Tuesday, February 23, 2010

myself on two different days

One of my jobs at the moment is working with children's art activities as part of an amazing special exhibition of post-impressionist masterpieces at the National Gallery of Australia. Sometimes when it's really quiet I get a chance to join in with the kids doing self portraits, but never quite get finished before my attention is needed elsewhere. I realised that my two drawings from different days were almost exactly the same size and each missing an eye so I decided to see what happened if I combined them in photoshop. I really like the red scribbly addition in the bottom left which was courtesy of a two year old girl - it definitely adds to the instability of the portrait!

seeds




In each of these images I started by blocking in the shape with a wet brush and then creating texture with watercolor and salt (as above). From there I used colored pencil and a bit of watercolor to bring out the form. It was a fine balance between incorporating and obliterating the original texture in the finished drawing, but I think the approach helped add a little life to these botanical studies :)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Biopsy


More watercolor experiments! in this set (as with the last) I'm playing with rock salt to create abstract effects that I will be introducing into some pieces this year. These are lots of fun to do... try it yourself :)

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

New Zealand Sketchbook















Hi! I recently returned from an amazing trip to New Zealand's south island where my brother & I spent a few weeks hiking, kayaking and generally exploring an incredibly beautiful landscape. These sketches are from some of the quieter moments of the journey, if you're interested I also took heaps of photos which you can see by clicking this LINK. Hope you enjoy :)