Livin' The Dream

Ecstatic and excited to announce I have been signed to Illustration Ltd. They now represent me and my illustrations worldwide (excluding Australia). This is an incredible achievement for me because I've tried a few times over the years to get signed to them and it's now become a reality. It's really special because I'm self taught so it means a lot that people really believe in my work. They have been established since 1929 and only sign 4 in 1000 portfolios they see. Their client rosta includes all the brands I'd love to have the opportunity to work with so maybe that will become a reality one day. I have about 85 illustrations in my portfolio so please go check it out here. This is just a fraction of my work! 

DRAWN TO LOVE: a short film

Here's my first short film of me drawing a love heart overlooking the sea at sunrise. If you follow me on Instagram (@deciphertheday) or Facebook you'll know that I've been getting up quite early on the weekends to go watch the sunrise all around Sydney. There's something quite invigorating about getting up in the dark and watching Mother Nature. I hope you all enjoy this short film, Darren helped me film & edit it and also wrote a song to go with it (extremely talented husband!). This gives you a little insight into how I draw and make those lines. I'm planning on making quite a few more videos to document my work as people often ask me about my inspirations & process. Make sure you watch it in HD! Enjoy x

sunrise over Maroubra

 

INKED: Sara Donaldson - Harper & Harley Blogger

I've been reading Sara Donaldson's Harper & Harley blog for a few years now and enjoying her chic stylish outfit posts & flawless beauty.

I found Sara via fellow FELLT blogger Nicole Warne (Gary Pepper Vintage - who I illustrated for). It turns out my old workmate is friends with Sara - what a small world indeed. I discovered this when I was telling him about Nicole reaching the finalists for the Cosmopolitan Fun Fearless Female Awards as did Sara's blog Harper & Harley.  I was inspired to draw Sara after seeing her latest beauty editorials - what artist can resist such a striking profile?!

The inspiration for my illustration. Photo by Harper & Harley

Tell me about yourself Originally from Brisbane I moved to Sydney a few years ago to crack into the fashion/e-commerce industry. Currently I'm a Marketing and Sales Coordinator for MANIAMANIA, an amazing designer jewellery label, however along with this for the past 4 plus years I've had my own personal fashion blog on the side, Harper and Harley, which I've used as my creative outlet. It's been such a wonderful way for me to express myself and also enable me to work with and support Australian brands that I love.

You're part of the blogging powerhouse that is FELLT - does it help to be part of a blogging network? For me the best part of being part of a network is that I have someone that can take care of a huge chunk of the business aspect for me. I'm already swamped Monday to Friday with my full time job, so its nice to have some of the pressure taken off, especially now that my blog has become almost a full time job on its own.

Radiant! Photo by Harper & Harley

You're reducing your wardrobe to black, white & grey, which is similar to my approach of illustrating (black & a splash of red), so what draws you to these 3 colours? (Chrissy: I myself never wear white, I love the clean crisp colour but can always hear my mum saying WHITE GET DIRTY! haha) I'm not too sure when it all happened, but colour in clothing has recently made me really anxious and I just can't do it. There are only a few exceptions to the rule, like khaki, denim, navy and camel, but to me they're also quite neutral as well. I love classic pieces that are in your wardrobe forever, and lets be honest, that pink leopard number isn't going to make the distance!

Photos by Harper & Harley

Your photos have a great narrative and tell a story - how do you plan a shoot? I try to make my outfit shots as realistic as possible, so pieces you would actually wear and want to add and work in easily with the rest of your wardrobe. As long as I feel comfortable in an outfit then it conveys well on the blog, so that must be the reason i'm able to translate that to my readers.

The blogging phenomenon has really rocketed in the last 4 years with Australians dominating fashion blogging, how do you see this evolving in the future? It's honestly blown me away, firstly how long the phenomenon has lasted, and secondly the opportunities that have arisen from this one time hobby. I've always been upfront with myself that it's not going to last, but I hope it keeps going for a few more years until we have completely saturated the market. But in saying that in fashion there are a few avenues for people to go to for inspiration and to find information on the latest trends and must have pieces, magazines, runways, in stores, on the street and blogs. So perhaps it will stay and be one of these places for people to reference for many years to come.

A huge thank you to Sara for being a mega babe and saying yes to being INKED!

INKED: Tawa Hayes - Skateboarder tells his story

 

Welcome to my new art project INKED: an ongoing series of illustrations based on people that have instantly inspired me. To kick start I'd like to introduce you to Tawa Hayes - he's an awesome pro skateboarder sponsored by Zoo York. I came across his Instagram feed @Tawahayes saw the photo below & the rest is history.

Tell me about yourself. I come from a small town in the lower north island of New Zealand called Martinborough. This is where I grew up as a young child - surrounded by my eight brothers and two sisters, and many other neighbourhood kids. When I was ten years old I made friends with the new kid at school 'Fraser'. He and his younger brother Robbie both had skateboards, so we used to hang out alot at the park in Martinborough where there was a mini ramp. Fraser and I were very competitive in our nature so before long we had grown a strong passion for skateboarding. That was around fourteen years ago now. Soon enough there was a group of us at school all with our own boards about six or seven deep. That was almost one tenth of our whole shcool of a hundred kids. By this time - age ten or eleven I went to school and lived in the countryside not far from Martinborough. My friends and I were pretty outgoing - making dirt jumps for our bikes, rabbit hunting, eeling from the ponds at night and occasionally going pig hunting with my friends and their countrymen fathers. All the way through though I always stuck very close by my old rattly skateboard. When I was 15 or 16 my father found me responsible enough to let me hitchhike to town on the weekends to go skateboarding with my friends in Masterton, a place with more things to skate than just the primary school with a netball court down the road from my house that was surrounded by extensive grasslands and rolling hills. Later when I left high school I moved to the city of Wellington to study.It was there where I grew a very strong love for skateboarding and my skateboard really became a part of me.

Photo Via Afends

What were the first designs you had on your board and what is it now? Is it important to

have a board that reflects who you are? The first board I had was given to me by my neighbour called Richie, whose board I think may have been his older brother Aaron's before that. It was an old hook ups board. Hook ups are well known for their anime/hentai graphics of big booty Japenese girls. Haha and all over the griptape in twink pen (white out) were all kinds of words teenage boys in the 90's would love. The ones I can remember were "Korn, Slayer, Pantera, FUCK, Nirvana and Porn"

I had that skateboard until it was dead. Boards were hard to come by back then being a kid with only spare change enough to buy a few five cent lollies once in a blue moon that I'd always have to share with my older brothers if they hadn't found a way to take the money from me already in the first place, hahaha. A board that reflects who I am though - thankfully now I am sponsored so boards are given to me from Zoo York. I don't always get to choose exactly the boards I get, the important thing now is that I have a board that is in one piece.I have for a long time liked Zoo York boards so I do appreciate alot being able to ride the boards.But if I have a board that has a graphic I really like, I will become attached to it and try look after it as much as I can so that it will last longer.

Afends Melbourne welcomes Tawa Hayes from Steve Murphy on Vimeo.

Can you summarise skateboarding for a person like me who thinks it looks awesome but doesn't have a clue? A summary of skateboarding alone - one skateboarder to another would probably always be explained very differently. For me personally though, skateboarding in a nutshell - I would say. It is moving through a space, gracefully, articulately, like dance and like music. That is where I appreciate skateboarding most for myself, moving fast and turning fast. Like race car drivers we share that same feeling. Like musicians we try to perfect each movement. It never becomes old and boring, there is always so much more to learn. We are always trying to get better. We judge better by how dangerous or difficult each manouvre may be. That is only one aspect of skateboarding. There is another side too. The culture behind skateboarding is very social. Almost every single skateboarder will only go skateboarding with other skateboarders. A youthful lifestyle or many public viewers generally speaking, would say alot of the time 'immature' in the way many would act. Where skateboarders would say best of times, day in day out we will always cherish brotherhood.

Photo via Afends

Is it ever too late to learn how to skateboard? Never too late - if you harbour qualities of patience and persistence. Without these traits no skateboarder would have got very far at all. To become skillful at a level where you can do tricks and things can take a couple of years for most people. To just get around on a skateboard though I believe most people could learn to do that with

a good amount of practice.

What's the worst injury you've had? The worst injury.. There has been many but probably the worst would have been when I ripped at the same time the ligaments in my ankle and my tibialis anterior muscle which is the muscle on the outerside of your tibia. It took a long time for that to heal properly. Luckily though I have never broken a bone.

I read you were a regional skate champ! So what are your achievements to date and what plans/ambitions do you have for the future? I used to go in a few skate competitions when I was younger. Nowadays I've been putting alot of time into being filmed for various different video clips for companies that held me out with sponsorship and also going out with photographers too. So that has been really great, I really enjoy it. My ambitions with skateboarding at the moment are quite free. I just like to enjoy skateboarding for what it is as much as I can each day.

What happened in this photo that inspired your portrait? On this day if I can remember correctly, it was a really hot day and I was skating with my friend Coleman I'd fallen and was laying down on the ground to rest. I asked Coleman to take a picture of me with the blood from my arm in it and to make the picture more interesting I thought I had better put my mouth to it.
I want thank every good soul that has helped me along the road. It has been a pleasure sharing these words so thank you for reading. Peace and Love

Chrissy: You've got to admire someone who follows their dreams and loves what they do. Thank You Tawa for inspiring me!

My Illustration for the Year of the Snake Coin - Royal Australian Mint

My snake design immortalised into a limited edition Royal Australian Mint coin

Happy New Year! 2012 was a blinding year for me creatively working with lots of amazing clients. I'd have to say designing a coin for the Royal Australian Mint was the highlight of the year. This is a prestige limited edition coin to commemorate the Year of the Water Snake 2013. If you look closely you'll see my initials CL! I've always believed that if you work hard, good things will come your way and this was an opportunity I never thought I'd achieve. This is a really special project close to my heart as it represents my Chinese heritage and it was important to be able to create an artwork that represented Chinese mythology and history. This is dedicated to my parents.

They're available in both gold and silver, ranging from $82 to $79,000! To view the catalogue click here (page 23) You can order your coin through the Royal Australian Mint

Tel: 1300 652 020 8.30 am to 5.00 pm Mon – Fri AEST
International Tel: +61 2 6202 6800

Lanolips Finalist - Need Your Vote Please!

I'm a finalist in the Lanolips Art Competition to design a limited edition beauty tin cover.

Please Vote For Me Here!

Shortlisted - Desktop Magazine CREATE Awards

Hello! It feels like an age since I last blogged, but this news was too good to pass up. I've just found out that my Mambo illustrations have been shortlisted for the Desktop Magazine's Illustration Award. 
Yay! :-)

Happy Australia Day!

Happy 'Stralia Day!

Even though it's quite drizzly in Sydney, I'm sure everyone is still hosting a BBQ and downing ice cold beers whilst listening to Triple J's Top 100. My illustration above is inspired by Australia and all the animals & fauna that exists here. She's holding a snowglobe with the Sydney Opera House inside - one of my favourite landmarks in the world, it still takes my breath away every time I see it.

Sydney Opera House taken by me!

 I just wanted to give you all an update on the dragon I illustrated for the City of Sydney's Chinese New Year celebrations. I've seen it everywhere, I nearly fell of my chair when I saw it on SBS as a TV ad....

 

There are also event programs that detail all the special CNY Sydney events that will be going on until the 5th Feb. If you live in Sydney you can pick one up from the stands that look like this one outside Townhall...

  

Here's the program front cover:

 

 A nice little paragraph about me:

 

Pretty flowers and street furniture:

 My dragon on street furniture - a map of the events:

Year of the Dragon - Sydney

Townhall, George Street

Hello! Well here is my first outdoor illustration project. I was commissioned by the City of Sydney to design the dragon for the flags & street posters to celebrate Chinese New Year. There are 2 different designs on the flags, one with the full length of the dragon and one smaller horizontal dragon. Both designs come in opposite colours - red dragon yellow background and vice versa. I got a surprise when we popped into the city as I wasn't sure when the project would be launched.

Kings Cross

I'm extremely happy with the finished project - the quality of the posters and flags are mind blowing! It was so exciting to see them all around the city from Central, Townhall, Kings Cross, Haymarket and even on Erskineville Road (between Erskineville & Newtown). One of my favourites is seeing my flags around the iconic Coca-Cola sign in Kings Cross, I think I'll have to go back at night to take a shot when the sign is illuminated. All in all I'm very proud to add this one to my portfolio!

William Street, Kings Cross - looking towards Sydney City

William Street, Kings Cross

Entertainment Centre/China Town, Haymarket

China Town

China Town

Dixon Street, China Town

George Street

QVB & Galleries Victoria, George St, Townhall

Outside QVB, Townhall

It was so hard to pick which photos to post, there's plenty more on my Facebook Page here.

It's All In The Stars - Women's Weekly Horoscopes Illustrations

Hello! So you're probably wondering why I'm posting a nude lady from the Jan edition of Women's Weekly, well there's good reason as it contains my horoscope illustrations. The brief was to create a set of horoscopes that weren't predominantly female orientated as the article also predicts the horoscopes for men. There's a lot of detail and pattern work in the illustrations so it was a rather large project that took me a good few weeks to finish. Here's a few photos from the mag:

Easy Like Sunday Morning

 

Hello! As promised here are the illustrations that featured in Sunday Magazine's horoscope section a few weeks ago. The final editorial shows my illustrations in a light contrast, so a little different from the original black and white drawings. Enjoy!