Due to work commitments, This painting’s been sitting unfinished against the wall of my studio for a while, I’d love to finish it. Anybody want to commission this one? It’s a large piece (74x 100 cm) (acrylics, I’d like to finish it in oils though…)) email me for details…. pocockillustration@gmail.com
Hi guys, just a quickie to remind you that the ‘Mythical Creatures’ stamps are available from the Australia Post online shop, here’s the link:
http://shop.auspost.com.au/stamps/stamps-issues/mythical-creatures
I spent a wonderfully different weekend at the brilliant CYA conference in Brisbane. It’s true… I crawled out of my hidey hole and ventured out into the big wide world and spent Saturday and Sunday surrounded by lovely books and book lovers, creators and editors. I made some new friends and rekindled some old friendships… Had a great time. There’s something about spending time with like minds… (particularly when you’re an artists) it helps to keep one grounded (or at least quite happy in orbit. I was happily humbled (the brilliant Sarah Davis) gave my portfolio a very honest critique and as she cast her discerning eyes across my doodlings and scribblings, I somehow felt a part of me open up and prepare for my next wave of learning… it’s an incredible experience, to be in the company of peers and masters, it helps you to look at your work in a completely new light (and wish the very same light was switched off at times…). So anyway, now I’m all recharged and raring to go. I’ll be spending my spare time (chokes on coffee… spare time?) painting new work for my portfolio… For those interested, I’ll be moving back to traditional mediums for this, I’ve been itching to make the switch for a while so I’ll be using this time to get my painting back up to scratch. I started a new one in watercolour this eveing…ah watercolour! Such a liberating medium…
Back to the conference… What an action -packed two days… I sat in on some incredible lectures, Anne Spudvilas and Sarah Davis were so very inspiring, got to chat to some big named authors, I offered advice where it was needed, signed autographs, carried tables, drank coffee, drew pictures… drank coffee…. drank coffee (etc). I’m very much looking forward to next years conference. Tina Marie Clark and Ally Howard work their socks off to make these events so very enjoyable for everyone. Highly recommended!
Well, here it is… It came around quickly for me this year, what about you? I’ve been busy with the kids (aged almost four and two) and have been doodling away madly. Things are going great, but my, doesn’t time fly! (or is it just going fast because I’m now officially over-the-hill?)… A big thankyou to everyone for the kind words and to those who’ve commissioned me for artwork, I’ve had another varied year and some very interesting jobs to keep me busy, hope next years as good a year as this one’s proven to be!
Merry Christmas, happy Yuletide, Happy Holidays, however you say it, it means the same thing… don’t forget, it’s the season for ‘giving’.
I’m working on a little thingy right now… sketched up some conceptual stuff for the dragon in the story last night….
Here’s how it sat within the drawing once I’d made my mind up…. (I’ll post the finished art once I’ve drawn/painted it up properly)
I’m enjoying documenting my working process lately, it somehow helps me to cement the way I work and makes the creation of each image easier and easier. This one was a quickie I worked on over the weekend, I’ve been wanting to get back into using traditional media as much as possible so I took out the watercolours and painted away…..
Materials used: Arches 300gsm hot press watercolour paper, art spectrum, Daler Rowney, Winsor & Newton and Schminke artists quality watercolours, Art Spectrum white gouache for highlights and my wife’s hairdryer to dry between coats (speeds up the whole process)
Here’s my studio space setup for this painting:
step one
this is the sketch I’ve decided upon. it’s not drawn too tightly but there’s enough info to carry an ink line over the top, (I like to draw with the ink pens a little for a slightly ‘looser’, more spontaneous look.
step two
inking over the lines with generic drawing pens (using a .1 and a .3mm tip) paying particular attention to the main elements of the drawing, remembering at all times we’re painting over the top, so not becoming too bogged down with unnecessary cross-hatching etc. this is a very important step in the process.
step three
Using artists quality watercolours (I’ve chosen tubes rather than pans for this) we begin to lay down flat colours and a little texture for the cave wall. (the texture effect is achieved by dropping clean water into the wet paint, the water causes the paint to disperse).
step four
Moving throughout the whole image, never settling on any one particular area, we’re playing with the ‘form’ of each element within the image. We also lay in some colour inside the cave to give the illustration of depth.
step five
Still working on strengthening form, laying in colour washes and generally keeping a balance of warm and cool colours for harmony.
step six
Here we get down to makindarkening and strengthening the illustration. this is achieved by building up wash after wash of colour washes, all the while building them up and paying particular attention to tonal balance. We’d like our figure to stand out but not dominate the illustration.
step seven
This is my favourite part- getting into the details. More work is done tonally to achieve the look of the cracks and craters in the cave wall, a wash is laid over the entire wall to bring everything into balance, this in turn enables the eye to settle upon the main element of the painting- our wizard. For the details, I’ve mixed a little local colour with white gouache to add touches to the rocks and ground floor and pure white gouache was used on areas such as the hair on the wizard’s face and the trim of his cloak.
I spent yesterday afternoon in the rainforest with my son and came back with all kinds of inspiration. I love old roots curling and twirling around rocks and into the ground… just had to draw some as i was winding down after finishing my quota of work today….
My wife was watching her crime shows on TV last night so I thought I’d get the drawing pad and pens out and do a little drawing:
A quickie drawn as a warmup before I begin working for the day….
After a false start, I’ve repainted this image and am far happier with it. I’d recently completed two books that required approximately 140 illustrations. It was hard work and left me a tad ‘burnt out’. Getting started straight away on a new image in a totally different type of book was kind of what the doctor ordered, but in reality, I should have taken a bit of a break. No matter, the other served as a rough for this one:
It’s been quite a while in coming, but the music my pal Pete and I have been working on for Lloyd Sanderson for what seems like years has culminated in a CD at last. If anyone’s interested, swing by and have a listen to a few snippets:
http://www.lloydsanderson.com/
just hit the play button on the media player. Warning: This is old fart’s music, don’t play this if all you like to hear is pop/pap or boomboom music. (laughs). I’m playing guitars on the songs-quick, grab yer’ earplugs! And if you’re still interested after listening to it, there’ll be an unplugged video going up on the page next week some time…
(Above) Here’s the cover art I produced for the CD (I’d like to thank photoshop etcetc..)
Have a great weekend everyone.
Aaron.
I’m very busy with family stuff this weekend, but managed to slip out to catch my breath. Here’s a recent sketch I did on the PC…
I just found this old image on my hard drive. It’s about 7 years old, painted in watercolour, I don’t get to paint in traditional media very often, but I rather like this image which was originally painted as a still life.
Before I start my day at the drawing board, I generally do something to warm up. It may be drawing something completely new, reworking something I’ve done previously that I may not be entirely happy with or inking up old sketches. Here are a couple of older images from my sketchbooks that have been inked over the past few days….
‘Granny’s Magic Slippers’- originally drawn a couple of years ago….
‘Broom Cupboard’- a reworking of an old drawing from a couple of years ago…
‘Paint Like Arthur Rackham’- Commission for The Official Corel Painter Magazine. This image was discarded in favour of a simpler image. It was drawn on paper, scanned in, then inked and painted using Corel PainterX. I’ve already posted the line art for this in an earlier post…
I’ve just finished this TV drawing. I have to say that the inking is my favourite part, call me weird, but I absolutely adore scribbling over the faint graphite drawing with the pen- very satisfying indeed.
So… the photo shoot went really well. the photographer was a very interesting lady, plenty of fresh insights about life and things and I found the 2 1/2 hours just flew by. I didn’t even really mind having my picture taken, which is kind of a first for me. It did help that whatever flash she was using didn’t blind me in the process.
Workwise, things are looking good. Coming to the end of the book I’m working on, just one illustration to go and a cover then I’ll go through and tighten up a few patchy areas throughout the other illustrations then it’s done. I received another book commission through yesterday, so along with the other couple of things I have on the go, I’ve got me quite a nice little pile of illustrations to be working through over the next few months. My horscope yesterday said something along the lines of: “Be prepared for a very busy period ahead…” Seems they were right. Ten deep breaths, now focus Mr. Pocock….
Oh joy…. I woke up from a very fitful sleep this morning. After having intense dream after intense dream, I woke up and found it very difficult to get back to sleep again. Today, I have a photo shoot. Great… I look like I haven’t slept for a week and I have to try and get my wits about me for 2pm when the photographer arrives. She’s doing a project about the working methods of artists in the area and I was one of the chosen ones. I’m not a big fan of having my photo taken but professionally, it’ll give me more exposure so I’m not complaining. Much.
Wish me luck!!!!
Here’s a WIP of a young lady and a fairy having a chat high up in a tree. This is one of the drawings I’m currently working on in my spare time when I get a minute to crash in front of the TV and just scribble away for my own amusement. Traditional-pen and ink
Here’s an old sketchbook page containing heaps of birds of prey. This is fairly typical of what I get up to to keep my hand in when I’m not feeling particularly creative. Reference books and DVD’s are an illustrator’s friend when the muse buggers off and goes on holiday or pops away for the weekend.
What a fantastic day it’s been so far. I was quite suddenly woken up at 7 Am by my eldest son Niall…”Happy Father’s Day!!!” he exclaimed. Rubbing the sand from my eyes and bidding the wonderful dream I was in the middle of goodbye, I looked up to see my beautiful wife holding my youngest son Finn and Niall with an armful of gifts, and of course, the toys he can never put down they all jumped on the bed and I opened my gifts.
It’s Father’s Day here in Australia today. It’s been a pretty emotional journey through the day so far as I count my (many) blessings and gaze on at my boys with absolute love in my heart. I became a Dad at the age of 36, later in life for many, I just know I wouldn’t have been ready for such a role any earlier I also feel as though I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m about as happy as I’ll ever be and the overwhelming sense of pride and the surreal honesty of looking on at my sons as they play is almost more than I can bear at times. the tears aren’t far from the surface today
UPDATE…… Just gotten back from lunch at the local cafe and went to the park with the boys. Finn took his first step today!!! Also, his first tooth has come through…. Very exciting. 
My Dad, my sons Finn (left) and Niall (right) and I on Dad’s trip over from the UK a couple of months ago….
Niall (2 1/2 yrs old)
Finn (10 months old)
The boys and I at the park today… Can you tell I’m not a big fan of having my photo taken?
I did some work for a client yesterday, I had to produce a dragon silhouette for a company’s logo. It was a great job and I came up with a fair few designs I rather liked. A few of them were far too elaborate for a company logo though, this is one of them….
…Who makes the clothes for Superheroes?
Here’s an old sketch of a cool mandolin-playing Piskie enjoying some of nature’s finest herbs. graphite
As per my post yesterday, here’s an advanced viewing of some of the images from the ‘Ponkidoodle’ book that’ll be available very soon. The images were painted digitally using Corel PainterX and Photoshop CS3. funfunfun…..
I had a wonderful day yesterday. It was a very soft energy surrounding things. There were no ’have to do it or else’ vibes going on and I positively revelled in it. Started the day out at the local mall and had a wonderful breakfast at the Italian restaurant there. the kids were very well behaved (which is a blessing when we’re out shopping- let me tell you…).
When I got home I just dropped my current workload on it’s head. I wanted to be creative for myself. The pressure just lately to do this or do that, to make sure this deadline is met, make sure that contract is signed etcetc has taken it’s toll and really leaves me kind of frazzled at times. So yesterday I thought I’d have a little bit of fun, keeping one eye on some stuff for my portfolio to send potential clients, but mainly to goof around and please myself. The Witch I’ve posted here is a drawing from my sketchbook, but I liked it so much I inked it. I also drew a couple of other bits and pieces which I’m very happy with. It’s great to let the hand and the mind run free….. Highly recommended.
Full moon in Pisces today, sentimental, nostagic, romantic, creative, loving, caring….. Highly emotional for some people… Make it work for you.
I’ve just received notification that the advance copies of my latest illustrated effort, written by author Neridah McMullin and published by Little Steps Books, will be available over the next couple of weeks. Very much looking forward to seeing it. It’s a picture book featuring a mischievous little green character called the ‘Ponkidoodle’. I had heaps of fun illustrating it… Feel free to contact me at my email address if you’d like to purchase a copy, not sure of the cover price just yet:
A recent drawing from my sketchbook.
There seems to be a fair bit of naughty planetary activity around at the moment and it’s sending my system loopy. Not sure what’s going on up there and I’m not likely to find out just yet as I’m a little too busy to have a look. I’m about to plough into my workload for the day, so no new sketches, but I’ve added a couple of old dragon drawings from my sketchbooks.
I’m currently putting a booklet together for (potential) publishers showcasing some of my line art. here’s the cover. If anyone’s interested in purchasing one, let me know via my email address:
aaronpocock.yahoo.com.au
You can now click on the images for a larger view. I managed to figure out how this worked- aren’t I clever!
The whole house has gone down with the pig flu this last few days, so sorry for no posting… I’ve been nursing my bruised male ego and watching in amazement at how women just suffer in silence. We men are just such whingers aren’t we? Seriously though, this is one disgusting flu. I don’t remember ever having gone through anything like this in all my years. Thankfully I’m feeling a lot better now, but I’m finding myself way behind in my work, hopefully Friday’ll see me zipping through it at a speedy pace.
I did however, manage to draw this old witch through all the coughing, hoiking, retching and moaning, whining and carrying on…….
This painting is taking up a lot of my head space. When I can think of anything other than the jobs I have on the go, I’m thinking about actually finishing this one. It’s kind of a landmark piece as it’ll (hopefully) set the tone for the rest of the art I’ll be producing for the exhibition. Working in oils is very time-consuming and I won’t be producing all the other pieces in this media (thankfully). There’ll be some acrylic paintings, some watercolour stuff, mixed media, some pen and ink and some graphite stuff. I’m pretty comfortable with most of the mediums mentioned so that’s ok, but I’ll feel a whole lot better when this one is finished.
I’m also really enjoying the black and white art at the moment. For one thing, I’m terribly quick, and instant gratification is so important whilst I’m so busy. here’s a drawing or two I’ve worked on when I should be doing other things. (ahem.)
Nothing earth-shattering here. Just some playing around with cross-hatching. I like to vary my approach and learn as many different styles as I can to keep things fresh.
Here’s another crow. For no other reason than the fact that I love drawing crows.
Distilling all the pen work into a silhouette. Trying to say as much as I can without all the hatching, criss-crossing and other detail that can sometimes be unneccessary. This is a discipline in itself and one I thoroughly enjoy.
and here’s a typical ‘hand loosening’ page. I frequently go through the routine of warming up before I start working on paid gigs for the day otherwise my work can look very stiff and lifeless. I find even half an hour a day is a great way to:
1) do your own thing
2) play with other ideas you may wish to pursue but don’t have the time, and…
3) free your mind up before attempting a (sometimes) daunting, difficult or even boring job.
Getting old’s a funny thing. I’m 39 now- 40 next May. Apart from little things like my body shape changing slowly and my wrinkles becoming more pronounced, I’m finding my eyebrow hairs a complete pain in the bum. I smooth them down, smooth them up, pluck out the culprits…. but nothing seems to make them want to grow straight, and, a decent length anymore. Nothing. Oh woe is me.
Here’s a new drawing. Digitally drawn in Photoshop. Who doesn’t like dragons?
Here’re a couple of pics of me hard at work in a couple of different guises:
1) Aaron the ‘Illustrator’….
2)Aaron the ‘Fine Artist’…
What’s the difference? I have two artistic sides to me, one is the ‘Illustrator’. he’s the busiest one. Overseeing all the books, Cd sleeves, the magazine illustrations and the other bits and pieces that come flying from all angles, taking it all on the chin and trying hard to make deadlines and such. the other is the ‘Fine Artist’. he’s much more laid back, only comes out to play every now and again and works mainly in oils and watercolours and acrylics. He’s much more disciplined and takes his time. At the moment, he’s working on getting some pieces together for his 2010 exhibition in the regional gallery. He says he’ll post more of his work as he goes… the painting in the pic is one he’s working on at the moment and was shown in an earlier post here on this blog.
Below is a painting for a recent children’s book-available soon (next month or so). If anyone’s interested in finding out more, or where they can get one, let me know….
I’ve been thinking about these ‘Blog’ thingies for the past couple of days and wondering why I’ve decided to carry on with one when I gave up the idea a fair while ago. As I search for a reason I find myself coming up with a lot of insight into what makes me tick. here’s the conclusion I came to:
I’m a very private person. Maybe that’s why I’m an artist, so I can get my unspoken thoughts and feelings down into some kind of coherent mass. I’ve never been one to find the right words in any given situation. I somehow often find myself looking back at an event, or a conversation and wish I’d said ‘this’ or ‘that’. I don’t think very well on the spot. My astrology chart points to many of the issues with a great deal of accuracy, I have the Sun, Mercury and Saturn all in Taurus, if anyone has any idea of astrology, the Taurean native is a plodder by nature, slow to think and to react, sooo, that covers that one- can’t help it. I find pictures a darn sight easier than dealing with a muddled brain confused by the intricacies of human emotions.
My rising sign is in Scorpio, so there’s the ‘privacy’ thing. But somehow, I feel the deep seated need to share with people, my art, my music, my passions, my experiences….. In comes venus and Mars (both in Gemini)… communicative, mercurial Gemini… This comes across in my life in a variety of ways (key word-’variety’). I have a low boredom threshold. I’ve dealt with this over the years by becoming lightning fast with my art. I’m slow and lazy to start up (Taurus), but very speedy with the execution of an idea (Gemini). (interestingly, I share my birthday with Salvador Dali- who also put his ideas across on canvas very quickly) -So I can seemingly do many types of art, play instruments, and pick up most other things with very little effort, but it has come at a price…. You’ll mostly find me at the back of the party, watching the comings and goings and the carryings-on of the peole around me. I’ve never felt entirely comfortable in a crowd, yet, strap my guitar to me, put me on a stage in front of hundreds of people and I’m in my element. Wierd right? Now I’m feeling a little uncomfortable, talking about myself so much here.
What’s this got to do with Blogs? I guess I had an issue with the whole ‘Blog’ thing because of all the things I listed above. I’ve read many blogs by other peole who can (and do) just about mention everything they did on any given day, everything that was said and what they had for breakfast.. How do these people do it? We’ve moved into an age where privacy isn’t what it used to be and honestly, I still feel pretty uncomfortable with the idea.
So I’ll go on blogging, maybe with a little to say, maybe with not much to say at all. But I will make sure I post some art, created to the best of my ability.
Here’s today’s drawing before I start working on a cover, some interior art and carry on with the five more paintings I have left for a picture book I’m working on. I’ll finish the first two and scribble away at the latter until it’s completed (which may take the better part of three weeks or so- picture books are very time consuming).
Line art-digital (PhotoshopCS3)
Very often, before I begin work on my illustration commitments, I’ll scratch away at something to warm- up with. Today’s subject is the clever crow. I never tire of drawing them….
Pen and ink.
I don’t get to paint in oils very often, but relish the opportunity when it presents itself. I have an exhibition in 2010 and have vowed to produce 25 (or so) pieces of art in traditional media, of which this is the first. The model is the very lovely:
elandria.deviantart.com
I’m just at the blocking in stage right now, getting the colours and the basic idea sorted out on the canvas. I’ll update more over time.
