A holiday break

A busy person I have been for just over a week and a half. I travelled to Whakatane in the North Island of New Zealand where my uncle owns a Nursery. Nestled in a gully with no cell reception, and dial-up for internet I found time to experiment with my editing software.
 I had also realised that there hadn't been a windy day my entire stay. Reason being the position in the gully pretty much escapes the wind more than not. We had frosty mornings (It's winter here) and glorious fine days. It was a great break away.
 Here is a tattoo design I worked on in CorelDraw Graphics Suite X6. Although I have added no shading, I still think the onlooker can use their imagination and create their own shading, colour, and add your own elements to turn this into something you might like to get tattooed. To me it has some resemblance to a Cuttlefish or squid. I'm not that great at using the software yet and only rely on youtube as and when required rather than read the instructions (which 90% of it I would forget). I'm more of a visual person so reading hampers my efforts due to not being able to retain what I've read.
Well, I hope you like what you see and should you want to use the design I would like to see the results. Of course it's free to use so no obligation.
BTW it is 72dpi. I do have a 300dpi image so if you want to contact me I can send that to you.

Latest work

This is a tree frog that I was commissioned to do. I'm not happy with the background at the moment so will make some changes once I get back from holiday. I'm away for 8 days. No cell phone reception and only dial up for the internet so I can't imagine being online very often, if not at all.

It's cold, I've got a cold

I hate to say that I still have a cold but.......
Turning more into a chest infection now I think. It's been close to two weeks and I'm now tiring especially sleep wise. It's so warm to be in bed and feels like my eyes are on fire generating heat and certainly is comforting to feel that hot. Weird!!!
I have done some work on the walnut carving but no photo to show off. I'm waiting for my 22mm Diamond hole saw to arrive so I can cut my piece of Nephrite/Jade to place in the carving.
Anyway, as I like to put photo's up I thought I would add this image that I did for one of my nephews a few years ago. Obviously he supports Liverpool.

Walnut carving update

Well I hate to say it but I was wrong. After a 10 days of looking for my camera and deciding it had been stolen, I found it. So here is a photo update of my walnut carving. There isn't too much more to do to the carving itself but I still need a rod and a piece of granite for the base. Having more of a Celtic feel to it I need to build a title around that. Does anyone have any suggestions?

No Camera

Unfortunately my camera has been stolen so I'm on hold as far as images goes which is really disappointing. I've got the materials I needed to finish off the walnut carving I've been working on so this will give me something to do.
I have a cold at the moment, which is rare for me. I'm lucky if I get sick twice a year. I put that down to giving up smoking approx 12 years ago.
On the other side of things, I've cleaned up some beef bone and sketched on some designs that are ready for me to work on.

We have a lovely sunny day here and really, our winter has been kind to us again. I think I feel well enough to get dressed(12.54pm) lol, and do some work. Hopefully I'll be able to sweat most of the bug out which kind of reminds of this picture I did for my nephew many years ago. A4 black pen. He loves bugs.

Job completed

Well, I've finally completed my mates partners house. It's been a slow process due to weather hiccups and due to the fact you're not going to find much fine weather during winter! I've posted more images on Google+ so if you want to see more just hop into Google+. You will also get to see the red door which was my colour choice, to go with the rest of the house. The owner had thought of painting it black. I see a red door and I want it painted black was the thought that followed that.

House Painting

Over the last one and a half weeks I've been painting a mates house in Carterton, South Wairarapa, NZ. We're slowly working our way to completing the outside. Rain, wind and sunshine have been the main hazards, not to forget it's winter and yes, I said sunshine! Overcast days are the best. In the Wairarapa you can almost guarantee you'll get four seasons in one day hence the length of time it's taken so far. 
On the other side of things, I've been working on a business card design in my spare time. Ta Moko is the permanent body and face marking by Maori. There's still plenty of room to play around with the design too.

 

Walnut progress

After a lengthy bout of lack of self motivation, today I picked up my walnut carving and began working on it again. Forgive the lighting. I left it a bit late to photograph. 
The hole in the front of the carving will hopefully have a piece of Jade/Nephrite inserted. The hole in the back is for natural light to shine through to enhance the variations in the greenstone, I hope. I still need to shape the semi-circles and add a v-groove design before I focus on sanding and staining.
The hole below looks off-center but I think that's more to do with the illusion created by the smaller hole along with the angle I took the photograph.

BACK

FRONT

Walnut carving

Here are a couple of photo's of my newest carving I'm working on. I'm unsure of a title yet but am aiming somewhere in the region of 'Hazardous Waste', Radioactive.....?. You get the general idea. 
I have found that this piece of wood (walnut) has a lovely grain to it. I think this is due to me previously using driftwood which doesn't show the grain as well due to being submerged in water for long periods.  I'm only about half way to finishing this piece so still a bit of work to do. The back (top below) was a challenge to add a curve to it but it's either beginners luck, which probably means i'll never be able to do it again, or I might be a natural (lol).

Busy cleaning

Today I spent the day cleaning and rearranging my unit. The bedroom, bathroom and kitchen have almost been finished so was able to move my bed back into the bedroom and start cleaning out the lounge. I boxed and placed stuff in preparation to store on shelves that have been built in my workshop.
With my nephews,6-11 years old, coming to stay on Friday I've planned to show them how to cut granite and polish it to a shine. I also thought I could give them a turn at using my foredom carving machine under strict supervision i.e. they can place their hand over mine!

 It feels good to be busy and have had several ideas that I can turn into sculptures. It's funny how sometimes one idea can lead to several other ideas rapidly. I look forward to placing some of the stages on here when I have some photo's of my progress.

I've been lazy this week. I did start working on a painting of an elephant in a 60's style, peace,love and that sort of thing, for a friend. With Good Friday beginning tomorrow I hope to do some work on some small pieces of stone for my nephews so they can turn them into necklaces. I think they're going to take after me and become artists in some form or another. 
I thought I would add this photo just for those who may not be interested in what I've written. I drew these on the computer using GIMP many years ago.

                                                                   Angel Wings

Water fowl carving

I thought I would share this carving of a local waterfowl, in abstract form. This particular waterfowl would use his colouring and extension of it's head pointing upwards to blend in with the reeds. I carved it from Tasmanian Blackwood. The base is a native timber Totara. I donated this carving to the community for them to raffle off.

The Devil wears Prada

I'm glad to say that this carving has reached it's completion. Although it ha been on g+ for a few days I have only just found time to place it on my blog. I took a tongue 'n'cheek approach to it's title. The Devil with his imperfections is shown with the imperfection in the carving, although I think it enhances it.

 

Break

I've been away spending time on myself for several days plus I had graduation on the 28th March. Spending most days doodling. Some tattoo concepts and logo concepts were the result. I'm looking forward to returning home and getting back into some carving.
We've had some really hot days. Something I can't complain about. Option would be cold days and I know what I prefer. I thought I would add this photo to show where I'm at with this as yet untitled artwork.

Driftwood face

Today I started working on this carving again. I'm terrible at working on one carving at a time which makes it seem like it takes forever to finish one. This has been a struggle. As I am teaching myself I keep making mistakes and it takes hours upon hours to bring everything back into some sort of perspective. I hope to work on this tomorrow so hope to be closer to completing this difficult, learn by your mistakes, carving.

Pointillism

This design was something to fill in time while I sat and semi-watched a movie. I did this a while ago and I think it still looks good.

Tattoo design

This design has a negative and a positive flame incorporated into it. It is an old design I worked on using GIMP as the editing software. Ignore the copyright. If you want to use it, go for it. It would be nice if you added a comment as a courtesy though.

My first wood carving

I was looking through a flash drive and found my very first wood carving which was a low relief carving. I had called it 'Úntitled Revelation' It shows a repetitive pattern which in Maori is called Kowhaiwhai. The story behind the carving shows mirror images, which are the followers of Christ, who teaches through the images that link us.
I gifted this to the Editor of my book that was published in 2010.

New Wood carving

True to form I'm working on more than one project at a time. I seriously think I enjoy putting myself through this. A bit of a sucker for punishment so to speak, as it drains me. This is an early stage of what looks like an abstract shoe of some sorts.

Progress on fish hook carving

Although my progress is slow I am getting there. As you can see from the comparison there has been a reasonable amount of progress. I think the name of this particular piece of greenstone is Kakotea. Forgive me if I am wrong. I am trying to teach myself the differences of greenstone in New Zealand. The photo background on the right shows the carving sitting on a Brisbane river nodule.