Sydney Town Hall - iPad Plein air

This was done on the iPad again on the Brushes App in front of Sydney Town Hall. I was lucky enough to get it on a gorgeous day.

Sydney isn't a bad place at all. Great weather, beautiful landmarks lots of inspirational places to sit and draw. Here I sat inside the Kinokuniya book store opposite Town Hall painting for about 2 hours. The security guard was sussing me out every 15 minutes trying to figure out what I was doing. Although it's on iPad advertising now, I guess painting is not what normal people do when they visit a bookstore. Looking forward in seeing what else Sydney has in store.

Video here:

Rupert Murdoch at the 2012 Bald Archy

This year I decided to enter a caricature of Rupert Murdoch who, in 2011, fell waaaay from grace and was whittled down to a blubbering old man in front of the world.

As always, tried a different process for this piece with mixed results. This time I started off with a sketch of basic shapes and lines and worked out my key exaggeration points. Then straight to Zbrush where I quickly sculpted his head to get information about lighting and form. Finally off to painter where I used the render from 3D and painted it in 2D. So you could say it was a caricature on top of a caricature on top of a caricature?

Others than my first initial sketch, photographic reference from that point was rarely used. Whether that was a good idea or not, I'm not sure, but I definitely learnt a lot about the advantages and disadvantages.

Make sure you get down the exhibition wherever you are in Australia! Lots of great entries.

Julia Gillard sculpt WIP

I started modelling this late last year, but wow, wouldn't it be a waste of work if Julia Gillard somehow manages to lose tomorrow in the Labor leadership battle. So to ensure I get at least some use of the work I shall post this Work in Progress of Australia's...at least for now, current, Prime Minister.

And what a face she has too. So many unique forms, funny nuances and those ear lobes! Beautiful.

From a technical standpoint this was modelled from an ordinary ZSphere in Zbrush and retopo'ed a few times. The suit is hand modelled to achieve its crispness.

Still have a long way to go on it though. It would be a shame to stop now, so she better not lose!!

David Beckham, OMG

When one of your boyhood heroes rocks into town, there's really no stopping the childish giddiness associated with it. Late last year, David Beckham came into Melbourne in what would be described, a lacklustre game with crowd engagement at an all time zero. That didn't stop me however, from printing a portrait I did of him and holding it up in the crowd like someone would care.

Specifically for digital painting I wanted this roughness and bite to it that's rare in printing. After talking with the printers for awhile we settled on a paper called 'Breathing colour - velvet'. And although in photo form it doesn't show up very well, in reality the texture of the paper really lifts the stroke work. So I would recommend giving it a go. It may not be the cheapest thing to do, but it's certainly rewarding having something tangible to hold.

And for reference, here is Becks at the game. If I could just say, everyone writes him off being a superstar and only caring about his image - but on the field, my eyes fixated on him - I thought he had brilliant presence and sense that he actually cared about the team. Not to mention that he still has those skills.

Lux St Sin and Corel Painter 12

I spent alot of 2011 just experimenting with my digital painting and going to every brush and tweaking them to my liking. I began to make a switch from Photoshop to Painter because I believed, somewhere, there was a better engine that could create the look I wanted.

I wanted some 'guts' in my painting, some randomness. There are ofcourse brush settings in Photoshop that emulate this but nothing that makes the canvas feel as if the paint is still active.

Which brings me to brush attributes in Painter like 'resaturation' and 'feature'. You can control these to bring out surprises that actually make you feel excited about your work as you do it.

Coupled with the 'arists' variant brushes that create interesting shapes and mix paint accurately to what's already on canvas - every time you open the work you see something different that you've gotten for free.

Another piece of greatness about Painter is that it recognizes the pen you have in your hand. I've built up a collection of various Wacom Pens over time and I physically switch pens based on the tool I want. Yes you can set up a palette for your brushes, but some reason I found this method more intuitive and speedy.

This piece was of a Dr Sketchy's Session late last year of Lux St Sin - who was wearing a striking Asian outfit with strong makeup. Great model. I tried to stick to only a few brushes

• Sargent Brush (edited with less spacing)


• Loaded Palette knife (reduced 'feature' setting)


• Grainy Water (Blender that reacts to Canvas)


• Soft Flat Oils (with a pen that detects rotation, this brush is excellent)

I've stuck by these brushes over the break and hopefully can post more of these experimentation's for you soon.

Nadeshiko Japan - Women's World Champions 2011

This is Homare Sawa and Nahomi Kawasumi of the Nadeshiko Japan soccer team who are the current FIFA Women's World Champions. I also thought that they had my pick of goal of 2011. This gigantic, split-second lob:



Art wise, this was done fully in Painter, again trying to use new brushes. In this case an edited Oily Bristle. I tried to mix it up by not only caricaturing their faces, but shadow patterns and designs to try to make it appealing. It was a fun study and process.

The Innsmouth Look

Inspired by HP Lovecraft's description of 'The Deep Ones', this is my own take on the ever popular Innsmouth Look. These are hybrid human's who, as they age, get consumed by fish or frog-like features and seep back into those murky waters of Innsmouth. Little creepy for my tastes so he has a bit of my weird spin on it.

This was sculpted in Zbrush 4 R2, rendered in Zbrush 4 R2 and composited in Photoshop. Although it's been awhile since I used purely Zbrush to composite out a render, the process has improved a tonne using BPR. No more accidently shifting things, forgetting focal settings, painting in cast shadows etc. Just render separate passes and plug into Photoshop. It feels as if it's not a hack anymore but a focused streamlined process that more and more people are taking advantage of. Fun indeed.