Website

Well blogger it's been fun but I have a website now so it may be time to hang up your boots. If you want to keep up to date with me and my work you can here sophieoiseau.com or www.facebook.com/SophieOiseauIllustration or www.behance.net/SophieOiseau. Got options!

I'll sign off with a painting of my latest obsession: Wrinkly dogs.

Its also a great set of words to say.

Wrinkly.

Dogs.

Chromacon

Chromacon is on this weekend! 10am-5pm Saturday and Sunday, come on down! Bring me a snack!

Canvased

I was delighted to be interviewed in the latest Canvas magazine in the NZ Herald. Had to stretch a way back to find a funniest moment which wasn't just be laughing at my silly drawings or at the wonderful No Such Thing As A Fish podcast.

This opportunity arose through participating in Chromacon, the NZ indie arts festival. There are some amazing artists participating, y'all should come along. Also you can support Chromacon through their Kickstarter campaign, one week to go! 

Spot the difference

The pigeon's pink feet were really bothering me, they were too indistinct and didn't fit in that well with the colour scheme. Much better now I reckon!

Texture tryouts

I had some sponge stuff from some packaging materials so have been mucking about with using it to apply ink and paint. I'm to get a bit more mess and texture into my work. It's quite fun to use but can be quite hard to control. I also want to try making off areas but I've never had much success with masking gum and need a better knife before I go cutting intricate stuff out.

This piece I did for Chromacon's artbook. Chromacon is a NZ indie arts festival happening soon, will post more info soon.

This is from a zine I'm working on about inappropriate urges or desires. Sometimes I just feel like licking the ground for some reason. I've been soliciting more of these thoughts from friends so feel free to leave some of your own in the comments.

Sponge play.

Laika go fetch

Did this drawing the other day, Laika the soviet space traveling dog. I've ordered Nick Abadzis' graphic novel, Laika from the library, preparing myself for lots of sad dog content.

Plant sitting

I'm currently looking after this beautiful plant (I think it's a type of Christmas Cactus...?). Shortly after painting this all its flowers fell off so I've moved it to a cooler part of the house and it seems to be doing ok, no new flowers though.

In the gloom

Put some colour behind this ink drawing I did a while back. 

Pensive Frog.

Selfie

As part of my Three Words submission (all done now yay!) I had to do a self portrait, so I thought I'd take my Oiseau pseudonym literally and add a nice beak. 

As I've said before I can be very picky about my colours, the strip below show all the incremental changes, trying to get it juust right.

Takeaway lids make great palettes!

Auckland Fair market money

I was asked to design the market money for the latest Auckland Fair. After a few false starts I settled on a dense jungle image, the Fair is somewhat like a jungle but instead of there being a huge variety of plants and animals there is a huge variety of arts and crafts on offer.

The initial image was in indian ink.

Which I then digitally coloured for the $5 and $10 versions.

The organiser added the circle to my design as she thought that the denomination wasn't obvious enough. Or maybe it was so I wouldn't print out my own to cash in - license to print money!

New card designs!

I sometimes like to make some new designs before I order another batch of cards from the printer, these two are my latest offerings. I'll get them up on my etsy and felt stores soon!

The top one was inspired by my recent dinosaur in a helmet comic for Three Words, animals are funnier when wearing protective head gear. I used to ride carefree with the wind in my hair but these days I'm more scared of cracking my noggin (Auckland drivers are infamously terrible), so safety first is the message!

The bottom one I have nicknamed 'the cat's revenge'. If house cats swelled to megafauna size would they be friendly and remember all the pats and food we gave them? Or would they remember us laughing at their clumsy antics, when they fell off chairs or forgot that their tongues were hanging out. Or when we made them dance by holding their arms or put things on their heads when they were half asleep and then took photos of them.

Something to think about.

Funfair

Here are some shots from the Auckland Fair on Sunday, I actually remembered to get my loyal helper to take some shots. I was pretty much glued to the table all day so didn't get a chance to have a look around (except to run after the lady who was giving away free scones at the end of the day).

Thanks to everyone who came along and bought a thing or just picked up a business card. If you saw something that you like but didn't buy it you can get most things off my etsy shop and I have my cards on my felt shop too but haven't put my new cards up yet. Or just send me a message (sophieoiseau AT gmail DOT com) and I'll sort you right out.

Market Moolah

I can finally share my design for the Auckland Fair's market money which I did way back in September. This year they have $10 notes as well as the usual $5. There's such an abundance of cool stuff at the fairs, I wanted to convey that hence the dense jungle.
I'll put up more images of it once the fair has passed (to thwart any potential forgers out there), it's on the 7th of Dec from 11am to 3pm at Shed 10 in the Viaduct, come on down!

Cameo-yo

Yet again I have some works in Seed Gallery's xmas-y show (30 artists are given 10 identical wooden items to artify). This years shape is the delightful cameo oval. Here's a sneak peek at some of my arts, the exhibition opens tonight at 6pm and is up until the 6th of December. 

Three Words

I'm super delighted and excited to announce that I will have some work in Three Words, an upcoming anthology of female cartoonists in New Zealand. You can find out more about it on the Three Words blog or facebook page.
The comic I submitted is sort of about a dinosaur wearing a helmet, I won't put it up here now but here are some images which didn't make the final edit. Had fun using watercolours for a change!

It turns out my idea of a dinosaur looks pretty much like an aligator but without the nose and eye bumps...oh well.

Remembrance poppies.

I drew these poppies after hearing the sad news of a friends passing. Sam was a supremely talented musician and writer (music here, blog here) and we miss him and his hearty laugh and emphatic storytelling dearly.

Auckland Fair 2014

I'll be back flogging my wares at the newly renamed (formerly Auckland Art and Craft Fair) Auckland Fair. I have a special contribution to the fair this year, more on that later but in the meantime here's me fumbling my way through some interview questions.

ZINE-ZINE-ZINE

I've made an instructional zine zine for the Auckland Storylines, where I'll be on Sunday, teaching the kids how to zine, more info on that here. I'll also put the pages up here if anyone wants to print em out and make them yourself, just at a time that I'm not running out the door!

Scout the slugger

Here's a little birthday painting I did for a good friend of her cat re-imagined as a boxing champ.

He's a tough guy with a heart of gold and an excellent withering look (see below).

Celeryman

It's National Poetry Day so in honour of this occasion I'm releasing the master copy of my Celeryman poem (actually called Mr Celery but I'm renaming it Celeryman). Print it out and make your own! But please don't sell them, thanks!