'Grow'vember 1st

Yesterday I was doing some visual research just for fun. I do this when I'm not sure what to draw. The topic was the character King Kong. Not only was it fun, but I realised it's too important an exercise to do so infrequently. With drawing, being able to represent form well is one thing. But having a rich mental bank of imagery is just as priceless. With this realisation I decided to undertake 'Grow'vember. Each day for the month of November, I'll take a topic, and fill at least one page in my sketchbook with visual studies. Going public with this was also a way to keep me on track. I'll be posting the sketchbook drawings here on my blog, on my facebook page, and on my twitter account. Here's to a month of artistic growth.

Atelier art classes

So I've been doing some traditional art classes here. Starting at the top are my most recent exercises, and then progressing towards the bottom are the earliest. The first image is a cast drawing still in progress.

The Very Cross Bun cover art

With the cover illustration done, it's now time to hand the baton over to the designer. I didn't expect it to be such a long road to this point. I can still remember the day Jennifer proposed a series of 'fractured fairy-tales' to me on the drive to a children's literature festival.

The agreement with the publisher is pretty open ended, which has meant doing without the sometimes helpful threat of a deadline. My perfectionism was left to run wild. And then as jobs, other projects, and life inevitably interrupted, it turned into a stop-start affair. In the end, I managed to resurrect my momentum each time, and I feel I've produce a series of inspired illustrations. At the very least the best I could do.

I would love to know your thoughts, especially if you get around to reading it.

Self-portrait

Selfie drawing

Work in progress.. my version of a selfie.

Random character design

Exploring shapes for a random character design. She's a bit rough around the edges and scary when you first meet her but has a good heart.

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.

Juggling projects

If you've been following this blog you'll be pretty familiar with this character by now. Here's a couple more scraps exploring different mediums and treatments. We are still seeking a publisher for this one, however I have been quite happy to just keep filling my sketchbooks with ideas for it. If/when we do find a willing publisher, I think the character and his world are going to flow from my pen/pencil/brush like an old friend..

Milko story

Visual story telling, it's finally starting to click for me what this means. I'm really excited about the possibilities after doing Alex Woo's gesture drawing course. These sketches are based on an experience growing up. One of my first jobs was helping a milko after school. I have fond memories of that job. I've also been reading about story structure. Hopefully I can find the essence of the story that I feel lurks in these memories. The idea will keep warm on the back burner until then. I hope you enjoy these scraps.

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.

Gesture drawing practice

I'm nearing the end of a gesture drawing course with Alex Woo. Here's some of my homework practice from an earlier lesson on exaggeration. It has been a challenge and made me feel like a complete beginner, but I think I've found a few ingredients that have been missing in my past work.

The Very Cross Bun ...continued

Above: Using dark cool colours and shapes that look similar to clutching fingers I hope to have conveyed a sense of danger for the bun, (who wants to keep dry naturally).

Below: Children tumble out of school at the end of a day. Bun meets natural predator, school children.

More from The Very Cross Bun. I'm about half way through the final art for this book. I don't think there's a single illustration without a few things I wouldn't change if I could go back and revise. But for those few imperfections, I think there are just as many happy accidents. I have tried to maintain a sense of play in their making, which I hope comes out in the art. Approaching each piece at the outset as an experiment rather than a finished piece seems to have tricked my perfectionism into finishing illustrations that in the end I hope are spontaneous and enjoyable to look at.