Leopards & Bunny Rabbits

How gorgeous is this young chap above? He's a delicate whimsical dreamy rabbit who was painted by the very talented artist Ben Zen. The best thing is he now belongs to me after we did an art swap.

It's pouring it down in Sydney- which I don't mind, I was rather worried about the tsunami warning when I woke up this morning. As 8.45am passed - a huge wave did not hit the east coast of Australia.

Here are some more GPV Illustrated drawings I have been working on - a bit of feather and a bit of leopard print. If my lines look slightly different it's because I am getting used to some new mini fountain pens I bought. I am slightly alarmed I can't find any cheap fountain pen ink cartridges anywhere. In England I used to buy 50 for $2 in the pound shops. But for some reason I have searched high and low and can only find them in specialist art shops at 5 for $5 or some other ridiculous price.

I have tried K-mart, newsagencies, Smiggle to name a few....but they just can't tell me where I can buy them. I refuse to buy from the UK or USA because it just seems really silly to have to buy from overseas.....so if anyone knows where I can get ink cartridges for my fountain pens at a reasonable price I would be very grateful.

Anyways best sign off- I'm going out to see Darren's band play tonight! :-)

Lady Bird & Gary Pepper Vintage

Lady Bird is an illustration that forms part of the This Little Piggy exhibition I was in. Below are some illustrations as part of an ongoing collaboration with Gary Pepper Vintage. I have really enjoyed drawing fashion related illustrations and GPV always has hundreds of inspiring photos.

Panda Head above is an ink, pen & pencil illustration - I love the panda head wear! Below is a portrait of GPV founder Nicole Warne. It's a rather flamboyant line drawing, inspired by Lady Gaga.

In other news I will have an illustration in Women's Weekly soon...more details to follow soon. I'm off to eat some home-made mini pancakes topped with maple syrup, washed down with a warm cup of Madura Tea xx

Eyes are burning!

Eyes are burning (above) is an illustration which was part of the This Little Piggy exhibition. In the next few days I will be posting images from the exhibition, if you would like to buy any of the pieces just drop us a note and I will see what I can do! They will be available to buy online shortly as Rebecca Murphy (organiser) is currently uploading the shop.

Above: Holding On

I'm just getting back into the swing of drawing again after starting the new job. It's pretty sweet working for a big successful company, they have a super coffee machine, endless variety of Twining Teas, the occasional free lunch and a day trip to Melbourne soon to meet my fellow team members.....so far so good.

It's Friday tomorrow- yey! I think I might get a haircut on the weekend, I need to buy a good strapless bra for my wedding dress - I hate bra shopping! and we will also be meeting the celebrant for our wedding to discuss vows etc.....I was thinking about writing my own but what do I write?!

Magazine Illustrations for Annalemma Mag

How is your mid-week going? I am day five into my new job which I am enjoying - I am learning lots about advertising. These illustrations you see are for Annalemma magazine, they will be in their paper and online editions shortly. They are hand drawn and finished off with slight photoshop tweaking with background glowing colours. It is a story based about a baby who cries all the time and the one thing that stops him from crying is a rather soothing flower in his back garden that may/may not have mystical powers!

Last friday I attended the opening night of This Little Piggy exhibition. It was really great to meet up with the fellow artists and also Rebecca Murphy who organised the whole shebang. I really enjoyed myself and saw some really great work. If you missed the show you can see it online at the above link and the works will be available to buy. I will be doing a full showing of my art works in the next few days.

Nothing like a good tune and black & white colour schemed video:

Cry Baby

I'm currently working on some illustrations for a magazine and this is one of them. It's a story about a baby who cries at the littlest of things. Below is the first ever pom pom I have made from tissue paper. It's part of a few hand made things I will be having at my wedding.

The Big Team Scribble by The Scribble Project - Hop Aboard!

This is my decorated train carriage for The Scribble Project.

Oppy who is the talented creator of The Scribble Project said this is HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

1. CLICK HERE to print the scribble train template (then right click, save as)

2. DECORATE and fill your train carriage however you like! remember this will be a colouring zine, so only use black and white please!

3. EMAIL your submission to hello.oppy@gmail.com in TIFF format at 300 dpi resolution! let me know your name/alias and website link for the zine credits!

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE 16th FEB 2010

Your carriages will then be made into a super long scribble train, to be printed as a fun colouring zine! The zine will be available for purchase from our website at the start of march! Every scribbler featured in the print zine will be posted a free copy! AND... all profits from zine sales will be donated to UNICEF!

If the zine gets too big and Oppy can only fit in a selection of carriages... an online scribble train will be made too!

An old fave classic by Architecture in Helsinki!

♥ This Little Piggy Exhibition & Design Federation 12/02/10

Oink Oink! I'm super excited to be taking part in this group show called This Little Piggy jam-packed with established and emerging artists. My faves include Rebecca Murphy who merges sweet & gory, Renee Anne who has a varied beautiful style of artwork from pencil to digital and also Caitlin Shearer who paints some gorgeous elegant ladies. Each artist has been given their own cute porcelain pig and the artistic reigns have been let loose for them to decorate, embellish, demolish as they wish. The exhibition is proudly sponsored by Frankie Magazine & Leeloo! Yey.

So here is a sneak peek of my art works.....lots of signature black, lines & patterns and a bit of gold & silver blingin' spangle. They are all original, one-offs and signed.

Opening night is 6pm Friday 12/02/2010 at China Heights Gallery, Level 3, 16-18 Foster Street, Surry Hills, the show closes on Valentine's Day so get it marked in your diary and I will see you there. Feel free to copy and paste any part of this in your blogs/websites/facebooks/twitters so all your friends can come!

And one more thing.... if that isn't enough to wet your whistle you can also attend the Design Federation Party on Friday 12/02/2010 where I will be exhibiting a tiger face. Click on the flyer for all the details:

"Celebrating three years of dedication to the Australian design community, Design Federation is hosting its inaugural event on Friday the 12th of February. In honour of the website’s dedicated readership and supporters from the local and web community, the Design Federation founders, Klaus and Craig, chose the theme of this Chinese New Year – the year of the Tiger – to capture the spirit of creativity, courage and tenacity.

Extending an open invitation to the followers of the site to contribute their artistic creations to an exhibition showing throughout the night, utilising the unique venue space of theclub nightclub in Sydney’s Kings Cross, in what the organisers have dubbed Friends of the Federation.

Calling out to readers for submissions of their designs, illustrations, art, graffiti, film & video, fashion, photography, industrial design, custom toys, animation or any other artistic contribution, the Design Federation have been overwhelmed in recent weeks by the tremendous outpouring of talent and generosity, making for a fascinating collection on show for one night only.

With Tiger Beer and Bogong Valley Estate Winery sponsoring drinks, be sure to arrive early so you don’t miss out. If the old worldly charm of the venue and the quirky crowd aren’t enough to peak your curiosity, Julie Doyle, pop art portrait artist and newest contributor to Paris Hilton’s personal art collection will be in attendance from 7:30pm painting personal one minute portraits of guests.

Prizes and giveaways will feature throughout the night, with Design Federation’s corporate supporters Sweat-Shop Productions and iStockPhoto digging deep to make the event a fantastic occasion for all involved."

Thanks for reading this super long post ♥ decipher the day

♥ Decipher the Day has an agent!

If I had a list of things to do before I die/hit 30 one would be to find an illustration agent to represent my work. It has been an on-off ambition of mine for years to find an agent.

Yesterday I signed up with Illustration Room and will now be exclusively represented by them in Australia and non-exclusively worldwide. I'm really excited about this and it is a big achievement for me because drawing has been a life-long passion and I am completely self taught. As a kid I used to watch Rolf Harris and Tony Hart draw a lot.

This coming year I hope to illustrate for more editorials and see my work pop up in every day surroundings such as newspapers, websites, magazines and fabrics. The above portrait is part of an on going illustration collaboration with Gary Pepper Vintage.