MINDLESS SKETCHESTurn the music up and the phone off, crack open a fresh cold beer, unplug your brain... and draw.
Not thinking or caring about proportions, free from briefs and deadlines. Honest mindless sketching. I draw everyday, but I don't share everything that lurks between the pages of my sketchbooks. So in the spirit of sharing, here's some unfiltered-insight into whats going on inside my brain.
 MONSTER'S HEART: SPEED DRAWINGA friend with multi-coloured hair recently asked if she could film my drawing process for an assignment.
I thought it sounded like fun, so she stepped into my little secluded art-bubble and we talked about monsters. With a fresh cup of coffee and a bag full of copics, I whipped up a quick piece titled: MONSTER'S HEART. Film made by: Edacar Skittles. INSERT COINS: MAY 17TH at OXFORD ART FACTORY
On Thursday the 17th of May I was creating live-art at Insert Coins with the amazing Alex Lehours.
If you're not familiar, they fill the Oxford Art Factory with arcade-games, pinball machines and hot dog vendors. Running with the theme, my piece was Robotnik spewing out from a Sega Mega Drive (played by Sonic and Tales). Keeping it simple, I worked with POSCA pens and acrylic paints. I'm excited to do more live-art in the future.      HAPPY HOUSE
The Happy House is the result of too many hours worth of cartoon-watching and sleep-deprivation.
A hefty A2 in size, coloured entirely with watercolours and outlined with Indian Ink (B PITT Pen). Interestingly, I was talking to my Mum during the process and she explained that "3..." is her lucky number. So three became the house-number for this illustration. I hope to have it properly scanned and up here soon.  VIRGINIA KILLSTYXX POSTER: ROCK VS METALGood friends Virginia Killstyxx asked me to illustrate a 'ROCK VS METAL NIGHT' poster for them.
With a line-up of rock and metal bands... we needed the help of none-other than THING and IRON MAN. It's not such a secret that I'm a massive comic-book geek, so I had a lot of fun making this. Virginia Killstyxx's self-titled EP hit the iTunes shelves this week, as they say "get it while stocks last".  "IT'S ALIVE" MAD SCIENTIST
Ok so I love Frankensteins. He's definately the coolest (and my favourite) monster.
And I figured it was about time I threw some ink down on the creator... a Mad Scientist. "IT'S ALIVE"  HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13THSo it only comes around every once in a while, but us unlucky-folk have to stick together.
Tattoo-culture, horror-movie fans and superstitious-nerds can all celebrate the darkness of Friday the 13th. Two of my "Frankenstein designs" were included in the $50 tattoo-frenzy of King Street Ink (Newtown). Photos soon. I found some interesting trivia: Fear of Friday the 13th is referred to as paraskavedekatriaphobia. Personally, I don't really have many phobias or fears... I hate running out of coffee. Does that count...?  I AM PORTFOLIO!So I've recently made my portfolio downloadable from right here on my site. Exciting times.
To celebrate... it seemed like a good excuse to throw together a quick sketch of CORNHOLIO.  OUR LAST ENEMY: WOLVES OF PERIGORDSydney metal-heads OUR LAST ENEMY approached me about illustrating a new shirt design for them.
The boys are heading out on tour soon, launching their highly anticipated 'WOLVES OF PERIGORD' EP. Their new release has JUST hit the iTunes shelves. Buy that shit. Really proud of how this design came out... so many eyes.   CHILDREN'S BOOK ILLUSTRATION - DANNY IS AFRAID OF THE DARKI've recently been studying the sacred art of 'Children's Book Illustration' at Sydney University.
As part of my homework, I picked Nigel Snell's book 'DANNY IS AFRAID OF THE DARK' to re-illustrate. So in the interest of sharing, here's my first page: "The sun was going down. It would soon be dark".  And below is a sample of what I'm working on from page 9. Danny terrified in his dark room, screaming for "HELP!" ... don't worry, Mum comes to the rescue. Tryed a new style, seeing how I like it with the simpler background and colouring techniques. I like both!  SEAS OF LIFE - MASTODON DESIGNIt's not everyday that one of your favourite bands puts on a design-competition.
Typically, I hate the f**king things. But I saw that Mastodon were seeking artwork for their song 'DRY BONE VALLEY'. Their artwork is always amazing... and I looked on this competition as an excuse to push myself out of my comfort zone. So I analysed the song and starting with the opening lyrics "Head down running from the beast". Instantly saw a demonic horned-overlord spewing forth, summoning with it the world's creatures and elements. After I started working on my "beast", I became obsessed with the song's line... "Over these mountains to the seas of life, leave this desert for the sick and damned". I wanted to incorporate the early artwork of Paul A Romano with imagery created by the legendary Tim Biskup. The colour scheme was invented while finding the balance between good and evil for my 'DRY BONE VALLEY' piece. And here it is, my 'SEAS OF LIFE'. If you have a moment (trust me, you have a moment) checkout Tim Biskup's music video for 'DRY BONE VALLEY'.      You can see above my gradual process to the final image...
My initial idea was 'the beast' floating/chasing over a desert of bones... which felt really obvious. The beast also looked too old-man-ish for my liking and not evil enough. So I printed out what I had been working on, at a low oppacity, and redrew it. Tracing over, refining and reinventing the image. Tightening the shapes and the flow of the elements. I liked the result a lot more. Threw him back into Adobe Illustrator and completed the meticulous outlining and colouring. The final image, stands halfway between Mastodon's style and my style. Which was what I wanted achieve... **COMPETITION-CONCLUSION: My entry was the third highest voted entry (from hundreds). I guess that's flattering. I didn't win anything but I'm happy with my final-illustration and successfully pushed myself out of my comfort-zone. "BUGS! BUGS! BUGS!"The internet is an amazing resource of information...
Did you know that the biggest group of insects are the beetles, numbering 330,000 species...? Yeah neither did I. But the internet also has it's dark corners, which vary from the planking to cake-farts. In saying that, I recently came across a once in a lifetime offer: "WILL SAY ANYTHING YOU WANT WHILE IN THE SHOWER FOR $5" A thirty-second video would be sent providing it suited his morals. I immediately paid $5. Asking the bearded-man to say "BUGS!" as many times as he could, in the shower, in thirty seconds. Three days later, I received my video... and I absolutely HAD to draw him. Checkout the video.  Conclusion: Fifteen times. NEON HEARTSydey rockers NEON HEART approached me about doing a shirt design to co-incide with the launch of their new 'Out Of My Hands' EP. They had an existing logo (the three guitared heart shape), which I injected with steroids.
Combining their love of tattoos, skulls, guitars and batman seemed surprisingly natural. The 'BWBM GWFM" is a little abbreviation I made-up for one of their particularly catchy songs. Overall, the boys seem super-happy with the design... as it now features on a 10' foot banner they play in front of. Their new EP is available on iTunes for download, if you're a rock n roller... you're gonna want it.   KEEP IT KREEPY SHIRTS: THANK YOU!
At the end of 2011, I had a Limited Edition run of 'KEEP IT KREEPY' shirts created.
I had an overwhelming response to the shirts, they sold-out as quick as hotcakes. Presuming of course that hotcakes sell well, afterall I've never actually purchased a hotcake. Big thank you to everyone who got their hands on a shirt and for your awesome support.  THE EMPTY POCKETS: POSTER DESIGNIt was Sunday the 13th of November 2011 and I was expecting freaky-weird shit to go down.
Mostly due to the scientific-fact that freaky-weird shit always happens on the 13th. True fact*. *not true or based on scientific-fact, whatsoever. Nothing weird happened. No zombies, vampires or cycloptic-robots from the future. However I did receive an email from Erika of Chicago pop-band The Empty Pockets. She asked if I would be interested in illustrating a poster for the band. Low and behold, I was. I felt an immediate attachment to their newest song 'Fall Right Now' and wanted to work with that. Figuring the only way for anything to fall, is to first take it up high. Way high. Like, Zeppelin' high dude. Please check these guys out, they're currently on tour across the US.  
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