Here are some pages from my Moleskine sketchbook. As you can see it doubled as an autograph book when Anna Karina came to town earlier this year. Some of these are inspired by her and another sixties actress Yoko Tani (the girl in the spacesuit).
The drawings on the last four pages were done with a new pencil i am trying out, Faber-Castell’s PITT oil based pencil (black). Thanks to Justin Coffee for putting me onto these. They are available in a variety of grades but Melbourne art stores only seem to carry the extra soft grade.
You get a wonderful range of grays and a nice rich black similar to a black coloured pencil. Light lines can be erased and are smug free. They sharpen well and at $AUD1.80 a real bargain. Check out the review at Penciltalk.org here.
Here’s the finished Mother and Child painting. For varnish I first put a coat of acrylic sealer (water based, non-removable) and then two coats of gloss varnish (oil based, removable). I will let it dry for a week then take it off the frame.
Here are some progress photos of the Mother & Child painting I have been working on over the past few months. I began in May but this early attempt wasn’t working out. Out of sheer frustration I gesso’d over the top and started again.
I redrew her completely (shortened the length of her lower half, put the baby in profile and simplified the landscape). Finally it looked a little better.
Now it’s almost complete. I just need to add some leaves blowing across which will give it a better sense of movement.
Here you can see my first rough sketches.
Mother & Child, Acrylic on canvas. 24” by 48”
The latest version (above). October 2009.
This is after I redrew it. The red hair turned out to be bit over powering so she became a blonde. September 2009.
Just before I gesso’d over it and started again. June 2009.
My first effort. May 2009.
Have always loved those Moonbase girls from Gerry Anderson’s UFO. This drawing is based on Commander, Lt. Gay Ellis (Gabrielle Drake) though I wasn’t really going for a likeness. My first attempt was too realistic so I placed a sheet of detail paper over it and stylised her as much as I could.
Medium: Col-erase blue pencil, detail paper, A4 size
Troy Tempest from Gerry Anderson’s Stingray
These are some illustrations I did for educational publishers Cengage Learning last month. Entitled “Life on Wheels” they are part of a set of laminated cards to be used in US schools. Both of these were hand drawn then coloured in Photoshop.
These sketches are on rough watercolour paper. First, I lightly roughed out the designs with col-erase blue pencil then went over with a darker lead pencil. I deliberately kept the line work bold and stylised.
Here are two of those drawings painted and coloured in Photoshop.
A rough sketch inspired by Jane Fonda’s classic pose from Cat Ballou.
Having co-illustrated the Fighting Fantasy book “Caverns of the Snow Witch” way back in 1984, Dave from fightingfantasygamebooks.com kindly contacted me for an interview. Check it out here
