festive dassie

Happy Holidays everybody!

trees

Oh, happy days...

This week's challenge and one of my favourite themes... tree!

fly away...

Hope everybody had a good week, here's a little something I put together for this week's IF theme: sky

Enjoy!

gwanadon

Like every boy (and many girls), I went through that ubiquitous dinosaur phase, you know the one ;)

Also popular with kids is the 'mad scientist' phase... the one where if you were to, say, combine a rhino and an iguana, you might get this:

It was at this point I realised that I'd basically drawn the (very) dated, Crystal Palace Iguanodon (1852), which sports the cool nose-spike; "...their thumb spikes were mistaken for horns, and they were depicted as elephant-like quadrupeds...".

Crazy!

life orientation

I've been working with collages quite a lot the last couple of years, mostly for educational illustrations and covers. This is the largest one I did, for the interior of a Life Orientation book, the concept was to have 4 illustrations that could fit into one greater whole. 

So this is in fact the entire piece, if you chop it up into quarters each would have been a separate entity in the printed book (though the bottom pieces were rotated to look "upright") . 

The subject lends itself very well to the medium and I was able to quite literally throw the kitchen sink in there!

imagination

Imagination... how else are you ever going to get the chance to ride the fabled Lionosaurus?!

This is in fact the original version of the pic in this post... not sure which one I like best... which one do you like?

spring's sprout

Well it's official, after a beautifully mild sunny day (and only 5 days late), spring has arrived!

So, to celebrate, here's a little sprout...

(and is that the shadow of winter looming in the back?)

tall

Yes, yes...

It's a giraffe...
                   and it's tall...

and this week it belongs on IF!

:)

Tuesday night drawing

Shoo!

 Life's been a whirlwind of change, y'know? 

I'm very thankful of the weekly life-drawing class that I attend, it really helps me reset my brain for another week. 

Like a mental detox, 3 hours of not thinking, just reacting as instinctively as possible to form, light, weight etc... not to mention all the cool stuff I have to draw with that I don't get to use regularly.

I use the same rule of thumb for drawing as for eating spaghetti: if I'm not getting it everywhere, I'm not doing it right!

Usana update

Hey gang, if you haven't checked on Usana in a while, here are some snapshots of what's been happening.

Things are gonna start moving faster now, so "buckle up, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye." Enjoy the ride!

space chess

The Cosmic Game, I originally posted the working doodle for this illustration on the "reverse" themed  IF but it works just as well here for "space" :)

+ now it's finished and in colour!  :))

There goes Arzach...

I started this drawing a while back, Arzach's always been a favourite of mine, and with the passing of Jean Giraud/Moebius, it seemed appropriate to finish it now.

If you know neither Moebius, Giraud or Arzach, to get an idea of how significant this man was (and continues to be) have a look at these: article and 1987 interview.
I for one (and I didn't even know the guy) am heart-broken, but thankful. Thankful also that he left one last Arzach behind... I'll read it soon Jean, promise.

basking hound

Una is our Basset, and today she's playing mascot for About a dog, a project in collaboration with The Lucky Lucy Foundation, to raise funds to rehabilitate dogs rescued from dog fighting organisations in South Africa.

Let's hear it for Una and About a dog!

Usana page 20

Oh dear! What's happening in Usana now?

who's who in the...

Awright, not quite a zoo but given time I'll have drawn them all!

While these were for Heinemann specifically, animals are still one of my favourite themes so I'd probably have drawn them anyway :)

Usana pg17

Come along, the latest page of Usana is up, it's time for the adventure to really begin...

Bioscope

Funny, portraits have been popular lately, here are the ones I did for Bioscope Films, a Johannesburg based production company.

Once again, I got to play with a style that was new and fun, I love jobs like that!

Usana page 16

That's right, the next page of Usana and the Swallowing Monster is up!

If you haven't read it yet, it's an endearing (and a bit scary) little story about a dog and his boy, and a dream...

What the?!

Here's a fun one I did recently for Heinemann, one of our local publishers of educational books. The brief was simple, "illustration of a friendly alien-type monster..."

I think I was craving jelly/o...

more poochies

And here is that window display... 

...and the rest of the gang :)

poochies

If you went shopping last month, you might have spotted this guy proudly displayed in the window of your local Sport Scene.

It was really great to get dirty with paint again, getting that painterly texture was important but because of the tight deadline I did the finishing touches digitally. 

Usana page 15

It's a wet, wet day in Cape Town today. And speaking of wet, Usana's also been trying to stay dry in this week's installment...

Click the pick to check out the pages, I look forward to reading your comments :)

TB fighters

I regularly get to work with an NGO on a publication called Equal Treatment a magazine dedicated to covering health and HIV matters.

It's good to do something that actually benefits people and not just a pretty picture... know what I'm sayin...?

Save our rhinos

You may have heard: these are dangerous times for our rhinos, with poaching at an all time high because of ridiculous "magical" properties attributed to their horns by certain unsavoury people (if they be people at all). 

Black rhinos in particular (illustrated here) are threatened because of their double horns, only a handful are left in the wild and it breaks my heart.

There are many charities and initiatives in place to help, I'll be posting more rhino pics as well as the details of these various organisations, please take the time now to visit WEESA and if you can: help!

"WESSA's vision is to achieve a South Africa which is wisely managed by all to ensure long-term environmental sustainability."

lion’s pride

It's no secret that I like drawing animals, so when I was asked to design a family of lions I naturally said: "sure!"

What was interesting is that the client did not want a typical, cutesy look. Not too nasty either but something in between...