Hello all. This is a little character I created recently… Just playing. I could easily have done dark hair and different colouring… In fact I might. It would be interesting to see how many permutations can be made of one sketch and how Right they would seem. I suppose I draw white characters first because it is what I know. Next I draw Asian characters because the aesthetic of Asian faces are wonderful. But I need to experiment more.
Drawn in the Residential cafe, nth Carlton.
Yes, it’s that time of year again when you feel strangely compelled to go to the Koko Black website and download the template for the 2012 Koko Black Drawing Prize… and get drawing! They’re calling for submissions now and they won’t be satisfied until they have your wondrous creation before them.
This year, artists are challenged to bring to life the quote “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men”. Artists must base their creativity on the elements already drawn on the A3 template, which can be downloaded at www.kokoblack.com or picked up at a Koko Black salon in Melbourne, Canberra or Perth.
There is over $6,500 in prizes to be won across three categories; a Judges’ Prize, People’s Prize and Junior Prize (for artists 12 years or under). The Judges’ and Junior Prize winner will be determined by our judging panel and the People’s Prize winner, by the voting public.
The top 20 general entries as deemed by the judging panel will be professionally displayed along Melbourne’s Royal Arcade between the 6 and 29 March 2012. During this time, we will be calling for public votes to determine a People’s Prize winner. Votes can be lodged at Koko Black’s Royal Arcade salon and online at www.kokoblack.com
Entries are now open and will close on Monday 27 February 2012 at 5pm EST.
I’m one of the happy judges again so please enter – I can’t wait to see what you all create!
Hello my friends! Well, it’s my birthday today and I decided to give myself a gift… To reinstate the Mondoodle. Not nearly enough drawing happened last year and I missed it too much!
So here is the first of many, to be posted each Monday.
Drawn in the lounge while watching rather average sci-fi 
10pm Monday 23rd January, 2012 in the new year of the dragon.
Market tomorrow.
At the Abbotsford convent.
Inside.
10-4
I suggest an eggs bene for brekky, coffee on the hoof while you browse. Then japenese for lunch under one of the big trees. Mmmmmmmm
It’s a little hard to talk about the year to come although I feel very excited… because things aren’t pinned down yet. One thing that is is a series of covers I’m doing for a fantasy novel trilogy. I’m working on the roughs right now and trying out all sorts of ideas. I love reading a manuscript with a big rubber band around it, long before everyone else. It’s like having a back stage pass, but for books.
What is a little up in the air is three picture books that are on the cards for the next couple of years – or as well as I can fit them in with the boys. Two are books I have written. I found it much easier to write than draw last year – I guess because you can review text while walking around a park. But you can’t draw. Try as you might… it doesn’t work. So – writing. I’m really pleased with them and they have both come from little scenes that I created in the Moleskines, for no reason whatsoever. That is particularly exciting. That means that instead of coming up with an idea for a book and then creating a story etc, I have worked the other way around. Drawn and accidentally come across a character and a scene that I love, then let her tell me her, or their, stories. It may not sound very earthshattering but it’s quite new for me, and the style will be completely what I love to do. No hybrids, no almost-theres. Just lots of pen and my imagination dong loop-the-loops.
And the third is someone else’s story – a lovely one, that I need to think about some more to know if I am the right one for it.
So it’s all exciting but not pinned down. Meetings need to happen with people behind closed doors and numbers will matter a lot. I just want to hear some big YESs so I can say yippee and get working!
But as yet, it feels a little like conjuring and directing fish. In mid air. I hope I get yesses. It’s not natural for them to hover up there for too long. I might lose one!
Look at what’s happening in December!
Saturday 3rd December Night Art Market @ the Kingston Arts Centre, 4-10pm
Sunday 11th December Maker’s Market @ the Abbotsford Convent, 10am-4pm
Friday 16th December Sister’s Market @ the Brunswick town hall, 5-9pm
Saturday 17th December Sister’s Market @ the Brunswick town hall, 10am-4pm
Sunday 18th December Maker’s Market @ the Abbotsford Convent, 10am-4pm
I’ve just bought some of those flickering LED tealights for a little night magic on my evening stalls. I can’t resist them. And I might re-red my hair specially for December. I’m feeling a little overly subtle in the colour department right now.
xx
Saturday night was the gala awards night for the Young Australian Art Awards, and it was wonderful. Forget that these are kids – these are brilliant artists and writers from around Australia who were properly acknowledged for their talent. Which is a big deal for anyone! It was upstairs at the RACV club in the middle of Melbourne… Surrounded by skyscrapers shrouded in clouds. I half expected a zeppelin to coast silently between the buildings.
The kids came with their families from all corners of the country. They received their awards, saw their framed work admired, their printed stories and poems read, and basked in the open admiration of their parents. It was a tremendous night. And I loved meeting the artists whose work I had just judged and admired. Judges Craig Smith, Marjory Gardner and I can’t wait to see what is submitted next year.
Check out the work here and get all the kids you know to enter next year! Well done to the Children’s Charity Network for all of their hard work and the support and encouragement you give to the kids.
YAAA site
Well, yes, it’s Wednesday but you can worry about these things too much! I’ve been thinking about my childhood beach days lately. I just handed in final art on a book called The Big Waves by Raewyn Caisley, which is all about dealing with the fear of being dumped! In waves, of course.
So here’s a little character.
It’s market day tomorrow and I have TWO NEW THINGS. Shiny and new. Spangly even!
First of all, drumroll please, we have a clear favourite in the great print decision.
There were many votes – at coffee shops, at the market, online, from the casting of bones and, yay-verily, a little tea-leaf reading… and so now I have a print for boys.
It came out Beautifully.
And not only but also… a bold foray into the realm of the future.
A Calendar! It is printed on beautiful thick paper that will stand in its clever case on your desk and features paintings and some never-before-seen drawings from my private collection. You will also see that it has the Koko Black rabbit – for those of you who have asked for an image of her! I’m so pleased with how it has turned out and I can’t wait to share it with you all. I’ll pop it into the shop next week. But if you can’t wait – it will be at the market tomorrow ready to find a new home and only $15.
I’m writing at a cafe with red lacquered doors, in the sunshine with my right foot jiggling the pram. It’s beautiful!
