Monday, November 30, 2009

Wishbone Carving

The very first of my Wishbone carvings. I made this for a friend who was down on her luck and I just thought she deserved something positive. It turned out she has a special connection with the wishbones so it worked out great. I am working on making more that will be closer to the actual wishbone form with a curve to them.

Available soon on www.studiotapu.com

Pardee style practice water color


I did this for a bit of fun to see if I could figure out how Alex Pardee creates his water colors. It is nothing in particular just a form that manifested itself but I feel like I am going in the right direction. Obviously the line work will take some time to get right but I actually had a really good time just playing with the paints. I think Pardee might use a paint pen so I might try that next time because I think that would be much easier for me although using the brush for the line work was fun.

Totem - Sculpture Design


This is a sculpture concept design I did a while ago that I think I might start working on. I like the idea of incorporating bone carving into sculpture because I think it is a pretty unique idea. This particular design will take a long time because each piece of the spine has to be hand-carved! So I'll let you guys know how this one goes.

Monday, November 23, 2009


I am currently working on a mural/painting for the SD Auto Museum's Indian Exhibit and just finished this center section on Illustrator. I have to project it onto a board and cut out the outline yet then paint it all up but I am happy with the progress so far. The design is based closely on an original advertisement for Indian Motorcycles from back in 1908.

I'll post a photo of the finished result along with the other two images when they are done.

Bebe Medusa - Pollutopia


This is my first completed painting in ages and my first painting for the Pollutopia series I am working on. It is also a reference to an earlier series featuring Medusa which I made concepts for but never painted (I still plan to though).

I used acrylic and went for a kind of flat Jeremy Fish style.
I plan on doing lots of these little paintings just based off thumbnail sketches I have done for Pollutopia.

Another Watercolour for Pollutopia. This one was an earlier trial and I was just tring to figure out how watercolour works. The three creatures represent my two nephews and my niece back home in New Zealand. I haven't decided who is who though (open to interpretation!...Jack is probably the jellyfish).

Trio, watercolour Pollutopia series

This is one of my first water colours and it came out almost how I wanted it. I am still trying to figure out a colour scheme for this series but I wanted it to be essentially murky and polluted.

SD Auto Museum Keep Off Sign



This was my first creative project at the Auto Museum I work at part time. We have this cool old truck outside that stays out over night and people think they are allowed to climb all over it etc. So my boss asked me to slap 'KEEP OFF!!!' on a tin sign. I thought the truck deserved something a little more suited to it so I put this together.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

So it begins...

Hi, this is my first attempt at...blogging and although I am coming late to the game it should be fun. This blog will basically be a way for me to keep my friends and whanau (family) up to date with what I have been doing creatively be it work related or just for fun. So, I'll just submit everything that I have been working on as soon as I do it whether it is good or bad or whatever and that way I will be able to track my own progress as well.

THANKS for reading readers.