Holy Flamingo – It's Chrismas!

In less than a week Christmas will be upon us, in all it's FEASTive glory. It's been a busy end to the year, as I've been trying to finish up a long list of projects. Pictured above is my decorative offering for Christmas – a silver tinsel tree with pink flamingo lights. Very traditional.

One thing I love about this time are the Christmas lights and how they bring people together. Family and friends walk the streets pointing their fingers at houses, saying hello to family and friends as they dribble on an ice cream from Mr Whippy. Now that's the Christmas spirit.
Merry Christmas.

Vertical Farming

This illustration was created for a Vertical farming story. Cities are running out of space and we can't rely on weather conditions any more – the answer, indoor hydroponics that scale the internal walls of tall buildings.

I drew comparisons between the repetition of vegetable crops growing up walls and the repetition of graphics in wallpaper designs – also used indoors. I wanted the vegetables to look like a print, so I simplified their characteristics and placed the colours off register.

I have been looking at a lot of deco patterns recently, which influenced the way I designed the strawberries.

A wolf in sheep's clothing

I recently designed this illustration for an Insurance magazine. It was for a story on fraud, and how to identify shady employees. Without wanting the illustration to be literal in reflecting wrong doings, I came up with a take on the 'wolf in sheep's clothing' idea. The sheep skin is obviously a fake cloak in comparison to the definite edge of the dark wolf. I created the sheep's wool from fingerprints to indicate leaving a trail and getting caught (getting fingerprinted). I like how graphic the illustration looks in black and white.

Seventeen (magazine) in the 50s

A while back, I found a 1957 January edition of Seventeen magazine at the 50s fair in Sydney. The illustration styles, fashion spreads and fabric patterns, made my decision to purchase easy.

Flicking through the magazine I'm enjoying the differences between editorial illustration – with it's looser line work and off register colour blocks – and fashion illustration – which is a literal interpretation of the clothing pieces, and the models (example above). Cool Daddio!

The spread below is about the "High-flying fashion" of the "Blouson look". In this illustration, it's all about the air mail colours.An advert for Kay Junior, a division of Kay Windsor frocks (below). It seems crease resistant washable cotton makes you see double. This spread used photography.
The red hatched apple illustration is from an article called "Schnitzing Party" – Eight teens tell about a party based on old Pennsylvania Dutch customs.