28 March 2011
Nikon D90
http://www.redbubble.com/people/flokot/art/6943113-1-butterfly-autumn-melbourne-victoria
28 March 2011
Nikon D90
http://www.redbubble.com/people/flokot/art/6943113-1-butterfly-autumn-melbourne-victoria
August and September 2010 – hand drawn on paper, edited in Photoshop Elements 6 on a Wacom Bamboo Tablet.
It is with much joy that I have finally, after a long break, completed a new artwork. From beginning to end I worked for at least a month on this design, in between homework, essay writing and several nasty viruses.
The flowers in the image are inspired by examples of south-east Australian wildflowers that I found in a handbook to the Australian bush.
At the time of writing, I am selling t-shirts, postcards and greeting cards featuring this design. It can be found at my RedBubble Profile and Bubblesite Gallery.
Coloured pencil on paper, October 2009.
There’s a popular Australian kids’ song about a kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree. I don’t know why I thought of it, except that the tree here is gum tree-esque and there’s a bird in it. Not a kookaburra, though.
I wanted to capture a sense of the Australian summer. It’s usually hot, but in recent summers it’s been awfully hot. Living in south-eastern Australia means that the weather isn’t usually too bad, but it can swing to some crazy extremes in summer (December-February) and winter (June-August). So, while we’ve had temperatures in the high 40s (degrees Celsius) in summer, we also have had temperatures as low as 2 degrees Celsius in the last week. We have a saying in Melbourne: if you don’t like the weather outside, just look out a different window. More often than not, it’s true. Grey storm clouds out the kitchen window and sunshine out the bedroom window is a common enough occurrence that I started taking that saying literally!
On the topic of Melbourne, I wish I could demonstrate how it’s pronounced here. Maybe one of these days I’ll have to make a video of me talking about Aussie-isms (with my rural Victorian accent I sound more ocker than my “cultivated” husband’s city private school accent that other people mistake for being British)… and yes, I can do a fair impression of Strine. For the benefit of my multicultural friends, though, I often have to speak in the cultivated accent… though some of them find my ocker accent pretty entertaining. Ah, funny. I love being Aussie.
Oh, on pronouncing Melbourne, don’t think mel-born. Think mel-b’n. I hope that helps. On pronouncing Australia, think oss-stray-lee-aaah, not oz-strah-lee-ah. Hmm. This is why phonics doesn’t work so well, right? 😉
Pencil on paper, October 2009.
I had a dream a few years ago about a giant beach surrounded by ruins and an apocalyptic red sky. I wrote it down at the time and this is one of several attempted interpretations of the dream – which was a lot more intense and brooding than this illustration, I must admit.
Fineliner ink on paper, 26 October 2009.
It’s a horse, with wings. Yes, I draw a lot of these! Napoleon Dynamite makes a lot of sense to me. Now for a Liger…
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http://flokot.redbubble.com/sets/107560/works
At the time of writing (June 2010), I have made gift cards of this design available for purchase from AUD$2.52 plus postage at http://flokot.redbubble.com/sets/107560/works/4008005-2-winged-horse-in-trotting-pose.
Ink fineliner on paper, circa February 2010.
A bird on a pumpkin! I was reading a book on heritage vegetable gardening and felt so inspired by the beautiful fruits and vegetables that I decided to create an illustration representing that. I got the references for the birds from a book on Australian birds, though right now I can’t recall what kind of birds they are, exactly. I’m still working on my knowledge of Australian avians!
http://flokot.redbubble.com/sets/107560/works
Heritage Vegetable Gardening information can be found at The Diggers Club website.
Ink fineliner on paper, November 2009.
Inspired by fruit and the bird Zoothera heinei – which was called a White’s thrush in the book I was reading (though it may be out of date).
See also: http://flokot.redbubble.com/sets/107560/works/4074228-3-bird-and-apple