At the time I was living in Osaka, Japan, doing random jobs. One of them was making / designing / creating sets and painting backdrops for theatre.

Working with Cheri, I made a whole bunch of murals based on the theme of entertainment. This involved painting a lot of the things we love to paint – acrobats, clowns, circus, burlesque dancers and the like. Throw in old movie posters and Charlie Chaplin and we were having a ball! There was a lot of creative freedom in this project, and I think it shows in the final murals. You can also see that we painted illustrations on screens and signs to complement the murals.

Following, you can see some pictures of some murals we did.

The main entrance.

A huge Charlie Chaplin wall. We had to use scaffolding to paint this, as well as lots of black paint!

Me sitting in front of a mural I painted.

Situated in Northern Germany, it is a beautiful old town which is great to wander and just draw. Old buildings, lane-ways, moats, gatehouses, city walls. And really nice people!

I would also recommend the cake at Niedregger (especially their house special, though I can’t remember the name), which was delicious.

Because of time limitations, I mostly drew in pen in my moleskine:

At first glance, it is innocent enough. As you walk up to it, there are paved cobblestones, trees, benches in an idyllic forest setting. A quiet, peaceful summer day with birds in the background.

And then you reach the gates. On the front entrance gates to Sachsenhausen lies the infamous slogan seen at Auschwitz, Arbeit Macht Frei – “Work Will Set You Free”.

It hits you. Mentally, you rewind the clock. You imagine all the people who walked through, the fear, the soldiers, the sounds.

This feeling persists as you explore the camp and read the documentation. Walking through the remains, there is a mixture of camp areas, from the kitchens to the morgues, set in a concentric pattern.

As an artist, I found it interesting that the artists were put to work as counterfeiters. A huge amount entered into circulation and were used to purchase goods for the German armies.

Following the aftermath of World War 2, it was taken over by the Russian army and continued to be used as a concentration camp until 1950, renamed as “Special Camp 1”.

It has a morbid history but it is beneficial to experience it. I hope it can continue to be preserved as a monument to the people during that time as well as reminder for future generations.

I made two drawings in my moleskine sketchbook to share with you. These were created on site, but I couldn’t get the darkness I wanted so I added with ink embellishing at home.

Want to know more about Sachsenhausen?

Wikipedia has a good article on it, which you can read here.

Berlin has a reputation for being an arty city, with a creative scene that is often compared to 80s New York. So, being the curious artists we are, we were excited to head down there and check it out.

The interesting thing about Berlin is that it – perhaps more than any other city – has been involved with so many historical events of the twentieth century, from start to finish. Just off the top of my head I think of both World Wars, Hitler, the Berlin Wall, communism, olympics, Bauhaus etc.

One of the first things that surprised me was the sheer size of the city. There exists a feeling of massive space in their wide boulevards that stretch on and on, palaces galore, and multiple city squares.

We stayed there for 4 days and loved it. I was really inspired by the Northern European tradition of graphics arts and dense mark-making, and you can see it coming out more and more in these drawings. Here are some sketches and drawings that I’d like to share with you.

Wanted to do more collage, layering all these bits and pieces everywhere. Museum Island is a UNESCO world heritage site in the middle of Berlin, with at least 4 massive museums, covering many periods.

I really loved the streets and buildings of Berlin. They had a unique character and feel, sort of square and colourful.

Behind Alexanderplaatz.

Still trying to capture those colourful squares! This time, with collage.

And I kept drawing with my trusty pens in my moleskine sketchbook. Here are the ones I made in Berlin.

A drawing of one of the buildings on Museum Island.

Charlottenburg Palace. Waiting under an arch for the place to open, while it started raining.

Hautbahnhoff. The main train station, a massive modern steel structure. My last drawing in Berlin, you can see the clock points to 11AM.

Tiger Growth, Graphite + Digital colour, 2011

Details

Some closeup images:

Process

This illustration was done with a combination of analog linework and digital colouring.

First, the reference:

More process pictures to come!

I made various heads on paper and cardboard with mixed media. Though time was against me, I was quite happy with how they turned out. Following this, they were scanned, assembled and finished in Photoshop.

Looking at the final, I didn’t intend to have so many hats. It is also amazing to see faces from strangers I regularly see on public transport pop up.

Unfortunately, my poster didn’t make it past the first round . But I had a lot of fun, met some great people, and scored free pizza and beer in the process!

Here is the final poster:

Music Connects, Mixed media + Digital

It was a good time to rest and do some drawings in the local area. Even though it is a very small town, it is a fantastic opportunity to experience a different side of Dutch culture.

I like adding tickets and various items to my book. The niedregger is a sugar packet. On the right was a very Dutch-looking man I drew on the train.

Inside the windmill. I think Van Gogh’s yellow palette started to invade my consciousness.

Yes, a windmill! There was one a street away – still in action. And of course, sunflower inspiration from Vincent Van Gogh, whom I admire very much.

A quick drawing from a stopover on the train. Somewhere in Germany, on the way to Berlin.

Next stop – Berlin! Thanks for looking and I promise to post the Berlin pictures very soon.

These were done in mixed media – spray paint, acrylic, ink, collage.

Here are some detail previews:

Nice things happen when you draw outside

Even though drawing in public can be quite confronting, I find that people tend to be very polite and supportive. And the same ran true in Zutfen – the people were very nice. While drawing at one cafe, the owner of the local shop opposite came and chatted with us. He took us inside his shop, and taught us about the history of the town. It was amazing to see old facades but even older interior walls, the oldest dating from 1100!

The drawings

Here are the drawings I made around Zutfen. These were all done on a slightly larger than A4 size sketchbook, with a mixture of materials – markers, pens, graphite, crayon.

For this exhibition, I created a series of 7 graphite drawings based on natural spirits, inspired by a local park I walk through almost everyday. I’ll leak a few details and pictures after opening night so stay tuned!

Exhibition Details
29 July to 11 August
Brunswick Street Gallery
322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy (corner Argyle St.)
Melbourne, Australia

Opening Night
Friday 29th July
6pm onwards

Look forward to seeing you there!