Sarasota

The Sarasota Chalk Festival is over. I’m back in Australia and I have started to sort through some of my photos. I have attached some images here of the ‘Dragon King’ image that I created, in various stages of development. For more images from the festival visit my chalk flowers blog (http://chalkflowers.blogspot.com/ ).For the information of anyone interested in chalk drawings, this image was created using PanPastels and Art Spectrum soft pastels. It is 10 foot by 11 foot and took 3 days to draw. The image contains NO black line work. All of the line work is the product of negative space (the road surface showing through).

Sarasota Chalk Festival

If you’re in Sarasota over the next few days, come along to South Pineapple Ave to the Sarasota Chalk Festival. I will be starting my drawing of the stealing of the Dragon Kings jewels.
I have attached a picture of my working image
I plan to update the Chalk Flowers blog with images from the event and the progression of my drawing.

Hank

Bad news for ‘Good dog Hank!’, I will not be finishing the work on this project. I thought it would be good to show a selection of images from the project. I have been working on this book for well over a year and there have been a lot of changes in direction throughout.

Holly

My ever present and helpful puppy Holly is lending a paw with my latest book.

Hank

Now that the City of Hobart Art Prize is out of the way. I can continue my work on 'Good Dog Hank'. Above is an image that show a bit of the process and of course the model for the puppy, my Dog 'Holly'. She is now a big puppy (9 1/2 months in this photo taken on Nutgrove Beach, Sandy Bay, Tasmania).

HobartArtPrize2011

A few more images of the work in progress. Almost finished now!

ComplaintsDepartment

Im making progress!

AroundTheWorldIn80Days

80Days

The images above are from my current project for the Hobart City Art Prize, “Around the world in 80 days”. I’m sure most people know the story of a man who wages that he can travel around the world in 80 days. In the process he is his mistaken for a criminal and chased most of the way by 'the law'!

These are just some early experiments to see how the character images are working in one small section of the project.

Newcastle

My two book for exhibition in Newcastle have been sent (Ringo-chan & Ringo-kun and Momotaro).

Im currently working on images for the Hobart City Art Prize. This will be a single folding pop up image that opens to a foot print of about 1m square. I will upload some images soon.

RingoChanandRingoKun

I just finished working on a collaborative book with the wonderful Danielle Wood.

We have created a retelling of the traditional story of ‘Momotaro’. Better know in to English speakers as Peach Boy. In our story ‘Ringo-chan & Ringo-kun’ we have a boy and girl characters born from a giant apple (Ringo = apple). The story then shares a close path of ogre fighting and victory as in the original. Danielle’s text and my illustrations clearly make the setting of the story in Tasmania. Momotaro’s helpers, a dog, a monkey and a pheasant are replaced with a Tasmanian Devil, a Quoll and a Currawong bird.

I have added a few sample photos above. The book is a mix of traditional flat picture book illustrations and pop-up pages.

It will be on display in Newcastle next month as a part of the ‘Happy Ever After’ exhibition. See http://happilyeverafter11.blogspot.com/ for more details.

Rosny

After my interview this morning on 936 ABC Hobart Breakfast radio, I set up an exhibition of my pop-up book ‘Gaijin Holiday’ at Rosny LINC. Refer to the exhibition post below this one for dates. So if you’re on the Eastern shore of Hobart or can’t wait for the display to get to the city or Kingston libraries for display head over to Rosny sometime in the next 2 weeks. (sorry that the image is sideways! I cant get it to behave)

Zoetrope

I have been playing with the idea of builting a zoetrope into a book for an exhibition in Newcastle (NSW, Australia). the Exhibition is titled 'Happy Ever After' and will be held at the John Paynter Gallery, the is opening Friday the 10th of June (until the 26th).

The above photos are of my first attempts at a full scale model. It is a shame it is a little too 'full sized'. I will have to concentrate on some small models for this exhibition.

I have some high hopes for this project as I love zoetropes, I find them very hypnotic.

TasmanianLibraryExhibition

PopUp

The above images are from a pop-up book workshop I attended here in Hobart on the weekend. It was run by UK based book artist Paul Johnson see http://www.bookart.co.uk/ for more information on Paul and his workshops. I highly recommend Pauls courses to anyone who is interested in learning about pop ups.

book

I've been very busy working on 'Good Dog Hank' and a number of other projects. I plan to up load some images that show the character changes soon.

BinalongBayTasmania

Im just back from a week in Binalong Bay (Bay of Fires) in Tasmania. I should be cranking out some work over the next month and I will up date this blog as I go.

Chalk

As I am illustrating in a variety of fields , I thought it best to separate my chalk board work off from my general illustration work, so I have creation of a new blog called ‘Chalk Flowers’. You will see the link on the right of this screen or click HERE to follow a direct link
I will post all of my future chalk board illustrations on the Chalk Flowers Blog and attempt to keep it updated.

Holly

Meet my Holly.

Lilly

Apologise to anyone who has been regularly checking this blog. Not much has change on it for some time. I have had a very busy end to the year (2010). I have a new contract with Harper Collins for a Jackie French book. The book is all about a dog, so I spent most of the end of 2010 chasing my old dog Lilly around with a sketch book and a camera. As poor old Lilly was getting on in years (12 and half) it turned out to be a very precious time with her, as she passed away on the 29th of December.
I felt very lucky to have had the last few months focusing on her even more than normal. I am also lucky in that a characterisation of Lilly with appear in the book (early 2012). This seems to be a fit legacy for an exceptional dog.
The hole that Lillys passing has left in the house is enormous. While sketching up roughs for the new book has often had me in tears, it has also brought many smiles and happy memories as I reflect on over a decade of shared experiences with her. I soon realised that I need to have a dog in my life. A new 12 week old German shepherd puppy, ‘Holly’ is that dog. Holly arrived just the other day, while many things she does reminds me of Lilly as a pup, I can see that she has her own personality and is just what I hoped for another dog not a replacement.
Already I have been sketching Holly’s start to life in the Flowers family home.
Above are a selection of Lilly photos and a small sample of the illustrations she inspired. She will be missed by all who knew her.