fly away...

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

Enjoy!

photo-washes

Aloha!
There’s a brand new page on my site collecting some of my photowash experiments...

...and that’s just a taste of what you’ll find ;)

my Town...

Phew!
I've had a busy few weeks and there's not much to show for it… so, to tide you over, here are some sketches of my lovely Cape Town :)

This summer's hanging on with it's teeth but for all the tanners out there, I guess it's a good thong… er… thing!

Me. I like some rain.
Else my basil wilts...

tribute - Mike Wieringo

Today, a little something different…

This handsome guy is Koj, of Tellos fame, created by the late Mike Wieringo.

New Year!

Welcome back (mostly to me, feels like I've been away, marooned on some far off, exotic planet) 

To kick off 2011, here are some… illustrations? photos? … 

I'm not really sure.

I did these to give as gifts to my family; made from photos I took in Mozambique, Zambia, Malasia and France - I combined these with ink and watercolour washes I've been collecting.

The idea came when I was doing experiments with trees, I find trees are great to explore techniques with, I'm curious to see what fruits these experiments will bear in the long term...

cat magic

Just keeping things updated, I recently posted this on watercolour wednesdays last week...

This month promises many great things on WW so keep checkin it out :)

Troy

This is Troy. He's an awesome little frenchie that oozes personality.... ...and mischief!

Savannah 2116 AD

And speaking of covers....

Here's another one I did for Tafelberg a few years back, I used the same model from the Moon Bride kid's story I posted not long ago, remember her?

This is actually my first credited book cover and I kinda threw everything at it (at the time) but looking back, it still holds up well.

I also created the typography of the 'Savannah', there's a special place in my heart for typographical design...

Avos and the Waratah!

Part of the reason I've been so scarce (since the beginning of the year about) has been because of this book: "The Mystery of the SS Waratah and the avocado tree"

It's been recently released so I can now talk about it ;)

Written by M J Honikman and published by Tafelberg, I'm not gonna get into too many details but the story's based around the disappearance of a steamship around the coast of South Africa 101 years ago... and an avocado tree!

It can safely be said... I can now draw avos... day or night...

I reverted to a simple line style keeping the characters mostly flat against more detail intensive backgrounds and environments. Unexpectedly, I was also asked to set the book, this turned out to be great from a flexibility point of view and it's always nice to see something from start to finish design-wise.

There are also 'flashbacks' which are done in the ink-wash technique I so enjoy, I'm glad I got to use it :)

If you want to find out more about the Waratah, here's the ISBN: 978-0-624-04817-6

Tyger tiger

Went through a phase of Op Art, that is: the art of optical illusion. It spun out of surrealism but the idea's been around for ages.

This pic was inspired by Magritte… remember the pipe?

faces

These are some doodles done as gifts for friends of mine many years ago. The first two were drawn on brown wrapping paper and the light effect of the last one is bleach on ink wash.

The odd caption of #1 is a private joke (something to do with squirrel-phobia) but the face belongs to none other than Mr. Picasso from a photo by Irving Penn

...wanna bet?

One of my first jobs, when I started my freelance career, was to design and illustrate a comic for NRGP. It was aimed at school kids all over South Africa to create awareness of the dangers of gambling.

Myself and my partner, writer Ian Malone, were given incredible leeway to get the best possible product. So we ran with it.... and ran.... and ran. Far.

This is where I discovered how much potential ink washed backgrounds have against 'regular' outlined elements - especially characters.

The Lost Forest

I've been a bit scarce lately, having just finished illustrating a children's book for Tafelberg Press, as well as setting it in two languages!
Anyway, so I'm done with that and a few other projects, now I'll be a little more regular :)

I'll blog those soon enough but today I thought I'd do this one...
A few years back a friend of mine wrote a story that struck me, I promised him I'd illustrate it and promptly moved to another province.
By the time I'd drawn these we'd completely lost touch, he had in turn moved away too, so these will remain unpublished until we re-connect.
Oh well...

Horsey ink

I did this one a while back based on one of the statues standing outside the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, it's Quink on Oriental paper, the two weren't intended to work together but I quite like what happened...

Ah, those happy accidents :)

meerkat and co

That's right, another ink wash and there'll be plenty more to come...

Ever since I discovered the medium in college, I was hooked. I use the best value for ink I can find, and many artistes have scoffed at it or at least raised an eyebrow, is Parker's 'Quink' - the black one!

What I like about it is the spectrum of colours that are revealed as I work, depending on the ratio of ink to water and even the way it's allowed to dry, it gives off blues, greens, ochres and everything in between. It reacts really well to water, bleach, salt and probably a bunch of other stuff I haven't tried yet, like soap... hmmm...

I think I'll try that today...

Incidently, I added the clouds in photoshop, I like playing with photographic elements and inkwashes, a la McKean ;)

What's been pointed out and I've seen happen to my older drawings, it bleaches quickly in the sun and the colours keep changing over time. For some that's a bad thing but I like it, it's as if the drawing kept on drawing itself!

I did these two in 2000/2001, over time the palette seems to get warmer but no less richer.

Amnesty Int.

Ah, monday, sweet monday...

I haven't got anything new to post today (been real busy on 2 project) so I'm once again delving into the abyss of past projects.

A few years ago, following my trip to Angouleme, I was ask to join the ranks of comic creators that were briefed to illustrate one of each article of the Declaration of Human Rights to be published by Glenat.

This is the book, L'illustration Universelle des Droits de L'homme

and these were mine: Article 8

For me the best part of this was to be bound between covers with such greats as Moebius, Bilal, Toppi, Guarnido and many, many more...

doodles

busy, busy day...

Here're a couple of ink wash sketches I did a while ago, wildlife - one of my favourite themes ;)

Ever since I discovered ink wash I fell in love with the medium, and I recommend Parkers Quink, many frown but it's inexpensive and very versatile!