Here are a couple of thumbnail sketches for my Sea Shepherd krill campaign commission. We decided to go with the penguin protest, mainly because I thought it shows a more direct message (apart from that it is also slightly easier to draw).
I have attached my progress. I started illustrating the background first and have already rendered that in colour, overlaying it with some textures from my own photographs. I have not previously experimented with the application of textures and I am pleased at the result. I think the ice loogs quite realistic while still having a posterised cartoon-like effect.
I thought I’d share this video I put together duing the middle part of the course in 2015 – I made this video for the subject called “Art Direction”, one of the harder ones. Basically, as part of a rebranding project, I had to design a new logo for Aeroflot. There were a whole bunch of other documents I had to produce along with the logo: Client contract, production schedule, budget estimate, branding guideline manual, advertising campaign, storyboard advert and finally a presentation.
The week before I started this subject, I was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder (GAD).Read more →
I started an online petition yesterday to prevent the atlantis “we don’t deserve capital letters” lounge bar in Adelaide from putting two hammerhead sharks into a small 3m tank in their nightclub. I (and several thousand other people) think this is a very silly idea because not only are hammerhead sharks an endangered species, well, I’m sure that they won’t be pleased with all those flashing lights and loud bass music. Once the petition reached about 800 signatures, I decided it was worth doing a quick illustration to boost it just that much more.
Just a quick blog update as I’d like to get this message out to the world. I’ve got a bit of spare time on my hands all throughout January 2016 so I am offering pro bono illustrations for most charity environmental organisations! What does “pro bono” mean? What it means is that I charge very little for my time and essentially don’t make any profit. Something around $10/hour. However, if it’s a cause that I care strongly about, I’ll do it completely for free. I’m mainly interested in helping animal welfare and environmental conservation. You can submit your requests here.
Why? This a great way for me to help the planet but it also gives me some kind of incentive to actually draw something for a purpose. Professional illustrations are a fantastic way to increase your campaign’s exposure, raise awareness and make a bigger overall impact! The good news is that it doesn’t have to bean Australian charity, it can be based anywhere in the world.
I decided to enter a coffee cup competition earlier this year. One of the teachers at Martin college was the host and I thought I might have a good chance at getting a prize. I knew that a lot of the other students were too busy with all of their assessments for that study block.
I spent a total of about two hours on the illustration and the accompanying rationale.
Work must represent a positive environmental message, ethos or subject matter and be appropriate for a public audience and the cup shape. Students chosen to participate in the project will need to describe the work’s environmental themes. Work must represent a positive environmental message, ethos or subject matter. Artists choosing to participate in this competition will need to describe the work’s environmental themes. Describe in 100 words or less your work’s environmental theme and reasons for choosing this theme.
Anyway, I’m very proud to announce the results here now, especially considering there were 38 judges!
I ended up spending most of the prize money on a bunch of illustration and industrial design books over at the Sydney Kunokuniya book store.
I’ve been quite busy finishing off my graphic design diploma lately. I had to repeat the subject called ‘Multimedia’ because they wanted us to learn Macromedia Flash Professional, Actionscript 3.0, write a 1500 word report and create a mostly functional app — all within 5 weeks. I thought that was too much, so I bailed (and I wasn’t the only one). I wanted to learn it properly, not be rushed through it. So I decided to take a break and attempt it online. Anyway, I just handed in all of the assignments last week and I will share that around in another post.
This has given me a lot of free time lately; I was already half way through the assignments and the distance study blocks are twice as long. Not only that, but I don’t have to travel 4 hours per day to Martin College in Sydney. I’ve used this time to create some campaigns that I care about on Care2 (more on that in another update).
I’ve noticed people are often curious about illustrators’ workspaces. Illustrationmundo.com asked me to upload a photo of the area I use to create my work, so I figured it was worth sharing here too!
Here’s a general overview of my work area. I have a nice desk from Officeworks with real oak legs. An Ikea Markus chair – the fabric version, not the leather version (it is exactly the same chair but half the price).
Zooming in on my desk, you’ll see a softly-lit, well-organised work area. I have a nice view outside. It’s very important for me that I don’t face a boring wall. So I can just look a bit to the right and see straight across the road. VERY IMPORTANT I TELL YOU!!Read more →
Here’s a few hand-rendered sketches I did for an Aeroflot television advertisement. This was done for the subject art direction and branding for my graphic design diploma at Martin college.
I don’t normally like to show works in progress. But this is a special case because there are only about 250 of these left in the world!
Anyway, here is an illustration that I am doing of the Amani flatwing damselfly. It is currently listed as critically endangered and is on the IUCN redlist, because it’s habitat is less than 10km². I haven’t been able to find much information about this species online, apart from the brief wikipedia article quoted below. You can read more about ongoing conservation efforts here.
Amani flatwing damselfly illustration.
The Amani flatwing has a long, extremely slender abdomen, which is darkly coloured with a conspicuous white tip. Its wings are distinctly narrower at their base than at their tip, and the males have a broad brown band close to their wing tips. It is endemic to the Amani Sigi Forest of the East Usambara Mountains from Tanzania. The Amani flatwing population appears to be largely confined to a 500 meter long stream in the Amani-Sigi Forest Reserve, although a single male has been found outside of this reserve.
Amanipodagrion gilliesi is now critically endangered due to destruction and degradation of its habitat. There has been almost a complete destruction of the low-altitude forest across East Africa, mainly for conversion to agricultural land. The few remaining forests of the East Usambara Mountains where the Amani flatwing is found are under considerable pressure.[2] The main, viable subpopulation of Amani flatwings is relatively safe within the Amani-Sigi Forest Reserve, any other subpopulations within the vicinity are either already extinct or maybe on the verge of extinction as a result of human encroachment, deforestation and water pollution. Also the protected population of Amani flatwings leads a relatively precarious existence, containing fewer than an estimated 250 mature individuals.
