Daily Doings

Today is the day! Off I go, hooray! Off to Spain, Portugal and Morocco. My accountant suggested I keep a travel diary of all my creative doings, and my receipts of course, so that I can make a tax claim next year.

So earlier this week I had a little shop in Handworks, and browsed through the myriad of diary options. I finally found this cute little travel diary by O-Check Design Graphics. I was very pleased to see it was also made from recycled paper and printed with soy inks. It’s full of a variety of papers, mostly off-white, but some coloured sheets, some with ruled lines, some with checks. Some of the pages are printed with quaint travel graphics, such as stamps, vintage postcards, stripey airmail envelopes.

One of the stamps is actually marked Lisbon, Portugal. As soon as I flipped to that page and saw that, I knew this diary was the one for me. It also has handy pockets interspersed throughout the book, so I can fill them with all the receipts and museum stubs I collect. I even bought a little roll of polka-dotted masking tape, so I can stick in all the ephemera of my trip.

This will be a scribble-type of journal; I also bought a cute little book with ruled red lines in which I can write up and sign my official record of daily activities. Adiós!

Although I will be overseas for a month, keep checking back at the Sketchbook, because the posts will keep on coming.

Illustrators Australia

On Tuesday night I attended a special meeting and a party to celebrate the launch of Illustrators Australia’s new website (above).

We discussed the changes in the constitution, voted, and then got down to the real business of the evening: the celebration. It was held at the Kent Hotel in North Carlton, a long tram trip away from me.

I have not long been a member of the association, and the editor of their magazine for an even shorter time, so it was lovely to meet in person some of the people I had been in contact with only via email, including one of my interviewees, Christopher Nielsen.

I was even given a sitting ovation for my work on the first issue! I was so pleased that the people for whom the magazine is produced actually enjoyed it. It was great to get feedback, ideas for future stories, and secure an interview with IA’s own Sonia Kretschmar whose work was accepted for entrance in the Archibald Prize.

And very importantly, the finger food was very good too!

April Fool’s Surprise

I went out onto my balcony this morning to give my cat her breakfast. I tipped out yesterday’s water from her bowl and refilled it, and suddenly noticed a package on the chair under the outdoor table.

I went over to investigate, mystified, for I wasn’t expecting anything. There was a box of my Avant Card postcards! They have been sent to me way ahead of schedule, although I am not sure when exactly they are going to be distributed around the country.

What a lovely April Fool’s surprise. 

On the Virtual Newsstand

Cover illustration by Christopher NielsenThis morning my first issue of Illustrator Australia’s magazine Outline was published! It’s a quarterly magazine, and was three months in the making; the last two weeks in particular a period of intensive work as all the material from my contributors began to land in my inbox (some of them skidding in at the very last moment). The last three days – really squashed into two – I spent laying out the magazine and completing the final edits, checking all the hyperlinks were working, proofing etc.

At 38pp, thank goodness I didn’t have to write the bulk of it: only one story, a book review and an exhibition review. Plus all the heads and standfirsts, the editor’s letter and a number of short news stories, and the back page… (Okay, I wrote quite a bit of it!) My contributors wrote the majority of the articles: either as interviews, or a few paragraphs on their chosen topic.

Opening page; Gregory Baldwin, whose illustration features on this page, uses both traditional and digital methods in his work

Five illustrators tell us that the digital vs. traditional illustration controversy is over!

That was always my motto when designing magazines: “Make it fit!”

However there was quite a bit of editing involved, including cutting on the page and some judicious squishing of text to make all the copy fit. That was always my motto when designing magazines: “Make it fit!” Editors loved me. It’s even more fun when one is both editor and designer.

Opening spread of profile on illustrator Gregory Baldwin

Second spread of profile on illustrator Christopher Nielsen

I kept the layouts fairly simple and straightforward to fit in with the budget. They were also based on earlier incarnations of the magazine: the same masthead, three-column grid and fonts were used; red, the corporate colour of the IA was kept, but I added a secondary taupe. Creating the Click! and Flick! boxes and icons was fun too.

A number of illustrators tell us about their 2011 IA Award-winning work

Second spread of ‘To market, to market’, a story about four illustrators who sell their work online or at designer markets

The back page was fun and not as gratuitous as it looks. As the magazine is published via PDF and emailed to all members, it doesn’t really need a regular back cover. It would have been a bit silly to include just a blank page with the IA logo on it, for instance – a waste of ink if anyone printed it. Instead, I decided to create a new regular section called ‘Vintage’ about illustrators from the past. It would be mainly image, with a little bit of descriptive copy. I chose Ida Rentoul Outhewaite, an Australian illustrator from the early twentieth century, famous for her fanciful and detailed fairy illustrations.

I hope the 300+ members who receive the magazine enjoy reading it as much as I did putting it together. 

The fanciful and detailed work of Ida Rentoul Outhewaite, an early Australian illustrator

Avant Card Arts Project

Rainy-Day BoyThis is rather belated news, but late last year I submitted some illustrations to Avant Card’s Arts Project, and was thrilled when they chose one to be printed as a postcard. It will be distributed at participating venues around Australia, and is of course great self-promotion. The only catch is that the postcard won’t be in the stands for another 4–5 months.

The illustrations started as a concept for a series of greeting cards, and the first one I did – ‘Rainy-Day Boy’ – is my favourite. It was also the favourite of the people at Avant Card!

Initially I had wanted to experiment with the gradient mesh tool in Illustrator, and my first random shapes turned into the beret Rainy-Day Boy is wearing. I had already designed the retro fruity surface patterns, inspired by something cherry-themed that I saw online somewhere, and decided to use them as backgrounds. They are a cheerful counterpoint to the doleful Rainy-Day Boy and Broken-Legged Girl. I suspect Balloon Boy is a less successful illustration though because he is too happy! I couldn’t decide between the banana pattern and the grapes for him. (Scroll down to see these.)

It amuses me that something that started as an experiment evolved into a postcard that will be seen around the country. However, I do feel lucky, and very grateful to Avant Card for giving the opportunity to people like myself to have their artwork seen far and wide. Thanks, Avant Card!

The call to artists is still open if you’d like to participate.

Broken-Legged Girl

Balloon Boy