Ashfield House Illustration with Vintage Cars

I was very excited to draw this place. For 1, It was a Bungalow. 2, It had cool automobiles and 3, It had a beautiful large magnolia tree. Lots of fun working on this one, I'm really happy with the composition and I think the crumpled paper texture really made the large tree on the left.

House Illustration Commission

Another house illustration for a lovely client. They own a cute little cottage in my local area, complete with two cute pups. I found just the right cardigan cuff to use for the corrugated iron.

Pretty in Pink – The Marie-Louise Salon, Enmore Road

The Marie-Louise Salon has been an interest of mine for some time, (call it an obsession if you will), I was so taken with it that I had to draw it for my exhibition 'The sun Sets in the West' in 2010. For as long as I remember, it had been closed, every now and then the little knick-knacks in the window would change or be decorated with scarves and tinsel… I had always wanted to see what it was like inside. 

The shop had recently sold and on Sunday, the new owners had an open invitation to walk through and make an offer on some of the memorabilia that had been hidden behind closed doors for years. Here's a few pics from my visit to the Salon. 

Marie-Louise kept old bottles of Flex conditioner, vintage boxes of blue hair rinse and hair die (ouch) and of course retro hair roller sets. There were a few of the original hair setting chairs left (the rest had been claimed) and the original 1950's pink wash basins were just charming.

I'm very interested in seeing what the salon becomes, but I'm very glad that the famous facade is heritage listed. 

Commission to Draw a Historical House

I haven't published a lot of my house illustration commissions but recently I had the pleasure of completing a commission of a local house of historical significance. It was a District Governors Cottage, built to house gas workers in 1894.

The owner of the house wanted a good representation of the house and it's original features. I've enjoyed drawing the shape of this house, with the decorative brickwork on the facade. With the combination of fabric, lace, water colour and pencil, this was the result.

Doing the Fruit Fandango for Food Fight 2013

This year's Food Fight theme for Sweets Workshop's annual exhibition and publication is 'The Festive Feast'. My festive idea for this is 'The Fruit Fandango', ie. fruit pieces dancing. I used water colour and played with the structure of some water melon piece to create a female figure. What could be more masculine than a hunk of green melon? Huh?

The Fruit Fandango

Sketches, practice runs and fun.

Stacks on (super) Cats

Recently for the MCA zine fair I launched a new piece called 'Stacks on Cats'. It's a double sided mini poster about cats balancing stacks of things – What could be more fun than a cat balancing act. It's a digital collage of water colour, paper patterns, fabric and pencil line work. I've kept the line work quite loose and sketchy, I wanted the illustration to be light and just a little silly.

I've now submitted this design for the threadless 'Super cats' T-shirt comp. If you are interested in supporting my illustration, head over to threadless and vote for it to be produced as a t-shirt.

 Side 1 – Stacks on Cats

 Details from Stacks on Cats 

Side 2 of the poster

I've split the second side of the poster into three panels of line drawings. The left panel features Cats in Stacks of things like pancakes, tea cups, fruit and macaroons. The middle panel is a Stack of Cats – no explanation needed. The right panel is Stacks and Cats, featuring stacked items such as books, buildings, clothing, cars and cats.

 

For this project I was collecting a stack (get it) of cat and stacked items from magazines for inspiration for my illustrations. I couldn't help but to create little stack compositions as I went.

Over all producing Stacks on Cats was a stack of fun.

Railz Zine Launch

I've illustrated my local train station previously. A customer had commented while browsing my illustration catalogue, that "train stations, are you know... Not that nice..." I only hope she was talking about the subject matter and not the drawing.

Train stations are a drawing challenge, but the repetition of lines and patterns from the cables, the pillons and the tracks can be quite interesting. Growing up in the western suburbs meant that I spent a lot of time travelling to work on the train.

This zine is however, about a shorter journey, my trip from Lidcombe station to Summer Hill. It includes a bit of photography and drawing. It's predominantly black with a yellow dot grain texture. I've used a zigzag fold to keep give the zine direction  - as you unfold, the image on the back stretches out into a train track. The cover is printed black on orange card, I've hand drawn a metallic silver line over the railz to highlight the metal. This was quite a hands on assembley which I really enjoyed.  We'll be having a stall at the MCA zine fair on May 20, I'll be launching Railz along with my mini poster, stacks on cats to the masses ; )

Musical Bears Tea Towel

Beary happy to have received my musical bears tea towel today. Your may recall some time ago I completed a series called 'Musical Bears'. It featured line work drawings of bears listening to music on various listening devices, from portable record players to a good old 1930's bakelite radio.

Thinking that these bears need to spend more time together, I've now put the 'Musical Bears' series on a tea towel which is available online and in store Sweets Workshop.

Greeting card Range

I've been working on a bright new card range for Sweets Workshop, which we will be launching at the next Finders Keepers Sydney Markets in May. Watercolours, paper scraps and pencils ready! 

Clockwise from top left: Making Beautiful Music, That's A Funny Looking Stalk, my favourite gocco print Polar Bear with Beats is now available as a greeting card and my classic print Dancing Shoes, is also available in the new card range.

Turning the Mill into Gocco Print Gold

So far out of the sketches I've completed I have decided on two that are graphic enough to create a gocco print from. One has the of the zoom sketch with 'Mungo Scott' lettering, brick work buildings and silos, the second includes the two silos with the rubble at the base. (Pictured above is the super special edition with metallic ink embellishment).

For the 'Mungo Scott' print kept it 2 colour, sky blue and black line work. I've printed some single colour  black on some craft paper and I have had a little fun with this and make a super limited edition version with metalic ink and hand water colour.

'The Mungo Scott' with hand water colour.

The screens used to create the 'Mungo Scott' Gocco Print

For the silo print I'm using 3 colours in 2 screen passes. In the first screen I've used light green and sky blue, positioning the ink on the screen where I want it to fall. You know me, I don't mind a bit of overlap, or an off register effect. The next screen in black only... The beauty and the beast of print gocco is that it is hard to register your colours. Some are bang on, some just off,  others way off. It seems the harder I tried, the worse it got. Haha.

 

'The Old Mill'

Screens and scrap paper from 'The Old Mill' Gocco Print

Branding Sprout & Bean Catering

The fabulous cooking duo Kate Allan and Meredith Walker-Harding have started their own vegetarian/vegan catering company called Sprout and Bean. The girls have been cooking up or rawing up dishes for high teas, birthday parties, weddings and events.

For their new venture Sprout and Bean needed a logo, this is where I come in. Kate and Meredith make everything by hand, their food styling  also reflects this with hand written chalk boards and menus, with a touch of vintage table settings, they recycle , reuse and repurpose items that they have collected to display their fabulous food creations.

For the logo, I wanted it to be created by hand. I wrote the business name by hand and incorporated a reference to sprout and bean, which appear to be growing on the writing like on a vine. I then painted a not so perfect heart shaped leaf with water colour to contain the logo. I this the logo is a representation of the ethos of the business. I had them printed on a recycled paper stock, I'm really happy with the results.

Sketching the Mungo Scott Flour Mill

 

Being based around Summer Hill in the inner west, and often riding the train home, the Mungo Scott Mill is a familiar landmark.

The Flour Mill was built in 1922 and was owned by a number of different companies, including Mungo Scott. In 2007 the Mill was sold to a developer, it is now the site of the new light rail, with a further plan to build and apartment block and shops.

I've knew that I wanted to draw the Mill before the development had started, so I took an excursion out to document the Mills public face from all of the sides and started sketching. It looks like a little village, with clusters of buildings in various cylindrical, rectangular and misc shapes.

On the old Canterbury Rd side there is a lot of discarded building materials and rubble leading up to the cylindrical silos, makes for an interesting texture to draw.

The Sweets Workshop annual exhibition 'My Goodness My Gocco' is coming up and I think I might turn some of these sketches into gocco prints!

Party – Down at Fraggle Rock

Yes, I got the water colours out to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock. Talenthouse has put a creative call out for a poster design to commemorate the 30 year milestone. I hand drew the Fraggles & Friends with pencil and bled my water colours to make the colours bright. You can view my entry here and if you like it, you can vote your cares away : )

Coloured Beasts Unhinged

These were a fun gift from Emma Kidd (Benconvervato). A set of my very own beasts for me to colour and hinge myself. Me and my trusty water colour pencil worked together on this. The paper had a really nice texture and I thought the combo of pencil and water colour would enhance it a little bit. 

Now to get these chaps framed. 

Emma has an exhibition called 'Beasts Unhinged' on at the moment at Sweets Workshop. It features her hinged beasts; large ones, short ones, dancing ones, snaky ones and underwater ones. 

Exhibition finishes on the 10th July.

'Jungle Janette'

'Prince Horse Face'

'Do I look good in this?'

Bowled over!

So... I was encouraged to enter into a competition for threadless, the theme was 'Pin-ups'. Of course I left it to the last minute, but I did end up submitting something hand drawn. (Though the competition is over). In any case, here she is, my 'Pin-Up' – She has curves that will bowl you over.

Heart to heart - valentines day cards

 

 Some of my new card designs for Valentine's Day.
Can you feel the love?

Little Elephant

Just a little post about a little elephant that I drew for one of the local doctors practices. It's a little card for recording little people's growth. It was printed on recycled paper, which made their branding colours look nice and earthy.

Mini landscapes of Sydney's Inner West

I've turned my landscapes into art that will fit into your pocket. I have selected 8 of my favourite scenes from my exhibition 'The Sun Sets in the West' to go into this little collection. Of course they double as postcards to spread word about the charm of Sydney's Inner West.

It's for sale at Sweets Workshop, and comes in a hand made yellow pouch.

Petersham Roller Rink in Real Living Magazine

 

Last year we entered and won a kitchen competition through Real Living Magazine. After a lot of time and hard work, our shiny new kitchen is featured in the September issue, currently out now.

My illustration 'Get Your Skates On' – Petersham Roller Skating Rink even makes an appearance in the magazine. Thanks Real Living!

The Sun Sets in the West Exhibition Opening

Here's just a few snaps from the exhibition opening on Saturday. A fun day was had, aside from the nerves and the last minute bits and bobs. Thanks to John D-C for his hard work and support, I don't think I would have reached my deadline without it.