Nickelode-billy

Like many other kids, I grew up watching all sorts of cartoons. In amongst all these cartoons one company seemed to tell better stories with more memorable characters. For as long as I can remember, Nickelodeon has been inspiring creativity in me. Whether it's a cat and dog joined at the stomach, a pair of angry beavers or a football headed kid, Nickelodeon has always created amazingly odd and lovable characters in wonderful worlds. One element that I have always loved is the zoom shot that shows a static picture of a character in full painted detail. After years of being inspired by these shots I decided to create on of my own Nickelodeon inspired characters, a hillbilly crossed Nickelodeon I like to call Nickelode-billy.

Junkyard Brothers Circus

I went to Cirque Du Soleil not that long ago and came home very inspired. Since then I've been trying to create a picture that showed how amazing it was but nothing seemed to do it justice. So instead of creating a whole bunch of cliche circus imagery I decided to as myself a question..."What sort of circus would I like to see or be a part of?" Then it hit me...a Junkyard Circus! As I was drawing the concept I came up with a backstory that involved three brothers who work at a junkyard by day and run a circus by night in the junkyard. I think it would make a pretty cool cartoon.

One of the brothers using a bike tyre as a circus ring

A closeup of some of the detail in the junk

This shows the way they construct the junk and use it

Fresh Air

"Have you ever wanted to just bottle a smell and take it everywhere with you? Well...wait no more!" Thats how I imagine the advertising channels on TV selling bottled smells to us. Then a 1 hour infomercial would follow on the health benefits, the ease of portability and the 100% natural ingredients used. Maybe it would even be followed by a slogan like "It's not just air...it's life". 

Surgeons Overworked

This editorial illustration accompanied an article on the dangers of overworked doctors. It stated that the Australian Medical Association found the longest recorded shift by a doctor had increased to 43 hours straight. I came up with this idea to show the severity of the smallest mistake when surgeons operate after long shifts.

Imaginat-gun

I've spent today designing the ultimate multitool for my imagination. It's loaded with a video camera, a keyboard, art supplies, a spanner and a multidimensional magic megaphone...and that's just on the outside! It's really just going to be a production stamp for a website I'm creating that encompasses music, illustration, videos and making stuff. I'll let you all know when the site is running.

Deep Sea

Nothing compares to the look and feel of old colour images printed in books and comics. The offset colours that didn't quite match the lines and brown tinged paper always attracted me to the images. They seemed to have an imperfect handmade feel that you don't see much these days. In this illustration I tried to replicate this feeling mixing my love of halftone patterns with early 90's Johnny Quest style colouring. You can really see the intent of the illustration in the zoomed up version below.

Devotion

Try new things! That's what my new years resolution was and it's no different with my illustration. So yesterday I decided to try a lino print which ended up being a very rewarding experience. I wanted to create a print that tipped it's hat to iconography but that felt more personal. This illustration speaks of the time I spend with God, reading and thinking. It represents the flow of biblical understanding to my head, my heart and my hands.

Pen Ink Paper

On the weekend I went to Inkers & Thinkers, a comic symposium and workshop. On Saturday, Australian comic artist Pat Grant led a workshop with a live demonstration of his process. During his workshop he spoke about the qualities of different papers, brushes and inks, encouraging us all to experiment with our tools. I often focus on experimenting with styles but I never really realised how much the right tools make a difference. So I went out and bought some different papers, inks and brushes and gave it a go. 

Mother Duck

Every year I love watching the little ducklings appear in the field near our house. It's cool seeing them all grow up and watching the amazing parenting skills that go with raising a heap of curious ducklings. So this mothers day I wanted to pay tribute to all those ducks but especially to my Mother Duck.  

Daydreaming at your Job

One past-time I've learned to embrace and even practice over the years is daydreaming. The art of daydreaming to me is one of the most important ways of generating new ideas and stories. People will probably tell you that daydreaming is just escapism and I guess to a certain degree it is, but for me it's like a key that unlocks my imagination.

Funnily enough, daydreaming seems to work best for me when I'm at my part time job working as a labourer, putting up shelters over playgrounds. There's something about the repetitive nature of the job that seems to free up space in my head for daydreaming (I experienced the same thing when I was a dishwasher and a gardener). It seems that if I do something enough times my brain seems to be able to do it without me even thinking about it, kind of like being on autopilot (there's probably a scientific name for it). It's in this moment when my creativity is at its peak, it's when I daydream the most and when I come up with a lot of my ideas.

These ideas eventually form into illustrations, comics, stories and just about anything you can think of. So the next time someone tells you “you've got your head in the clouds”, take it as a compliment. Just remember to come back down to earth every now and then to put your ideas to good use.    

Nepal Earthquake Relief

Nepal feels like a second home to me! At the end of last year my wife Lucy and I travelled there and attempted the Everest Basecamp trek. We had to be evacuated by helicopter after Lucy fell incredibly ill with HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema), the hours spent on that mountain watching Lucy suffer were the worst I've experienced in my life! I can't even begin to understand how the people in Nepal must feel after Saturdays 7.8 magnitude earthquake which has currently taken the lives of over 4000 people and left countless others without food, shelter and water. 

When I heard the news my heart sunk. I can't just stand by and watch, which is why I'm selling 4 original ink sketches from my travel journal I kept in Nepal and donating 100% of the money to World Vision's Earthquake Appeal which is currently providing food, water, shelter and medical equipment to the victims of the earthquake. Each sketch is $30. If that doesn't suit your budget or you want to do more you can make contributions directly to any of these trusted charities listed on the abc.net.au/appeals site. THANKS!     

KATHMANDU HOUSE $30

SOLD

KATHMANDU HOUSE 2 $30

 SOLD

FIRST SIGHTING $30

 SOLD

PORTERS LIFE $30

SOLD

Future Flight

I was at the library last week and found a book on old propaganda posters. I loved the strong and simplistic nature of them and the portrait they painted of their ideas. I wanted to create a similar kind of feel with this illustration but with less force and a warmer feeling. It gave me a chance to play around with a different style and use some brushes which taught me a few things.

Easter

If you were ever a curious kid like me you may have wondered where exactly the easter bunny got all those eggs from? I still don't know the answer, but it brings back memmories of the true story of Easter my dad told me as a kid. Using an Easter egg as an example, he said that "the tomb where they lay Jesus' body after he was crucified is just like this egg" he then let me break the egg open and finished with a simple conclusion "empty". I realise now that the genius nature of this story was using the symbol that diverts attention away from Jesus to illustrate the story of Jesus. Plus, I also got to eat the egg..hehehe.

Trademark the Pencil

Trademark the Pencil is finally here! It's been one of my life dreams to create a minicomic and it's come true today with this release. I've crammed 7 stories into 12 pages and printed, cut and stapled every issue together. I've printed a limit of 80 copies of Trademark the Pencil and that's all there will ever be. Each comic is hand numbered inside (eg. 1 of 80) so you know what you're getting is hand made. You can buy copy of Trademark the Pencil from my online shop for $4 + $1 for postage or pick up a copy from the Piccadilly Kitchen who will be stocking them from Friday the 10th of April until sold out. It's also worth mentioning that $2 from each comic sold goes to Our Home Community (a home for orphans in South India). Thanks for your support!

 

Piccadilly Bazaar

I went to the Piccadilly Kitchen on Saturday where they were holding their quarterly Bazaar. I had my sketchbook and some free time, so I decided to capture some of the market vibe. There was a big, folk jam session happening right next to me which helped the groove of my pen and kept my creativity flowing.  

(The Strumming Cowboy)

(The Bearded Food Merchant)

(Folk Jam Band)

(The Cactus Lady)

(Plant Scientist)

Sneak Peek!

Well, I have been talking about it for a while now but here is the first sneak peak at my minicomic comig out next month, It is titled Trademark The Pencil and this cover for the first (maybe only) issue and is inspired by my love of patent drawings. Stay tuned for the release coming out real soon!

Katniss

I started doing archery a few weeks ago and went to a club to get some pointers. During the induction the instructor laughed as he explained the increased interest in archery since the release of Hunger Games and it's bow and arrow wielding star, Katniss Everdeen. I felt pretty old at that moment realizing that I came because I thought Robin Hood was cool...so I illustrated Katniss to remind me of that day.
 

Sound Check

I took my sketchbook with me to a Fringe music show called Vane of Barbs and had a few moments to draw the drum kit during soundcheck. I've always had a fascination with drum kits, all the slight adjustments and fine tuning that can be done on each stand and drum make up some real interesting shapes that are really fun to draw. Got a few strange looks from audience members who must have thought I was reviewing the show, hehehe, I guess I was in my own way.

Jazz Cat

The past few months I've been creating some minicomics in secret and tested a lot of new techniques and refined some old ones. It's been a really cool experience making pages that don't really have to make any sense and creating bucket-loads of characters that don't have to be constantly refined or ever introduced in a second issue. For this comic I wanted to see if I could create some interesting perspectives in each cell and capture some of this cool cats cheeky nature.

Biker 30

My brother recently turned 30, so to celebrate I created an illustration for him that would capture his love for motorbikes and skeletons, while also incorporating the number 30 somehow. The above illustration is the result. Rather than my usual half digital process of colouring, I created the picture all by hand and transferred it to a piece of wood and put a simple frame around it which was the icing on this birthday cake.