Surfer moles Cutloose boards

The last few months I have been doing design work for South Australian surf board manufacture, Cutloose. A lot of the work has been designing decals to be applied to boards.

Fortunately two "moles" (members) of the fully sick club Surfer Girls SA, were getting new custom made shortboards so I saw it as a great opportunity to get my new decals out there.

They loved the Cutloose Popsicle decal I had done...a treat that all Aussie kids dream of on a stinking hot summers day!

Colors were chosen, decals were printed, then the resin tints and graphs were applied. Finally the boards were glassed and ready to go. Here are some pics of the finished boards...

Now to get off the interwebz and design my new board which has been on the shelf for the last month...

*Just a tip for anyone out there using colored decals on a colored board - always mask out and spray white the area of the board where the decal will be applied. Otherwise the base color will show through.

Its Tart Time!!

I have begun my journey to create the ULTIMATE tart! Here was attempt #1...there were many flaws but the saving grace was the flavour. Dark chocolate, orange and mint YUM. Hot tip: always follow the instructions when using gelatine!!

When your tart doesn't set properly, don't stress, just let your friends get plastered and they will eat it from the dish with their hands and never know!

Attempt #2 - I have almost perfected it now...Double chocolate ganache tart with blood orange creme anglaise and mint. The blood orange is what makes this tart. I reckon it is going to be a sweet recipe for summer.

Lucky Lupitas' Fiesta

I have been busy over the last couple of months doing the graphic design for a new Mexican restaurant, set to open in Adelaide in late November. As a sneak peak the restaurant is hosting a gala 'Fiesta' to raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation. Here is the poster and ticket design I did...

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