latest-news

Morning Tea Party for 'Kayak for a Cure'

Fri, 04 May 2012 09:50:46 +0100

You're invited to a morning tea party and fundraiser for the 'Kayak for a Cure' team who are paddling the Murray River this year to raise awareness and funds for the Australian Cancer Research Institute

All the info is on the EVENTS page of this website

CLICK HERE & Please RSVP if you can make it!

Thistle and Fox at the Cuddle Craft Auction

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 02:44:24 +0100

This is Flora, one of my little felt foxes from my new textiles, accessories and children's label, Thistle and Fox.
I'll be designing prints for fabrics, creating children's wear and one of a kind garments for ladies too! Also on the horizon: bags, headbands, hair accessories, silk scarves and baby quilts.

Flora is a hand stitched pocket sized felt stuffling made from wool blend felt, scraps of quilting cotton and vintage lace trim (the pattern comes from Shelly at Gingermelon.etsy.com)
She will be auctioned online for the Cuddle Craft Collective charity auction March 18-25, 2012.

For more info, please visit the Cuddle Craft Collective website by clicking on the banner above.

One of my charm bracelets will also be included in the auction. Make sure you visit the website and keep a look out on my facebook page for updates!

How to Create a Wizard's Workshop

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 05:41:37 +0100

This may not be a 'how-to' with instructions but it visually shows how my latest work 'A Wizard's Best Friend' came to be, giving you an insight into my process of working when creating a photo mixed media digital artwork.

Each step is achieved by carefully cutting out shapes, photos, textures; layering them with painting, adding shadows, lighting and color to develop an illustration that looks as though it were truly a wizard's workshop.

See the finished artwork here

Camera Fund and Stock Photos

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:18:56 +0100

My latest obsession: DSLR cameras and lenses!
I'm still drooling over the possibility of a Canon EOS 550D as it seems to get consistently great reviews

CAMERA FUND... Can you help?

Over the past few weeks I have been saving every dollar I can to put towards my camera fund. You'll notice I've become increasingly desperate and added a donation box to the right of this blog...

This is mainly to help with purchasing a lens kit so that I can start taking really great portrait stock photography to use in my artwork. As many fellow digital artists will know, finding high quality stock images with a commercial license agreement is really tricky unless you can afford to pay the vast amounts of $ to buy extended licences. There is plenty of 'free' stock out there which is great but the copyright owners are not often willing to allow commercial use in artworks that will be sold for publishing purposes and in commercial artwork so I decided to go down the path of using as much of my own photography as possible. If I own the copyright to all the resources I use in my artwork then it takes away all those hassles.
Speaking of stock photos...

I NEED MODELS

I'm on the lookout for men to turn into goat legged fawns, satyrs and centaurs, medieval warriors and mermen.
If you are man, or if you know a man with really hairy legs who isn't shy of the camera, then check out this page for all the info.

Nymphs and Satyr by William Bouguereau

If you've never visited my stock photography account then check out Goblin-stock on deviantArt. It mostly contains my nature stock photos but there are also many model stock photos available for unrestricted use provided a few simple 'politeness' rules are followed.

Enchanted Garden

Sat, 14 May 2011 04:03:58 +0100

I've been crawling around the garden on my hands and knees looking for tiny subjects to photograph. This enthusiasm for macro photography is quite new and its been a surprise to find that my little camera isn't all that bad after all.... it can take pretty decent closeups. It's just everything else that it finds too challenging.

But horray for gift vouchers! For the first time in my life I won a substantial prize in a website design comp and I plan to put the winnings to good use. A decent DSLR camera has been on my wishlist for a very long time... so with a few more weeks of saving I will be able to go camera shopping!

In the meantime I'm reading alot and learning as much as I can about photography and I've made a promise to myself that I will actually read the manual before I use the camera this time ;)

Birthday Announcements

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:30:45 +0100

Thankyou to all my friends who wished me a happy birthday today

It was a magnificent birthday with lots of chocolate cake!

I am completely content now :)

But what about the big announcement!?

First of all, I am delighted to announce that my first art exhibition will be held in Coffs Harbour at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery, starting on April 1st at 6pm. Come along if you're local and you can quiz me on my life as an artist....

Secondly, I have been hanging out for so long to tell you this:

My artwork 'Forest Spirit'

will be the new cover artwork for Charles de Lint's fantasy novel 'Eyes Like Leaves' due to be published early 2012.

Horray!

More news soon... till then, Take care & hugs to all

xxx

Treasure Hunting

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 07:40:03 +0100

No, not the kind of treasure hunt that requires a map and a shovel...

There is a very addictive feature of Etsy called the 'Treasury'. I've been curating treasuries for a while now but lately I seem to have gotten into the swing of things and now I cant stop!

I love collecting and arranging themed features of all my favorite things from the huge variety of talented artisans that sell their work on Etsy. Each treasury tells a little story and seeing as my head is full of picture stories, the treasury format suits me very well.

Here are a few of my recent collections:

And here are the first two in my series of fairytale inspired treasuries

You can check out all of the treasuries I've curated in the past here & keep an eye out for future inspiration and shopping features on my facebook page

I'll see ya'll 'round there sometime ....

xxx

Drawing Contest on my DeviantArt Page

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:55:04 +0100

For any traditional and digital artists, from beginners to professionals:

Left Brain ~ Right Brain Contest

Are you right handed or left handed? Perhaps you are ambidextrous?
For this contest, we challenge you to complete a drawing of anything you wish using the hand you would not normally use when drawing. You could even hold the pencil with your foot or your mouth... Challenge yourself to use both sides of your brain.
You may surprise yourself with the results!

Medium:
Traditional Drawing - Digital Drawing
The entries will be divided into these two categories & will be judged separately.
Yes you can use color... your entry does not have to be a black & white line drawing

Deadline:
The contest runs from Jan 30th until March 1st

More info and a few pics are on the way....

Click HERE to visit my deviantArt page

The Wrencatcher

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 07:36:47 +0100

As promised, I took screen-caps throughout the painting process of my latest artwork 'Wrencatcher'.

CLICK each preview to download the fullsize tutorial

Part 1

Part 2

Enjoy xxx

Welcome

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 02:56:59 +0100

Hello
Welcome to my new website!
It looks a little sparse... at the moment ;) But I'll keep working away at it....
As soon as I get my head around the little tricks & cheats to make this machine work there will be lots of things to see in the gallery. This is my first solo attempt at creating a webpage... wish me luck!

xxx