todays thought

"overnight success takes years of hard work"

CBCA Literary Lunch

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be involved with the Childrens Book Council of Australia's Literary lunch.
The CBCA organised for school groups to come along and have a day with a wide selection of childrens Authors and Illustrators. Dave Hackett also known as Cartoon Dave was the special guest and he presented a 45 minute cartoon workshop that had the kids enthralled and doodling cartoons madly.

I was lucky enough to be a table host and had Dave Hackett as well as a group from Mt Keira public school who were a very well behaved, well manered, charming young girls who had a great time getting Cartoon Dave to sketch crazy cartoons for them.
Dave Hackett did a great job on the day and after spending some time chatting and observing I can see that he has a genuine gift in entertaining a room full of kids and making cartooning easy and fun. He is also a really nice guy and it was a pleasure to be able to meet him in person.

I would have to say a big thank you to Di Bates president of the local CBCA and organiser of this event who invited me to participate in the day It was great to be involved.

The Amazing Tim Sale

This is me on the right meeting one of my favourite artist's the Amazing Tim Sale at the 2009 Sydney Supanova comic convention. What a great day it was.

Tim sale is artist of so many great comic book such as Batman long Halloween, Batman Dark Victory, Superman for all seasons, Spiderman Blue, Hulk Grey to just name a few.

Tim is also the artist for the TV show Heroes. So when you see one of the shows characters produce a painting or a sketch that's Tim Sale's artwork.

Tim was very friendly and graciously posed for photo's and signed my copy of the Tim Sale black and white hardcover book of sketches and artwork.

I was lucky to get in early Saturday morning and Tim's booth was very quiet and my two sons and I had a chance to talk and get photos with out to much hassle.

My most treasured Art book, Tim Sale Black and White,

revised and expanded Hardcover edition

this is me looking on, very much star struck to be meeting an artist whose work is so inspirational

this is the page that Tim Sale signed for me, Awesome.

Sydney SuperNova 2009

I had a great time at the Sydney SuperNova and it was great to be able to meet with so many other artists and just talk shop.

this is Cefn Ridout, Marcelo Baez Creator/Artist of the Diabla comics, Colin Wilson comic artist whose latest work for dark horse will be out just about now called Star Wars Invasion and that's me Me on the end.

this is Me on the left with Tim McEwen. Tim is such a nice guy and it's always good to catch up at the conventions.

A Little bit of Zort

Zort the stage show every little kids dream.
felt tip pens with digital colors.

Secret Garden

Another illustration for the Deviant Art childrens Illustrators club monthly challenge titled the Hidden Garden.

this was pen and ink with digital color.

Satyr's are fun

I had a good time working on this illustration for the Children's illustrators club on Deviant Art.

the theme was " On the Roof " and this is what I felt like Drawing.

I had a hard time coming to terms with what colors to use and it was a small battle to feel like I had the right tones but eventually you know when it feels right. other wise you can tweak it Ad- infinitum and just go around in circles. sometimes it is best to go with your gut and listen to your instincts.

not that I am saying this is perfect, far from it but there are some things I learned on this illustration that I will definately use on one of my next. and to me that's Art, a learning curve of self improvement and exsploration. Always trying to get a little closer to the image thats in your head.

BackYard Buddies

It's been a while since I last posted and thought I should add something before the end of the month. So here are some illustrations that were used for an article in the Coast Kids Magazine on Back Yard Buddies.

just fooling around

I just felt like playing around with color and different brush textures. these quick character sketches are always good for that, they are expendable no need to feel precious with them.

Painter Pete's Pocket money Perspiration

It' about time I posted some new work. Been busy the last few days working on this series of illustrations as samples for the childrens book market.