The Fundamentals

Am taking up life drawing again; and really excited about it... Such a challenge to draw from a model and be limited by time. Expecting to grow my skills and get a few back which may have waned in recent years. I believe it's the foundation of all good draftsmanship.

Stay tuned for more..!

Batteries to Power - Turbines to Speed

The Dynamic duo - astride the Batmobile. What other car did you want to drive as a boy..? James Bond's Aston Martin DB5..? K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider..?

No way - it was the Batmobile every time.

I love the Batmobile because it feels like an actual character in the comics. And both the Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan films have addressed this notion. I love the idea of the car being like a half racing car/rocket sled - half tank, armored and full of gadgets. Batman's mobile office. Gangsters wouldn't know whether it was a machine or a monster - it arrives, deliver's mayhem and leaves in a cloud of confusion.

I also loved that idea Frank Miller and others have touched on that the Batcave is filled with tons of equipment and machinery, and somewhere there is a whole section dedicated to Batmobiles, every one of them for a different job, and their multiple roles and differing appearances keeping his enemies on their toes.

Hey - a geek can dream, right..?


Not the first time I have posted an image of it on this blog - probably won't be the last either. I had played with the idea of a lot of gadget and weapon ports along the body - barely visible but it kind of distracted from the notion it's a mystery machine to the uninitiated...



Acrylic on canvas.

Wonder Woman

I've been inspired by other illustrators blogs and galleries online and decided to start producing some work of the things that made me want to draw wen I was a kid. I attempted a Wonder Woman painting a few weeks ago, and it has been sitting, staring at me... Often I put work aside and go back to it; in this case I decided to go back to the drawing board and start anew - brand new image from scratch. So the rough I worked up developed into a pretty good digital painting... Now to put it to canvas..!

I really loved DC Comics growing up and still read them occasionally - total nerd. Wonder Woman always fascinated me - especially due to the 70's TV show Starring Lynda Carter. She was so tall and beautiful - I couldn't take my eyes off her. Everything the Amazonian Princess was supposed to be... And of course every little kid - male or female - did the Wonder Woman twirl with the theme music playing in their head in every schoolyard at some stage..!

The Manly Ferry Collaroy

Feeling a little homesick from time to time, which I think is pretty normal. So I thought I'd post a painting I've been working on of the Manly Ferry, the Freshwater Class Collaroy to be precise.

There is something very romantic about Sydney's Ferries, particularly the Manly Ferry for people like me who come from the wonderful suburb which splits the harbour and the ocean. Port Jackson is one of the most beautiful harbours in the world and the daily commute is less of a chore for the folks who make it every day.

I spent a chunk of the 1990's catching the ferry nearly every day and miss the serenity of it... The drumming of the diesels and the bow carving through the water is almost meditative. A good book, your feet up on the rail... Once upon a time a bloke could enjoy a quiet beer on a Friday afternoon as well... I think that's gone the way of the dinosaur thanks to uptight PC'ism and idiot drunks sadly.

And the sight of Manly Cove itself, with it's Norfolk Pines, pleasure boats moored, and the old ferris wheel (and way before that the Fun Pier), and the crowd at the Wharf Bar enjoying the evening as the boat pulls into Manly Wharf...

It's one of the best feelings in the world; it feels like you have come home.


I felt for a long time like I really hadn't finished this painting; like it was unresolved... But now I look at it, probably feeling a little sentimental, and I quite like the messy, gestural nature of much of it. The water, chopped like the wake of another boat, the masts of the Ferry loosely described, the bald canvas around the smokestack... I really like it.

"An intellectual says a simple thing in a complicated way. An artist says a complicated thing in a simple way."
Charles Bukowski

I've always liked Bukowski's writings and I like the sentiment here: you can say a lot with a little brush stroke, and If I was to model the entire boat like a photographic record, it would be kind of boring and static. Sometimes good things happen by accident, and compositions can be ruined by overworking.

For a few weeks there I felt like the sky needed a few clouds in it; but then again, I seldom recall the cloudy days and choose to remember the sunny blue sky days...

And I hope you'll forgive me - as beautiful an area as it is - when I think of my home I tend to look through rose coloured glasses, and imagine the sun is always shining on Manly...

Jewellery Sketches

It seems like all I post is old stuff but I found these old sketches from when I trained as a jeweler and thought they were really nice...

Oldie but a goodie...

Found an old cartoon of some fellers I worked with about ten years ago. I was between degrees and it was an unskilled health care job. Clearly it's a Simpsons style of the blokes I worked with and lacks the impact it would have on people who knew them. I was told by my colleagues it was pretty much spot-on... I believe a couple of them still work there which is astounding to me. Feels like a lifetime ago..!

Ethiopia Stella

Last year my lovely fiend Mandy Shannon passed away from Pancreatic Cancer. She was a beautiful person who loved life and touched so many people with her exuberance, sense of humour and love of other people.

Mandy was a Registered Nurse who for much of her career cared for so many sick people - many terminally ill - and devoted so much of her life to caring for others…

She left behind Tim her husband, and daughters Eva, and Stella (who was in-utero when she became ill), as well as Kiarra Tim’s daughter (& proud big sister). Stella is a miracle and very much the star her namesake suggests.

In January I was asked by some of her friends to produce some paintings to be auctioned and raffled at a benefit night for Tim and the girls. Of course I jumped at the chance to contribute.

Gerberas were Mandy’s favorite flowers & I felt that was what we needed; flowers kind of echo the shape of the sun in a child’s mind and we all know how they respond to the sun - which is our own star – just like Stella is to Tim, Eva, Kiarra and all their family & friends...

So if anyone is available please pop along to the Shining Star Benefit Night at North Sydney Leagues Club in Cammeray - it will be certain to be a wonderful evening for a wonderful cause.

See link below (please cut & paste into your browser)

http://www.norths.com.au/ContentFiles/NorthsLeagues/Documents/SHINING_STAR_2011[1]%20Updated.pdf



BTW Ethiopia means 'Shining' in latin... Interesting...