Lepus Australis

I recently submitted an illustration to a group exhibition titled Lepus Australis. The exhibition explores the theme of domestic rabbits within Australia.

The exhibition has been organised by the talented and hard working pair of Emma Leonard and Sally Land.

The show boasts an impressive line up of artists including, Belinda Suzette, Jodee Taylah, Laura Wood and Cat Rabbit.

Lepus Australis will launch tomorrow night (Thursday the 4th of July) between 6pm and 9pm, at the No Vacancy Gallery in the QV building, Melbourne. Feel free to hop in and check out some fantastic art!

If you can’t wait till tomorrow night, you can have a sneak peak at some of the works that will be on display at the Lepus Australis site. 

The exhibition will run until Sunday the 14th of July.  

The image provided for this post was created by Sally Land. 

Hands On Affair

This Thursday night, I will be involved in the launch of another group exhibition. This show is titled Hands on Affair, and it has been organised by Colm Flynn and his wife  Kami Neira. Colm found that at the establishment were he works part time, they were wasting a huge volume of card. Colm decided to put this card to good use. Colm and Kami took as many of these pieces of card as they could and then distributed them to as many artists and illustrators as they could find. The result should be an eclectic and exciting mix of artistic styles and content.

The exhibition is being held at Conduit Arts, at 83 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Kick off is at 6pm and the launch runs to 9pm. If your in the inner Melbourne area this Thursday evening come on down check out the art and say hello.


To help wet your appetite, I have included a samples of one of my works that will be in the exhibition. For more info on the exhibition click here!

This is Melbourne exhibition launch

Tonight the This is Melbourne group exhibition launches! The exhibition is being held at the Trades Hall (Bella Union). The night kicks off at 6pm and runs through till 8pm. I had a sneak peak at some of the other pieces that will be in the exhibition when I submitted my work and they look fantastic! It looks like it is going to be a corker of a show! So if you’re in Melbourne tonight, come on down and enjoy the show! Big thanks again to Caitlin Pesky for organsing this most awesome event!  

Historical Animation

 
I try to submit as often as I can to the loopdeloop animation challenges. This months theme was history, which I thought was a great theme. I managed to create an animation in response to the theme, but was too late in my submission to make the screening at the loop bar. However it did make it on to the loopdeloop website!

You can check out my handy work by clicking here!

Creature Feature

Recently I was involved in a group exhibition titled Creature Feature. As you could guess from the title of the exhibition, the theme of the show was monsters. It was a wonderfully broad theme, that allowed for a wide variety of interpretations by the artists.

The exhibition was organised by two young and talented illustrators by the name of  Amelai Kelso and Kitty Poduska. At the ripe old age of 21, these two artists took it upon themselves to organise an exhibition involving 25 artists! They did a fantastic job and the launch night went off with out a hitch!

The exhibition was held at the No Vacancy Gallery in the QV building. As always it proved to be a great venue.

There was an impressive line up of established and emerging illustrators in the show. These illustrators included: Amz Kelso, Ash Riley, Belinda Suzette, Ben Weatherall, Colm Flynn, Emma Leonard, Daniel Aitkinson, Dev Ravenga, Fabian Hernandez , Jacqueline Gwynne, Jodee Talyah, Josephine Dempsey, Kitty Poduska, Lachlan Millard, Liam Pettet, Lisa Currie, Natalie Hallam, Neil Sanders, Pixie Barnett-Noor, Pod Poduska, Shannon Keane,  Sharnee Taylor, Soft Science, Stephanie Kelso and Taras Semenenko

I opted to create an A1 sized painting in Acrylic for the show (As seen above). The piece is titled Rough- Housing. I took my inspiration from illustrations found in vintage golden childrens books.

It was an incredibly fun topic to paint! So big thanks again to Amelia and Kitty!

This is Melbourne!

Do not let the title of this entry mislead you! I am not about to post up a parody of the famed scene in 300, where Leonidas looses his cool and hurls a couple of Persians down a well.

No the title of this entry refers to a group exhibition I will be taking part in this September. The This is Melbourne group show will features the work of some of the most prominent creatives in Melbourne. Some of the talented folk who will  be involved included Andrea Innocent, Sarah Strickland and Emma Leonard!

 The exhibition is being organised by the talented textile designer Caitlin Pesky. To find out more about Caitlin and the exhibition, just click on the link here.

The brief for the show was simple; create an A3 image (a print of some sort) based on the phrase This is Melbourne. My response to this brief was to create an illustration of the Nicholas Building. This building seems to be stuffed full of amazingly talented illustrators, artist and designers. I see it as a very important creative hub in the Melbourne CDB. So I thought it would be a good idea to create an illustration of this creative hot spot!

Above is a sneak preview of my illustration. I am hopeful of creating a limited edition silk screen print of this image. That's all the news for now. Cheers.

Northern Exposure 2012

A few weeks ago I was invited by the lovely Belinda Suzette to submit a proposal for an art installation for the Northern Exposure Festival. I was fortunate enough to have my proposal excepted and tomorrow evening I will be installing the work.

The Festival will officially launch this Friday night (15th) between 6 and 9pm.  My work will be on the facade of 241 High Street Northcote, between the Town Hall and the Uniting Church.

If you're free come on down and check out the art! There will be other exhibitions and art installations all along the high street. It will be a hoot!

In the meantime above is a sample of one of my images that will feature on the facade. My concept is to cover the facade of 241 with posters depicting some of the locals.

Enjoy!

Digital Portrait

Here is another digital portrait I created in Photoshop. I had fun painting this one. I particularly like the violet in the shadows.

ROCK!

Well the mad cyclone that was the Little Deities exhibition has well and truly settled down now and I am able to focus my attention on other creative endeavors.

A few weeks ago I thought I would have a go at creating an animation for the Loopdeloop challenge. This month's theme is Rock. To check out my submission (and to vote for it!) just click on the link below.

daniel atkinson ROCK

All animations, which make it to the site for this months theme will be screened in a group airing at the Loop bar in Melbourne (23 Meyers Place) on Tuesday the 24^th of April.

Hope to see you there!

Little Deites, Big Ideas.

Well you have probably been wondering where the heck I have been since my last post.

The answer is I have not been any where, but I have been incredibly busy organising a group exhibition! The exhibition is titled Little Deities and it will be held at the No Vacancy gallery in the QV building, found in the heart of the Melbourne CBD.

The idea behind the exhibition is to provide each contributing artist with a standard size doll, each artist is then asked to transform his or her doll into a god!

I was inspired to curate this show after I completed my own little shrine about a year ago when I moved into my new place. You may recall I posted about that a while ago.

The exhibition is being generously supported by Moritz beer, who have agreed to supply some brew for the exhibition launch. The launch will be on Thursday the 8th of March, between 6pm and 9pm.

So if your free come on down to the launch night people! I you can't make it don't stress, the exhibition will be open to the public till Sunday the 18th of March.

For more info head to the official Little Deities site at littledeities.com

Cheers!

Officer Johnson

It's Loopdeloop time again! This months theme was condoms. It's an interesting theme that has resulted in a few lively responses. As always the animations will be screened at the Loop bar in Melbourne on the last Tuesday of the month, which is actually tomorrow. So come on down people and check out some animated condoms! Good fun for the whole family!
In the meantime here is a link to my animation, titled Officer Johnson.

daniel atkinson CONDOMS

9x5 2011

The annual Illustrators Australia 9x5 exhibition is just around the corner. The theme for this years exhibition is rapture. I decided to explore the dictionary definition of rapture, which is intense delight. My interpretation of intense delight was to show a pair of Hyenas feasting on a dead animal.

I thought it was important to show how an image that may initially seem dark and unpleasant can be seen by others as a source of great comfort or pleasure. In the case of the Hyenas in this image they are in their own way experiencing a sense of rapture as they satisfy their hunger.

War

This is just a quick digital painting I did for the Houdini blog. The theme for last weeks topic was war. I did not want to spend too much time on this piece. I wanted to keep it quick and fresh. Like a great salad!

Mask Loop Animation

The next loopdeloop animation session will be tomorrow night at the Loop Bar at 23 Meyers place, Melbourne. So if your in town check it out. Kick off at 7:30pm. This months theme was masks!

I manage to think of a superhero connection for this subject. To check out my animation, just click on the link below.

Cheers.

daniel atkinson MASK

AFL Illustration

Here is an illustration I completed earlier in the week. I am thinking of submitting it to the upcoming IA source book.

Monster of an animation!

Staying in theme with my last post, the topic for this months Loopdeloop animation screening was monsters. There was a terrific batch of animation at the screening and it was great to have a chat with some of the talented animators who created some of those animations. For my response to the theme I had a crack at animating the walk cycle of a couple of four legged monsters. Check out the link below to see my animation.
Cheers!

daniel atkinson MONSTERS

LOOK SOTP SHOP Diorama

Illustrators Australia has team up with the Melbourne based Hill of Content Bookshop to present a group exhibition titled Moving Stories.

This exhibition is part of the LOOK STOP SHOP 2011 program, which is part of the State of Design Festival (20th-31st July).

The exhibition will display a collection of small dioramas, all of which include a basic light box based animation display. Some of the participants in this exhibition included noted illustrators such as Ben Sanders, Andrea Innocent, Anna Walker, Sonia Kretschmarand and Michael Weldon.

These dioramas will be on display 24hours a day in the windows of the Hill of Content Bookshop for the duration of the Festival.

The LOOK STOP SHOP 2011 program, will offically launch on this Wednesday (20th July).

If you can't wait till then, I have included some images of my diorama in this post. (For those who might be interested, the animation in my diorama shows a flame leaping out of the creatures mouth.)

Cheers,
Daniel.

Loopdeloop...Again!

Well it's happening again!
The second LoopdeLoop animation screening is on tonight. I managed to pop out a quick little animation for this screening. Unfortunately I did not have time to provide any sound. Still the animation is not with out it's charm.

Check out the link to the animation below!

Cheers,
Daniel.

daniel atkinson OPPOSITES

Houdini's Last Escape

I regularly contribute to another group blog, titled Houdini's Last Escape. As I may have mentioned in previous post, the founder of the blog picks a subject for the week and those who have been invited to submit to the blog can produce and illustration in response to the theme. I can hardly believe it, but this week marks the one year anniversary of the blog. Whist I have not been able to contribute to the site every week, when I have had the chance to contribute, it has been a blast!

So in commemoration of this wonderful anniversary I thought I would post my latest submission to Houdini's! The theme for this illustration was the comic character Hell boy. Enjoy!

Rabbit Tribesman

Here is another random illustration I completed a little while ago. Originally I had planned to do a silk screen print of this image, but the line work proved to be too fine. So rather than abandon the image, I finished it off by adding a bit of colour to it. Enjoy!