The latest issue of the fine Australian anthology comic Oi, Oi, Oi! is now available in the ComicOz Shop, I'm guessing for a limited time (as some previous issues have sold out). Better yet is the deal on a 4 issue subscription!

As I've mentioned here before, I'm a fan of Australian bush impressionist painter, Frederick McCubbin (and The Heidelberg School in general), so my three page piece is a tribute to his wonderfully evocative triptych, The Pioneer.

Something that occurred to me about this set of paintings, is that it really should be called "The Pioneers" - hence the title of my comic piece.

In a sense, this triptych has always seemed to me like a big, wordless, comic format story, told in only three panels, and I have heard various interpretations of it over the years. My piece was originally conceived as an outright comic pastiche, but the style became more formal as it progressed. I also wanted to test myself with adapting a painterly piece into pure black-and-white linework, and for added difficulty I thought an impressionist painting was a good place to start with this.


Of course, my story does show what happens when I take my smutty little mind to The Art Gallery, but I think it also says something I wanted to about plain old long-term relationships and the passage of life. If you want to see my other Frederick McCubbin adaptation, that can be found on this Blog, see: Lost.

Labels: Australian comics, Painting

Anyone into comics needs to have seen the great Wally Wood's Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work!! at some point.

Inspired by this timeless comicking advice, Tim McEwen and Jules Faber of the Australian Cartoonists' Association have put together a 22 Panels Exhibition, presented by Supernova Pop Culture Expo.  It will be at The Wedge Gallery, Books Kinokuniya, Level 2, The Galeries, 500 George Street, Sydney, opening on Thursday evening, 30th October, and running until Saturday, 16th November. There will be an art book/catalogue documenting the works for sale. Also, some of the original pieces will be available to buy.

For more information, please see the 22 Panels Exhibition Facebook page.

The exhibition will feature framed original art from 22 Australian comics creators and cartoonists: David Blumenstein, Jason Chatfield, Christopher Downes, Anton Emdin, Dave Emerson, Jules Faber, Rob Feldman, First Dog On Moon, Sarah Firth, Roger Fletcher, David Follett, Hayden Fryer, Mark Guthrie, Frantz Kantor, Glen Le Lievre, Glenn Lumsden, Tim McEwen, Bruce Mutard, Dean Rankine, Daniel Tribe, Cathy Wilcox, and at Panel 21, me :).

Here are a couple of shots of my progress work on the multimedia piece I made for this Exhibition.

I took some liberties in terms of interpreting the panel I was allocated, just following the way the topic inspired me.  The picture actually tells a kind of story, in the sense that it raises questions beyond just being a newspaper frontpage, and it could function in a comic sequence in a similar way.

The media used is primarily ink and gouache, with some traditional screentone.

It's rare for me to consider selling original art, but I think I will offer this one for sale at the Exhibition at a reasonable price. 



 

Labels: Australian cartoonists, Australian comics, Painting

This old painting of mine was my first thought when the topic of "Sky" came up for Illustration Friday.


 This was during my painting period, something I plan to come back to eventually. The black-shouldered kite was a familiar sight, hovering in the late afternoon sky over the backblocks of Aspendale, where we were living then. I had an absolute concept of how I wanted this to look, with the shoulder bars working as an outline against the sky. The framing was part of how I conceived it should look.

Originally, I planned to paint in clouds in a linear style, but the kite looked so good against a plain background that I left it this way. What surprised me was how brown the white paint appeared when applied to blue underpainting. The only solution was to add blue to the white paint before applying it, although I made the wings using a series of transparent washes, one feather at a time.

The main reason I don't paint more is that I don't have enough spare time during daylight, which it needs to work right. The picture here isn't very good, as it was taken with a flash (which I've left in on the frame), but here's an even worse attempt, taken outside on the deck tonight. I have no idea how to photograph my paintings, which is why you don't see many of them here.

Labels: Australian wildlife, Painting