"Moving On"

"Facing your Demons"

"In Harms Way"

"Heavily Guarded"

"Trusting the Unknown"

"Finding your Magic"

"A Dangerous Journey"

"No Season is Safe"

"Stranger in a Monster Land"

"Stolen Away"

"Lurking" around town

"Lurk" Opening night

 Myself and Dave Beazley with our paintings all hung

me being a Lurker

"Lurk" opened on a rainy Thursday night (25th of August 2016). I've never been very good with exhibition openings as nerves tend to take control but I think this one went really well. A great turnout of people (despite the weather) and some awesome sales too. A huge thanks to Shannon from the Quarry Arts Centre for her awesome help and support. Also a mighty big thanks to Dave and Andrea for all that they did....the list is a long one.

The exhibition runs for another 33 weeks at the Yvonne Rust Gallery Whangarei.

another piece for the "Lurk" exhibition

Working on one of my pieces for the "Lurk" exhibition

"Lurk" an exhibition of new monsters

not everyone can see them....but I sure do

Wolf

One of my favourite recent illustrations "Wolf"

DARK ARTs.co.nz

I'm very excited to be part of a collective of Whangarei Local artists who sometimes like to lurk in the darker side of art. Check out https://darkarts.co.nz/ for all the dark fun! and keep a look out for future DARK ARTs exhibitions and merch. I'll be creating a T-Shirt design exclusively for DARK ARTs in the very near future. 

Stay tuned.

The Great Plate Exhibition 2016

Hi guys, big apologies for my absence of late, I definitely need to keep up to date with my blog posts.

I thought I'd start with my plate for "The Great Plate 2016" exhibition. It's always such a fun exhibition where heaps of local artists get to turn a plate into a work of art. My one this year is titled "I love watching you remember" and it was inspired by my Pops.

All the plates are auctioned on Trade Me and all money earned goes to The Quarry Arts Centre in Whangarei (NZ)....a mighty good cause for local artists.

Raised by ducks?

Thanks to a slip of the tongue I was raised by ducks... (with!!!...I meant with!!!).

Soju Shots 2015 Christmas Card Designs

These are available from my little studio : Number 1 Rathbone Street (upstairs room 5), Whangarei, New Zealand or Paperbag Princess, Bank Street Whangarei.
Internationally both designs are now available in my Society 6 Store: https://society6.com/sojushots/cards

Studio Shift

Hi all, sadly I've recently left my little studio space which I shared with MERCY Clothing....BUT...I have only moved 2 doors down the hall. It's another tiny but cosy space for me to create. I only have a small selection of things to purchase (at the moment) but you are most welcome to come up for a look or a chat.
Address: Number 1 Rathbone Street, (upstairs room 5), Whangarei, New Zealand.
Hope to see you soon :)

Hide and Seek with Moon

I wanted to do an updated illustration for one of my old designs called "Tea with Moon". A little fox who's best friend is the Moon.

Peppina/ Fan Jam TV

Photo by : Allison Stock http://www.allisonstock.com/

FanJam TV

I recently had the awesome opportunity to take part in an online show which focuses on musical artists and connects their fans with them via Skype.
This show was all about the amazing Peppina (a musically gifted singer/songwriter from Finland) and I was asked to be part of it as she has written songs based on my illustrations for hitRECord.
The first was Mademoiselle Noir...a very dark take on the classic brothers Grim tale Rapunzel, which was made into an animation and sponsored by Sony. (you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQR0DLhp5Sg )
Beastly Beauty was the second and this one was featured on the Emmy award winning TV Show Hitrecord on TV. You can watch the animation over at hitrecord: http://www.hitrecord.org/records/1503066

Pepinna has put a whole lot of love and hard work into her new EP: Follow you Gravity. It has some really magical tunes so I recommend you go buy a copy: http://www.peppinamusic.com/music

You can watch the episode of Fan Jam TV where she plays some awesome live music and I got to meet her (skype face to face) for the first time. <3 Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lASmVKIIuYs&feature=youtu.be

Spooky Tails

I've never had the opportunity to listen to scary stories around a campfire....but it's definitely something I'm sure I'd love. I decided to draw a bunch of my favourite woodland creatures toasting marshmellows and listening to Bunny's scary tales. I reckon bunnies would tell the best scary stories.

3rd wheels like popcorn too!

We've all been the 3rd wheel before, I can't imagine it being all that fun for Chewy.
I made this little illustration in the excitement of the upcoming "The Force Awakens". I'm really hoping it's an awesome addition to the franchise. Anyone out there have tickets? I'm hoping to do another star wars based illustration before the 17th of Dec.

Magia

"You asked me for space" Postcards arrived.

"I'm not sure I can go through with it Cyril"

There's a huge amount of pressure put on poor old Mr Moon, I wonder if he gets nervous...?

How do I look in red?

There's a blood moon eclipse (super moon) happening tonight which unfortunately we cant see from New Zealand. I made this anyway :D

Buttercup // THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Here's the short video I talked about a few posts back. I'm really proud of myself and the whole hitrecord community for this amazing little doco. For you Buttercup! hope to see you here soon! <3

Margaret and May

This is a photo of my Characters Margaret and May (see below post) which were turned into these huge cutouts for the premier of Hitrecord on TV in Los Angeles. Unfortunately being the cliche struggling artist I couldnt afford to get myself over there but Edward the ninth (Creative Developer) was awesome enough to send this pic through to me. It's a huge dream of mine to attend a hitrecord function someday.

Hitrecord on TV Season 2

 "Little Dragon"

"Margaret and May"

Hey out there....(not sure if anyone still reads my blog but if you do I would love to hear from you...feel free to say hi in the comments below :)

I find this blog a really cool way to keep track of all the things I get up to.....kind of like my journal. I'm not the best at keeping it up to date but I always seem to come back to it with my updates.

One of the awesome projects I got to be a part of this year was: Hitrecord on TV Season 2.
The thing I love most about hitrecord (apart from all the amazing friends/artists you get to collaborate with) is seeing my little characters brought to life. It really amazes me to see how someone else interprets my little scribbles. In this season of Hitrecord on TV a few of my characters were animated in the coolest little animation shorts:

The first is a beautiful short animation called "Little Dragon" which is on the "FIRE" episode. It's based on a brilliant little poem written by Metaphorist (a.k.a Sarah...a huge talent in words, music.... everything!) I provided the key character of Sylvie...a little dragon who breaths ice instead of fire. My character was originally called Russell but due to a lack of lead female characters in the episode little Russell became little Sylvie (which I think works just as well).
 All the characters were "plushified" by hitrecorder Sinnamin ...which means she cleverly made them into "felt" versions of themselves. They live in this amazing crafty, crochet, knitted, magical land which was constructed by a whole heap of contributing artists. It turned out beautifully and has a whole heap of heart!

The second is called "Margaret and May" and is a tiny little segment but one I love a lot. It's creepy and dark and you'll find it lurking somewhere in the "SECRETS" episode.

Hope you enjoy them and all the other work by all these awesome artists.

all my best
Soju Shots

Outcast

I've noticed people sharing things online recently to show their support for something awesome but is tearing someone else down in the process. Fighting bullying with bullying is still bullying! even if you are "on the right side". I'm not sure why I'm writing this here with this drawing ...it's just an observation of something I don't thinks very cool. I'll probably delete this soon <3

creating characters

"they are born from my pen and set free to have adventures"

Buttercup's Impossible Dream

Recently I've been working on an awesome project for hitRECord called :The Impossible Dream.
The community has been collaborating on 3 short documentaries about real people who have dreams that to them have seemed unobtainable at some point in their lives.
The one I have been working on is about an amazing soul on hitRECord called Lena (username Buttercup) who comes from Germany.
Buttercup has always been full of support over the years to so many people on hitrecord and when she shared her "impossible dream" I just had to be part of helping inspire it to come true.
I'll leave all the details and story for the short documentary which will be coming out very soon. (I'll leave links to it when it's out).
In the meantime the above image is of Buttercup and her friendly skeleton exploring the magical land of New Zealand.

Stay tuned for more..

International talk like a pirate day

I made this illustration for Storytime books in Whangarei. I saw online that they were celebrating the international talk like a pirate day which sounds like so much fun. I sent them this as a gift and hope they like it as much as I enjoyed making it for them.

the rescue

The one where Timothy takes the stage

Written by Johnny Clyde

This little comic was based on the amazing Timothy Dark character created by the hugely talented Johnny Clyde. This character began life on hitrecord but seemed to spread his wings and now has his own growing following outside of it. Johnny usually writes the darkly hilarious tales which are full of heart and the amazing Taylor Dolan illustrates them in her trademark awesomeness. In true hitrecord fashion collaboration is taking place with guest writers and illustrators being invited to join in. I was incredibly honoured to be asked to illustrate the above....I instantly loved the tiny story and couldn't wait to get started. (I hope I did it justice).
I predict really big and exciting things happening with Timothy Dark in the future and I wish Johnny and Taylor all the very best with this awesome adventure.

Check out all the amazing Timothy Dark Tales here : www.facebook.com/timothydarkthings

Look what we won.......an Emmy!!

Hitrecord on TV (season one) won an Emmy award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media....and I couldnt be more proud. This includes a huge amount of contributing artists from all around the world who worked together to make this awesome show. My main contribution was all the illustrations for the short animation "Beastly Beauty"....we worked so hard on it and it turned out so beautifully!! which makes me extra happy that this will always remind me of it.

Thanks heaps hitrecord!

Happy Birthday to the Fantastic Mr Dahl

Roald Dahl is one of my all time favourties! 

He created some of the most magical stories and characters of all time.
He would have been 99 today. 

I'd love to fly away

It's been one of those days