Hatch

'Hatch' for Illustration Friday.

Entangled

Entangled, for Illustration Friday.
Drawn on a post-it, coloured in photoshop.

US trip recap

We visited the US in September, and I've been meaning to do a little recap on the blog, so here it is.

On our second night in New York, we went to see Mos Def do a show on Governor’s Island. After catching the subway in the wrong direction on an express train all the way uptown (damn tourists!), we made our way back downtown and caught the ferry over. I think that view of Manhattan from the outdoor venue was worth it!


Post concert 3am food emergency.. we found a place where you could draw on the tables until your food arrived. Yay!


So much amazing architecture in New York – here’s the entrance to the Chrysler Building. I’m just waiting for some robots to roll out of those revolving doors. It’s such a crazy vision of the future from way back.

My life is now complete – we went to see Aretha Franklin perform at Radio City Hall...


...which is a beautiful venue!


Just look at the bathrooms!


Checked out Brooklyn with a friend who lives there – thanks joey, you’re awesome! Brooklyn is awesome!


We stayed in the west village, right near magnolia bakery, and right near this restaurant, Extra Virgin. It gets my tick of approval (seared tuna with roast artichoke and herb mash? Yes I think so.)


Next, we headed to San Francisco, where, listen up Aussies, we discovered that if you order a double-shot coffee, you don’t get a strong coffee, you get a coffee the size of a bowl of soup.


Do you think he’ll order another one? Maybe once he resurfaces from his swim


Yes, it's all about the food. We ate this photogenic breakfast at farm : table. Toast with mascarpone, fresh figs, hazelnuts and pomegranate. They have only 3 items on the menu which changes every day, depending on what they feel like making.


The pirate store at 826 Valencia st – Where you can get all your pirating needs, and see writing workshops in action out the back.

Apparently, when the founders couldn’t get a place to hold their regular workshops, they found this empty shopfront in Valencia St, but the council rules stated that any store had to be ‘retail” or “catering”. And that’s how the pirate supply store was born.
This place is amazing. All over the store there are handmade signs hanging up, full of hilarious pirate wisdom. You can read some at the gallery of signs on their website.


Yosemite National Park – One of our favourite parts of the trip, and where I almost ran straight into a black bear.


But that's another story...

Illustration Friday: Skinny

On the subject of skinny, my friend the cookie tells it like it is.

Seeking advice from illustrated cookies won’t really affect one’s weight, but making and inhaling a batch of these probably will, which is exactly what I did last week something I would never do, for I am a very healthy individual.
*Cough*

Illustration Friday: Frozen

I've been out of action on the blog for a little while, after moving to a new apartment, and going on a trip to the US.
But now I am back, still needing to unpack a bunch of boxes that are sitting in the corner, but making an entry for IF instead. (click to see it larger)

When I was in the States, I visited Yosemite National Park (awesome), and on one of the hikes we met a guy who told us that the last time he had visited Yosemite, it was covered in snow.

We don't get much snow in Australia, and I thought then that I would probably never get the chance to see Yosemite under snow, with the sound of bears snoring the winter away.

Nice internets

My showreel was featured on the awesome illustration blog, Pikaland.
Pikaland is one of my favourite illustration blogs to check out - always full of great work, advice and inspiration. So it's lovely to be featured - thanks Pikaland!

My site also got a mention on the Aussie design site, design federation.

The internets is nice.

Owls

From the sketchbook

Simon's Cat

If you haven't already seen it, here's a brand new episode of Simon's Cat by English animator Simon Tofield.
His observation and comic timing are just so good!

U2 clip by David OReilly and Jon Klassen

David OReilly and Jon Klassen have just collaborated on a film clip for U2, and what a great clip it is.



See my previous posts about David OReilly and Jon Klassen below.

(link via Drawn!)

New website

I finally have a portfolio website up! (all kinds of yay!)
Check out some of my animation, illustration and design work at www.taligalon.com

I think designing for yourself can sometimes be the hardest job.
I decided I am my own worst client, I fired myself, and agreed never to work for me again.

But in the end, I managed to get together a folio site. Phew!

Desktop Mag - yay!

I've been shortlisted in Desktop Mag's annual Create Awards..
And there's my work in print in this month's Desktop. Wow!
I didn't even realise until someone from work suggested I read this month's issue :)

Illustration Friday: Worn

when i was a teenager, i obeyed the strict, unspoken code that was handed down telepathically for generations.

new shoes = lame
worn shoes = cool

scuff those shoes on the pavement, immediately!

Screenings: Dungog and Little Big Shots

Crooked is screening at Dungog Film Festival this week, in the Mini Flicks session on Friday afternoon.
Dungog sounds like an amazing festival, running over 4 days in a small country town in NSW. Wish i could be there! Check out their cute festival trailer


Back here in Melbourne, Crooked and Lucille are screening at the Little Big Shots Children's Film Festival, which is kicking off next week. The festival screens here June 3 - 8, before touring to over 20 venues around Australia including the Adelaide Festival Centre (July 16-18), the Sydney Opera House (Sept 9-13).
I'll be popping in to some of the screenings at ACMI next week, to check out some films and do some Q&A's (eep!)

Please Say Something

Set in the distant future, David O’Reilly's 'Please Say Something' is a 10 minute short about a troubled relationship between a Cat and Mouse. The film is told in 23 episodes of exactly 25 seconds each.
This won the Golden Bear for best short film at the Berlinale. Not best short animation, best short film! O'Reilly is a brave film maker, and the way he plays with narrative structure is refreshing. Ultimately, this is great storytelling. Watch! watch!

Contagious

That old lurgy's going round again.
For Illustration Friday

Married!

Yep, we've gone and done it!
Thanks to all our awesome family and friends who partied with us like there was no tomorrow!

The Playground

Last year I got to animate on a great project for ABC Kids Online. The Playground is an interactive world for preschoolers, full of colourful characters and games to play.
It recently won an AIMIA award for best children's website. Well done to the ABC Kids Team and all the talented people who designed, animated, coded and created that crazy music :)

Flickerfest - Best of Melbourne Screening

My film Crooked is showing in Melbourne this week, as part of Flickerfest's 'Best of Melbourne' Screening.
It's on at 7pm this Thursday the 26th, at the Kino Dendy cinemas on Collins Street.
Check out the program.

Legendary - For Illustration Friday

Here's a quick watercolour of Bob. With a name like Bob how could you not be destined for greatness?

Illustrator Profile: Jon Klassen

Every so often I see an artist that makes me want to throw down my pencil, throw out my sketchbooks, and pursue a career in accounting.
Mrs Black, my uninspiring year 9 maths teacher made sure that would never happen. Thanks a lot Mrs Black!

Melodrama aside, the work of Jon Klassen is rocking my socks at the moment.
And rather than making me want to commit career suicide, it's making me want to plaster his beautiful works all over my walls.
He was an artist on the soon-to-be-released stop-motion animated feature, Coraline, where he worked on visual development of props and sets. Check out the development drawings on his website - interesting!


He also blogs, and sells his prints at Nucleus Gallery, just incase you all want to buy me a print, wink wink!

bear for a baby

One of my friends just had a baby, so I decided to make her a little painting to hang in her nursery.
I’d been doing digital stuff for so long, I forgot how much fun it is to actually paint. With a real paintbrush! Paint! And paper!

I don’t really have a space set up for painting, with my desk space engulfed by the all powerful iMac. So here’s my messy set up on the kitchen table.
Yes, that is an ice-cube tray that has rediscovered life as a palette.
I soon found out that round tables were not made for painting, as I kept on nearly knocking the paint off the edge of the table.
First sketched, then painted a few of the teddy’s little limbs with gouache. This was the first time I’d used gouache in years, and I like it! It’s dries so clean and flat.
Well, I painted the rest so quickly, I didn’t stop to take another pic. And here he is framed and ready to go.

Hope you like it little Luka!

Lucille Screenings update

The Adelaide Film Festival is starting this weekend, and they've kindly invited my short, Lucille, to screen as part of the Animation Passport program. Curated by Eddie White from the People's Republic of Animation, it looks to be a killer program! I'm pretty humbled to be screening my film in such good company.

If you haven't seen these films yet, here's your chance! There are some real gems in this animated mix-tape
The films screening are: Skhizein, KJFG No.5, A Coffee Vending Machine & His Sword, I Met the Walrus, Lucille, Madame Tutli-Putli, Oktopodi, and Western Spaghetti (which I recently featured right here)

Festival screenings for Lucille have also just been confirmed at:
BUFF International Children and Young People's Film Festival in Malmö, Sweden, and Tricky Women's Film Festival in Vienna

Thanks adelaide, Malmö and Vienna!!

Illustration Friday: Time

A late entry for Illustration Friday's 'Time' topic. Even I can see the irony in that. Perhaps i should've drawn something about lateness.
Anyway, here's Public Enemy Robot. In the house.

Victorian Bushfires

Sad times here in Victoria. It's hard to even imagine the scale of the devastation these fires have caused. Please give to the Australian Red Cross Victorian bushfire appeal if you can.
Read news and eye-witness accounts at ABC News

Western Spaghetti

Do you like spaghetti? I like spaghetti. Especially this very clever
stop-motion animation cooked up by PES.

Flickerfest Screening

Flickerfest, Sydney's summer outdoor film festival, is starting this weekend, and my very short short, Crooked, will be screening in Australian Program #3.

If, lovely reader, you happen to live in Sydney and want to check it out, it screens at 9pm on Sunday 11th and Monday 12th. I will be at the Sunday night screening if you want to say hello.