illustration + animation = pure loveliness

If you enjoy illustration and animation you'll really love watching this clip to Sarah Blasko's song 'no turning back'. Such sweet illustration talent flows from the fingers of Melbourne based artist Celeste Potter. Oh and the music is pretty amazing too! Thanks to Frankie for reminding me her new album was released yesterday.

If you get sick of the way blogger chops off part of the clip (the right hand side) go watch it here.

soak

Hey it's raining here! That' a big deal for us. Last night on TV they said Melbourne folk are going to be rationed to 150 litres of water per day because of our current drought. Which is fine by me if big water guzzling companies also have the same restrictions placed on them. I am so excited by today's rain that I ate breakfast sitting outside under cover watching it come down on the garden. It smells so good too.

Do you think the design above might work well on a tea towel?

Must sees this weekend include illustrator Kat McLeod's exhibition on at Lamington Drive Gallery in Fitzroy. She's called it 'The Tiniest Spark'. I'm sure this show will be huge as her work has been all over the media recently. Yay for her!

fruiting habits and the like

It's funny the kinds of anatomical names for plants that they use in botany. This is part of one of my drawings and according to the botanical information I had on hand it's technically a 'fruiting habit'. Strange looking thing but I'm quite fond of the quirky shapes. Almost pod-like, and I'm a sucker for the cuteness of pods.

And speaking of illustrations and quirky, lovely things, the new Pikaland August Project is up and live. You can also find out about the magical wonder of Pikaland by clicking on that gorgeous little bird holding the sack on the top right hand side of my blog. Amy from Pikaland coordinates the most original international illustration project I've ever come across. Check out the work of all the amazing illustration artists participating in the August Project. You'll even see some of my work there :)

yuko shimizu

I've been a HUGE fan of Yuko Shimizu's for ages so thought it was time I said something about her here. In my humble opinion, Yuko is an illustration queen! Her gorgeous, playful work above was done for a Canadian mag called Walrus in 2006. Yuko is Japanese but now lives and works in Manhattan and lectures in illustration in a BFA course. She has a press list to die for which leads me to think this woman must never sleep. Read this fab interview with her from illustration friday here. The funniest thing is that she shares the exact same name with the person who created hello kitty and makes a point of saying on her website that if you're looking for that Yuko Shimizu then you've got the wrong person. How excruciating for her.....

And now on to more things Melbourne. As if the Design Festival wasn't enough for all of us there's now the Melbourne Art Fair, which describes itself as 'a biennial trade fair for the exposition of contemporary art in the Asia Pacific region' beginning today. Can't wait to hop on down there and check it out.

illustration art

The very funky Bamakko in North Melbourne (just near Victoria Market) is now stocking a small selection from my range of giclee art prints. These prints were snapped up by Design Market folk last Sunday and so I'm very happy to say they're out and about around Melbourne and not just in my online shop. Giclee is a word (pronounced "zhee-clay") derived from the French language invented to describe the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. Mizu Designs giclee prints are based on original designs and printed with archival quality pigment inks on acid free, archival, fine art paper. They will last a life time and are packaged flat with sturdy foam core backing and protected by a sleeve of clear wrapping.

Now that I've gotten that bit of shameless self-promotion out of the way let me share some brilliant illustration prowess I found online last night. Nick Dewar is Scottish born but is currently based in Southern Carolina and says on his website that he "no longer has to bathe in his kitchen". I can relate to that statement more than he could ever know! I find the digital print of his above just captivating because of the escapism aspect. Haven't many of us had moments like these at some point?