52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 18

Week 18: Celestial body

This is an iPhone photograph of a white styrofoam ball, painted with a few slaps of acrylic paint and mounted on a wire skewer in a glass.

I actually used some black cloth draping (ie. a pair of black boxer shorts and the top and bottom of my long thermal underwear), two sizes of star-shaped glitter tossed randomly, and an orange ping pong ball with a lick of paint. The shaft of light is from a battery-operated torch. Curious how I created the shot? Here's my secret booth for most of my indoor iPhone photography. The torch is wedged into the toilet roll holder, offscreen at right.

Update:
Had to have another crack at this theme. Same elements as the first version, but I created some rings for the big planet by hot-laminating circles of yellow paper and gluing on some glitter. Light sources via a torch (wedged into the toilet roll holder), and the light-up model of the USS Enterprise ("Star Trek"). Smaller moons are represented by a bouncy ball, a ping pong ball and a foam clown nose. This image again took me about 15 minutes to assemble and photograph with my iPhone.

Week 18: Celestial body II

Nero vs Khan

Meet Kermit!

With Kermit the hand-raised tawny frogmouth proving that he really cannot fly.

I, Enterprise

I picked up Part 2 of IDW's Star Trek "I, Enterprise" two-parter comic (Issues #31-32), about Science Officer 0718, on Thursday. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The character was seen on the bridge of the Enterprise in JJ Abrams' "Star Trek Into Darkness" movie, and he was a mysterious, cool-looking, android/cyborg background character about whom we knew very little.

Fans have certainly seen this kind of story before in Star Trek: the Ilia Probe in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"; the Enterprise-D's computer achieving sentience in "Emergence" (TNG); the Borg Drone they called One, who came from the EMH's mobile emitter, Seven's nanoprobes and Mulcahey's DNA (VOY's "Drone"); Morgan Primus's most recent guise in the "New Frontier" novels and comics; and the holographic avatar of a ship's computer in the novel "Titan: Synthesis", fashioned after Minuet (originally from episodes of TNG).

But this story works well. I'm thrilled we got to know more about 0718. I hadn't really expected a backstory to unfold already, and thought Bad Robot may have done a little more with him in the next movie first. He's featured on the alternate photo cover of Part 1 (actor Joseph Gatt, pictured above) and drawn on the regular cover of Part 2.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 17

Week 17: Horse I and II

Horses and Seahorse in double-ended black Sharpie on acrylic backgrounds over primed canvas miniatures. Detail in metallic gold Signo pigment ink. Horses are based on a sculpture displayed in the foyer of the Manning Building, Pitt Steet, near Central Station, Sydney CBD. Seahorse is from a photograph I took at Darling Harbour Aquarium.

Updates:
I saw a giant permanent marker in a discount store and had an idea to try sketching a zebra with minimal pencilled guidelines. I'm quite happy with the result. It's huge in comparison to the miniatures!

Week 17: Horse III - Zebra

Zebra sketch inked with 7mm "extra broad" black permanent marker, with watercolour muzzle and background on A3 art paper.
I also had a burning idea for a cartoon:

Week 17: Horse IV - Washing day at the pantomime

Double-ended black Sharpie (no pencil lines!), plus watercolour on white primed gesso canvas sheet.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 16

Week 16: Book cover.

For this week's theme, "Book Cover", I finally put a design on paper that has been in my head for decades. I have tried (and also not-yet tried) to commission same from several professional artists I know. You know, "One day, when you're not too busy..." I was willing to pay $$$$ to get someone to create a cover for me, to my exacting specifications, that would be a homage to several genres - and Bob Peak's poster art for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" - and/or might have been great for a website front page, or even a "Best of..." collection of my writing over several decades. "Have Phaser, Will Travel" was the name of a regular column I wrote bimonthly for a science fiction media newsletter (1982-1992), and then the name of my first blog. This Challenge has inspired me to say, instead, in the words of the Little Red Hen, "I'll do it all by myself!" (Who knows, maybe it's an eBook cover for an actual digital collection?)

Watercolours on white acrylic gesso primed canvas sheet, with double-ended, waterproof, black Sharpie outlining, plus titles in Pages. Stars are opaque white Signo pigment ink.

Exciting update:
This future cover art arrived from a Meetup and Facebook Friend whom I have never met in person. Yet. Thank you so much Benjamin Angus. I am thrilled and impressed by your talent and generosity! Now I have to compile that eBook of decades of articles and columns.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 15

Week 15: Detail

Meerkat in black Sharpie, coloured with oil pastels, on brown paper satchel.

Week 14: Simplicity II and Week 15: Detail.

Update:
I decided to have another go at "detail", revisiting the saurian aliens of Sirius, from the television phenomenon, "V": the 80s version, not the recent remake. Handpainted lizard scales show through my phony human mask in this "V" selfie:

This was the trickiest "selfie" ever taken. No prescription lenses, but get everything important in focus: and highlight the cheek, the hand, the hat and chest insignias, and hide the Apple logo on the iPhone!

Update II:
Fish design created on black "scratch paper", which comes in a pack of five sheets (plus tool) for $4.00 from a toy shop.

Week 15: Detail III - Fish

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 14

Week 14: Simplicity

How different is this? Framed very simply, and photographed with my iPhone instead of scanning it. (The scanner seemed to separate out the black shading that I'd so carefully blended into the red!)

Update:
I decided to have another go at simplicity!

Week 14 Simplicity: Meerkat in black Sharpie on brown paper satchel

Earth Hour 2014

Earth Hour

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 13

Week 13: Water

It seemed appropriate to do a watercolour for Water Week. This is Duart Castle, on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, traditional home of Clan Maclean, as seen from an approaching ferry from Oban. Painted on white acrylic gesso primed canvas sheet. Castle and boat detail in waterproof black Sharpie.

Update:
I decided to have another go at water, making use of some pet rocks from 1981!

Week 13 Water: Owl and Pussycat pet rocks

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 12

Week 12: Numbers

Collage in light card. Numerals cut freehand. I was mulling this over in my head, among other ideas, but I didn't get around to actually creating it until about 9.30pm, just before the start of Week 12. Perhaps I should have played a little more with the negative shapes before gluing down, but I wasn't sure if I was going to do any overlapping. It ended up fairly random.

Update:
I decided to have another go at numbers, using the previous week's architecture pic.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 11

Week 11: Architecture

Watercolours on white acrylic gesso primed canvas sheet, with fine-point, waterproof, black Sharpie outlining, and miniature signage in Word (and further reduced on photocopier). As I was inking in the pencil lines, I decided to do an "architectural caricature" of the building, such as seen in those artistic interpretations in pamphlets, hand-drawn maps and prospectuses.

My third ever serious attempt at watercolour: the Number 96 building, Paddington locale of the hit Australian TV soap opera of the 70s. The actual building, Moncur Flats, is at 83 Moncur Street, Woollahra. I sketched and painted this on Saturday evening, after hearing of the passing of Australian actress Wendy Hughes. First thing I saw her in was Number 96, when she played Lucy Sutcliffe's niece, Vanessa Harrison. She shared a very funny bathtub scene with Arnold Feather. After many wonderful stage and screen adventures, she became one of only a handful of Aussie actors to appear in Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Picard's girlfriend, Nella Daren (below) in Lessons.

R.I.P. Wendy Hughes

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 10

Week 10: Pattern

Paper weaving, created in 2014, using two old and damaged/unfinished oil pastel artworks from 1981. They had languished in the garage since 2000 (and the previous garage since 1984) and were under a thick layer of dust. I wasn't particularly attached to either of them - they were very early attempts at using oil pastels - but I love the newly-created weaving. Below: The original artworks from 1981.

Above left: Old unfinished giraffe, oil pastel on Ingres paper, 1981.
Above right: Age-damaged bottlebrush artwork, oil pastels and acrylic wash on white art paper, 1981.

Tania McCartney added an article to her blog in which I describe the creative process involved in this technique.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 9

Week 9: Tree

My second ever attempt at scenic watercolour. This is my outdoor pine tree, as decorated for Christmas. Watercolours on white acrylic gesso primed canvas sheet.

Update:
I decided to have another go at both crosshatching and trees!

Weeks 8 and 9: Crosshatching II, Tree II

It was still missing something, until..."

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 8

Toy chicken and polar bear. Double-ended waterproof black Sharpie.

Week 8: Crosshatching

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 7

Week 7: Watercolour

My first ever attempt at scenic watercolour. This is Lion Island off Pearl Beach, Central Coast, NSW. My watercolour set is five colours only (and no white!), on white acrylic gesso primed canvas sheet.

Since I never enjoyed "painting" in colouring-in books with those ubiquitous watercolour sets as a kid, I have always resisted buying a set as an adult. I suddenly remembered being given a 365-days paint-by-numbers desk-calendar 2009, which I'd never used - and it contained a brush and little cakes of black, green, yellow, red and blue.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 6

Week 6: Machinery

This is a mixed-media collage, with black card, gold foil crepe paper, plastic netting from an onion bag, adhesive plastic "jewels", and white laser glitter. Below:Same artwork, under different lighting.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 5

Week 5: Flower.

Gardenia from my garden, oil pastels on black paper.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 4

Week 4: Selfie

In the 70s, a "selfie" would have been performed with an Ericofon. Charcoal pencil on primed canvas.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 3

Week 3: Caravan

This is a ten-layer paper tole, using seven 8x10" sheets of photographic paper, created from the last photo I ever took of my Dad before he passed away. I call it "Grey Nomad", of course. My parents had just travelled across from Perth where they'd lived in retirement for 19 years.

Side view!

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 2

The theme for Week 2 is "Kids", but I drew a kid puppet. Double-ended waterproof black Sharpie. No pencil, no eraser! (Living dangerously!)

Week 2: Kids

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 1

Week 1: Eggs

Facebook Friend Tania McCartney has declared 2014 to be a 52-Week Illustration Challenge. This will keep me on the ball! Here's my first effort (above). A two-ended waterproof Sharpie - and no pencil lines or erasing! Of course, after I moved the egg to pose it with the drawing and photograph it, all the shadows changed!

I shall be adding the artworks to this Flickr slideshow each week. Enjoy!

I did the 365 Photos Challenge a few years ago and it definitely improved my photography. I would highly recommend it; start any time and add your pics to a daily blog or Flickr. Not long after I started that Challenge, Aussie TV celebrity Andrew G (aka Osher Günsberg) started a 365 Self-Portrait Challenge. He did some amazing work! I visited his exhibition that he held when it was all over, bought my favourite pics - and it was fun chatting to him photographer-to-photographer. It made me feel legitimate. I never felt like I understood photography, although I had a Polaroid as a teen, then a 3D Nimslo camera as a young adult. More recently, I did an online 30-Day Photo Challenge with a group of teacher colleagues. Similarly to this art challenge, a daily theme was suggested, but hardly any of the participants made to to the end of the month! So I'm looking forward to seeing who's still here, and how artistic we all feel, in a year's time!

Robbie Rules: My first day at school

This digital story is especially for author Meredith Costain, with many thanks for sending Penrith Public School the signed copy of her wonderful new picture book, My first day at school (Windy Hollow Books, 2013). The book's illustrations are by Michelle Macintosh.

Stage 3 students have recently been working as "buddies" for Kindergarten Orientation, and they enjoyed having Meredith's book read to them in a library session, and then reminiscing, brainstorming, storyboarding, photographing, and suggesting possible text for a joint construction to create a PhotoPeach presentation. We anticipate our incoming Kindergarten students, future buddies and staff and students at other schools to get some useful tips from it.

Special thanks to Ms Stockton, who allowed Robbie Rules - our oldest "student" at Penrith PS, who's never graduated from Stage 1 - to visit the library for the last few weeks of Term 4, 2013.

Robbie Rules: My first day at school

Happy New Year!

Sydney's NYE banners!

I wonder how many of these hopes and dreams from the people of West Concord, MA, USA, came true for them in 2013? I used to pass this sign every day I was staying there last January.

Happy New Year!

Digital stories for the festive season

And, way back in 2010:

Last year, my ol' pal Jonathan Sequeira asked friends to send him family Christmas pics for a song video by The Elephant Gods - and this was the result. See if you can spot any McLeans:

And just for fun:

And an update from "The Twilight Zone". Doo doo, doo doo, Doo doo, doo doo:

Officially freaked out. I was running for a bus because it was too far to clearly read its route number. Not mine, after all, I realise. The driver was on the phone, so I waited to ask him where my bus left from. He was *describing my appearance* over the phone, and what I was carrying, and he already knew I wanted the 399. I told him *no one* at the station knew where I was heading, and I hadn't asked anyone else anything, but he insisted he was holding up his bus to tell me what I needed to know.

"Technology", he said.

Last time I traveled on this route my mother had just passed away and I made every connection (without looking at the timetable) from Penrith, to Central, Circular Quay, and Malabar Heights, with precision timing, and we joked that Mum organised it. Looks like she's at it again. Merry Christmas, Mum!