In the style of… Edward McKnight Kauffer

Sky Tower – watercolour and acrylic, 295 x 210 mm, 2013.
Sky Tower – watercolour and acrylic, 295 x 210 mm, 2013
Sky Tower – Auckland, 2007.
Sky Tower – Auckland, 2007

Here is Auckland’s Sky Tower ― the tallest man-made structure in New Zealand ― surrounded by little fluffy clouds. The sketch was an exercise in simplicity and contrast. Left to my own devices, I would have added more details and shading, but that’s not really the point of this exercise. I used watercolour pencils and my new Molotow acrylic paint markers (oh what a wonderful world we live in!).

Edward McKnight Kauffer

Posters from 1923,1932 and 1934  Images from www.pickmix.co.uk
Posters from 1923, 1932 and 1934
Images from www.pickmix.co.uk

I’m a little jealous of American-born artist and designer Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890–1954). He studied in Paris, illustrated several of T. S. Eliot’s books (apparently he was Eliot’s preferred illustrator) and designed posters for the London Underground. Not a bad career.

In the style of… appears occasionally instead of my regular Shoot it, Sketch it posts. Using my own photographs as a starting point, I’m drawing inspiration from some of the world’s greatest illustrators. It’s not about slavishly copying someone else’s art; it’s an experiment in seeing things differently.

Dear diary, part nine

Science Fiction stamp design – sketches Visual diary, two-page spread  (student project, 2011)
Science Fiction stamp design – sketches
Visual diary, two-page spread (student project, 2011)
Science Fiction stamp poster (594 x 420 mm) Background stars and planets courtesy of the Internet Student project, 2011
Science Fiction stamp poster (594 x 420 mm)
Stars and planets (background collage) courtesy of the Internet
Student project, 2011

Another one of my favourite designs at college was this stamp poster (and all of the stamps). Below is the text I wrote as part of the project:

Commemorating 50 years of science fiction on television in New Zealand, this collection features illustrations of some of the 1960s most iconic science fiction programmes.

Television arrived in New Zealand homes at a time when great advances were being made in space exploration. The 1960s was a decade obsessed with the “space race” as the Soviet Union and the United States competed to put a man on the moon. These 12 stamps depict television shows that tapped into our fascination with space and space travel. There were tales of friendly aliens living among us and of hostile alien invasions; journeys into our possible future and into the questionable past; galaxies filled with spaceships, robots and strange new worlds.

This post is the last of my Dear diary series… but I think I’ll start blogging about the artwork for these stamps — because stamps are cool : )

The diary pages are from a journal I designed for my Design & Arts College exhibition in 2012. Two years of research, ideas, word maps and sketches had to be reduced to a mere 72 pages. It was no easy task but I now have a beautiful, professionally bound diary that I’ll always treasure.

Fireflies

Fireflies – mixed media (acrylic, paper, ink and digital), 145 x 235 mm, 2013.
Fireflies – mixed media collage (acrylic, paper, ink and digital), 145 x 235 mm, 2013.

My little blog now has 400 followers! Thank you all so very much. You brighten my days here in the art cave : )