Mondoodle 23-11-09

This one is a work-in-progress. I’ll keep updating it as I go. It’s in my current Moleskine sketchbook, started today.

rabbit cafe part 1

Lounge, 8pm, Monday 23 November 2009

I’m not getting to cafes enough to draw so this is wish-fulfillment!

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In the shadows of the night

tiger (almost completed)

You may have seen me working on this one at recent markets. Well, in the last week I’ve moved it and the cafe rabbit down to the living room to finish them off (too hot upstairs!) and here he is. I’m still making slight adjustments to the chair and background tones… but otherwise he’s about done. I’m really happy with the colours and his presence in the picture.

Happily he’s going to make his card debut soon too. We’re making a few of my recent paintings into cards which should be around in the next month I hope. I can’t wait to see how they turn out. With this picture, although I did try out different designs that placed him in a fully developed scene (like a library or study), in the end I really wanted this to be a portrait, where he is the only focus and all other details (especially colours) are designed to help show him off to best effect. I’ve created a spotlighting effect too by darkening the edges to further concentrate our focus.

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No short course in 2010

I have decided not to run the RMIT short course in 2010 as I expect to have other teaching commitments not to mention a whopping book to do (the epic). However, I may not be able to resist running some course or other – this year I ran a drawing workshop for kids, an illustration workshop for adult writers, a few information sessions for writers and would-be illustrators, and of course the 6 week Writing for Children course.

So I’ll be sure to post if there’s something fun coming up.

And if there is something you would particularly like to take part in, please let me know.

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A Mondoodle story – by Suzanne Willis

Hello all. I just had to share this story with you, written by the very talented Suzanne J. Willis who I had the pleasure to meet a couple of years ago at RMIT. I opened my email this monday and there it was, written after she came across the Mondoodle image I posted last week. I was just blown away. I absolutely love this kind of story – where worlds are opened before us, but spied through the crack of a door – so much hinted at, so much more to be imagined. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Resplendis
By Suzanne J. Willis

He slipped, shadowy, through the cobbled streets, the world around him a dull grey. One end of the string was tied about his wrist; the other around the abdomen of an enormous dragonfly. Its wings beat with a soft buzz – not the mechanical sound of the clockwork insects that filled the city, messengers and spies for the wealthy. His dragonfly was real.

Mondoodle 9-11-09He hastened. The dragonfly’s wings refracted the light, the colours vivid in the gloom. The clockworks, with their cogs and brass, could never replicate this. He had to get it back to her before anyone noticed. An old man with downturned mouth and too-smooth skin passed him, trailing a clockwork on copper wire and giving him a strange look as the dragonfly failed to whirr and click the greeting clockworks gave one another.

He thought of her again. She would be sleeping as the pale light crept across their apartment. She refused to ever shut the blinds. She had never said anything about the clockworks, either. But he saw something in her when she looked at them, that went unnoticed by everyone else. It was longing and sorrow and pity. He knew she tried to hide it.

Stars had pinned the darkness through the window last night. Silently he crept out and rode his rusting bicycle out of the city to the borderlands that were forbidden to ordinary men like him. There, the grey of the cobbles and slate gave way to the golden she-oaks that were home to the giant dragonflies.

Furtively, he took half a fat pomegranate from his pocket, scattering its seeds across the ground like ruby-hued rain. With a soft, plucking noise, the dragonfly crept down the trunk and began to munch softly on each seed. When it reached him, it gnawed at the fleshy pulp of the fruit as he gently tied the string around it.
Now, as dawn began to bleach the sky, it followed him through the city streets and lanes, the scent of the second half of the fruit luring it.

He leaned the bike against the wall and crept through the gate and up the stairs. As he entered the apartment she stirred, sat up, white sheets tangled around her body. He untied the string and watched as the dragonfly settled at her feet.

She smiled at her lover: the one who understood every part of her and would risk the borderlands for her happiness. Then she stretched and flared her own delicate wings, emerald and cobalt against the ruby light of the rising sun.

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Too hot for the studio

So I’ve relocated downstairs to paint. One day I’ll have a nice air conditioner or at least well-paid polar bears waving ice cubes, but until then, there are some days you just don’t want to be up here. Tin roof and me caught between the sun and the hot air rising…

There were people up here on the weekend, in fact quite a few people – for on Saturday I had my first ever Open Studio for the neighbours. It was a great dry-run for my exhibition next year. Sorting through my traditional hallwaypaintings, swapping frames, hanging, working out prices… Don’t worry, my animal series wasn’t for sale – all of those bears and rabbits, dogs and cats, lions in smoking jackets and their friends are still safely prowling the studio awaiting their own opening.

the middle gardenOther than that – the Maker’s Market on Sunday was lovely and I’m really enjoying our new digs. The light and space is great. The Convent is gorgeous right now – the gardens are still green, the new gallery and shop are open (fantastic renovation of our old room) and there’s a cute new little Japanese restaurant that’s opened up between the Bakery bar and Lentils. Mmm.

So today… John Lee Hooker, some sweet jazz to follow, and three canvasses on the go (the tiger, the rabbit and the dog cafe scene). It’s one of the days when my work just doesn’t sound like work. You know? About time!

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Mondoodle 16-11-09

Does it count if you can see the drawing completed in under the ten minutes? Possibly.

I felt like doing something quite different today. My first jobs in illustration were doing fantasy work for some role-playing manuals. I did a lot of dragons and creatures back then, for fun as well as for work. And there was quite some zombie phase too. Ah zombies… I still get to draw them at schools from time to time. It’s funny how there are some things that I can write or draw that are in many ways not to my taste at all – I can draw zombies with relish (confusing expression in this context) but I find it hard to watch zombie movies (like that new series on SBS – eek). It’s rather akin to being able to drag my fingernails down a blackboard to watch people squirm, but not being able to take the sound myself if someone else does it! But you see, it’s so much fun drawing to get a reaction.

Don’t worry – no blood and gore here, just a creature of the night… of some kind or another. (You can turn off the notes from the bottom right triangle.)

Drawn on the tablet in my (sparkly clean) studio, at 3 pm

Monday16 November 2009 .

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Mondoodle 9-11-09

Here’s today’s picture. I don’t think this is Melbourne…

Mondoodle 9-11-09

Drawn in pen and black pencil, 20 mins, lounge at 9:15pm

November 9, 2009.

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Quick-draw – crusty pirate

Here’s another Quick-draw. Oh I do enjoy these and I’m starting to get used to drawing without watching the page. I’ll upgrade it to HD when I work out how – the option didn’t seem to present itself this time. Do click the HQ button though for a better view. And you can turn off the music easily – look for the speaker icon on the bottom right.

In other news, we had a fun market in the Brunswick Town Hall on Saturday – the Teeny Tiny Sisters Market. I met a lot of lovely people… signed lots of books and sent prints to good homes. For those of you watching me struggle with the rabbit – we’re on the home straight now. I hope to finish her off this week. I have an idea…
We’re back in normal market-mode again from here till Christmas. Check out the dates on the right – there’re some extra ones appearing just before Christmas.

It’s HOT today.

Maybe I’ll get out of the house soon and give myself a chance to do the Mondoodle in cafe comfort. For it IS Mondoodle-day.

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Mondoodle 2-11-09

My cat, with some elaborations… Drawn in pen with watercolour, roughly 10 mins.

red coat cat

Lounge room, grumpy cat on my foot, 7.30pm

2nd November 2009

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Galleries

I went in to the city on Friday to check out a show. Now, some of you will think that this would be a regular thing for an artist to do. Like film students go to cinemas and writers read books. Unfortunately not. I’m basically a tethered hermit-artist (more crab than monk – I’ll take spiral shell over hessian any day). I have a small radius of movement that extends to the gym in the east, my fav bit of Sydney Rd to the north, the bookshops on Lygon St to the south and am otherwise to be found skulking around Rathdowne St if I make it out of the house at all. Thank goodness for markets so I get socialised and don’t turn into a mumbling paint-bedaubed oddity. With a twitch. (Give it time.)

So, I have to confess that I don’t get out to many shows, don’t know the cool artists and am not, you know, in the scene. Sad but true. It’s something I feel a little guilty about actually (like I’m really a whopping fake). So, if you ever see me nodding sagely at the mention of some uber-current artist – I’m probably lying. However, this artist, the ever so talented Judy Drew, is someone I know of and I’m so pleased I went. Her new show opened the other night in a beautiful gallery on Bourke st called The Melbourne FineArt Gallery. Her work is stunning. I know a lot of people in the traditional art scene. I was one myself as I grew up. It’s a hard gig. Generally, because it is a representational art form, you can’t get away with much – good observation, sound draftsmanship and an informed handling of light and colour is a must because everyone can see when you’re getting it wrong. And beyond that you need to find something that makes you stand out from the crowd. What’s your focus? Are you driven by light or certain subjects? Even harder, it just isn’t very popular any more. Back in the day, everyone was buying. Posters and prints weren’t to be found of great quality, trad was in, small still-lifes and studies were cool and people went to the big rotary shows and bought little pieces for their homes and businesses. Now, why have an original when you can have beautiful copies of your favourite artworks of all time and they cost a fraction of the price. Certainly we’d like originals but too often we can’t afford them or can’t justify them. These are sweeping statements of course and there are lots of people who still buy, but for the majority of people their focus has shifted away from art like this.

Portrait with Patterned Background

Judy Drew - Portrait with Patterned Background


So to be a traditional artist these days is hard. Judy’s work is traditional – it is representational in that the real world is recognisable in her work, she has a strong understanding of proportion, tone, colour, light… She uses real models, real situations and then she introduces an element of strong Art Deco design that gives it a whole new aspect to work off. Where her pastel figures have beautiful soft faces she will often have strong geometric patterns near them (remember how well that worked for Klimt). It’s a delicate and successful balancing act. Think of how often we don’t see something until we experience its opposite in a small way. Like the most brilliant fiery autumn leaves stand out most when there is still a hint of green, or how you can best see the movement of the ocean when you can see a still horizon line, and a sharp spice is best detected amongst soft flavours.

If you have a chance I recommend you check out her work. She uses pastel on black paper usually. Her work is beautiful, textured and with colour that sings. And she has undertones of another era that, as you can imagine, I absolutely love. It’s invigorating to see a traditional artist who is being true to herself and her passions and creating such beautiful work. I hope it sells out.

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