Found some pencils...

...so I coloured this drawing in my sketchbook. Its pretty basic but its a nice break from the computer...which I'm tired of being glued to.

Valentines Day Squirrels

Finally coloured those Squirrels...happy Valentines Day!

Nod to Bruce Timm

I just got this awesome book, The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm Naughty and Nice, so I thought Id go old school and do a quick scribble in the style of Timm. I used to draw BT style girls all through university and was highly inspired by him and his style. I actually really enjoyed pumping this out and using my pencils and copic markers, something I barely do anymore.

Monstroville

My design process for Monstroville character puppet Samhain. 

Message from Von Kreep: I'm turning Monstroville into a stop-motion animated feature film. To help get with pitching we're making a 5 min teaser. Visit our fund raising page for more info including cast and crew! http://www.indiegogo.com/Monstroville-Teaser Copyright © 2011 Swamp Ape Studios

By: Von Kreep

Train scribbles

This is kind of a start to my effort at the 30 Day Illustration Challenge going around. Day 1: Self Portrait. This is how I probably look and how I like to imagine how I look. 

A cute Red Riding Hood and a lady getting the last of her lotion out of the bottle.

Mollusks Backgrounds

Images belong to Maik Hempel

www.maikhempel.com

Random

Not sure what this is, its cross between an 80's model advertising a speaker/headphones system and some goblins from a random adventure...either way, I needed to do a scribble.

Cassowaries

I went to a theme park today with my parents and always find the Cassowaries in the animal area interesting, they always look so prehistoric to me.

New Year Bird Cheer

Im currently away at my parent's place on the Gold Coast in Queensland and since there are hundreds of birds hanging around, I thought Id draw some...unfortunately I forgot my pencils & pad of all things, so I had to make do with a notebook, biro and then digital to colour.
These are Australian birds; Lorikeets, a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and a Crested Pigeon.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Id like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, happy holidays and a great New Year! Remember to check out the Mollusks series, rated MA 15+

Mollusks Trailer.

Please note, the series is MA 15+...it's not for the little ones.

Mollusks: Its a wrap!

This year I worked on Mollusks (the short seven part animated series) creating all the layouts and painted backgrounds, as well as working on some builds and props. Here is a message from the Mollusks director, Maik Hempel. 

"It's a wrap... as they say. All done and delivered to Movie Network Channels. Now keep your beady eyes peeled for the official trailer!
Check out the cast of Mollusks in our Behind the Scenes album! Including Shaun Micallef, Bob Franklin, Roz Hammond, Dave Callan and Adrian Calear."

Watch the trailer and follow the news on the Mollusks facebook page! I'll be sure to post some screenshots featuring my work soon.

Here Adele explains the process in patronising detail.
(Photo by Maik Hempel)

Working hard!

Now that my job on the Kath & Kim film is wrapped, its time to put my head down & work hard on my bible for Cartoon Network...due date is the 30th of December, wish me luck!

Film crew work: Its a wrap!

So my job as a lighting stand in on the Kath and Kim Filim wrapped up on Friday, I thought id just share a photo I had with Richard E. Grant.

The job was so much fun, as were the cast and crew and I would love to do it again. The best part was working close with actors and writers whom I have been a fan of since I was thirteen!

Rejected

Here are some rejected dog concepts I did for a recent job, the client chose a manga style in the end...not submitted by me.

Scribbles whilst on set: squirrels

Today, 90's X-men Rogue will be played by...

 

Here I am as 90's X Men Rogue at the Melbourne Armageddon. I totally forgot my headband (left at home) and my X came off my belt. I will not make those mistakes again for next year's Supanova, the big expo. I was glad I went sans costume on the second day as it was stinking hot. I picked up a MOTU Beastman figure and MOTU tee for Maik, plus an old school TMNT tee, a munny to paint one day and a Greedo and Admiral Ackbar Lego minifig.

Exhibition and Advertising

 

Here is a photo of me at the IA exhibition on Friday night and I picked up the new IA book 12, advertising all the Illustrators Australia artists. So if you are an agent or studio and the Illustrators Australia book 12 comes through your door, flip to page 42 for my details!

French Fox

So this is most likely the last bit of personal art for the next seven weeks. I start a new job tomorrow as a lighting stand in on an Australian feature film, which I'm pretty excited about because I have always wanted to do it. I'm going to take a new sketchbook along just in case I feel like a scribble in the downtime, as when I come home I have to keep going with the background painting for Mollusks and won't have time for my own stuff. Wish me luck!
I also have some busy weekends ahead with the Illustrators Australia exhibition and seminar, as well as the Armageddon convention (ill be dressed as Rogue from the 90's X-men), I'm going to see Janet Jackson this month AND the Melbourne Zombie Shuffle is being held on Halloween. October is the month of fun Ive been waiting for!

Vote for me!

Here is the painting (again) I did for the Illustrators Australia exhibition happening this Friday 14th. Click the image to go and have a vote if you dig it for the "audience favourite" award. All paintings are up for auction...if someone buys mine, I can buy a new vacum cleaner!

CBCA Crichton Award Short List Certificate

Rapture Painting

Here is my finished painting (and some progress shots) for the Illustrators Australia Rapture exhibition. I'm going to get get it professionally scanned and printed, just in case someone fancies buying it in the auction. I'll be surprised if someone does. I gave it my best shot with the time & skills I had and happy with the result. I think my inked version is the best looking of the bunch, I have more skill with a pen than a brush.

I still draw stuff...

At the moment Im really busy with Mollusks the Series & can't really do any personal drawing unless its for my CN bible and I cant show that stuff. So I thought id share these drawings I did at the start of the year. They were for a project that hasn't really gone anywhere & if it did at all in the future, Im sure the illustrations will be different. Anyway, I didnt want them to go to waste.

Blah, blah, TV business, blah.

I was on TV this week on an Australian current affairs show called Today Tonight, where I was just faffing about in clothes for a story on garment & how they stand up to Australian tests. Anyway, here are the many emotions of my upper torso & my face talking like a ponce about how "I was really surprised at the quality of the cheaper range of clothing...blah blah blah"...idiot face. I even got my own "Fail" graphic!
Good news, I just got a job as a lighting stand-in for an actor in an Australian film for October through to November, full time & something Ive never done before, yay money! So I will most likely be unavailable for work during that period.

Rapture...work in progress.

I'm going to be submitting a painting for the Illustrators Australia 16th Annual 9x5 Exhibition, where members paint onto a supplied bit of wood, similar to a cigar box. This year's theme is 'Rapture' & here is my rough sketch and inked illustration. Ill be printing it out reversed, so I can then rub a lead print of it onto my wood as a guide for when I paint. The finished product won't be as heavily inked as this, its just a guide for my brain. The finished paintings will go up for auction, I'll have to make sure I get a really good scan done, because I want my own print for my wall. Looking forward to painting this...all my dearly departed pets are in here somewhere.

News

So I am free to announce now, that I did not win the Children's Book Council of Australia's Crichton Award for a first time children's book illustrator, I was in the top six finalists. I was informed about a month ago but couldn't say anything. So now I'm just looking forward to my runner up certificate to arrive, so I can post it up for all to see.

At the moment I haven't got any time to do my own sketches as I'm busy painting background's for The Mollusk's web series and designing characters for my Cartoon Network mini-bible. Of course this means I don't have time for much paid work, but when your so busy doing something you enjoy from home, who cares right?...right?!

Ive also sent off a manuscript for a picture book to Scholastic, fingers crossed someone gets back to me with some promising news in the future.

Back to the drawing board...the second illustration is a concept that came out tonight, totally wrong for what im doing but I liked him, so I though Id share...must have needed to draw how I felt at the time.

I had to colour it...

True Blood and a Space Chimp.

Virgin Australia

 












No art this week as Im busy on Maik's Mollusks project...but here (above) is another commercial I popped up in. Im the blurry one on the right in a brown dress, advertising Virgin Australia's Melbourne Lounge...this will probably be the only time in my life ill be in a business lounge, unless I can make a project happen. The full commercial is here.
This other picture is just something silly I did for a True Blood blog & needed somewhere to host it...just ignore it.

True Blood

Another True Blood illustration. This is a little tounge-in-cheek reference to a scene in the 4th series. I was inspired to do it due to the flood of True Blood news coming out of Comic Con this weekend.Earlier this year I got to meet & have a photo with Denis O'Hare, who plays Russell Edgington (the King of Mississippi) at Supanova.