Rudi’s Family
RUDI’S FAMILY CAN CAUSE YEARNINGS FOR A FARAWAY DREAM CHILDHOOD. This simple story has layers to it. I enjoyed drawing hints of what those layers might be, in the typical ways South African kids used to have fun, with not a cellphone or tablet in sight. There is true tenderness and care here amongst the family members, with everyone contributing to a great time spent together, be the surroundings ever so humble. Rudi’s background is not all fun and games. He lost his mother at a young age, and never knew his dad. These facts are presented matter-of-factly, and he moves on swiftly to the present, and his kind grandparents who provide such a happy home. Peter Lague, publisher for Via Afrika, Cape Town, commissioned and directed the work. The style is realistic, in the Simple Line style, because it’s a straightforward story, with a lot going on in the background. MORE FROM THE STUDIO
Treehouse Bully
THE TREEHOUSE BULLY Very few of us have survived a childhood without being bullied. This is a sweet story about an unusual defence of a little girl by a crew of little boys. Their leader (one assumes he is also the lord and master of the treehouse) refuses entry to the foreign interloper, a little girl called Sami. He ‘wins’ in the end, after his own fashion. A 12-page Reader for Grade 1, art-directed by Peter Lague, publisher for Via Afrika, Cape Town. The style is Zen Zany, one of the 21 styles I offer.
My Family
‘My family’ can mean many things, and that’s normal. This story emphasises how everyone’s family can be very different, with blended families becoming more frequent these days. The old nuclear family model is a distant memory in many cases. The pictures look at what makes a family, and how all children deserve love. A 12-page Reader for Grade 1, art-directed by Peter Lague, publisher for Via Afrika, Cape Town. The style used here is the Paper Style, best for simple concepts. Back to News/Views
Clothes for the Cold
Clothes for the Cold was commissioned by publisher Peter Lague, for Via Afrika, Cape Town. The story takes up 12 pages of a Grade 1 Reader. This style is the Simple Line – great for conveying a lot of information in an accessible way. The background is a typical scene from the small West Coast fishing village of Arniston, in South Africa. Back to News/Views
Communicate with animated cartoons
These little CrazyTalk animations provide a friendly beginning and end to educational Powerpoint courses. The client was Poema, working with Unicef to provide capacity in an African government department. This course focused on statistics.
The Mutants have mutated
I’ve updated Mutants at The Mall to include the new style and a couple of new features, like interviews with the various characters, a diagram showing how they relate to each other, and a few other little things. See what you think – I would be interested to hear whether you prefer the new style or the old photorealistic version. Back to News/Views
A brand new style combination
My client needed some whiteboard-friendly designs. So, from the rough samples supplied, I made these. They resemble our previous stick-figure images, plus a shot of extra style! That is, the Chinese style combined with the Tinted Lines style. Also, the colour washes add some extra pizzazz. Enjoy the show. Back to News/Views
This is becoming a talking point…
‘Body Break’ done for Poema. More info on this project soon! Thought I’d share this here as well, because it’s interesting, this new take on inter-generational studios now coming up for attention as a new thing. Have a read. And then, by the usual type of amazing coincidence that tends to constantly appear, this also arrived in my inbox. Nice. I’m liking this. Also strange is the third coincidence. Over this past weekend, I’ve been in a wealth-management course. We were invited to form several pairs of teams and play a game against our opposing group, imitating the stock exchange. One young lady in our team who must have been in her twenties, but looked about fourteen, suggested a certain strategy: to have a discussion with the other team and collaborate to fix the result to earn more. I overrode it, thinking to myself… ‘Nobody this young could possibly come up with something useful.’ I did. I really […]
Caricatures – more than faces.
Caricatures tend to pop up frequently in my work, especially in the last few years. I like to include bits and pieces from the person’s work and hobbies e.g. those of Ferdi and Hilde Keller, guest house owners in Seapoint, who are also keen golfers, as are most of their guests. Caricatures make wonderful corporate gifts. For special occasions as a token of appreciation for individuals, it is the perfect personal gift. One can also honour a team with a multi-caricature to mark an occasion. Adding certain items in the background can reflect the person’s hobbies or work or both, as can be seen in the caricature of Henk, who is involved in telecommunications. For the Zest agency, all five individuals in the team appear on a billboard welcoming visitors to their town, Dullstroom. Back to News/Views
Little Wingsters
The Little Wingsters is a TV series in development. Aimed mainly at kids 6-8 years old and consisting of 26 x 11min episodes, Little Wingsters honours the tiny members of the angelic realm who deliver information, joy and comfort to children everywhere. They may occasionally borrow items to wake a child up to the beauty of lost things. But if asked nicely, they help in the recovery of such items. This is especially so, once the ‘victim’ has also found other lost things. Those things they often needed even more… Pictures of the Winged Ones and their loot will soon adorn clothing, bed-linen, mugs, badges and a colouring book. All of these are moving from ether to brain to production at a steady pace. So far, the calendar will have to be a quarterly one. That’s because the monthly version must wait till 12 staff members have been hatched, then paused long enough for a mug-shot. They move quite a […]
Portrait for promotional purposes
A realistic portrait is a promotional idea that can be adapted constantly. This illustration was for a German opera singer. He’ll be using it as a promotional device throughout the year, adding different elements for each occasion or theme. It’s a brilliant idea and I imagine his clients will enjoy receiving these postcards. Working from different photos and my imagination, we constructed a more smiley expression and ended up with a good likeness. The main thing of course with a portrait is always that the client likes it and this portrait was a success as far as that was concerned. Meanwhile, if you need a portrait of yourself or a loved one, or even a caricature, do contact me. Back to News/Views
‘We’ll have to use stick-figures!’
When the budget needs to go to the bone… stick figures come into their own. When my client mentioned a new job involving the supervision of schools, the budget was smaller than usual. So she came up with the novel idea of doing stick figures. Because she was laughing, I thought she was joking. It worked quite well – even stick-people can convey a concept, emotions, and frustrating situations. Some appear in the first three pics: the disruption of a schoolday by lots of cars full of officials arriving, with everyone rushing to ‘make nice’; the intrusion into school time with the teachers feeling they have to socialise with the officials while the children do no learning; the distraction during classes by the Visitors. Other images show the various types of schools found there. Some are humbler than others. All can be well-run. Hope you enjoy the show! Back to News/Views
