Portland Colour Study

I loved Portland. I have never seen a prettier Autumn and the colours were too much fun to paint!

I love painting with gouache

I have taken the advice I received in CTN and I am creating more colour references, and getting off the computer is an amazing thing! After completing some paintings at the beach earlier this year, it made a huge impact on how I treat colour and atmosphere, the only thing is I can not do this every weekend. One solution, I could quit my job and become a beach bum, But instead i came back to reality &  I can complete one of these gouache studies per night.
I hope to stretch some canvas's soon and get the oils out, all in good time.

CTN 2012

Its a bit delayed, but here is my CTN summary! It was awesome! Done, I kid, I kid.

This year felt like I received so much advice that gave my art a new direction, and notably closer to my goals. The 14 hour flight, I wont lie, was a bit rough. A quick nap some shopping and over to Burbank. I met some other CTN goers in the lobby and scored a ride over to DreamWorks for a sneak peak at Rise of the Guardians. I don't understand why this movie wasn't a great success for DreamWorks, because I was blown away. The visual effects of the sand was out of this world! The fights in the sky were action-packed. I would of loved to pause the movie and thumb-nailed the compositions. The Easter bunny voiced by Hugh Jackman, dropping little Australian sayings and I was the  single Aussie in the audience laughing at them. A great inspirational beginning to my LA weekend away.

Friday I caught up on the jetlag before catching up with my fellow Oatley Academy students at Chris Oatley's booth. It was great to follow each others progress throughout the year, and so exciting to meet in person! Went to Brenda Chapman's opening talk for the weekend and within a couple of hours I totally remembered why I love this convention.

My Favourite Moments: 
Glen Keane's talk! Let you pencil kiss the paper, need I say more.

The Visual Development Design Powerhouse Talk - Evgeni Tomov, Noah Klocek, Armand Baltazar, followed by an amazing Q&A next to the pool.

Talking to Armand Serrano at the Sony booth, I got to thank him for inspiring me in 2010 with a thumbnail talk. Check it out click HERE!

Ty Carter gave a talk on how he went from being a student to interning at Pixar, to how he landed his gig at Blue Sky as a Visual Development Artist.

Pascal Campion who is a colour genius! So much heart in his work, had pages of advice for me. After our chat I now have the goal to add rhythm into my colour work, and to create more story in my art.

A highlight was thanking Don Hahn for his career of work, but especially for writing Brain Storm, which helped me break through a creative block.

Chris Oatley gave so much practical advice, and encouraged me to return in 2012.

As tradition, I finished the weekend at Walt Disney studios for a screening. What a weekend!

End of summer painting!

So summer is not ending in Australia which is great! Took the time this weekend to walk up to a look out point and get a quick colour study painting complete before running back down the hill to swim! only so long you can last with the sun beaming on your back!

Enjoying the sunshine & painting

So I always take while at the beginning of the year to kick it back into my art schedule, and here is my reason, Australian beautiful sunny beaches. So on the weekend I combined the 2. A quick 20min gouache painting is all I could handle before diving into the ocean. Learning so much from painting from life, and owe Mike Humphries a big thank you to push me to do it! Find his work here: http://www.michaelhumphries.net/modules/gallery/index.php?category=3

 Look forward to more.

CTN Feedback leads to more sketches!

CTN was amazing! I will be updating with more stories and development of some pieces. So much feedback that just clicked, which makes me really excited to create and update my art. One on the list is Sleeping Beauty's Kingdom. Here are some rough sketches where I am exploring the details of how this community works!

Sleeping Beauty on a far away planet. The moment when the princess and prince meet for the first time.
Capturing the moment when the prince and princess fall in love, once upon a dream. A simple gesture.

More Life Drawing

Life Drawing

 I am currently studying at the Oatley Academy, and the difference to my drawing approach is amazing, and a strong impact on my life drawing.
http://chrisoatley.com/

Tree studies

This is the year I learn the basics again, by staying off the computer for as long as I can and create art from observation. It was fantastic to mix and build colours again.

Train Life Studies

Using the paint app Brushes, I have put my train commute to good use, and created a large quantity of Life Studies. Passengers who were fixated on their smart phone or asleep allowed longer painting time, others are quick minute colour studies.

Paris VS New York City

After sketching so many of the great cities I have been to, New York and Paris as my favourites. Both are uniquely beautiful, one with power & one with romance. Their structure & characteristics contrast each other and is quite evident in the simple sketch. Which city do you prefer?

Prints are now available on Etsy! Click Here

NEW YORK NEW YORK!

The first time I arrived in New York City, was after a month of cruising around the Greek Islands. The contrast between the two environments was so strong, I was so excited to be in a loud vibrant city, and New York lived up to all the hype, and the city took my heart. I really enjoyed revisiting these memories and playing with the sky-scrappers and the shadows all these buildings create. Thanks for checking my sketches out!
Prints are now available on Etsy! Click Here

More City Marker Sketches

Continuing with sketching the cities I have traveled to over the years, throught this simple marker process I have discovered a lot about European Architecture, adding Prague, Switzerland, germany, Croatia & Greece to my sketchbook. About to start sketching NEW YORK CITY!

Prints are now available on Etsy! Click Here 

(if theres a print you would like to see from this collection, please just post a comment and I will try to help)

Sketches of cities I've traveled to

I have started sketching all the cities I have traveled to over the years, preparing for some new environment designs. Here are some favourites, Paris, Barcelona, Carcassonne Castle, Italy and London.
Prints are now available on Etsy! Click Here

It's Almost Easter!!!

A collection of bunny sketches, greylead. Looking for the right character that portrays the attributes of a fun loving comedic Easter bunny.

Christmas Time!

The Holiday season is here and I thought I would celebrate with classic cute characters for my 2011 Christmas Cards! Enjoy the Festive Season!  Ink Illustrations.