Raven's Eye View

 Oh dear, I've gone all dark and stuff! When the French knights, mired in mud, were fallen from their horses the English bowmen rushed forwards with daggers and mallets to find weak spots in their armour. The battle's aftermath would have provided a feast for ravens and other scavengers. There will be at least one more related picture.

Materials: gel and marker pens, coloured pencils, water colours and Games Workshop acrylic paints.

For those interested in this 15th century battle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt

Devil Tree

 

I painted this yesterday when I was camping. This is drawn from a real tree with just some minor embellishments. My original colors were digitally changed to sepia.

Favourite Campsite

 

Holly With Portrait Group

This is yet another of my quick sketches of the Portrait group sketching.

 

Another Page From My Travel Journal Zine - My Grandfather I Never Met

 I used watercolour on this one. I'm quite pleased with the result. My Zine festival zine is quite a mix with m passing through the tiny 'town' of Powelltown being part of my trip. It was a homage to my father's family. My paternal grandfather was a tough cookie. Once he was chopping firewood and cut his leg with the axe. He just kept cutting wood and when he entered the house his wife removed his gumboot, which was full of blood.

My newest Zine - The Journey, Zine Daze, Healesville

 My latest zine is a bit of a departure as it is a kind of stream of consciousness about a trip I toll to a zine day.

 Here are the first three pages. Yes, it is a true story although the 'Muse' did not wear an ancient Greek helmet...

I am selling the zine so if you want to know what else happened you will have to buy one from me!

Portrait Group, Holly

 Today, at the portrait group I did this cartoon picture of our model, Holly.

Sekhmet

 The ancient Egyptian lion goddess by request...

Stevie Nicks & Songs

 Here are the answers to an earlier post quiz.

The Romanovs

 I have been intrigued by some old photos of the Tsar and family prior to and during WW1 and the Russian Civil War and Revolution. I have been rendering some of these into gel pen and coloured pencil.

Shopping With females

 

Sandringham Beach, Late Afternoon

 

                                   I drew this, on the beach, with gel pen and coloured pencils

Mystery Songs and 70s Singer

 Okay, this is something new for me. You have to come up with the answers from the clues in the picture.

Three songs are referred to, all by the same 70s singer. One of the clues is from a common mishearing of a lyric!

A tribute to Uncle Des Darvell.

I was at my cousin, Kerrie's place, yesterday morning, when I noticed a framed paint flecked photo of her dad, my uncle. I decided to draw a copy in my sketchbook. I used gel pen and colored pencils.

  Here are the scans, one in  black and white and one in color.  I have been doing quite a few colored pencil illustrations in my current sketchbook and will upload more over the next few days.

   Des would have loved this but unfortunately he is no longer here to see it. (As an adult he told me to call him just Des, rather than Uncle Des). I am thinking of doing a series on my uncles and aunties because they were so good to me and very interesting.

Tommy, The Tomato Plant Must Stay Inside.

 

I drew this after buying a tomato plant when it was still too cold to put in the ground. (I must report that Tommy is doing fine and is now in the ground, breathing the fresh air and soaking up the sunshine).

  Oh, yeah, that is me and my cat, Chloe wondering why I am talking to a plant instead of to cats, like normal people do. Her face is not white but it was easier to leave it white to get her facial expression.

Mick and Hoppa Discover a Goldilocks Planet

                                           This is a page from my comic zine, Space Crusade.'

The Evolution of Hoppa & a VERY Early Drawing.

 I am the kind of person who does not easily get rid of stuff. 'Springy and Nosey' lay dormant, from 1970, a long time but at some point, in the 1980s they morphed into Mick and Hoppa. 

 Below is my recent cartoon from Space Crusade and Hoppa has become more human in shape, just like a Disney anthropomorphic character. I am unsure if I'll continue drawing him that way.

Below is the Springy and Nosy drawing by 11 year old me in 1970. I didn't really go anywhere with it until I was in my 20s and it became Mick and Hoppa.

Since then the characters have gone through different phases of depiction and adventures. 

I never really wanted Hoppa to look like a real kangaroo but more like Mickey mouse, as I liked the light bulb shaped black nose and big ears! I also made him yellow rather than brown-grey.

   

Below is a cartoon based on my cycling, hitching adventures in America in the 90s. I took a sketch book along with my backpack. Mick and Hoppa filled in for me and went where I did. Basically, they were my alter-ego. (Note, I didn't volunteer for the bowling ball and chainsaw show but someone did!)

)

This one is from 2018. I extended the strip to more social commentary.

Back cover of my Politically Incorrect Adventures of Mick and Hoppa, 2016

One of the cartoons in the comic. Whilst people like to rib President Trump I made a gentle reminder about other leaders but, no, I took artistic license with Lincoln's 'divided nation' comment at Gettysburg. But I did have a cat called Sheena.

A 2013 cartoon inspired by my stop in Hawaii.

Cover of my 2016 comic

A zine from a few years back. Mick became less child-like and more impish, with distorted facial expressions.

Portrait group in Yellow

 

Liz Sketching

 A 25 minute sketch at our portrait group...

                                                   Mick and Hoppa always were iconoclasts...

Anyhow, I am trying a looser finish for this cartoon with colored pencil rather than digital color. I'll be selling this zine in black and white, color and black and white with color covers. The rest of the story is still under wraps.

Lake Guthridge Monster

 The city of Sale has a very nice man-made lake frequented by walkers, joggers and picnic makers. Unfortunately, the man-eating geese have frightened certain female joggers who thought they might be woman-eaters.

  Fortunately, CSIRO, ever helpful, provided the Wellington council with the solution. A plesiosaur with intact DNA enabled cloning. Although fish make up most of the plesiosaur diet it is an opportunist and is making short work of the pesky and nastily defecating water birds.

  Strangely enough, the female joggers are no longer in evidence.

Zine Days Healsville 31 October to 1 November

 I had a stall at a Melbourne zine day some years ago. The zine scene had a big setback with Covid lockdowns and moved on-line. It is good to see that cartoonist, Danny Zemp, is organizing, with the help of a government grant, a free two day event at the end of this month. There will be over 70 stall-holders.

  It is worth keeping in mid tat the famous Healseville Sanctuary is close at hand.

  

  For those who don't know, zines are small, usually A5 booklets, sometimes made on a single folded and cut piece of paper, other times stapled about any theme. They can consist of poems, thoughts, experiences or/and art work.

  I'll be there with framed prints of my art and also the odd original framed work. I'll also have my sketchbooks for perusal and the various zines I have made. I expect to find plenty of material there for my next art work and I'll be drawing on the spot.

  My own zines have been mini stapled comics or collections of my art work. I am currently producing zines on various themes such as my cat, comic strips, Sunday market, places I have visited, and so on.

Promotional poster:

Examples of my zines and framed work:

Memories of 'What's On'

  In January 2020 I got together with two other blokes, Mark and Travis, to nut out a booklet to distribute at Gippsland supermarket and cafes. Mark was tom be the distributor and travis the printer.

  My job was mainly illustrating adds and contributing cartoons and articles. I had a fair amount of liberty in the ideas for my cartoons but kept out the violence and sex!

  Below is the page of notes and drawings I did of Mark and Travis. Not all the ideas were implemented and we hadn't come up with a name yet.

  We finally brought it all together and the booklets promoted local businesses and events. I found it a big boost to my art as I had to nut out new ideas every month. We kept it going a number of years and even through the Covid lockdowns.

  

   

Our designated nickname was The Three Amigos.

 

  

Sale Market Caricature

 Some people are very suitable for caricature, although I didn't exaggerate that much. I did the line drawing on site and colored it this morning. Spence hasn't seen the color version although he photographed the black and white one. Since then, I jazzed it up with snake dreadlocks and the colors are just out of my head.

Trees Holding Up Their Pants

 I got this idea when I was camping today. The lower parts of the gum trees had thick bark. but the rest of the trees were smooth.

  

Portrait Group, October, Olga and Rod.

 This is my favorite picture I did of Olga. The colors on the face were more subtle but I decided to enhance them on the computer.

                                                I was very happy with this profile of Rod.

Russian, Australian, Olga, posed for our group. The three drawings I did of her vary in style and appearance. The light tint was added from the computer, as I drew on white paper. Rod, was sitting next to me and I decided to draw him also, as he drew Olga.