Bannerman

I had the great privilege to create illustrations for the new Bannerman Album called 'The Dusty Dream Hole' which launches today!!  Bannerman have an awesome folky rock sound and their lyrics are full of dreamy landscapes and misty mountains - definitely give them a listen! Check them out LIVE on Thursday 23rd Sept at Mighty Mighty in Wellington or Saturday 25th Sept at the Whammy Bar in Auckland! Or you can buy their album on Rythmethod or DRMNZ. You can see more of my illustrations for the inlay HERE :)

Goodbye Winter - Hello Spring

Its spring here already and things have certainly been very busy. I've spent a lot of time staring at this computer screen... so it was nice to have a short but sweet break a few weekends ago to visit and climb Mt Maunganui in Tauranga. Forgotten how stunningly beautiful NZ is! Cant wait for longer breaks at the beach over summer.

Lately...

I've started teaching a paper in illustration at wintec this semester which is loads of fun and good for practicing my responsible teaching voice! Ive recently finished album illustrations for a wonderful auckland band called 'Bannerman'. Their album is due for release on the 13th Sept so I will post more about that next week. Finished work on a great project where I got to create website illustrations - under construction at present. A few more illustrations for Holly Brown are almost at their completion and Im also putting the design together on the new Sing Songs album.

Hoping to have most of that wrapped up by next week as I head on tour with my husband around the south island for 2 weeks with World Vision helping to run a fundraising event called Kids for Kids. So I will be mobile for a wee while armed with sketch book, camera, computer and scanner so I can still get work done. :) Looking forward to the change of scenery!

Storylines Festival

Busy weekend last weekend, I also went along to the Storylines Festival - free family fun day! Great day for families to meet NZ childrens book authors and illustrators plus participate in a range of fun activities. I went along to see the illustrators who were stationed at various desks drawing and painting for all the public to see.  I got to chat with Gavin Bishop, Fraser Williamson, Brian Lovelock, Sandra Morris and Dave Gunson. My friend Gary Venn who was short listed for the Storylines Gavin Bishop Award this year, was also there. There was a really nice exhibition commemorating 70 years of Puffin Book Publishing - lots of lovely illustrated covers of stories like Worzel Gummidge, Little Women, Alice in Wonderland etc..

Semi-Permanent 2010

This weekend I attended the Semi-Permanent Conference in Auckland. There were loads of great speakers and I came away feeling very inspired!
My favourites were Jessica Hische - such beautiful work, Duncan Speakman, Andrew Gordon from Pixar, Dick & Otis Frizzell and Storm Thorgerson.
At the end of the conference Storm Thorgerson asked us to participate in a group photo while holding kiwi fruit like 3D glasses. Oh so fun!
(unfortunately all I have are these blurry iphone photos to show for it! Ah well!)