The Karate Kid Painting Montage

Going through my hard drives made me stumble on some old WIP files of my Karate Kid painting I did awhile back. What a joy it was too.

Although I still watch the movie on a religious basis, artistically it was the European Masters exhibition held at the NGV last year that really made me want to stick with this painting - it was a study.

It was a real privilege to see such works at that exhibition - but what amazed me was the artists' richness, variety and control in their darks - things you'd never notice on crumby scanned or photographed images on the internet. Works like this one by Edgar Degas were one of many inspirations for the Karate Kid painting that I should credit in the video above.

Hope you enjoy it anyway!

'The Big Squeeze' for Fountain Sauces

Fountain's latest campaign is now live and on the airwaves! If you haven't seen it already, check out the video above.

I was lucky enough to work with director Stephen Watkins of XYZ Studios on the CG animation advertisement. Cute!

Fittingly, I worked on the old, cranky Salt and Sugar shakers who, like me, have a problem with young punk tomatoes running amok. You've been warned tomatoes, you've been warned.

iPad Painting from Live Model and video

Keeping things fresh by changing the process for this one. Colour is one of my favourite subjects and I saw a technique by Jeff Watts where he'd first lay down 'abstract notes of colour" - ie anything he feels like. I guess it harks back to Harley Brown's book where he talks about making sure you aren't timid about your painting from the get-go.

Mucking up the painting up from the start did relax me, I must admit, but since it was on the iPad there was always a thought in the back of my mind that I could undo this. So...not as brave as I could have been.

The video of the process is below. I firstly did a sketch before a 2 hour live model session and scanned it in, Placed it on a layer, and went ahead.

Done with the Brushes App.

Modern Game Art: Weapons with Jon Rush - CGWorkshop

Jon Rush gave a workshop on "Modern Game art weapons". There were buttons clicked I didn't even know existed. As you can tell, it was a fun course. Highly recommend it!

Seascape Plein Air with iPad inc video

Yet another iPad finger painting using the Brushes App which STILL remains the most responsive and simplest painting app out there.

People often ask me about the glare off the screen. Although, yes, it does exist, if you crank up the brightness to max and paint under some shade there really isn't any problem. Which got me in thinking, how great this thing will be for night plein airs with a back lit screen? Next time perhaps.

Hope you enjoy the video process too.

Baby Lionel Messi

For such a beast in the game of football, Messi has one of the most softest faces, kind, cuddly. Hardly someone to be feared on the pitch. His likeness has endless possibilities though, and this one somehow ended up like a 3D baby version of him...with stubble.

Dr Sketchy's Melbourne and Life Drawing

Pencil, rough paper, scanned into Painter - Square chalk and Gessoed canvas paper

Chalk pens seem to react best to the surface. So it seemed a nice complement to a 'real' drawing on toothy paper. All settings on default as far as I know

Watercolour brush and burnt umber Tombo Pen

Found a Tombo pen at an art store and thought I'd take it for a spin. Not sure what sort of people use it, perhaps fashion designers? I do like them because they work with water so well, but when the paper dries, you are still able to chisel in the hard edges.