drawn out

trekking along tracks

2013-04-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

Here's the cover to an eBook written by Hermien Van Den Bergh that I completed not long ago - Trackeroo and the Crew!

It's a lovely story for young readers that will leave you breathless with excitement and innovation. Set in the African tableau, it features a colourful cast on an epic secret quest.

But of course inky, evil nightmares are never far behind behind….

The book is currently on promotion, check it out on Amazon and get your free copy!

wild wild veld

2013-04-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

In the sun-baked veld, many wild things lurk behind the long grass….

….mostly in search of a nice refreshing pool of water.

snotty monster

2013-04-06T03:50:00.001-07:00

Slime monsters...
You haven't lived until you've drawn a slimey, snotty, pus-riddled blob of gross!

Aah, good times :)

Incidentally, this was another piece I did for Nasou Via Afrika's grade 12 Life Orientation schoolbook.

to Spear or not to Spear

2013-03-20T19:27:00.002-07:00

Another illustration I did for Nasou's Grd12 Life Orientation textbook, the intent here I'm certain was to evoke responses from the students about the controversial painting "The Spear" which was based on this famous Soviet propaganda poster.

It's a pretty crazy story but all the same, it's good to know that a painting can still rattle people as much as this one did…

Toko's back...

2013-03-18T08:58:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted about this little gecko fella! Here's a quick look at the 5th installment of the activity book which features Toko, the intrepid gecko...

cover illustration

Some of the interior pages, and I must say that designing these games is a 12 year old's dream come true :)

going shopping?

2013-03-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

Big news!

My fabulously awesome fiancé has started an online shop on etsy where you can buy some of my illustrations as high quality art prints.

We'll be updating it continuously but there's plenty to see already, just click on the "Drawsome" link in the right-hand menu ----->

(or the pic below)

Whacky November

2013-03-06T04:27:00.000-08:00

It's wednesday! What better day than this one to post about Watercolor Wednesdays?

WaWe is a community blog dedicated to illustrations for kids, every month features a new banner rendered by one of it's members, this was the one I did for Nov 2012.

And recently I stepped in to do the March 2013, it'll be up all month so check it by clicking the button in the right side menu --->

I'm sometimes asked what steps I take when illustrating, this particular one is a good one to use since it was done in my 'standard' method...

1&2) Once I've sketched out the idea (which I couldn't find to post here) I ink it, sometimes right over the original pencils, but mostly on a clean sheet of paper using a lightbox.

3) Then, on another clean sheet I watercolour the bits I consider 'positive space'.

4) After scanning and aligning the bits, an overall texture is added and any missing details are filled in.

5) The background is then filled in using more textures, sometimes adding some last minute details.

The last step is to add the lettering and some spin-n-shine finishing touches (top image)

Olympic heroes

2013-02-25T13:57:00.002-08:00

The big story at the moment is the one involving our very own Oscar Pistorius, aka the "blade runner", olympic sweetheart and national hero...

While he is mired in controversy and his innocence is up for debate, I'm not here to flaunt my opinion, instead I'd like to remind all of us that we have many other heroes worthy of our attentions.

These were commissioned by Nasou Via Afrika and feature Semanya Caster and Cameron van der Burgh, some of last year's medal takers at the London Olympics.

Due to time constraints, I've had to work more and more digitally. These didn't even have rough drafts, the briefs were very clear and I was able to go straight to the final piece, sometimes the results surprised even me... it's nice when that happens :)

wearing Blake's shoes

2013-02-22T03:23:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple more illustrations for Cambridge University Press based on Quentin Blake's style.

I call the top one "iClean" :)

wearing Blake's hat

2013-02-19T03:20:00.003-08:00

As an illustration gun-for-hire, or more accurately: pencil-box-for-hire, I am at times asked to emulate iconic styles. There are few illustrators as iconic as the legendary Quentin Blake, who famously drew Roald Dahl's classic masterpieces, too numerous to single out here.

His site is full of wonderful things, I highly recomend having a look at it, my favourite being this gem - the master at work. I also found this lovely blog article about him and his landscapes.

I was commissioned by Cambridge University Press to adopt Mr Blake's style because they had used an extract of "Danny, champion of the world" in their Grade 7, English language schoolbooks.
I enjoyed the style so much that I used it throughout the Grd7 material I was assigned!

This last panel comes from Danny, I drew on Roald Dahl's own gipsy caravan for inspiration...

Imagine owning your very own gipsy caravan!

nomnomnom...

2013-02-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

Like every other human, I like food. It makes me happy when I'm sad and full when I'm hungry.

I recently illustrated a series of plates for House&Leisure magazine, the "Food Issue" which you'll find on magazine racks across SA.

You can download the full large format versions from their site.

Bon Appétit!

splishy splashing!

2013-01-11T16:01:00.000-08:00

Let's dive into the new year!

New friends to be made, new adventures to be found and more fun to be had!

festive dassie

2012-12-21T05:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everybody!

trees

2012-11-14T00:49:00.000-08:00

Oh, happy days...

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

fly away...

2012-10-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

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

Enjoy!

gwanadon

2012-10-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

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

2012-09-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

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

2012-09-11T16:11:00.001-07:00

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

2012-09-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

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

2012-08-28T02:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes...

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

and this week it belongs on IF!

:)

Tuesday night drawing

2012-07-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

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

2012-07-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

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

2012-06-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

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...

2012-06-22T01:56:00.000-07:00

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

2012-06-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

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!