Jump

I haven't put anything up for Illustration Friday for a few weeks, so here is Lollipop the cat and his kangaroo friend springing into action and having a bit of a jump. Ideal for this week's topic. I painted these two on a wall in one of the party rooms at Lollipops play centre in Narre Warren using acrylic house paint, mostly applied flat, but with some airbrushed details and highlights. Hmm, I must pull out my old air brush again some time! 

Vocalise

I've never had formal vocal training, but I do know that the secret to good singing is using your diaphragm to support the air. The diaphragm is a muscle (apparently) beneath the lungs, which is used by singers, and players of wind instruments to get full value for the air in their lungs. If your tummy goes IN when you breath in, you're doing it wrong. Make sense, if you thing about it. When you breath in a full load of air, your tummy, should, by rights, expand. And then when you breath out, you'll find you can breath out longer by squeezing your tummy in, forcing the diaphragm to push much more air out of your lungs. This will result in longer notes that sound less strained. The tenor in this illustration is demonstrating an artificial means of enhancing the diaphragm and producing beautiful, sustained notes by using my latest invention, the hand-operated Diaphragm Augmenter.

Please be in touch if you would be interested in beta-testing this device, once I make up a working prototype!  

Return

Farewell, my love. One day I will return to Stromlemov, the pearl of the North...

From my sketch book, and, as an experiment, scanned via the Camscanner app on my smartphone. It really boosts the linework, ups the contrast, which would be helpful for scanning text, but it tends to make things a little harsh for subtle illustration. The colours are quite contrasty...

And on Saturday I returned to the Swamp Store (subject of last week's sketch) to see how it was coping with the expected flood. Fortunately the river peaked at 7.2m, well below the worst fears, which had water up to 8m. The Swamp Store is on the right of the photo, you can see how close the waters actually came. In the end, very few houses in town were affected, the one in the foreground was the worst I saw with water right through the yard, but, like many houses in the area, it was built on stilts, raised well above the ground. This is not only for flood relief, but keeps the house cooler in the warmer months.

Swamp

In my town of Rockhampton there is a suburb rather ironically named Depot Hill. Ironic, because it is the first place to go under when the Fitzroy river bursts its banks. Actually there is a small rise in the centre of the area that becomes an island during major flood events. One place that does tend to get damp floor boards is the slightly less ironically named Swamp Store. I went there today to sketch it for Illo Friday’s current challenge ‘swamp’, I thought it would fit the bill nicely.

Today is a beautiful, warm clear summery day, but by this time next week, I might have a more swampy version of this drawing. You see, there has been a heap of rain in the last week or so in the Fitzroy River catchment area (second biggest river catchment in Australia), and in about four days time, they predict that the river will reach flood levels of around 8 metres. That’s not enough to cut off the town and flood the airport like last year’s 9.2m but it will turn Depot Hill into an island, and the swamp store will again get its floor boards wet. Most houses in that part of town are on stilts, as they are through most of Rocky, but the store isn’t… if you look carefully you will see the tide marks on the power pole from last year.

To put last year’s flood into context, it was the fourth worst since they started keeping records and isolated the town for two or three weeks. That won’t happen next week, but again the Swamp Store and the surrounding houses will be swamped!

e-cupid

He looked across the crowded room,

Her radiance struck his eye,

    Love's arrow struck within his heart...

But he wasn't supposed to DIE!

   The power surged, the sparks: they arced.

One glance, and he was dead.

    The Doctor came and saw the scene

"ELECTROCUPID", he said. 

E-cupid. The bringer of love in a post-modern age? This started as a doodle in my note-book, which spawned a nonsense poem. Then came the idea of animating it using Macromedia Flash, but who'd've thought that 8 short lines would be such an epic to produce. One day, I'll get around to it, but in the meantime, on the top is an embossed aluminium, brass and plastic representation, mounted on Jarrah timber.

The lower one is an illustration of the same character done originally in Flash. Is this the nature of creation? An idea can be brought to life in various ways, it's up to the artist to explore which way is best for their particular creation. Maybe this could be the basis for a sit-com, or a hot-air baloon...

Well, Here goes! I have sent a T-shirt design in to Threadless, and people are voting on it as I type. If I get a high enough score, they'll print it and send me a nice cheque. But I need all my friends to gather around, vote early, vote high, vote often! There might be a T-shirt in it for you...

Intention does not Guarantee Results

Well, that wasn't the reaction I was after! I thought she loved animals, so I showed her my pet rat Ludwig. My intention was that she would see how cute Luddy is, and we could be friends.

Instead she is screaming about disease and smelly, stinky rats, and going 'eeewwww!' and 'gettit away from me.

Sigh...

I'll never understand girls.

art available on line!

Fluidity

 Here is a painting in acrylic that I finished today. Apart from face-painting, I rarely get the paintbrush out, but since doing Painting and Drawing at the Faith and the Arts summer school in Poatina, Tasmania, I've really started to get back in to it! And I'm loving it, you can get so engrossed in painting in all the little details. But also I'd like to get a bit looser, paint with a bit more fluidity. I have ideas for other paintings, but I don't think I'm technically good enough yet to do the ideas justice. Well, that will come with practice, I'm sure...

Fluid

 I wish I was a Crocodile,
Wearing green and a Winsome smile,




Not a half, or even quarter,
I'd get to spend ALL day in water!


Last year my local library ran a competition to write a book for 'Children's Book Week' and I thought I'd be up for the challenge and put together a whole book in less than two weeks. The illustrations were pen, pencil and marker cut and pasted (not using crtl C and V but actual scissors and glue! Just like the olden days!) on to coloured card pages. Even the text (which all rhymed) was printed out, cut into strips and pasted onto the pages.
The book was called 'I Wish I was...' and in it various kids discuss what creature they would like to be (butterflies, Orang-utans, Mountain Goats) and what was so appealing to them about that creature. Then in answer a more adult voice (who, for some reason did not have the same extensive vocabulary that the children seemed to display) gave more realistic options that took into account the young persons' passions, ie, helicopter pilot (to fly like a butterfly), eat vegies and exercise (to grow up big and strong like an orang-utan) or mountain climbing.
The future is fluid, no telling what a child can become. But they tell me what you admire in others is inherent in you. Think about the people who are your heroes. What do you admire about them? The qualities that you admire in them is in you too, although maybe not in such a developed way. The children in my story admired certain characteristics in different animals, and this can easily become part of their own character in some way.
Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were five? As I say life is fluid, it ebbs and flows, and does not always run a straight course. But it finds a way...
I wanted to be a Toymaker when I was 5. I still think that would be a very cool thing to do!
 

A Crocodile's a fine ambition,

but there's better ways to be,

If swimming is to be your mission,

Try Marine Biology!

PS. I won! And that has encouraged me to take my illustration and story telling more seriously, and my other ambition at the age of five - to write a book - is a lot closer to reality now!

Forwards!

High above the Chengdu streets, The Sichuan Neighbourhood Patrol is keeping an eye out for any misbehaviour or misdemeanor from the people below. They don't want a return of the days of the Boxer Rebellion, but are ready should that event arise. The Patrol ensure that people will sleep safely in their beds tonight, and look forwards to a good night sleep themselves, secure in the knowledge that peace will reign in the land...

I did a tiny sketch of a fighting vehicle which turned out so well that I scanned it and gave it a complete photoshopping, before placing it (and a companion) in the skies above Chengdu. This was the view from my hotel window when I visited the town in 2008. I look forward to returning some day. It was a very interesting city, the landscape in the rural areas was beautiful and the people were so friendly! Now, if only they could do something about the smog and pollution.