Journal 20.4.12

Work is coming along nicely on my little art show. I have totally finished two boards, with another one about 50% of the way there. Above is a sneak preview at one of the finished boards.

Learning a lot about how different sorts of inks, stains and markers work on plywood. Considering experimenting with varnishing a board first, then painting over the top of that. It would mean I couldn't selectively colour the board (unless I start planning things a lot more carefully that I usually do) but I might be able to get a cleaner line. Possibly I could approach it by roughly drawing the design in pencil, staining parts of the wood, then varnishing it, then tidying it all up with brushes and markers at the end. It would probably still need another coat of varnish on top of that as well.

The glossy varnish really makes the boards gleam and look like a proper finished piece of art you might actually consider buying if you were completely wasted (which I'm counting on).

I'm trying to think of what to put on the back of the boards now. At the moment they have horrible, rough grip tape, which I'm thinking of replacing with nice black felt.

Logo design for H.S.S.

I designed a new logo for a Melbourne-based video games news and reviews website called Hold.Start.Select recently. It had to fit in with his existing website, which informed my colour choices. The website is really nice and clean, which really shows off the beautiful promotional art for the featured video games in his articles. For this reason, we decided to opt for a clean and geometric style logo that, rather than competing with the bright and colourful game art, would stand apart at the top of the page and command attention by being big, bold and simple. The client was stoked and I hope to get to work with them again in the future!

Journal 10.4.12

Spent an hour yesterday afternoon sanding back three more skateboards for my June show. A theme is starting to appear, finally. It's actually something a lot simpler than all the previous ideas I've had, and I think it's better for that.

Finished off my first piece after deciding to leave my "Jack O'Neill" piece out. The newer piece is so much better than Jack, a really obvious progression in technique and choice of materials from the earlier piece, and I would feel a bit embarrassed to show it now.

Had some encouraging news on two freelance jobs I'm working on at the moment. One is a logo (which I rarely do) for a video games news and reviews website. I have to incorporate it into a website banner now. The other is a concept for a skateboard that the client was mostly happy with. Still waiting on final sign-off before I can go ahead with producing the finished piece.

Journal 4.4.12

I'm working on a painting of a moose for my exhibition. The wood I'm painting on is apparently extremely thirsty for Chinese Ink; I've applied about 3 coats so far but hopefully when I get home the paint will look even. The only thing left to do is to varnish the whole thing to give it a nice shine.

After that, I have to decide what piece to work on next. I have a few ideas, and I managed to pick up three more secondhand skateboards on the weekend so I hope to have at least 5 pieces ready for June 15.

Liz, the owner of the store I'll be exhibiting in, has been extremely encouraging and seems to have a lot of faith in me which I hope isn't misplaced! Just have to keep working at it.

Journal 2.4.12

Yesterday I read some of Jordan Mechner's journal from the mid eighties when he was working on Prince of Persia. It made me want to have a little record of what's going on with my work to look back on.

I had a dream last night where my wife and I were attending a lecture on Pride and Prejudice (something I know nothing about) at a book store in Brisbane. During the lecture, other students were passing around a giant red and yellow lizard that was apparently someone's pet. My friend Bo Lieu was there as well, and when the lizard was passed to him, the lizard suddenly jumped out of his hands and attacked me! Then I woke up.

Last night I sent off some concepts to a client I love, but whose taste I always struggle to really figure out. The concepts were good but I will be nervous all day until I get a response.

Besides that, the premiere of Game of Thrones season 2 last night meant my other plans for my other art projects were put on hold.