Work In Progress: Part 2

Have now added Alana to the sketch

Work in progress

Xmas theme sketch of the dogs that we are planning to put on some home made xmas cards.
Work in progress...

Sam...

Quick scribble interpretation of my dog Sam as a pup.

Yves' close encounter

Some of you may remember a post I did awhile ago on a dog we affectionately dubbed "Tramp" due to his uncanny ability to jump up onto the fence when you walked past at lunch time.

Occasionally you can be in your own little world and Tramp can catch you a little off guard, as my fellow illustrator Yves discovered one day. this particularly incident inspired me at the time to whip up this scribble.

Sam and Leela

Working on a sketch of the family for the xmas card sketch. Started warming up with a 10 miute scribble of Sam and Leela.

Bears and Puppies

Did this sketch for a friend last week.

She had requested the inclusion of some bears. I like it,

I think the bears and puppies play well together :)

Me Mate

Dug these up out of my folio archives. A few years back the company i work for dabbled in pet toy and accessories. These illustrations were done for an ocka Aussie dog accessory brand we developed called "Me Mate"
I really enjoyed this project as I developed a style in complete contrast to anything i had done before.

More inspiration...

I was pretty chuffed the other day when a kid sent in a fan letter for pawphans and some of their own drawings. I was even more chuffed when just a week or so later when another one came in from a different kid.

Seeing this stuff from talented kids is so inspiring.

What makes it so special is also that of all the brands i have worked on here at work, Pawphans is probably the closest to my heart. It contributes to a great cause and its all about dogs.

As with the previous kid i also did a bit of a skecth to go out with the company response. I'd love to put the kids stuff up here but i'm not sure if i can so for the meantime we'll have to settle for my humble efforts.

Why we do what we do

Its been a while since my last post.

Unfortunately have been bogged down with work commitments and other projects and haven't had the chance to draw any of my favourite puppy pictures.

I was inspired tho the other nite after a day at work. That day my company had received a bit of fan mail for the pawphans i design where a young twelve year old kid had sent a letter saying how much they loved the product and they enclosed some drawings of their own. They were fantastic and i had to say were the highlight of my week - if not even more so.

After a partucularly frustrating week this reminded me why so many of us do what we do - the warm feeling you get when you get to see the joy that a young kid gets from your product.

It put a lot of things in perspective for me and really made my week extra special.

That nite i actually went home and sketched up this pic for our customer service department to send back to the kid. I guess it was a bit of a thankyou for reinspiring me.

I'm hoping that i can one day show the kids drawings on this blog (will have to seek permission first tho).

Hopefully my next post won't be so long a wait next time...

Puppy Profile: Holly

One of my fellow illustrators, Brad, has a young Kelpie named Holly.

It would seem that Holly is your kind of adventurous act first, ask questions later kind of pup.

Holly loves her ball, the beach, and chasing her ball at the beach. It just took her awhile to grasp the concept that water is not as easy to run on top of as sand.

It can certainly come as a rude shock when you're baring down on you favourite tennis ball and the ground disappears out from underneath you, and then the next thing you know, you're having a salt water bath!

Have included some wonderful photos of Holly when she was young taken by Brad's brother.

Need coffeeee....

Just a really quick scribble this morning...Badly need coffeeeeeeeee.....

Puppy Profile: Spunkii

Did this pic for a mate of Jemma's. Here's what she had to say about Spunkii:-

"This is a dog who can not for one second let me spend 5 minutes alone. Not in the shower, not when going to the toilet, not even in bed with a man.. he must be able to walk in and check up on me and know here I am and what I'm doing at all times. In saying this, if he knows I'm going to be in the same spot for a little while (usually when I'm cooking or watching a dvd) he will disappear into my room and I wont hear the usual chewing of toys etc.. During these times I will always find Spunkii sitting on the floor looking at himself in the mirror in my bedroom. Often he'll sit on the foot of my bed staring at himself in the mirror. I have even come to notice that when I'm in bed reading and he's lying on my bed with me, he will always face the mirror and just look at himself.My ex used to call him the "serial killer", the way he would just stare like a creep into the mirror and if you went to interrupt him, his actions where very slow and calculated, however I think he just realises how cute he is, and he's working on his sad faces in order to get away with more stuff whenever he is with me."

Monsters and Puppies

Winston is Sorry...

Winston who featured in one of the earlier puppy profiles is in trouble again. The poor little fella can't help himself. He has developed the talent of escape artist and is now running up to neighbours to say hello. Unfortunately poor lil Winston can be seriously misunderstood and can get himself in some serious trouble with the neighbours.

I did up this little sketch of Winston for Sue and Christian to go on an apology card on Winston's behalf. Fingers crosssed it gets Winston off the hook and back in the good books...

Puppy Poll : Tell me your favourite styles

Worked on some more puppy styles and decided I wanted to get your feedback on what your preferred style. I will then look at implementing that style into some future puppy sketches. I won't however be using the Pawphans or Me Mate styles I developed for Moose as I don't want to leverage off their products and want to distance my personal work from those brands as much as possible.

If I can get you to write in your top 5 preferences in order and i'll then tally the results. Hope you can help me out on this one.

Mucho appreciado! :)

Wha? Who did that?

Today's sketch is inspired by a scene that involve Sam on a regular basis.

I've also been mucking around with some different sketching styles.

I have also include the styles I developed for Moose for the Pawphans and MeMate ranges.

Covorting with the enemy

I've often wondered why it is that some dogs will quite happily live in harmony with cats, others will take not interest in them, and then others will look at a cat like its the greatest remote control chew toy of all time.

I wonder if those dogs think of their doggie brethren as traitors when the see them covorting with the enemy.

Alana's Picture of Sam

I was going through some of my stored images at lunch today when i found this picture that my girlfriend, Alana did of Sam once. I love this pic. It makes me laugh everytime. The individual space helmet for the wagging tail is priceless!

Dogs: Furry Grafitti Artists?

Observing my dog, Sam marking his turf this morning got me thinking about the similarities between dogs and grafitti artists. Both are territorial and mark their territory. Does this mean if you believe in reincarnation that if yopu are a grafitti artist you will come back as a dog? Or is it vice versa?

I wonder what Sam's tag is? :)

Getting the idea down fast

Often when the idea happens you are never at the drawing board or wacom tablet, so i find it necessary to always carry a pen around and hope there is some drawing surface in the vicinity. In the case of yesterdays sketch, once again the idea came at a time when the drawing board was nmany miles away, and so i scibbled down the idea on the cruddiest bit of scrap paper i could find at hand.

I kinda like look back at these images because they have their own individual charm.