Beetle, Girl and plants

There has been so many projects I have been putting off due to busy schedule and laziness. I am thinking about doing a group gallery show or taking part in an event.... this is the first piece I am thinking of displaying or possibly selling. I am still to think of a suitable name for the piece.

 Rough, starting to ink

 Close ups

Close ups

Summer and Holiday themed Colouring Images

Just before the School holidays I was commissioned to do some black and white line drawing to be used as colouring in images for Kiwi Families.
The brief stated for Spring or Holiday themed images, one for the boys and one for the girls.
I came up with a Spring Fairy image for the girls.

After inking her I felt like colouring her in too!

I actually liked the rough version better...

Inked up for colouring

And Tiki Tour Dragon for the boys.

The client told me that the dragon looks a bit too scary int he rough so I made him look less mean in the final version. A very fun commission :)

Download the high resolution colouring images from here!

Pumpkin Charlotte

It's not really the fall season here in NZ but I have decided to colour up "Pumpkin Charlotte" to go with the October season. Hopefully I will get around to doing more freaky Halloween images this week, I need to release some more darkness...

I drew this originally for Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps. The black and white line illustration of this is made into stamps by Sparkle Smith.

Rough

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps: October Releases

Today is the October release day for Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps!
I am so happy to be the illustrator for her products :) Sparkle is giving away the new stamps to some lucky winners, visit the store's BLOG for more info!

Below are my work process for the two new releases, "Chit Chat Lucy" and "Pink Ribbon Emily"

Also check out some of the beautiful cards made by the talented designers!

Yvonne Yam

Shaela Odd

Danielle Lounds

Simonne Clay

Jacky-o'-Babysitter

I have always liked the Halloween season, this theme has so much icon and elements to play around with image wise!

I'm always too lazy busy to come up with a decent Halloween piece and I have been drotting down thumbnails of Halloween ideas in my notebook for many years now. Hopefully this year I will get around to trying out some of them. Here goes the first of hopefully many more spooky illustrations to come over the next few weeks!

I call this one... "Jacky-o'-Babysitter".

Sketch version. I always like the sketches better....

Lily in a Pink Pickle

A post on the 6th book in Lily series "Lily gets in a Pink Pickle", written by Elizabeth Pulford and published by Scholastic. Gosh, I really enjoy illustrating the Lily books. Being set in the world of Angels and fairy dusts, I can bring in more imaginative elements to all the character designs, clothing and settings.

Here are the roughs and final images used for the cover designs.

After reading the manuscript I felt that Frumplepuss (the fat cat), cushion and feathers are three key elements that should work nicely on the cover (and Lily of course).

Lily doing her duties in the library. I had to make the library trolley more "orthodox".

Lily doing more angelic chores at the Amelia's Angel Academy

Some character roughs for the new characters that appear in the book.

Angel Alice. Angel Mercy-May. Angel Laurestine

Lily collecting her entry form at the Seraph Cat Centre. 

I had so much fun refining the character design of Angel Mercy May. She is in charge of the Cherub Cat show so I wanted to make her look full of authority and a bit cat-like. I guess the first image made her look just a bit fat and lazy (and a bit tad too much with the pointy tie-up boots and the bosoms- as the editor nicely told me). So the second illustration was used for the final book.

Cats, fat lady, chaos.... what not to love!

Go Girl 12: The Worst Gymnast

Announcing the release of the 12th book in the Go Girl series.

The original Go Girl series were released about a decade ago. Hardie Grant Egmont is relaunching the whole series with the illustration done by ME! Above is the original cover for this 12th book, "The Worst Gymnast". You can see my work process for the new cover / character.

And some roughs for the internals illustration.

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps releases

I've missed announcing the last few months worth of new leases at the Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps.
Apologies!

My recent favorite release was the Cowboy Cowgirl combo of Josh and Chloe! Had so much fun working on these!

 Inked for final image

Roughs

And here are the summer stamps duo, Beach Chloe and Watermelon Rin.

And a couple of lifestyle stamps of Video game Oliver and Soccer Josh.

Hopefully when I have time I can colour some up... especially the cowboy images!
Check out Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps facebok page to see how the talented craft makers are using these stamps to come up beautiful designs. Below are some of my picks.

 Piali Biswas

Savannah O'Gwynn

Sheri Gilson

Dorothy

Its been a while since I have blogged. Been a rather sad winter for me. My Dorothy has passed away.

She came to me at my first Christmas in New Zealand. She has been my daughter, friend, familiar for more than 2/3 of my life. I can't really imagine my life without her. It feels like an important period in my life has ended.

Usually when our furry or not so furry members of the family pass away we bury them in our garden and plant a tree on top. But for Dorothy I turned her into stardust. When I feel ready and have found the right tree I will choose a nice place for her burial.

In the mean while her casket is placed on top on Pocky's.

My brother's sausage dog that passed away last year.

Mum sent through the above photo saying that they had a little ceremony.

I visited Dorothy a week before she decided to leave this world. She looked fine to me. No teeth, a bit smelly, a bit wobbly, but she's been like that for the past decade. I always assumed that she was a mortal living. Guess she had other plans. Sneaky girl.







Really, this winter was the worst. Meichan, our sexy goat decided to leave us too.

Also our handsome girl Milk. She was only 14 years old, still very young and active... sadly was in an accident.

JiJi, mum's beloved love bird

And our two chooks and finch.....

Any my partner decided to have a serious head injury during his last rugby game, just to make things more dramatic! Been over two months now. Still unable to drive long distance or go back to work but thanks to all the specialists' guidance and the rehab programme things have been improving immensely.

Hopefully things get better as the weather gets warmer.