Recycling an old drawing of mine (2004?) for a fundraiser for my housemate's next feature film, Monster Pies! Check it out if you're in Melbourne next month and help support independent artists...
It's been a couple of years since I've done a self-portrait, so here's one I drew in my sketchbook recently. I've been commuting to work by longboard lately, it's a nice change from having my life threatened multiple times a day by people who can't drive or understand how easy it is to share the road with bikes. (sounds dramatic but people who commute by bike know what's up!) Plus it feels like I'm surfing to and from work everyday, can't beat that!
Last week the 500th issue of Forte magazine hit the streets with my artwork on the cover! Pretty happy with how it came up in print...
'Yo girls, check us out!'*Me and my good friend Rick Chesshire. I met Rick when he first moved to Geelong from Tasmania and asked if I wanted to contribute some artwork to a zine he was bringing out (Fried Cat) and we've been great buds ever since!
We worked together in the art dept. at Forte and immediately bonded over drawing/comics, Weird Science*, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Trailer Park Boys and a hundred other things that make me laugh just thinking about them.
He's got a new zine/mini-comic coming out in a few weeks, check his site for details! (I'm hoping to have something in it - a comic or pin-up...?)
Big thanks to the editor of Forte, Brigitte Stone, for letting me draw what I wanted for the cover in the first place, getting said artwork on a CAKE and practically organising the entire 500 party. Champion!!
I drew this pic in my sketchbook last week. Then I printed out a scan of the drawing and played around with some markers. Sent a couple of these out in mailouts this week, keep a look out if you're expecting something from me ;)
The street press/music mag I work for is coming up to it's 500th issue this month so we're throwing a 500 To Life party at the Old Geelong Gaol to celebrate. I worked up this image for the cover/invite after deciding I wanted to use a lot of black and I wanted to avoid drawing as much bluestone walls and bars as possible. This was pretty Gorillaz inspired actually, I had fun drawing it...
...and a few more stickers I've sent out with orders!
Oops, it's been a while since an update! Hope everyone had a good break over the holidays. I basically kicked back for 2 weeks, caught up on some drawing, slept a hell of a lot and got my skate legs back (bought myself a new longboard). Can't believe February is creeping up on us already!
Here's a couple things I worked on a few months ago that I either couldn't or just didn't post up until now. I don't normally take on webdesign projects because they usually end up being way more trouble than they're worth for me, and I'd much rather be drawing comics or something, but this was for my friend's new business that I wholeheartedly endorse. Plus I'd already drawn their logo and the idea they had for it was just too cool. Click on the image to visit their site, play with the chainsaw for a bit and buy yourself some comics/graphic novels/toys/dvds etc!
www.zombiecomics.com.au
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApPAcPMmpKMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqFI2JUEwZU
Here's a shirt I've wanted to make for a while. Seddon is a great little suburb in inner-west Melbourne where I've called my home for the past 2-3 years. I kind of doubt anyone from Seddon will be reading this (besides my housemate), but I'm hoping to have these for sale at the Seddon Festival on Saturday 5 March. Any leftovers will be available in my webstore. Rep your (my) hood!!
And finally, a few handdrawn stickers I've been making lately and sending out with orders...
I promise I won't leave it so long until the next update! :)
I forgot to mention in the last post that the Brush, Lens & Clay art gallery that I have a few pieces in is now open! They launched this weekend just gone and the current work there will be up for the rest of November. I haven't been down there yet but I've seen some photos and the gallery space looks fantastic. Find them at 2 Hobson Street, Queenscliff, Victoria.
Just working on some cd artwork and t-shirt designs at the moment :D
And here's a little something I drew for my friend Zoe who owns and runs The Cocoa Tree Cafe in Geelong. (20 James St, Geelong)
Her food is seriously amazing! I don't drink coffee but it must be good cause everytime I'm getting lunch there she's busy making them - so now you know where to go next time you're 'in town'! She's also made the space into a bit of a mini-gallery for my work, thanks Zoe!! And Anthony for the great hanging ;)
Alright, I've finally got the webstore up and running! I'll be adding to it as I get new things made up of course... more prints, badges, original artwork and t-shirts* shouldn't be too far off either! *More on this soon ;)
This Roller Derby pack is up in the store, but not available though me per se.. suss the store for details! Pretty stoked to have my artwork on stubby holders though, haha ;)
It's been a crazy past few weeks! Super busy with work and drawing, but I also got hit by a car on my bike last month and miraculously came out of that with some minor cuts, big bruises and a few disturbing dreams. My bike's kind of wrecked though and because I didn't get the guy's details who hit me, I basically have to buy myself a new bike to get around on. I'm not exactly rolling in cash, I pretty much make just enough money to get by on which gives me that bit extra time to spend on drawing.. so anyone who purchases anything from my store will be helping me get back on the road and I thank you greatly! (Really don't want to have to walk everywhere in summer!)
Also ~big thanks~ to the Victorian Police for taking my report and throwing it straight in the trash. (Crimes are down, eh?) Good to know for next time that I have to die for anything to really happen.
Anyway, next month I have a few pieces in a group show at a new gallery opening in Queenscliff called Brush, Lens & Clay. As it's November opening coincides with the 15th(?) Annual Queenscliff Music Festival, the theme for the first show is of course, music!
This is a prelim sketch of an ink drawing that I have in the show of the awesome Chrissy Amphlett. I'd been on a massive Divinyls kick the past couple of months, even sat down one night and worked out the guitar tab to I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore and somewhere along the line wanted to try to capture that gutsy, kick-your-face-in attitute of Chrissy - a fellow Geelong girl!
I'll post the final image when I get a photo of the framed piece. On a sadder note, she's just been diagnosed with breast cancer which hit close to home as another amazing woman in my life, my Aunt/Godmother, was also diagnosed not long ago, but I'm really happy to say is now doing well! <3
Please visit www.breastcanceraustralia.org for more info and to make a donation to help our sisters - actually do that before you visit my webstore!
Hope everyone's having a frightful night! I've already watched 'Halloween' today, will be following it up tonight with too much sugar and more scary movies!
So it's been a long time since I've posted anything about my graphic novel Cadaver Dave, and I'm sure some of you thought I'd just forgotten or given up on it but I'm happy to say ol' corpsey is back on the drawing board!
For the past 3 years I've taken a full month off work during winter (I commute by bike and train all year round - saves me getting cold and wet for at least one month!) and this year I took all of August off with the plan to get stuck back into this comic after clearing up some illustration/design jobs.
It's been almost 2 years since I've laid pen to paper on this thing, but I've picked up right where I left off with renewed fervour (and some killer new concepts!) and surprisingly I didn't cringe too much looking back at the older artwork. The new pages are coming along nicely, I think taking a break and working on some other stuff has done some good.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the gallery page (under the 'comics' section) for a brief overview of the story and suss these preview pages (drawn 2-3 years ago now, heh)...
Still a couple of bugs to work out with the enthuzed webstore, I promise it'll be up soon!
I did make a trip into the city today to restock 'Lost Cause' at Sticky Books in the CBD again today! Thanks to everyone who's picked one up, I hope you dig it!
Thought I'd throw up a link to my pal (and co-worker) James Dulce's website, a talented young designer based out of Geelong. He's got great taste in hip hop, always wears fresh kicks and is just an all-round cool kid. Check out some of his stuff below...
www.jamesdulce.com
While I'm here... a little poster I knocked out last week for a party we just had to celebrate my housemate Lee and his twin brother Lawrence's 31st birthdays!
Another logo for some more good friends of mine, Nicky and Tristan, who're opening up a store soon selling comics/graphic novels, toys, t-shirts and the likes. They asked me to come up with some designs, this is the one they went with...
This was a blast to work on - I love any reason to draw a zombie/horde of zombies. This sketch (left) is another option I gave them that I thought worked well so thought I'd post it up here too.
The website's still being built but keep an eye out as they'll be taking orders within the next month or so! www.zombiecomics.com.au. Stickers and t-shirts are being made up too!
Here's a logo I made for my friend Ryan Chamley's new digital media company. I've known Ryan for what must be like 10 years now through the Geelong music scene, back when he was in No Plan B with Damo. Our bands played shows together and both being guitar players, we were always borrowing amps off each other - he helped me fit a Marshall 4x12 into the back of my vw fastback a few times over the years.
It's always cool seeing your friend's creative projects come up and Chammers is one dude who always has something on the go, usually a band or two and over the past few years his video production work has really taken off... Check out what they're up to at www.robotarmymedia.com.
Edit
I just updated my links page!!
Earlier this year I was asked by the lovely Riff Raff Saff from the Geelong Roller Derby League to draw a poster to commemorate the 2010 season of two of the league's teams, the Atom Bombs and The Psychotics...
Roller Derby is a predominantly female sport, but GRDL invites guys to skate at certain bouts (I think they even have a men's league) so they asked for one of the skaters to be male and this is the rough draft I came up with. I redrew and cleaned the illustration up for the final poster, but it's essentially unchanged from this first sketch.
This was really a lot of fun to work on and the prints came out way better than I imagined - these really do look nicer irl than they do on screen!
We've printed these in a limited edition of 300 and so far they're ONLY available at bouts... and the Grand Final just happens to be on next Sunday 15th August at the Leisuretime Centre in Bell Post Hill, featuring these two teams!
Any posters left over from the game will be available to buy online from the GRDL website and I'll try to get a few to sell right here, but be quick as we won't be printing any more of these once they're gone!
They're not in this poster, but I can't forget to mention the other upcoming GRDL team, The Bloody Marys!! More Roller Derby merch and new art coming soon.