I had the good fortune to visit southern Mexico recently and saw many wonderful and fascinating sites and people. Whilst in the city of Oaxaca this wall caught my eye, hard not too really as  it was slightly large. Someone with graphic inclinations was  obviously inspired. Good effort. Neato.

I just did another of my freebie jobs! This time for the cover of The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance   State of Press Freedom in Australia 2009 Report. Seems like a growing trend I’m following in an ever shrinking economy… The brief was to visualize (love that word) the nature of the  assaults on press freedom in Australia over the past 12 months. My original idea was to illustrate a Pheidippides type character ( the messenger  at the battle of Marathon)  holding a rolled up newspaper and getting arrows fired at him, with a nice NRA type target on his chest. But therein I have my history muddled, the expression “Don’t shoot the messenger” which was the idea I took to represent the plight of these poor down trodden journos is Shakespearean, nothing to do with Mr Pheidippidooda at all. He just carked it on the finish line… SO I did an image of what I was asked to do, a journo with hands over his eyes and being restrained, by red tape of course. Onwards and acrosswards!

Here’s a cover illustration I just did for the Epicure section in The Age. The illustration accompanied a story about the trend in Melbourne restaurants that don’t take bookings. 

I thought  of hungry irate would-be patrons staring in the window glaring at a smug diner slowly masticating their dessert but that was just too obvious. I sent a couple of sketches and the editor accepted one of them. It was a pleasant job to do which I thoroughly enjoyed.

 

Bikies have been outlawed in NSW, now that’s a tautological statement if I ever heard one at the same time. Here’s a cartoon I was compelled to scribble. Bad Bikies! Naughty!

Get your motor runnin…spare me.

I recently did the cover illustrations for a crime novel, the French publisher picked it up and chose my artwork for the  title over the US version that used a photograph. That was a nice little surprise.

It was a good project with the designer going in to bat  and championing my ideas with the marketing people responding positively. her persistence paid off! Thanks Mel! Indeed the ‘sketches’ used for presentation were close to the final artwork so that allowed them to see how  the finished art would be utilized.

Onwards and acrosswards!