieved the A3 Show Peoples Choice Award with my print 'Dinosaurs Asleep' :)

There was a little box people could drop their People's Choice votes into and somehow an image of sleeping dinosaurs under a city caught enough peoples attention.

So thank you to Illustrators Australia for organising the fine event, and thank you to fine art printers Image Science for sponsoring the award - the print voucher and monitor calibrator will both be very handy. I had Image Science print my A3 artwork for the show - they did a high quality, fast and friendly job, as always.

My Peoples Choice vote actually went towards Gregory Roberts' piece Life in the paddock. A clever beautiful image and totally right-now.

At the opening I found an abundance of excellent work to admire and loads of friendly, talented illustrators to talk to and be quietly in awe of. In particular I had a great time chatting to fellow illustrators Tali Gal-on and Nicole Onslow.

So if you did not catch the fun this year then make sure you drop in for a wine and a squiz next year!

R :)