My blog has moved!

I've noticed that this blog still gets a bit of traffic from Google... for anyone looking for recent art updates from me please visit my website at www.elisemartinson.com or my blog at www.elisemartinson.com/blog.html . The blog has a more professional feel and less preliminary work but if you are after sketches and works in progress it's probably best to follow my illustration Facebook Page.

I also have a bi-monthly newsletter to keep people updated on what has been happening, in case they don't follow the other news sources. I am also on Twitter.

Thank you for visiting this site, I hope you continue to check out my stuff at the new one!

Update for July: Sketches, sculptures and the Melbourne Coin Show

Last weekend was the Melbourne ANDA Coin show and I was invited to the Coin Club stand to help out and meet with coin collectors. Simon (the managing director at Coin Club) and myself organised an autographed limited postcard that featured my take on the animals in the Wildlife in Need series that is being issued by Coin Club. I think a few people thought I had designed the Wildlife in Need coin, but credit in fact goes to talented artist Karen Hull. I had a great time and it was really nice to meet with people that are fans of my coin illustration work.


I've done a few more sculptures since my last post including a metallic rabbit as a baby gift and the unicorn as a gift for my niece. (A huge apology to those who follow me on facebook and are probably sick to death of seeing this unicorn as I kept posting progress shots!!).

Animated progress shots of the unicorn (I think you have to click to activate it?):

I also did a couple of sketches for a contest to create a boss monster for the MMORPG, RIFT. The game features a series of Rifts that open up, releasing hordes of monsters from a particular Plane. The planes represent different elements such as Life, Death, Earth, Fire, Water and Air. I was intrigued by the colourful Life rift (which actually had a strong survival of the fittest theme) and created this guy. A large gentle creature driven to insanity by the spores of a sinister fungus. Fun stuff :)

Full set of Australian Bush Babies coins on eBay

Just a quick post to shamelessly plug my auction. I finally got a hold of a complete set of Bush Babies and now have a complete, signed set up for auction on ebay.

Final coin released: Bush Babies - Australian Koala.

The final coin in the Bush Babies series has been released by The Perth Mint this month; the Koala!

Colourific!

After talking about values and tones at sketchgroup I decided to try rendering a greyscale image using different colours. I worked under a white "colour" layer and in hindsight I should have tried working without it in order to actually gain something from doing this drawing. I was more curious than anything though, so I guess now I know what that looks like ...pretty psychedelic!

I've been wanting to put up photos of the skull model I got for Christmas for a while now so that more people can get some use out of it since I am probably not doing it justice. So here they are for all those artists looking for a (fairly) clear turnaround of a skull. Below is a just thumbnail but you can download the .zip folder containing high res images using the link below.

Download high resolution skull references here

Taking photos of the skull was kind of my way of "backing it up" as well because I was about to cover it in plasticine and I'm not sure if it's going to come off easily. I sculpted the muscles of the face onto the skull which was actually a pretty good learning activity. I figured they must be fairly accurate because the face started creeping me out while I was working on it. At least it stuck in my head what the muscles look like and where they go (what they do exactly is another thing!).

I think I will take a similar set of turnaround shots before I do the skin layer and then keep them as references for later.

Here are those handbags I was talking about in a previous post. I'm not sure if I would actually expect anyone to use these but they were fun to make and I have some better ideas for some that might actually be acceptable in public. These are my Aunties' dogs, say hi to Molly and Wishbone.

I've also been doing a fair bit of reading lately (probably a manifestation of my procrastination) but if you are a serial procrastinator like me try to get your hands on a copy of the War of Art by Steven Pressfield I'm confident just about any creative person can pick out a few quotes from this book to keep them soldiering on. It also comes in audio tape format so you can listen and work at the same time.

New coin released: Bush Babies - Australian Bilby.

The next coin in the Bush Babies series has been released by The Perth Mint -Bilby!

Shortly after subscribing to the series I decided to start a second set. Now these are doing so well I can't even get my hands on an issue price one to complete a second set I am collecting! Oh well, I'm glad they are doing well at least.

Photos courtesy Talisman Coins

Since December..

Seriously where is the year going?

I'm not really sure if my lack of posts is due to being busy or a lack of productivity. Strangely, it feels like both. I'm hoping  this update on my progress will remind me of what I have achieved.

Well, I moved house and finding a place and setting up took a good part of a couple of months. I'm happy to say I finally found a place in a good location and am now hooked up on an unlimited internet line which is just great, especially for uploading big files, downloading big files... and well, loitering in the world of warcraft.

Recently I have been working on a series of marketing materials for New Orleans Live and Rebirth Brass Band for their Australian Tour. Below is an image of some of the things I produced including a poster, flyer, newspaper adverts, email newsletter and facebook page.

I've done a logo for GECO Science Inc. A green company that restores lakes and rivers using effective microbes (think probiotics/ good bacteria kind of thing) . They wanted something green and organic but professional. The solution I created was symbolic of a gecko eye that can also be interpreted as a leaf in a blue circle. The colours and slightly more corporate look give it some individuality from the hundreds of rounded green-and-brown existing enviro-company logos.
 

I've also been updating my website. It now has a flashy animated banner, some information for clients and some new projects added. My blog now shows up as a feed inside the html framework as well. There's still a lot of work I want to do, but at least for the most part it's functional... it's kind of fun making little frequent improvements.

I've also been playing around with making stuff at www.artscow.com . The quality is really inconsistent, but if you do get a good print, you're in for a bargain. I'm thinking this could be a good way to cost-effectively prototype some stationery and the likes to present to gift shops. I don't know where I've put the photos for now but I will have some soon.

I just submitted my entry to the Kokoblack Easter Drawing Prize yesterday... who can resist a years supply of chocolate?a years supply! Not to mention some nice cash prizes to help with art supplies or study. Rushing things in my usual style, I didn't get a scan of my entry but if I'm lucky enough to make it into the finals hopefully they will scan a copy for their website. Fingers crossed!

So I guess I haven't been all that unproductive and I've also been working on some freelance contracts which haven't gone public yet. My goal from here is to gain more momentum in the client department and try to work on some personal IP projects.

Little christmas tiger!

I'm trying to get into the habit of working on my own projects regularly. This little tiger is one such project that I want to put more time into. Here he is in Christmas style for 2010, also featured on various zazzle merch.

Little dragon christmas freebie.

If you like dragons, cute things and are looking for an idea for your Christmas cards you might like the following image. It's free to download for personal, non-commercial use. It's funny how you can give your artwork new life and meaning just by adding a santa hat to it XD.

Lil Christmas Dragon by Elise Martinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at littlemayhem.blogspot.com.

New coin released: Bush Babies - Australian Dingo

The next coin in the Bush Babies series has been released by The Perth Mint.

Dingo!

Fun with Frisket and Funky Woof

This week I created a logo for my Aunt's 'brand' of colourful dog clothing "Funky Woof". It may have some legibility issues but here's what I have so far... I can't decide between them. Actually I think now I am leaning towards the right one, with the curvy front leg.

This earlier version had a blanket on, which I liked because it got across the idea of dog clothing but it doesn't get across the outrageous/colourful feel of the clothes my aunt is selling. I couldn't get this idea to work with the random colours and shorter legs (the descender on the 'u' is messing up the legibility especially).

In my other spare time, I'm not really sure what possessed me, but I decided to experiment with a bottle of liquid frisket I had lying around. I had heard a lot about liquid masks and this frisket stuff, especially from the airbrush magazines I have in my collection. I've never fully understood what it was until now.

It's basically just liquid latex, a lot like the latex I was putting on my face to create a dead skin for the zombie shuffle. Liquid latex is a bit like PVA glue only smellier and it doesn't bond to much except itself.

The horse skeleton idea came from a t-shirt design I was doing on the computer one day with a skeleton image borrowed from the web. I've always needed to replace the idea with original art so I thought this was a good way to experiment and be productive at the same time.

It was kind of cool, at certain stages it looked like a tar covered fossil and peeling away the frisket was fun, a bit like excavating my own little fossilised art piece.

In other news my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project arrived. Yay! I chose "Science project gone wrong" as my subject. I'm thinking of doing a series of little monsters and stuff whose designs will be based on warning labels, for example: not suitable for children, may contain traces of nuts. That kind of thing.

The Sketchbook Project and other stuff

Wow it's been a while since my last update! I've been working on a new website and some freelance work, so that's been keeping me busy.

While I was looking around at some graphic design blogs I discovered a link to The Sketchbook Project which sounds very awesome. For a fee, each entrant is sent a Moleskine sketchbook and provided a theme. Finished sketchbooks are then exhibited around the US before finally being cataloged in the Brooklyn Art Library. Artists can track how many people viewed their book and have the option of offering the sketchbooks for sale if they like.

My only regret is that I won't be able to be there to see the sketchbooks in person! Thankfully though, some books will be scanned and available to view digitally. Now is a good time to join since our dollar is doing pretty well too! :)

C.H.O.W #213 : 8 - Bit character redesign: Splash Woman

Another Character of the Week activity. This time redesigning 8 -bit game characters. Here's my version of Splash Woman from Mega Man 9. I quite enjoyed listening to the music of the level while working on this haha.

and as usual a post of irrelevant spastic scribbly.... goodness? No..

Official Strawberry Swing video

I'm kind of late to see this considering I'm a pretty big fan of Coldplay but I like to think anyone who's into animation or illustration can take something from this (even if you don't like their music). It's a crazy confusing combination of stop motion and traditional animation all drawn on a single rectangle of bitumen. It's cool, creative and you've got to hand it to them for the huge amount of work that went into it.


 

C.H.O.W #212 The Veteran

My entry for the Character of the Week just passed. The topic:

He has seen a thousand wars... Known as “the Veteran”, some say Battle was his father, War his mother… Scarred by battle, the Veteran is a legend on the battlefield!

I really rushed my entry, submitting it with minutes to spare. I went for a female orc because there were already so many graying men.

Military Unit: Hacker

I finished off my hacker character. I imagined it to be better but I had to decide to just finish it at some point. Now I can move onto other things. Critique welcome.

I added a progress animation. I made a lot of changes along the way, I think it's a symptom of poor planning. Taking note of that.

New coins released: Bush Babies - Australian Sugar Glider and Young Collectors - Backyard Bugs

The next coin in the Australian Bush Babies series, the sugar glider, was released earlier this month.The sugar glider coin is my personal favourite in the series and I had the most fun illustrating it. Sugar gliders have such beautiful fur patterns and are just all round adorable little creatures.

Image from Talisman coins

Also released in August, the Young Collectors Backyard Bugs coin collection. I worked on the coins and some of the packaging. This project was still in the works when I left the Mint and the other designers have done an amazing job with the packing and booklets. The new website looks great too.

Image from Downies

Hacker WIP

Just posting a work in progress on my hacker design.

Sketches and C.H.O.W 207

I did a few quick sketches for CHOW this week. The subject is supposed to be a military unit- "the hacker" in 2090 but without wireless technology. My approach was to boil the character down to 2 words: they were "intelligent technology" and if I could create a character design that spoke those words it would be a successful one. Below are a few really rough sketches. Again I missed the deadline but the current topic doesn't really interest me so I'm going to continue to work on this one. I kind of like the guy in the bottom right, maybe with the helmet of the top right.

And now all the random sketches produced this week.