Merry Christmas!

And so I blog here for the last time in 2009! And by way of a festive gift, a bonanza of 'behind the scenes' stuff only some of you have seen before! (Bonanza's probably a bit of an over statement...perhaps 'meagre offering' would be better!).

Aaaaanyway, remember this?

Well, it began as concept art which then was turned into the 'already seen in construction' scale model which now after much, much, MUCH hard work from only a few brave and clever souls has been translated into a life size model!

As can be seen by this photo of me painting a bit of it - it's BIG.

Should you be at a loss of what to do and within reasonable travel distance of Frankston (please, hear me out) from New Year's Eve til January 9, you can witness this life-size scale model in action as actors, dancers and singers prance about all over it as they attempt to put on the best damn version of 'Monty Python's Spamalot' they can muster!

However - it all began way back in around May, June as drawings. Enjoy this sampling!

And lastly, to all you who've put up with the early sporadic postings and/or joined in once I forced myself to maintain a weekly routine - many thanks indeed! It's been a pleasure discovering more and more of you who read it (making it feel worthwhile to do rather than making me feel like I was flinging things out into empty darkness!).

Have a fine ol' festive season, Merry Christmas, Pear Noel (probly typed that wrong!) and do come on back next year...round January 15th - when we can start aaaaalll over again!

Who knows what random things will be required to be drawn in 2010?

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

It's clearly corporate Christmas time!

Hence this whirlwind rushjob! 'Need something in a day...thanks!'

Mmmm - well here it is Bob Jane! Despite the ever so tight deadline and slightly hokey concept - I quite like the end result! And it's always good to know I can manage something like this utra-quick when need be!

Merry Christmas to all who travel on tyres this festive season! Stick to the road and avoid everything on it!

Festive times have just begun...

...and yet, amongst the MANY little girls of the month - never did a festive design get done! Which certainly boggles my mind - and maybe one day will be amended - but not today!

Instead, we celebrate the birth of Summer 09/10 - with this beach babe - 'Little Sharkbite Girl'!

(And yes, I'm aware November lacked a little girl of the month - BUT do remember SHOCKtober ended with a GLUT of them...so spoiled you were!)

Ummm - so what else happened this week - Mazda required a Christmas card - thats' what! And here it is!

And for those who'd like to see it a bit better - it's a three fold thing that's meant to sort of be based on their current 'stencil graffiti' inspired TV ad campaign (yeah, Mazda's finger is firmly planted no the pulse, to the point of disrupting blood flow) - so the idea is that we begin in the city, where one might work...

...then home for the holidays (note the traditional suburban light coloured brick...CLASSIC Mount Waverley if nowhere else!)...

..then off to the beach to enjoy the good times only Mazda can provide! (theyr'e gonna photoshop in the back end of the latest wonder vehicle suggesting it's headin' on down the road to golden holiday bliss - Mazda style!)

aaaaah summer, aaaaah Mazda, aaaaah graffiti!

still at the zoo!

Hi!

So yes, following on from last week's teasy teasy look at upcoming Zoo campaigns...howsabout a look at the last zoo campaign - which looked like this (before any words were added)!

It was a campaign based on the age old 'find the frog' approach (?!) - promoting awareness of the particular plight of the poor little green tree frog and it's endangeredness along the way!

So a gorilla (for Melbourne Zoo), a lion (for Werribee Open Range) and a kangaroo (for Healesville Sanctuary) were commissioned to join in the fun!

This, design-wise, also turned out to be the kind of job that pretty much gets it's 'look' straight away and doesn't really deviate too much from there - which can be quite nice and easy at times!

(mmm - note the heartbreaking emotion in the eyes - gorillas LOVE frogs. FACT.)

And on top of this - I was also asked to break the kangaroo's arm for the specific purpose of promoting the Healesville Sanctuary's world class animal hospital too...seemed a bit extreme, but whatever! Atleast there's a decent hospital to sort it out!

wild seas and bigness...

SO - a short but ever so sweet two parter this week! FIRST, examine and muse upon tantalising glimpses of an ad campaign I did my part for in the following images! I'm not sure the Melbourne Zoo would like me revealing the full artworks juuuuuust yet partly because the ads themselves aren't quite done yet, nor is the 'Python-esque' animation to be done for the cinema ad version! But I can tell you this, 'Wild Sea' is coming to the zoo - and I'd wager the animals involved are quite excited - while the other animals who aren't involved, are probably quite miffed and prone to violence. In the end, maybe when visiting the zoo, stick to Wild Sea and avoid the unique brand of hostility only jealous jungle beasts can offer elsewhere!

Or perhaps I don't have a clue what I'm on about!

Also - last week's post was meant to include embiggenable images so you could read and examine The Age newspaper pieces better - but for some reason or another (my technical cockuppery) this wasn't the case - so hopefully now, it IS!

Enjoy! (if it works!)

More magical behind the scenes type stuff!

You'll have to forgive me if this goes off the rails - I just ate an orange, am working through a cup of tea AND just got a package dropped on the doorstep thanks to the good people at Amazon - so you can understand my distractedness!

But enough about the hectic whirlwind that is my life (phew!) - I seem to be turning November into a bit of a 'behind the scenes' showing off the 'process' kinda month - so let's maintain that thrilling idea with this look into the scribbling that went into creating a cover story/centre spread for The Age newspaper recently!

FIRST - the good people at The Age were a relaxed and open bunch - there was a general concept to explore with this article BUT otherwise - kinda up to me! Exciting and daunting - but not necessarily impossible - just needed to do a bit of scribbling to figure it all out! I opted for a 'how one uses imagery to tell a story' expos'e (dunno how to do the accent thingy!)...the pictured scrawlings were my attempt to reign such a broad subject down into something manageable!

FIRST - the plan!

NOW - squeezing into some sort of vaguely logical layout - note the impressively adept preliminary character sketching

NOT TO MENTION the completely clear 'arrows' idea...how could one misinterpret what I had in mind here?!

Of course eventually - it starts to come solidly together (note the arrow plan has settled down considerably by this stage - and then suddenly ditched completely - it's a fickle industry, dear readers)...

- and then once the text was added - remarkably it all comes together - I know I was surprised and delighted!

The COVER - was a little more straight forward - 2 kids, a confusing conglomeration of genres and intentions and there you go! A perfectly clear suggestion of what I'm going to rant on about inside a national newspaper!

Note also, it's jobs like this - the ones with fairly limitless borders, that allow me to play about with things more than other jobs - hence the fun I had going with a messier, scribblier, generally looser colouring approach...coz I could!

I applaud The Age's confidence in me and look forward to being allowed to run amok within their pages some day in the future!

Shapes of things to come?

Possibly!

And welcome to GLOWvember - which will henceforth be referred to as NOvember - as there will be NO GLOWing going on...as I don't know how that would be possible...atleast in the way I'm thinking - aaaaaaaaanyway - let's never speak of my desperate attempt to follow the altogether tremendous SHOCKtober with another nifty month - that failed.

So anyways, November - and here's something that's gone on this month so far - a possible vision into the future! Here is some concept art that I've submitted as I vie for a possible future job which shall remain undisclosed until it happens - if it happens...leaving you here with tantalising visions and many questions!

But not to get ahead of myself - it started with a little girl called Ruby - whom I had to design.

But where to begin - well obviously with the only human I know of called Ruby (I know of a dog, but that was clearly useless) - hence, this Ruby!

Also, in my online wanderings I'd come across the work of Emmanuelle Walker, by way of her wondrous little short "Apres La Pluie".

http://www.emmanuellewalker.com/index.php?/animation/apres-la-pluie/

The following two designs of hers also helped me get going (note the dainty red circles I've drawn on her sketches, helping you, the reader, identify that I liked the hair on these girls! And the face on the girl in the second image).

And so here's the little path I followed to get to Ruby and her little brother - both inspired, fashion-wise, by Enid Blyton books - it's relevant to the project in a homage-y way - the project of which I can say nothing about!

And last but not least - the sample spread!

Make of it all what you will and remember - you know nothing of this...for now!

And now go watch Apres La Pluie.

Happy Halloweeeeeen! (if you're reading this on the 31st of October!)

Indeed yes - we come to SHOCKtober's final Friday posting - mere hours away from All Hallow's Eve...spooooky!

Ofcourse Friday postings will theoretically continue well into GLOWvember (haven't thought that through in ANY way at all) and beyond...but for now, time to fondly farewell Shocktober! And what better way than with something akin to a beauty pageant, or perhaps a collective of cute young trick r' treaters!

I give you the 'Little Girl' Halloween parade.

Given that a vast majority of the Little Girl designs happily strayed into horrorific territory there's a bundle of them that are appropriate for the season though none of them had yet to reach the 'finished art stage' - hence this display of just a few - enjoy!

First a classic or two - vampires and werewolves (or atleast...beginnings of werewolves!)

adorable!

And then - more contemporary favourites...and a shrunken head.

and last - but by no means least, one of the creepier little ladies...Little Angel of Death!

Happy Halloween!