Trying to get back into blogging after my recent hiatus. Found some cool links over at drawn.ca (where else?) that I really like http://www.loopland.net/ check out the pencil sketches in the sketchbook section. His work makes me tingle with excitement. http://www.jeremyville.com/ check of the ‘sketchel’ project, too much other cool stuff to mention It’s a funny feeling when you look at artists like these as I can see parts of myself in them and it makes you feel excited and want to keep pushing on with your own direction

Thought i might post a comic for y'all seeing how things have been fairly quiet here recently. Got my computer back from the shop but it's still not worlking 100% grrrr

Ive, Grug, and tiny monster have all teamed up to offer everyone their artistic goods. What a great idea! Check it out

You may have noticed that i haven't been participating in illustration friday. Basically I would still like to but it has dropped down on my priorities list. For some time there it was serving as a good exercise to test out new ideas and theories I was having. In short I'm just taking an indefinite holiday from it for now to focus on other things. One of the biggest things that has been filling in my extra time is trying to learn Illustrator down pat...by which I mean try to learn it in and out to the point where it's second nature. I knew how to use it before but not nearly well enough to use it realistically for actually illustration jobs. So I'm hoping to learn it to the point where it's actually faster than pencilling, cleaning pencils, inking, cleaning inks, erasing, scanning, cleaning scan, resizing, colouring etc. I also dropped my computer off to get the optical drive fixed (it busted after 6 months...) I actually had sign something that said the computer

I looked up Mary Blair from the book I bought today and sure enough she has a lot of history and lots of people already are familiar with her work. A google search will turn up some good pics and info. This from: http://www.bobstaake.com/artists/maryblair/page1.html “Mary Blair's contribution to contemporary design is sweeping -- and impacted the worlds of animation, publishing, institutions, products, advertising and even fine art. Blair's lush, minimalist and lyrical gouache-based work echoed the simpler times in which the art was created (ate 1940s to the mid 1970s), yet her design reverberates today for those appreciative of the simplicity and innocence she communicated through color, shape and form.” Best known for her production and design work on Disney’s ‘Alice in wonderland’ and ‘Peter pan’

This little guy is all printed up and folded. I'm hoping to do a big mail out and drop some of at local cafes soon:) I'm keen to get this out as I eagerly anticipating the printing of the next two issues ;-) Send 1 dollar or two stamps for a copy :) comixandart.blogspot.com

'I can Fly' By Ruth Krauss Illustrated by Mary Blair (in 1951) Found this book today at K-mart, a golden book reprint. Seeing how I've been so interested in vector graphics lately things like this have been catching my eye. I can really see how this 50's type of illustration is making a big comeback. My friend Leigh tried to convince me last year that I should learn vector graphics better, I disagreed and said I could get the same effects using pen, ink and Photoshop. Now I have become interested in vector stuff, he appreciates hand drawn stuff better (correct me if I'm wrong Leigh) You may like hand drawn stuff better and maybe it is in terms of Art. But in terms of commercial illustration, I've got a newsflash for yall, it's 99% vector these days.

(a little doodle my friend Leigh did whilst sitting at my table) Went to the zine fair at the Melbourne town hall last Saturday. I didn't book a table, got there late, and spent the first 40 mins just going around talking to people, in other words, my usual style... It was good to go even just for research for my honours. I picked up a few goodies like 'the wave collapses' and also another little fold out poster thing from the next wave fest. Their didnt seem to be many artist book types. When I did eventually get set up I set up all my 7 pages digest and humbly launched the latest 7 pages digest (#4) like I explained to a few people it's mainly something I whip up to share sketches with friends family and fellow comic artists. I think next time I go to a fair I'd like to have some artwork on display (NFS) and along with some books for sale, as often people are just browsing and looking so I might as well give them something to look at. There's another

Must fold and staple zines… Must make lots of badges… Must round up some cool stuff… Yep that’s right it’s the last minute rush of a zine fair. I’m hoping to make it to the zine fair at the Melbourne town hall this Saturday in Melbourne. Hope to see you there!

I’ve been very quiet recently on the blog. Things have been busy ( I like it like that way though) I’ve been getting into some interesting projects at school lately and I also have to complete a couple of other projects. I’m enjoying thinking about the possibilities of artist books/bookworks recently and I have one bookwork project on the go at the moment which is really exciting me. Will be posting more in around a weeks time when things slow down.