IF red

diorama - bunnies in the woods

I made this diorama last week. Some of you may recognize the images from my 2012 sketchbook project sketchbook - treehouse.

the diorama is built up in three layers at a depth of seperation of about 0,8 cm between each layer. The frame is an adjusted IKEA frame 'Ribba' with an image area of 13x18 cm. I removed the frame's points and put in new ones to allow for the depth of the diorama (points - those flexible metal tabs used to fix the back panel onto the frame).

video of my 2012 sketchbook project contribution - treehouse

of Woven Wood

I've been away for a while but I haven't been idle! (my poor negleted blog xoxo - all better?)
So what exactly have I been up to? Well, last year I was one of the winners of the 'Illustrators of the Future' contest, and this April I was flown to LA for the award ceremony and book release. I got to meet lots of wonderfully talented people; my fellow illustrator winners: Paul Pederson, Carly Trowbridge, Hunter Bonyun, Mago Huang, Fiona Meng, Greg Opalinski, Jay Richards, John Haverty, Pat R Steiner, Rhiannon Taylor, and of course the judges who mentored us during the week: Val Lakey Lindahn, Ron Lindahn, Stephen Hickman, Cliff Neilsen, Robert Castillo, Stephan Martiniere - just to name a few.

The story I illustrated in the Anthology is called 
'Of Woven Wood' - by Marie Croke

I made an animation from the image - which can be seen here below. I hope to have a version with the intended soundtrack up as soon as I can secure the correct license to use the music.
 

 

bridge water emporium

day Twentyfive

To play the calendar through from day one or to leave a comment, see the post below
 

This interactive December calendar countdown to Christmas featuring Zoe and Dante is a work in progress and may not always be up in time or bug free, but if it's not working please check in later and hopefully we'll have sorted it out. 

The advent calendar is part of a collaboration I'm doing with a fun gal from New York called Wei. Eventually it will be polished up to a rosy shine - But seeing as that may not be until spring, and melting snow tends to make Santa’s festive attire smell of wet wool and cinnamon (a romantic notion in theory but a bit of a turnoff as you prance through the daffodils) I’ve decided to the advent calendar as it is now. 

If your device doesn’t support flash I’ve created vimeo videos of each animation. To watch these videos please follow this link to where I’ve collected them all for easier viewing.

Again - to play the flash version calendar through from day one, follow this link.

day One

WARNING - CONTAINS SOUND

to start - find and press 'ONE'
 

If your device doesn’t support flash I’ve also included videos of each animation. To watch the video animations from older days please follow this link to ‘A very Zoe and Dante Christmas’

trees and clouds

I’m working on a little movie, and I thought it might be fun to share some of the set components I’ve drawn so far - We’ve got your average fluffy clouds, snowy trees and some tree sweaters including birds.

hum - I see that a small penguin paperclip snuck in while I was documenting the sets. He stems from a box of penguins I bought in Tokyo, and he is so cute I don’t have the heart to oust him.

and now, some penguins

I’ve been thinking of penguins lately - penguins in sweaters to be precise! It’s almost become something of an obsession, as doodle after doodle features a flappy sea bird in a finely knit jumpers.

It all started with the call for knitters to aid the oil exposed penguins in New Zealand. And seriously, when you see a picture like this (link to image), tell me you don’t feel the urge to draw handsome penguins too.

So here is a little charmer getting a soapy scrub down as his friend is distracted by a suspicious scarf.

contraption

journey

A bunch of months ago I was visiting Tammie’s blog and one of her delightful photos immediately caught my attention. I commented that I could see Zoe and Dante having an adventure in her landscape.
 

To my delight I got an email shortly after with the photo in question attached, giving me permission to borrow from it! I was flattered and thrilled! I started the image right away... but it just wasn’t working out and in the end I put it aside.
 

Then as it so happens, this week’s IF theme is journey, and I thought of that failed image. It was perfect. If only I could get it to work... I guess time gave me the distance to see it with fresh eyes, because now, after some tweaking (ok a lot of tweaking) I think I found my way.

undead toys 'too'

Or as the delightful Bella puts it:
'they're not undead, just misunderstood.'

I did a second version of the undead toys, just to see how it would look in a different setting. I think the bunnies pop more in this version, but there is a quality I like in the first version too. I'm glad I did both.

I've got some wonderful projects going on at the moment. One of which is a collaboration with a really talented friend on an animated short. I'll do some updates here as the project unfolds. Oh... and yes, it will contain my bunnies.

Sweet dreams, and don't let the undead toy keep you up - after all, they just want to play.

swarm

SAVE the LIBRARIES

We all need stories from time to time to carry us away!

below are three of the layers I drew to create this 2d/3d illo

water layers

belated IF illo for the theme layers...

tree sweaters with bird pockets

New improved tree sweaters - now featuring handy pockets to keep your birds warm

beneath

Beneath the waves things were still as the grave as though the sea had turned to plastic and above the foam and the deep blue brine the mystery thickened respectively.

ripples in dark water

The image is hand drawn in pen and ink using a 2 point perspective then digitally rendered.

turn that frown upside-down

As cosmic timing would have it, my oldest friend booked a trip across the pond earlier this spring neither of us knowing she would be here for a time when I would need her the most. I've deeply enjoyed having her and her baby here - a new life in the flat felt oddly comforting. But time flew and my friend is back across the pond and I - I am loving the joy of getting back into the inky delights of drawing bunnies - And it's about time! Don't you think?

(This little rascal is a bunny tribute to my friends baby, whose greatest relish was finding carpet fluff to eat)

time flies - but spring is crawling

I’m really looking forward to spring getting into full swing, but alas as recently as last Sunday it snowed. I guess all my balcony garden dreams will have to wait just a bit longer. The bunnies are getting restless and I’m keeping them busy as I work on a new post-apocalyptic illo - sneak peek can be viewed above.

'brave' bunnies of the North Sea

clumsy bunny

Distracted by the oddity of the Dead Frog Band, Dante didn’t see the microphone chord until it was too late - Clumsy bunny!