An attractive couple
Need I say more?
June 9, 2010 Comments Off
Storage!
Before I donked by head, I redid some storage behind my desk, in my little work area thingy.
Previously, I had left over old desk bits on cinder blocks and speakers.
But now!
Now I have left over old desk bits on cinder blocks and speakers with random reject shop mini book cases!
And the effect isn’t too bad, surprisingly.
It’s hard to get a good photo, because my desk and the lounge is in the way (half the loungeroom is a loungeroom, the other half my desk area)
and
and me, clearly insane and enjoying the new storage space:
April 15, 2010 2 Comments
Haiti. And original artwork.
As I’m sure most of you know, Haiti has been struck by an earthquake. The worst earthquake it’s seen in 200 years. So…not so good. Reports are that there are more than one hundred thousand people dead.
Stop for a second and think about that. That’s more than everybody I know. Dead in one go.
Nothing is going to help those already gone, but the people left behind are doing it pretty tough.
If you feel so inclined, you can make a donation to help the survivors through a whole bunch of charities and methods.
And, if you’re in the mood for buying some art, you can do both at the same time.
I’m selling this original artwork, called ‘The Pointless Nowhere Tree’ and, if purchased, will donate 50% of the purchase price to the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Click picture for a bigger view of the artwork
The Pointless Nowhere Tree, signed original
Pen and Ink
Approx 21 x 30cm (roughly 8.5 x 11), but photo shows size pretty clearly.
Comes unframed, and obviously the ‘toeknuckles.com’ watermark does NOT appear on the original
Postage and handling included in purchase price.
I’m asking $135 (US), which is a significant discount from my normal pricing, and includes shipping.
50% will be donated straight to the Haiti fund.
If you’re interested in purchasing, please just let me know!
January 15, 2010 Comments Off
Remembering what’s important at Christmas
This toddler, followed by a vulture, collapsed in the dirt on the way to a feeding clinic.
Luckily, the photographer chased away the vulture, and this particular little girl made it to the clinic. I shudder to think how many didn’t.
December 17, 2009 Comments Off
Talking about photo paintovers
Being a digital artist striving for a certain level of realism in my work, I’m constantly accused of ‘photo paintovers’.
Those other digital artists out there know exactly what this is, but for those not familiar with the term, allow me to explain: a digital painter (like me) paints, but some digital artists pull apart photos, insert them into their painting and paint over the top of them.
Some artists do this to great effect, and some people ruin artworks this way.
Either way, to be accused of a paintover when you claim you have painted it yourself is quite an enormous insult, as a) it’s suggested that you are not telling the truth about your process and b) people are suggesting you don’t have the skill to paint it yourself.
To show I DO have the skill, I created a walk through of my process and uploaded it to my website some time ago.
Now I’m going to show you something else.
The Opposite of a Paintover!
If it is assumed that you do a paintover to cut corners with reaching realism is characters and objects (I know artists who make lovely multimedia work and DON’T use it for this reason, but we’ll ignore this in this instance and discuss just the digital painter who is trying to take shortcuts), then what is it when you put a bit of painting IN to a photo, having not painted over any photo as a base?
That’s exactly what I did for a competition entry for a design school. We were supposed to express, in 25 words or less, why we wanted to win, and I decided to opt for a visual approach.
The design school assumed it was photography. But it wasn’t.
It’s part photography, part paint.
So this image, here, is part photography, part painting. See if you can pick what I photographed and what I painted:
I’d like to think it isn’t too obvious.
So before I show you the original photo sans painting, I’m going to explain why this is different to a normal paintover – I painted the extras INTO the photo without the aide of a photo to paint over.
November 12, 2009 Comments Off
I’m supposed to be working
This is me supposed to be working:
Clearly…uh…NOT working…
I also realised that I forgot today is “Vintage Ad Friday”, and have shortchanged you one vintage ad. Hah! Sorry about that.
On the bright side, I’ve had such a good response from my entries about being a freelance illustrator and selling work wholesale that I am currently in the process of writing more about it – specifically, getting your art out and about into physical places: cafes, shops, galleries, the like.
So stayed tuned.
November 6, 2009 Comments Off
Happy Happy Happy
I’m feeling kinda depressed today. Unmotivated with my art or work. It probably doesn’t help that I feel very tired…I feel like I’m slogging through thick molasses to get anything done.
That is, I WAS! Until I checked the post box!
This year I took advantage of Deviant Art’s free shipping worldwide offer, and ordered a bunch of little prints to use little gifts, gift tags, cards etc for people this Christmas. Had I had more money, I would’ve ordered much larger ones, but at least I got SOME, even if they are small.
And, since I was ordering and it was so cheap without paying shipping, I got a couple for me. My favourite being from artist Ravenari!
I’d have taken photos of the other things I ordered, but since they’re not all for me and some are going as gifts to people, I can’t or it’d spoil the surprise.
The above are poor quality pictures (really, my camera is dieing), but I’m VERY impressed with the quality of the prints from Deviant Art. To be honest, I was expecting slightly dodgy, but the colours are good, it’s crisp, it’s Kodak paper – all in all, a lot better than I was expecting.
So now I’m happy, and am going to go about hanging some of these up near my work space as inspiration. 
November 5, 2009 Comments Off
