Brisbane on stilts

Inspired by the city I live in, Brisbane. Colonies of flying foxes at dusk, and seemingly rickety Queenslanders on stilts. Growing up here these were pretty typical sights, though don't try and find where this is. This one's made up. More process pictures can be viewed on my Facebook page.

Chance portrait

In need of a motivational boost I was going back over my old sketchbooks to see how much (if) my drawings have improved. The sketchbook my hand landed on happened to contain some cafe sketching from three years ago to the day. Here's a spontaneous portrait I found of a gentleman from Rockhampton who I got chatting with. I remember not liking this drawing very much at the time. But funnily, when I stumbled upon it a second time I felt it was one of the more inspired pieces amongst a lot of pretty bad drawings.

Four frogs

 

 

Experiments with different techniques and colour schemes. At the top is the final piece rendered with graphite pencil on watercolour paper.

Composition studies IV

 

Back to experiments with colour and composition.

Composition studies III

Composition studies II

Another colour and composition experiment. I can't stop drawing paperbarks right now...

Composition studies

Small (roughly 3 x 4 inch) experiments with colour and composition.

Happy new year

 

Hi, greetings from 2012!

I am back, and will posting again regularly. I hope this year is off to a good start for you.

I've just returned from a trip to the Lockyer valley, a region which experienced some of the worst of the 2010-2011 Queensland floods. This past week I was honoured to have the opportunity to give some illustration related presentations at a four-day arts festival held there.

Above are some drawings from the trip. I don't know the name of the trees, but majestic would probably be a good word to describe them. The top location sketch inspired the illustration below it. I hope you enjoy them.