Christmas is looming

Just getting into the christmas spirit. So Merry Christmas 2008 to all.

playing around with colour

here is a character I created just for fun. I think he may end up a boys school black sheep that has few friends and is bullied by the normal sporty kids. But he will prevail somehow with his devious mind and sharp intellect, maybe.

anyway I just wanted to play around with digital water colouring this is my first attempt and I hope it gets better

little slice of Paradise

I just wanted to share with every one how lucky I am. the house that we live in has a public reserve which we access through a gate in our back yard.

It has lots of grass and trees and open space. There are always lots of different types of Australian birds flying around, calling out to one another and my two sons play out there often.

there is a concrete path that leads from the road all the way up the reserve and my sons use that to walk to school.

I find it very relaxing to go out and look in awe at the magic of nature as the wind blows through the trees and the birds flutter about doing their thing.

To be surrounded by green leafy trees and lots of grass is a blessing. I just wanted to share what a nice spot I landed on when we bought this house.

character sketching

I have been working on another illustration for children's book market and have been sketching some characters for a wacky spooky monster crew of a sailing yacht.

this female character who is either a goul or zombie is proving to be a little elusive on the page I an just not there yet. these were some fun sketches but not happy with her yet. she needs more work.

Old Vamp

I have been busy with a few illustrations on the boil. I just have so many ideas I want to get down on paper or at least get onto the screen. It's hard to know which one's to work on first.
here is a illustration aimed at the childrens book market.
This is the kind of illustration work I would love to be doing. It's just a fun, goofy cartoon monster.
I feel the more illustrations I work on, I have a little more idea of where I want to be headed.

Bad Birds

Well I thought I wanted to work on these guys a little more.

here is what I came up with.

I drew in the tree with the graphic tablet and added colour.

the words seem to just come out of their mouths or should I say beaks.

I think they have attitude or that could just be me.

that was fun, what now?

Birds?

I felt like drawing some cartoon birds not sure why but it was kind of goofy fun.

here are a couple of feathered friends, maybe an odd couple.

I feel like doing some more with these two.

Character Sketches

Here is a character I am working on for a Comic Book. the story is coming together, by the way his name is Arthur.

It is fun to just work out how he will look from different angles and with different expressions.

I have had a busy week and probably a busy weekend.

Trying to find the Artist, family balance. can be hard sometimes.

I have also been working through some more of the book The Artist's way by Julia Cameron and it is helping me focus on the positives which is good,right?

Sequential Fun

here is a comic page I did just for fun. It certainly isn't ground breaking stuff story wise. I just needed to change pace. After spending a lot of time writing story ideas I just had to Draw something. This was fun to do and didn't take too long as I inked it with felt tip markers instead of a brush and bottle of ink.

Character sketch

here is a character sketch that got me started on a story idea that I just can't stop thinking about. I think it will develop into something, here's hoping

Inner Critic Illustration

Just in case you missed the link below to my

Inner Critic Illustration here is a smaller look.

Just look at him sitting there in all his smugness, high and mighty with an opinion on everything.

Not listening to him anymore.

you can see a larger version Here.

the inner critic

"it's a pipe dream, you are wasting time and money for what?, you aren't good enough, your not creative enough, you will never get there, you"re kidding yourself".

You may be familiar with these quotes they come from the little negative bastard that lives in all our heads. The Inner Critic, the voice that tells you to give up or it's just to hard.


Well I am done listening to that guy.

Thanks to a great book I read and am still reading called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron It has help me greatly to re-energise my creative energy and really open my mind as to what it wants to create.

sounds a bit hokey, new age I know but I really felt this book and the simple tools it instructs you to employ has helped me so much.

One of the tools mentions cartooning an image of your inner critic give that voice a face and stare it down, reduce it power over you.


here is my Inner Critic if you are interested

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron really is a book about positive thinking and being creative while staying open minded about whats going on within you.

Maybe not for everyone but you never know unless you try, so I did and within a few days I was writing up a storm of story ideas that I was excited about. As well as drawing characters that I really felt clicked with what I wanted to do.

And in case your wondering this isn't a paid endorsement I just wanted to share my good fortune of finding this book purely by accident.

I have also been looking up tips for budding illustrators as I re-enter the fray and found a great site that had some interesting and insightful tips for Illustrators from Kevin Cornell at the bear skin rug website. His words just resonated with me and were inspiring.

Feeling good

well here I am again and I am starting to feel good about where I am headed with my drawing.
I had put down my pencil out of frustration, disappointment and a huge chunk of no confidence thrown in.
but like most people I have gone full circle and I have found my self drawn back to what my heart wants to do and that is draw and tell stories. To just be creative.

I had tried to apply the logic to my life that you are an adult now and with that comes responsibilities and commitments and you can't always get what you want out of life.
Just settle and be happy for the good things in your life.
Don't get me wrong I have a good life. A well paying day job, a beautiful wife, two great sons, a house, a car, food on the table.

The logic just just wasn't working though, I just wasn't happy inside and out.

I would wake up every morning with that dull ache deep inside that something just wasn't right. It took me quite a while to figure out just what it was and what I should do.

Although it did take an epiphany at around 4.00 am one morning. After another bout of insomnia had struck and sick of tossing and turning in bed for ages I decided to get up and watch a DVD.

While watching the movie Unbreakable, Ironic I know, a comic book hero movie but Mr Glass (Samuel L Jackson) says to David Dunn (Bruce Willis) " that little bit of sadness in the mornings you spoke of, perhaps you aren't doing what you are suppose to be doing".

That one sentence just rang bells in my head and I just thought to myself,what are you supposed to be doing?
well what I came up with was I like to draw, Duh, I am pretty good at it and it makes me feel good when I do.
Even now, I still can't believe I had just locked it away for so long.

It has been a slow journey back with reading and sketching doodles, to playing around with characters and now writing stories. but it is fun and I feel happy about being able to create again.

Maybe I'm not going to change the world with what I am doing but at least I feel good about doing it.

Up and Running

Well here I am back at the drawing board after being away for quite a while.

Here is a pencil sketch I decided to colour with Photoshop