Treats for your Creative Soul (1)

Here is the space where I mash together goodies that are both inspiring or just plain beautiful!  Videos, images music, articles...you name it ! I hope they feed your creative mind, spark curiosity or in the very least make you smile.

LOVING VINCENT, the world's first fully oil painted feature film, brings the artwork of Vincent van Gogh to life in an exploration of the complicated life and controversial death of one of history's most celebrated artists. More than six years in the making with the help of 125 specially trained painters.

LOVING VINCENT is a uniquely animated film composed of 65,000 hand painted frames! Watch it HERE.

The Magical Beauty of Mushrooms captured by Jill Bliss. View her GALLERY HERE!

Piper, an adorable Pixar short tells the story of a young sandpiper who fears the sea so much that it makes finding food especially challenging.

I love, love, love this short! I cannot say that enough. The pure simplicity in the story coupled with how Pixar pushes technological boundaries has made Piper a real gem. Watch it HERE.

I've been in love with Andre Kohn's Paintings for YEARS.  His style of artwork can be characterized under Russian Figurative Impressionist work. Do yourself a favour and go check out his WEBSITE!

If this image doesnt spark the imagination then I don't know what will.

This is an underwater waterfall just off the coast of Le Morne, Mauritius. Sand and silt on the ocean floor run off in a way that makes it look like they're pouring down a waterfall -- or like the entire island is being sucked down a vast drain.

Find out more must sees in Mauritius HERE.

And finally some inspiring music I found today. Enjoy!

The Dreaded Photoshop Halo - (updated)

So you've finished your rough sketch and cleaned it up with a crisp line. Your next step is to fill in the shapes ... but the fill doesn't complete and you get a fine halo.

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So now you have to take your paint brush tool and colour it out...what a waste of time! 

The one method I stumbled on is so so simple :

Make an outline with the PENCIL tool instead of the BRUSH tool.

And make sure all the pressure sensitivity settings are switched off in the tool bar. Then fill it with the paint bucket and Voila! You never think of this as being a solution because who uses the PENCIL tool? (Seriously I'm curious who uses it?)

I know there are few more methods to eliminate the halo. Please do share as I'd love to update the post!

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UPDATE: METHOD 2

Thank you so much all who commented on my various social media handles. It was super interesting to read how everyone gets around the issue.

This method shared with me by Ryan_twiggs_vaneyk on instagram is one I have been looking to learn for a while. I've created a mini tutorial below.

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1) First Magic Wand the area needing filling.

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2) Then go :  SELECT > MODIFY > EXPAND

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3) I expanded the selection by 5 PIXELS.

NOTE: You might have to play around to see what works for you as it depends on how bad your halo is and how thick your line work is.

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4) You will notice the marquee expands .

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5) Create a layer underneath your line work and fill it in with paint bucket tool....awesome!

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6) I then went on to create an ACTION Button using this method. It was super easy to hold down SHIFT and marquee inside different shapes, then expand the selection at the touch of one button to fill. 

If you set your ACTION button to expand one pixel, you can just keep clicking it until the marquee is as big as you need it!

For more info on creating ACTION Buttons in PS head over to this ADOBE TUTORIAL.

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Happy Happy New Year !

Hey everyone! So it's about time to breathe a bit of life back into this blog.  A lot has happened in the last year, the main thing being the birth of our beautiful baby girl Aviana ( Ah-vee-ah-na).

'Hello!'

This sweet little whirlwind that has entered our lives is pushing me to new levels everyday. Gone is the era of easy procrastination and day dreaming. When the baby goes down for a nap its time to snap into focus mode boy. The only thing I want for Christmas this year (please!) is an extra pair of hands.....and eyes....eyes would be good too.

So in 2016 I also had a great time art directing some Story Lab projects at Triggerfish, even if I felt like a pregnant whale doing it. Thanks Triggerfish for organising a good chair and entertaining the amount of times I waddled down the stairs to the loo (haha). I had the privilege of working with some AMAZING new artists from Cape Town, Nigeria and even France! 

In addition to that I freelanced with Sunrise Productions again. I have worked small jobs with them in the past but in 2016 it was at a bigger, more creative capacity which was INCREDIBLY fun. Thanks Sunrise for letting me bring Aviana into Creative meetings! 

At the end of the day having a baby has motivated me even more to help create good quality animation content for the future.

So one thing I really want to focus on in 2017 is COLOUR & LIGHTING. Last year I spent a lot of my time developing my explorative sketching skills.  But I also love colour and light and haven't fully rendered a character in a while, so here is to a colour-filled 2017.

So to start off the New Year I chose an old design ( Pharaoh Donkor...haha so proud of that name ) and took him to the next level. There is so much more tweaking I want to do but I have decided to be disciplined with wanting things to be perfect (impossible) and rather just ship things off. 

Below is a quick progression of how I took Donkor from a very stylised 2D design into 3D. There was alot I had to work out. Especially with his face.

I absolutely LOVED getting back into painting and can't wait to do more!

Advanced Coloring Book! (Sold out)

So as the holiday season rolls round things are starting to get a little crazy.  It's been quite a year so far! I participated at the Annecy Animation Festival in France ( awesome response at MIFA ) and have been working as a Production Designer at Triggerfish Animation Studios in sunny Cape Town for the last little while. It had left little time for the blog updates (my bad)....BUT one thing I have managed to spend spare time working on is my own version of an advanced coloring book!

I first heard about these only  2 months ago, but apparently they have been sweeping the globe for a while now. I  researched more into them intrigued and found out that this 'fad' apparently had it therapeutic uses too. Art therapy through coloring books can be used to help people de-stress, deal with anxiety issues and  trauma to name a few on a long list. I thought that was amazing!

So one month later here I am with 20 illustrations and a plan to launch the book sale at UCON 2015 next weekend. I have to say it was almost therapy in itself creating these. I had alot of fun coming up with the ideas and sculpting the lines. I hope everyone has just as much fun coloring it.

These will be released on my Etsy store for the international market about a week from now. I will post the update here first.

Meanwhile here are some samples!  Have a lovely week :)

Heading to France for Annecy Animation Festival

The Crash, by my friend Julia Smuts Louw got selected to be pitched at the Annecy Animation Festival / MIFA 2015 international pitch focus this year wo0hoo! Here's some art I quickly put together for the pitch.  

The Story:

When the rhino herd's patriarch Spike is de-horned, his self-esteem is shattered. But when his daughter Bianca takes it upon herself to find out why rhinos are disappearing, he discovers that there are worse things than losing one's dignity.

For more info please check out these links:

-  S.A ANIMATION IS SET TO DRAW BIG ATTENTION AT INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

- ANIMATION SA HEADS TO ANNECY

- THE CRASH : ANNECY WEBSITE

We are heading to France this weekend wohoo, wish us luck ! :)

Pharaohs...dumb, fabulous & fat!

Happy 2015 everyone!!! :D Starting off my posting this year with some funny Pharaoh Characters created with pen & ink. Here is the first one. Hope you enjoy!

Dumb Pharaoh

'The docile Pharaoh Donkor a collector of things

Not the brightest of sparks or aggressive of kings

Not a fly he will harm or a mean word inferred

A frustrating ruler with the brain of a bird"

Fabulous Pharaoh

He reigned during the New Kingdom Dynasties.

Introducing The Fabulous Pharaoh King Nessees.

Without a care in the world he'd spend all his deben,

On the finest fabric found only in Yemen.

Fat Pharaoh !

' Pears from Persia and grapes from Greece. 

Berries from Babylon and a few herbal leafs. 

Fat King Tut enjoys his culinary conquests.'

Meeting ZAPIRO !

What a great weekend at Open Book Comic Fest! Got to meet a lot of great artists and even one of my all time favorite political cartoonists 'ZAPIRO' who is quite the icon here in South Africa. To check out his stuff head to:

 http://www.zapiro.com/

Learned a lot as Open Book was my first time exhibiting ever. Cant wait now for the next festival / Convention :) Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

To check out photos from the event please check out my :

Facebook Album

New new new for Open Book

Hi everyone, these are some designs that will be debuting at Open Book Comics Fest 2014. My printing is all done (finally) and now just packaging everything nicely and getting on with the last of the preparations.

This will be my first time having a stall and selling my art, it's a lot more work than it looks phew!  Daz and I are going to be at the Fugard Theatre from 9am to 9pm on Saturday (that is one long day!) and then 10am to 5pm and the Sunday. But super, super excited, looking forwards to meeting all the other artists and of course all you lovely festival goers too.

Open Book Comic Fest its free entry! And there is going to be a lot of awesome art to see so why not take a moment out of your weekend to stop by and say hi!

Thanks a bunch Durban Data Forms !

Big, big thank you to Tommy, Jean & Tony @ 'Durban Data Forms' for sponsoring me these beautiful banners. I cannot wait to use them in future conventions & festivals. The quality is amazing! If you are needing some top notch printing done you can e-mail them at : admin@dbndata.co.za

They do deliveries (to) around South Africa. :)

Cape Town Open Book Festival

EXCITED! I am going to my first convention ever guys! Catch me at Cape Town's Open Book festival in 3 weeks time. I'll be there selling limited edition prints and other goodies PLUS launching never before seen artwork which I have been working hard on behind the scenes.

Watch this space as I'll be throwing out more updates in the next couple weeks.:)

1000 Drawings Cape Town

My sis Jodie and I spotted one of my doodles! 

Drawings, drawings everywhere!

Draw anything with anything on anything. 1000 drawings is an empowerment project that culminates in a one-night-only, massive inner-city art sale to raise funds for a deserving cause. Daz and I participated in a few doodle Sessions and it was so amazing to finally see this huge event come together at last. 

It's so interesting to see what people draw when given the chance haha, everyone could participate from a famous artist to a small child. It was a real visual feast.

Managed to spot a few of me and Daz's doodles too before they were snatched up! :) The way it worked was at the door you were given an envelope with two stickers ( both had the same number on them ) you would then walk around browsing till you found something you liked- BUT you could only tag the one you wanted with a sticker at 7pm. So there were alot of people hovering over drawings but no cat fights... as far as I saw anyways haha. Then at 8:30 you could collect your drawing and put it in an envelope. You also had the option of buying more if you wanted.

It was really enjoyable and I dont doubt alot of money was raised well done Shani and

 team ! :)

For more photos please visit my facebook album:

Click here for 1000 Drawings Facebook album

Colored Paper doodles

Artists what do you do to get out of a rut? 

- I was in one recently, staring at a blank page is no fun. What usually works to snap me out of it is a visit to my local art store. I try to buy paper or medium that I either havnt used before or havnt touched in a while. This time I bought a bunch of colored paper and pastel pencils. Changing things up can really work to get creative juices flowing 

Lines beautiful lines...

Working on some Character linework....

Free Comic Book Day - Cape Town

Free Comic Book Day is an annual worldwide festive event where some 2000 shops all over the world participate to give away more than 2 million comics to fans for free in order to promote the comics medium as a form of art, literature, education and entertainment.

This was my first time at the FCBD in Cape Town. Was so impressed by the scale of it! I also met alot of amazing artists, not to mention really learn about the South African comic book Industry! Check it out next year!

Head over to my fb page to check out the rest of the gallery:

http://tinyurl.com/kd4gyyb

365 Challenge Done!

Yeay! I am happy to announce my 365 Challenge ( creating a piece of art a day for 365 days ) is now finally completed! It's 

Unreal that a year has passed already. 

It followed me through Norway, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa and I really loved the amount of experimentation it got me doing. It's now time to move onto some new challenges. 

I've heard this is a bit of a global thing. If anyone has completed a 365 challenge. Would love to hear from you. How did you find it?

Crocs!

Another slow gouache, sanguine ink and Polychromos pencil illustration, this time of Crocs! These creatures have such awesome shapes. Wish they were this cute in real life. :)

Repap Stone Paper Review

So a quick review on the REPAP STONE PAPER from Italy:

It's extremely smooth and all media slides over it nicely but a few things I have noticed:

- Pencil - It is very very hard to erase any type of pencil on this paper. Be especially car

eful when using a clutch pencil as when you push too hard it makes an indentation.

- Marker - These surprisingly do bleed into the paper a millimeter or two so if you want to use a really thin marker pen be aware of that.

- Artist Pen - This was my favorite to use on this paper. You just have to be careful to let it dry a couple seconds or you will smear your art.

- Normal Ball Point pen - Slides super smoothly over the paper but also most likely leave indentations if you press too hard.

- Water just sits on top of it. I left a few drops sitting there for a couple of minutes and then just wiped them off no problem. They left no marks.

- Paper thickness - The paper is slightly transparent so if you press too hard or use alot of marker color it will show on the reverse side.

My final thoughts: 

Beginners who like to use pencil and erase alot will not like this paper as it's more suited to confident penwork. I'm not really impressed by how transparent it is as this leaves the reverse side unusable. It's a pleasure to draw on though because of its smoothness....and hey if you spill your tea on it you just have to wipe it off!

This was just an initial test on one page. I'm going to start using the rest of the sketchbook and post more thoughts once I've been sketching in it for a while.

If anyone else experiments with Repap please let me know what you think!

Repap Stone Paper!

Just bought something interesting yesterday. A sketchbook with paper made from... Stone! The paper is 100% tree free, it is instead made up of 80% calcium carbonate and 20% non toxic resins. All recycled materials which is waterproof and the 'stone paper' called 'repap' is in itself recyclable. 

I shall have a go at it and post my thoughts in the near future. 

If anyone out there has used this, would love to hear what you think.

And here's a quick fishy illo i threw out over the wend! Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Cheetah!

There's something about the feel of traditional media. Here's a slow gouache, sanguine ink and Polychromos pencil illustration of one of the most beautiful creatures in Africa. 

Had the privilege of spending time with a few cheetah over Christmas in Namibia. Their aerodynamic bodies are just beautiful to draw. They're also alot bigger than you think !!! 

1000 Drawings - Doodle Session for a cause 02

Another great drawing session last night for 1000 Drawing Initiative. Only managed to do two doodles this time. There is such a social atmosphere and so many other great artists, you end up walking around to see what everyone is up to! The Deckle Edge sponsored all the great art supplies. Thanks Deckle edge!