This is work and this is fun!

A little sketch from my latest work in the restaurant game...plenty more to come! A new restaurant I'm working on is opening hopefully in December...keep your eyes peeled!

Bake-off #2

Yay its cake time again. Lately I have been finding cake decorating super fun, which is not really surprising as it is definitely a challenging creative outlet. This time the brief was to make a cake for a 'paradise' themed party. Most of the guests were also surfers so I wanted to make something appealing for them. I sketched out a few concepts...sadly the morbid blood red shark cake was rejected and I decided to go with the island scene. Here goes..

Always important to practice your piping technique!!!...I was trying to capture a wave pattern. For any foody geeks out there I used a #233 and #47 nozzle. I worked with a basic buttercream icing recipe. Edible yellow glitter for the sand....and a basic chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling.

And the end result...Everyone loved the shark bite out of the white chocolate surfboard!

Adelaide Fringe 2012 Poster Competition

I thought it about time I finally enter the Adelaide Fringe poster comp. This year the theme was 'Tour of the Unexpected' - they wanted a poster that would "conjure up images of the ultimate tour where you get to expand your mind, be entertained and be changed forever". Here is my entry...

This was my first idea - its meant to be a flying dog-ship...inspired by the airships from the 1950s. I think there is definitely a little Falcor luck dragon coming out here.

My next idea was similar to the dog-ship but a little more conventional...yeh right! I looked at a lot of retro travel posters and wanted to try and replicate some of the cool techniques. This is what I imagine The Garden of Unearthly Delights would look like if you uprooted it and squeezed it on a ship. The brief called for the design to be a stand alone element that could be reproduced in a number of different ways.

And my final design... I was happy with how this turned out but as always got carried away with the detail and the design became way more complex than intended! Click on image to view more detail. All Aboard!!

Yorkes Fest Poster

The poster for this years Yorkes Fest/Classic event...the longest running surf comp in South Australia. Its gonna be RAD!!

RIP Amy...

A piece in honour of the late Amy Winehouse...she was operating in her own world, RESPECT!

Retro Studies

So I came to the realisation the other day that my painting skills were somewhat lacking of late and could do with a freshen up...or not so much a freshen up but a total overhaul!! Introducing the first of a series of hopefully many more, boring 'copy' studies. Image stolen from the interwebz 

Fantastic Noodles Pro Junior - Poster concepts

I was lucky enough a few months ago to be able to submit some designs for this years Fantastic Noodles Pro Junior - an awesome event held annually on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Some of the best up and coming surfers get to rip it up over three days in a bid to gain points.

This design I was trying to capture some unique South Australian elements - Granite Island, whales, the stairs at Waits and of course Fairy Penguins!! Had I finished this design it would've been full colour. It is very very loosely based on some day of the dead type designs and the uber cool Mike Giant!

This was a quick design...I didn't really get the vision in my head onto paper how I wanted. I was going for a crazy frothy noodle wave. It doesn't really look that epic!

Mole Cake!!

So I was feeling a little culinary and creatively deprived of late so what better way to rejuvenate than with a cake challenge!! And what kind of cake do you make a surfer mole...a mole cake of course! ...(the mole reference comes from Puberty Blues)

Didn't quite turn out like the concept but was still a heap of fun to create and tasted pretty good :D ....mmm hazlenutty! Maybe if I hadn't started drinking during the assembly process the vision would've been totally realised haha!!

Weird similarity??

In response to my LSD autumn hairy octopus, my friend shared this image with me - the similarity is definitely there! I had never seen this illustration before but I think it super cool!

LSD anyone?

Autumn is upon us!
Another piece for On Dit magazine - this will feature as the cover of the next edition. Sorry to my friend who requested "a busy autumn Adelaide city scene with lots of people thats a little bit whimsical"....I actually only heard the last word you said! ... I really did try and concept what was requested, but with sleep deprivation and lack of surfing this is what my brain spat out. Digital Image 1day

On Dit illo - Skinheads

Another piece I did for the Adelaide Uni rag 'On Dit' - this is for an article about skinhead culture. I was trying to play with a fun new style...bendy limbs! I am not too sure how well the text is gonna read...hopefully you can see all the details. I even threw in a lil mullet on the letter 'e'!!

Worms...

I wonder what K-Rudd is up to these days...?

GEN-Z Cyber Force

You remember Naughty Corey? The pimply kid with the yellow glasses that trashed some party...?

Well he has joined forces with the latest 'it' social networker (not to be confused with sex worker) The St Kilda Girl! Together they are an unstoppable force of evil, set on bringing down establishment.

Stay tuned for the next instalment of GEN-Z Cyber Force...They will social network your world!

Hey youz, happy Ozztraya Dai!

I know its a little late, but I thought i'd put up this illustration I have finally coloured. This was displayed at the local pool where I work on weekends and was used to help promote a donation day we had for the Flood Appeal on Australia Day.

Rockstar 101

So even though I'm a little bit arty and all...I am finding myself becoming more and more addicted to pop music ARGGHHH! ...don't fight your inner DIVA people! I did this quick piece for my sis who is also a huge Rihanna fan and pumped for her concert in March. Bring it on!

Lots of more quick caricatures like this to come soon...

On Dit mag illustrations

Some illustration work for The University of Adelaide's student magazine On Dit. A friend of mine got in touch with me to do some work for the mag - this article features in the first edition of 2011. Digital artwork - 3.5 days

Adelaide Zombie Walk 2011 - Poster comp

My entry for the Adelaide Zombie Walk 2011 Poster Competition. It was an open brief, you just had to include the supplied details. I tried to portray a real family fun environment that was still sufficiently zombified and gruesome! Photoshop 2 days

Animated xmas Ecard

This was a job I did for a web designer friend http://www.taplinwebdesign.com.au. The brief was a short animated non-interactive ecard where a reindeer came onto screen pulling their logo in a sleigh. I took this idea and turned it into a little short story. The end logo is an attempted 'steampunk' version of their original logo. Total time 8 days

TJ cruising downtown Waikiki

Digital artwork created in photoshop - 1 day...ish

I did this for my friend TJ as a bday present. He was the only one in Waikiki with a McTav surfboard attached to his bike!

Happy Birthday Laura

A quick birthday card I did for my friend Laura, aka "Tracy" (named after Cyclone Tracy as she wreaks havock late at night!)...wish I could've stayed and partied all night!