Heave 'er up my bully bully boys

This is something I did a while ago for a magazine, thought I'd put it up here.
One of my many obsessions is the sea shanty, and culture and mythology of the sea. I love pirates, sea monsters, weird sea creatures and Sea Shanties. These are themes that seem to pop up again and again in my work. The sea is still a mysterious and haunting place, and there is so much to explore and speculate over.
Here is a character who comes from my fascination with these things, you'll probably see more of him as I've been sketching him quite a bit, but here he is in his first incarnation.

Rossco

Thinking about Australian art.

Hello peoples.

I thought I'd post a couple of sketches for something I'm working on. Not sure if this project will go very far, but I'm having fun with it. And I'm enjoying drawing Australian animals.

We have some of the most bizarre and beautiful animals in the world here in Australia, and I often feel like we're not using them enough in our local artworks. There seems to be a strange neglect and sometimes embarrassment in Australia of our own culture in Graphic arts and cartooning which I've always found rather troubling. Young Australian artists are more and more copying art from Europe, USA and Japan, in not only style, but subject. So we end up with very American Graffiti art, Manga or other imported styles that reflect very little of Australian culture. I think the backlash may be over the misconception that all Australiana cartooning and commercial art has to look like Ken Done paintings, with their garish colours and weak stereotypes, or like a bland Yoram Gross cartoon (look these guys up to check out what I mean).

As a culturally young and eclectic country (European Australia that is), we as Australian artists are still looking for our own styles, and voices, which is not a bad thing at all. Of course I'm greatly influenced by overseas art(mainly 1940s-50s American Cartoons), but it would be great if we try to take those influences and reflect the culture we grew up amongst and create art that is of a great standard and proudly Australian. I don't mean we have to draw only Kangaroos and Koalas saying G'day, drinking tinnies, there is so much more to our culture and wildlife.

We have some great subject matter to draw from as cartoonists, great animals, great landscape, great humour, but we always seem to revert back to stereotypes and bland soft art.

I might do some more posts on this subject to talk further about Australian cartooning and other artforms. For now I'll leave you with some sketches. And in my next post I'll show some examples of my favourite Australian cartoonists and illustrators.

Until then look up Pamela Lofts (Wombat Stew), Norman Lindsay (Magic Pudding), and Eric Jolliffe (one example below), heaps more to come…..

See yas all.

Rossco

Stuffy

Here's stuffy.

Not sure what I'm doing with this character but he's fun.

I always loved homemade toys, made out of all different fabrics and wools. They're sort of frankenstein creations made from old fashioned homely grown-up materials, made for kids to play with. It's such a great and weird concept.

I'd love to have a stuffy toy.

Back in the land of blog

Hello anyone who may be looking here.

I had previously given up on blogging, thinking I am probably just beating my ego onto an imaginary woolen wall with no audience to applaud it. But I thought i might beat yet again, and make a probably empty promise to do so more regularly. I'm going to start posting sketches, musings, inspirations and opinions as if there are humans who care about them.

I've recently been so inspired by cartooning. I'm developing all sorts of things, working on other sorts of things, and drawing all sorts of other things and have been really excited by it all, and remembered why I continue to do what I do. Cartoons can do some of the most amazing things imaginable, and that realisation only recently knocked me in the skull once again after a while of going through very mundane motions. I have been watching a lot of cartoons recently (mostly Popeye, and Jones and Clampett Warners) after a long break from watching any animation at all after being depressed over the current state of comics and cartoons (watching the highly hyped Kung-Fu panda and feeling a bit ripped off may have had something to do with this). I forgot how truly beautiful, funny and inspiring this medium is. I might go into the more specific details of why I really love cartoons but I'm tired now and probably won't make anything sound very exciting or inspirational, so what I'll do is just announce that I'll be posting more (hold me to this) and give you a good example of why I find this artform so unspeakably amazing. The colours here alone make me want to sing. Doesn't this just make you giddy?:



I want to see this happen again in animation.

Cartoons that are like eating good chilli, drinking an overly fizzy soft drink, that bleeds fun and personality, that are like hearing someone play the singing saw to an Elvis Presley song accompanied by maracas. Like an electric orange.

No more life lessons on being yourself because you're special or lectures on the environment. And please no more "hilarious" renditions of top 40 early 90s or late 70s pop songs sung by sunglasses wearing hip furry animals with celebrity voices just before the credits, as if it's a legitimate way to complete a story.

Anyway, I'm going on a bit.
Salada

Rossco

Couldn't close me Gazzys

G'day G'day.

I was listening to the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack and came up with this thing.

I'll start getting up some sketches and stuff soon.

Hope Easter was good fun.

Salada

Rossco

Guilt for neglect

I apologise for my neglect, I have no decent excuse but lazyness.

To make up for it I'm posting stuff that has been lying around for a while, just portfolio stuff. I'm fired up to draw now so hopefully I'll be putting up quite a few new works and sketches. I've got a few things lying around so I'll get some of those up too.

I've been in a drawing fog lately, not knowing what to do, trying to get some work here and there and not really been motivated to do anything decent. But as it always does, the creativity wheel has turned and it's pointy spokes have poked my arse and caused me to start drawing like a mad man, which is loverly. And I'm actually enjoying drawing again! It can be the most torturous experience when you're locked in an uninspired funk where nothing you draw seems to stick to the wall, or worse, you just can't seem to draw at all, but the joy of drawing can bite the back of your head when you least expect it and all of a suddon it's fun again and you don't hate everything you draw, just some of it.

The batch I've put up here is from my last burst of drawing joy, a few months ago when I was staring down at a fairly sick looking portfolio, (as I haven't been allowed to show anything from my job in Sydney which lasted over a year, a fairly big chunk), and needed to get some new stuff in there. So I hope you enjoy them, and keep your eye on my blog for some new stuff (if anyone's even reading this in the first place).

I've got a couple of brand neweys I'll put up tomorrow.

Salada

Rossco

Tally Ho!

Happy 2008!!

I hope New Years wasn't too blurry for you.

Here's a drawing I've done for my cousin and best mate David's bucks party day at the races invites. He's married in March this year so congratulations David and Alicia.

He's making me wear a kilt at the wedding so I should have made him more bald. Maybe I'll do another one soon.........

Salada

Rossco