Gummy Tuskers

 Elephants
Jun 022010
 

Yet another picture from the Elephant book I did with my dad a few years ago.

Like so many of the illustrations, this one tells a sad fact about the life of elephants. Specifically, the fact that so many males are being shot for their tusks that a form of unnatural selection is creating a population of elephants with stunted tusks or even no tusks at all, simply because males with splendid tusks are often shot before they reproduce. These days it is the males without tusks that get to pass on their genes.

Elephant Bulldozer

 Elephants
Mar 252010
 

I have been going through old artwork looking for stuff to make PRINTS of for Wondercon next week. Not yet sure if this one will make the final cut (I already have TON of elephant prints) but thought it was worth posting here in my blog.

This pic was drawn to illustrate a story (about Elephants being used as bulldozers to clear shanty towns) from my dad’s Elephant Limerick Book.

BUSY

 Elephants, Family
Sep 082009
 

In honour of my Dad’s visit to San Francisco last week, here is another image from our elephant book collaboration from a year or two ago.

My father and his wife Wendy landed here on the home-bound leg of an around the world trip, and I played host to them at my tiny apartment. I also took on the role of turbo-tour-guide as I showed them as much of San Francisco as possible in the brief time that they were here, which made for a sometimes tiring schedule, especially as it is still tourist season so we had lots of competition in trying to get onto cable cars, buses and ferries and into art museums and galleries…

But having out-of-town visitors makes for a good excuse to really get out and take a look at this beautiful city that I am so lucky to live in. The weather has been beautiful and we couldn’t have had a better week for sightseeing (The visibility from Twin Peaks was the best I have ever seen in my many visits up there).

Apart from time spent with my family, I have also been trying to draw and paint on location lately, but I haven’t done much of anything that I am very happy to show yet, despite the enjoyment I get from doing this. Hopefully, I will generate some drawings worthy of posting here sometime soon. The art-posts have become infrequent on my blog this year and I need to address that…

If I am posting a lot on my blog it usually means I have a lot of spare time, and conversely when posts become sparse, it is often a sign that I have some fun things happening in the real world. That has been the case lately; I have been busy with real life and haven’t been posting much on here… but there will be some scribbles posted soon, I promise!

Flustered with FUN

 Elephants, Travel
Aug 062008
 

Lately I have been running about, trying to finish off some artwork (both paying jobs and promises to friends) while simultaneously arranging some travel. I took a quick trip to LA a week or so ago, to celebrate longtime-pal Tony Stacchi‘s birthday. Next up I will visit New York, to spend some quality time with my friends Dave and Rhode. After that, I have a longer trip back home to Australia to attend a family birthday, and also visit some friends down there who I haven’t seen in many years.

Due to the concurrent rise in Oil prices and the drop in the US dollar, the price of a airline ticket to Australia at LOW season is more than a HIGH season ticket was just a few years ago… about double. OUCH. That trip ALSO requires some shopping for camping equipment, as I will be going on a 5 day hike/camping trip through the bush with some old pals from my hometown… I haven’t been proper camping (as opposed to mere car camping) for many years, so I am very much looking forward to this trek, but hoping that my flabby body will be equal to the task of hauling a load of gear up hill and down dale for 5 days… we shall just have to wait and see….

One way or another, I should have some fun to write about soon; either FUN-fun, or horror-fun… because even the trips that go wrong are fun in the retelling!

Creative Elephants

 Elephants
Apr 022008
 


It has been a while since I posted any pictures from my Dad’s elephant limerick book. This one illustrates a news story (and accompanying limerick) about the Thai Elephant Orchestra. Elsewhere in Thailand, there are also elephants who can paint pictures, (the elephant book features a limerick about them too, see this earlier post for the illustration). The pachyderm artists live in a refuge for rescued elephants called the Maesa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai, and recently, I saw an amazing YouTube Video of one of those brush-wielding elephants in action, painting a self-portrait. Even though the elephant was trained to paint this image, it is still pretty amazing to watch an elephant holding a brush with its trunk.

Baker, the Elder

 Elephants, Family
Dec 272007
 

My blog-posting will be a bit spotty while I am travelling; I am not always able to get to the internet and when I do I am not always able to use my own laptop to upload new images.

This is a portrait of PLINY THE ELDER, used to illustrate a quote from his famous Naturalis Historia, which was part of the introduction to my Dad’s Elephant limerick book. (The pencil sketch for this illustration was posted earlier, HERE.) Nobody knows for sure what Pliny the Elder actually looked like, so my version of him was modelled on another classical scholar; my own Dad, who was, of course, the author of the limericks in our collaboration.

I gave my Dad’s new wife, WENDY, a framed 11×14 Giclee print of this image as a Christmas present. It went over very well with her because, unlike Dad, she understood that it was a caricature of him immediately. She wasn’t the only person that I gave artwork to; using my new Epson printer, I printed out a LOT of Giclee prints of my artwork and brought them home to Australia as easy-to-carry Christmas presents to give to my Family this year…

My family doesn’t get many opportunities to gather, now that we live at all points on the compass, but when we do manage to wrangle a family get-together, it is always a lot of fun, and this year’s Christmas was no exception. I had a wonderful time.

I hope that that all of you had a Happy Christmas, as well!

A Wedding

 Elephants, Family
Dec 152007
 

This is an illustration from my Dad’s Elephant book, for a limerick about a dual Elephant Wedding held at a Thai Elephant preserve.


My Father got married today in my home town, and I was his Best Man. For a laugh, I gave my speech entirely in Limerick. When HE finds the time to illustrate MY limericks, we’ll have our second collaboration ready to go. Despite the stresses of public speaking and the behind-the-scenes logistics of Wedding planning, it was a very happy day with lots of family and friends that I had not seen in years.

A Visit to The Big City

 Drawings, Elephants
Oct 202007
 

Another pic from the Elephant book. This one illustrates the case of an elephant who strayed into the streets of Nairobi, only to be darted and then carted back to the bush. The text was placed over the blank spaces in the composition, on the building and the sky.

This particular illustration was done in a looser style than most of the others, as part of a final push to add some EXTRA art to the book. After I had completed the initial commitment of illustrations, the editor and book designer both felt that there was an imbalance of text to images, as some page-spreads were still lacking illustrations. So, I agreed to do more, but I couldn’t have as much time as I’d devoted to the illustrations already done.

Thankfully, the book already displayed a variety of styles, so a few more done in a faster, looser style wouldn’t stand out too much. I found some of the thumbnails and preparatory sketches I had done early in the project and slapped colour and textures on them to bang out 16 new illustrations in the last few weeks before the printing deadline. I amazed myself at how many I was able to do in that short time, while having fun doing them.

All in all, I did around 60 illustrations for the book, although some were not much more than decorative wall-paper to go under text. Even though they aren’t all “winners” I learned something in doing each of them, and I am actually very happy with quite a few.

I have submitted 5 of my favourite illustrations from Elephants in the News to the Society of Illustrators 50th Annual Show, in the BOOK category. It is the first time I have entered anything like this. The best illustrators in the world will be in competition, so I don’t seriously expect to win anything, but I do hope that at least ONE of my illustrations might be selected for the show in March 2008, which would be an excellent excuse to visit New York.

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