It's Tuesday Today

All day!
Here's a little something I was working on yesterday for a postcard design for myself. I call it "Contemplation in the Desert." I'm loosing gravity lately in my pics, things just seem to be floating around alot!

Syko is embarking on her own interactive project. I've already left my first suggestion, it will be interesting to be on the other side of this and watch someone else's project evolve. I urge anyone that's been thinking about doing it to give it a try!

There's an interview with Georgie Love (whom I sell some stuff through) over at Indie art & design, a blog that features independent aussie artists & designers. It never ceases to amaze me at how the internet is making the art & craft world a small connected community. Such a great tool. What would we do without it?

Interactive Project Finished & the Winner Announced!

The last stage of my interactive project! The interactive project was a little brain child I had going over the last few months. I had my blog readers give me suggestions for the painting at the end of each stage, and I would randomly pick one out of a hat which would tell me what I had to do for the next stage.
I'd like to thank everyone that took part in this project which helped make it a lot of fun and definitely a very interesting adventure! I know many of you have been following the progress faithfully, so I thank you for that too, and all of your lovely comments, suggestions and emails :)

So, here it is, finally. The last stage as suggested by Helen who requested a sun with some rays to warm up the background. So I added in a subtle sun, not sure if it's completely warming, but it's a sun all the same. It reminds me of a winter sun shining through the clouds. I then signed and glossed the painting to finish it all up. Here's a close-up of the tenth stage:


And here, from start to finish is a sequence of all of the stages. Such fun to see them all together, stage by stage (and just fyi, the painting measures approx 15.5 x 12 inches):




















Now, I was too nervous to draw out the winner for the whole project... so I got Jim to do it! All 100 suggestions from each stage were put together to draw out the final winner that was to be the new owner of this artwork.

Drum roll, please... AND THE WINNER IS... DIZZYJADEY!! Congratulations dizzyjadey, I have sent you an email to notify you and request your address :)

Once again a big thank you to all for making this project a success. It was so much fun. If you do want to have a piece of this project to own I'll be offering prints of it with the details to follow very soon. I wish I could clone it and send an original to everyone, I'm feeling bad for the people who I know would have loved to own it!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone. I'm leaving now with a sense of satisfaction of a finished project. I think good food, wine & a trip to the video shop is in order!
xx

Super Quick Update!

I plan on uploading the last stage of the interactive project this Sunday (Australian day time), showing an amalgamation of pictures from start to finish, and announcing the winner! I'm very excited and my painting is looking forward to going to it's new home wherever that may be. Hope you're just as excited as I am!
(It's almost a crime for an illustration blog-post to be picture-less but I'm just going to bite the bullet this time and do it.. eek!)
See you Sunday :)

Burden Print

This new print "Burden" is in tummyache as of now which you can find here. This is a piece I finished recently. The girl pulling the tree along was actually drawn for an illustration job I'm working on and I liked it so much that I decided to utilise it in an artwork. Even though it is a picture with sad connotations, I think it also has a soothing feel to it.

My new set-up in the studio is all in place now. My new large printer is all set-up and sitting happily in the corner. I'll be able to print up to A2 sized prints in the future. For now I will be aiming for some A3 sized numbers. I'm still working on a series of work for prints that I will hopefully have ready next week.

And one more comment for the interactive project! That's all I'm waiting on, so if you think you'd like to be involved and have a chance to win a painting leave your comment here. I just need one more!

Stuff, links & more stuff

Oh goody. It's the weekend. What a busy week! Phew!
My new printing set-up is basically all happening, which I'm really excited about. This past week was spent ironing out glitches (of which there were a few) and packing, packaging, packaging! No time to get any new artwork done, though I do have lots of half finished artworks that I can work on this coming week. I've been working on a series for the shop which will be available soon. I shall let you know!
This week also saw me featured on Design*Sponge which I was absolutely thrilled about. And Cuteable. Can someone please tell me why I have never seen Cuteable before!? It's really fabulous, I can't believe I haven't come across it before in my internet travels. Unreal. And I do spend alot of time doing the old surf.
By the way readers, there is ONE MORE entry for the interactive painting project (see previous post). Next week will be the final stage and I can't wait to draw out the final winner of the whole thing.
Have a great weekend everyone. We're off to visit some family including Jim's sister who is 5 and 1/2 months pregnant. I've been cracking myself up with the words pregatronic'd & pregulated this week. I can't wait to have a little niece or nephew! (In law that is. Kind of. If I was actually married...)
I'll leave you with a silly drawing which helps to represent the kind of stupid mood I'm in right now:


Don't think about it for too long; though if you work I'd the answer, I'd love to know..!

Stage 9 Complete!

Next stage is complete. There is only one more stage to go before the project is finished and someone wins the painting! I'll post the next stage sometime next week, after I receive another ten suggestions for stage 10, the very last stage. If you're new to this and wondering what the heck this is all about, you can satisfy your curiosity here.
Jenn Maruska was a bit indecisive about what she wanted. She couldn't decide if she wanted flying fish, flying fish-bird hybrids, flying fish that turned into birds, or flying fish that turned into elephants! It's ok Jenn, we all have decision making problems sometimes.. just ask Jim. (I have a terrible time making decisions sometimes... ok, alot of the time.)
Anyway, I quite liked the idea of the flying fish turning into birds. So, that is what I did. Do you like them?
It seems this project is wrapping up at just the right time, I'm not sure I could fit too much more into the painting!
Ok, get your thinking caps on again & I'll await your next ten suggestions.

Update

Checking in here to let everyone know that I'm implementing a new printing system for my art prints this week. So any art prints bought from tummyache will be shipped out after I have everything here running smoothly. At this stage I am aiming to have recent orders out by this Friday the 20th of July. I'm going to do my very best to make sure this happens, and I shall keep everyone updated for whoever would like to be in the know. I'm very excited, as this also means that I will be able to do large prints, which I keep receiving requests for, so that is good news.

I am currently working on a new series of artworks that I'm saving the release of until my new system is in place. All I'm saying at this stage is that the theme includes trees in a way. (ooh, who would've guessed!?) I'm really having fun working on them and can't wait to put them all into my my shop when the time comes.

I'll leave you with a sketch from my moleskine I did last weekend. I usually do a bit of drawing/ sketching on the weekends. I tried my hand at some larger sketches on paper yesterday but what I have done so far I'm not entirely happy with. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of extra work, sometimes it takes a brush loaded with one colour of paint to hide the whole thing. We'll see.

Stage 8 Complete

Promise kept! A new update within the week.
I plan on doing the last two stages for this project in the next two weeks. One stage per week. If you are unfamiliar with this project you can read up on it here.
I must admit that when I picked out Janealt's suggestion for a tidal wave I was a bit stumped as to how to include it in. I thought that a tidal wave would bring doom and gloom to an otherwise magical looking painting (which is how it is seeming to evolve), so there was another challenge. So in solution to this suggestion I have made the most non-imposing magical looking tidal wave I could muster.. complete with turquoise blue water reminiscent of an island holiday with glorious sparkles. You just know that this wave wouldn't want to hurt a fly, and would possibly sweep through leaving sparkles on everything. Right? Well, you can make up your own story if you wish, but I'm sticking with that one!
It could also be a mythological wave. Just throwing some suggestions out there. Art is best interpreted by the beholder.
So, two more stages left, and now I need another ten suggestions for the next stage. Best put your thinking caps on!

Sunday Doodle

Here's a Sunday doodle for you (even though it's Monday today). It's done in my beloved sketchbook using biro, textas and coloured pencils.
I've got another busy week coming up ahead, new bag designs are in the making, I've got regular illustration business to attend to, an appointment with the accountant (eek, not my favourite thing in the world to do- Jim's coming along to be my left-brainer.. you know the logical side of the brain? I don't use it), plus I've promised my brother I'd have a painting finished for him by Friday, oh God I know there's more but don't want to think about it all!
Anyway, I'm off to give some stock to Incub8r today which is a new gallery opening soon in Smith Street Fitzroy.
So, I best be off to start my busy week. And I promise you I'll have a new update for the interactive project this week.

Calling All Cat Lovers!

It isn't fair to the cat lovers out there that I tend to focus on dogs now, is it? So this is one for the cat people out there. You can find them sold separately in the shop. I've got new things in mind for future bag and purses so this may very well be the last bag design that features hand embroidery.
Well, as usual I've got a tonne of things to do so I better pull my finger out and get back to it all.. happy Thursday everyone :)

Is it productive..

..to spend my morning hours making a new myspace page when I have so much other work to do? Since myspace deleted my account with no warning or explanation (I only got sent a very vague and generic email) I ummed and ahhed over boycotting them (ha! What would that do!?) and then just gave in and made a new page.
So, wanna make friends... again?

Dog Nicknames & Print News!

We love our dogs. Jimbo is always coming up with new nicknames for them, and the one that has been cracking me up lately is the new one for Leela (the brown one). We call her Pee-pee alot but now that has evolved into Pee-pee deluxe which really is quite silly and I've been laughing about that one for weeks. Bender's nicknames include B-boy, Bendy, Bendy-mo, Skat man, Bopper, B-bopper, Black dog and the latest for him is Selley's. This is after a well-known hardware store product called Selley's no more gaps. That's him.. he's known to squeeze into available cracks between me and Jim. I love the new nicknames. In fact I love nicknames full stop. We could never have guessed we'd own a dog that we call Pee-pee deluxe.. these names just evolve naturally out of stupidity and by accident.
Such fun.

And print news!! I am super excited as I'm investing in a fantastic new printer that will take my prints to new levels.. and SIZE! I will soon be able to print up to A2 prints! I can't wait to get this fabulous machine- I'm so excited I dreamt about it last night. Nothing will stop me now. I've got some new artworks in the making that will be saved for the arrival of my new professional print-making machine, which will of course be all be available in the shop when the time comes.
Just had to share the news. Onwards and upwards!