Graphic Art, Design, Illustration and Animation
Animals of Tasmania: Wildlife of an Incredible Island is a book that documents and describes a host of Tasmanian species, including the iconic Tasmanian Devil, the mysterious Thylacine, the magnificent Wedge-tailed Eagle and the endangered Orange-bellied Parrot. These animals and many more have their own stories of . . . Read More . . .
The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a large native carnivorous marsupial that was driven to extinction in Tasmania. The tragic story of the animal continues to fascinate many people both in Tasmania and overseas, and although many unverified . . . Read More . . .
I’ve recently been diving in to the wonderful tutorials and art lessons by former Disney animator and wildlife artist Aaron Blaise. I’m always interested in the work of other artists, and it’s been really refreshing for me to put my own ideas and techniques aside for a while and learn some new ways of thinking,Read More…
A digital/Photoshop study of a lioness that I copied by following a demonstration by Aaron Blaise.
I’ve always loved animations and cartoons. I have dabbled with a few little things over the years, but have recently been studying a few more techniques and processes online. This is an early effort with a hand-drawn animation that is based upon drawings by Preston Blair. It’s a very challenging art form, but tremendously rewardingRead More…
Regardless of whether you are a WordPress beginner or an advanced developer, DesktopServer from ServerPress is a powerful and convenient tool that can greatly speed up your website development process. Even better news is that the trial version of DesktopServer is free, runs on both Windows and Mac, and allows three WordPress sites to runRead More…
Australian decimal currency banknotes have a fascinating design history. A 1968 Penrose Annual article by renowned graphic designer Alistair Morrison provides a detailed account of the working methods of the team of graphic designers who collaborated on Australia’s first decimal currency banknotes. In early 1963 the Commonwealth Government announced that a new decimal currency systemRead More…
I have a real interest in design history and I often find inspiration from early styles of graphic art. I recently acquired another copy of The Penrose Annual from a second-hand book store and as usual it contains a treasure trove of images and designs. I love this old advertisement for Kodak in the styleRead More…
The astronaut/space theme that I have adopted for my website is a fun way of expressing a number of related ideas. I was born in 1965 – halfway through the decade that culminated with Neil Armstrong’s first “small step” upon the Moon. I have many early childhood memories of watching the first televised imagesRead More…
My design for the cover of the Mercury‘s guide to the 2018 state election owes everything to the brilliant work of Mercury photographer Richard Jupe. Richard’s great talent for putting his subjects at ease, coupled with his extensive experience in lighting, composition and staging is clearly evident in this stunning combined portrait of Labor partyRead More…
The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a large native carnivorous marsupial that was driven to extinction in Tasmania. The tragic story of the animal continues to fascinate many people both in Tasmania and overseas, and although many unverified sightings have been reported since the last one died in Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo in 1936,Read More…
As an art and graphic design student I often pored over the Penrose Annual collection in the art school library. They were a treasure trove of printing techniques, typeface designs, advertising artwork and illustrations, and I would be enthralled as I turned the pages. I couldn’t believe my luck recently when I found a copyRead More…
Animals of Tasmania: Wildlife of an Incredible Island is a book that documents and describes a host of Tasmanian species, including the iconic Tasmanian Devil, the mysterious Thylacine, the magnificent Wedge-tailed Eagle and the endangered Orange-bellied Parrot. These animals and many more have their own stories of survival, tragedy and hope in one of theRead More…
In 1990 I completed a series of Antarctic wildlife drawings and watercolours. This series, called Southern Life, was purchased by the University of Tasmania for their fine art collection. Later, in 2007, they were on display in an exhibition at the University. It was a great honour to exhibit work alongside George Davis and FredRead More…
Tasmanian author Russell Kelly approached me to design and illustrate a book cover for his new novel Only The Empty Sky. I loved the story that Russell had written and quickly became very inspired by the challenge of producing a classical natural history style illustration to suite the tone of the text. Developing the conceptRead More…
I have known Don Knowler for many years — we worked together at the Mercury before Don retired a little while ago. I illustrated many of his weekly columns on Tasmanian native birds and wildlife, and it was a great pleasure to work with someone who has such a deep interest in nature and wildlifeRead More…
In Mawson’s Footsteps was a three-part magazine series published by the Mercury in partnership with the Tasmanian Government and Norske Skog, Boyer. The series commemorated the 100th anniversary of Douglas Mawson’s expedition to Antarctica in 1912, and I was very excited when given the task of designing the three magazines. This presented the opportunity ofRead More…
This is a series of zodiac signs that I completed for the Mercury‘s daily guide to the stars . It was nice to be able to explore a few different concepts for some of the signs and to try to break away a little from the more common interpretations of the zodiac. My favourite isRead More…