Time-lapse Dinosaur Painting

MORE CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS!

I am so thrilled to have received mail today from some sixth graders at Longford Primary School in Tasmania. They each wrote me a lovely letter, and drew me the following awesome pictures!

From Bailey

From Braydon, age 11

From Lily, age 12

From Georgie

From Sage, age 12

From Duncan, age 11

These are going straight on my studio wall where they will inspire me! Thank you so much Duncan, Sage, Georgie, Lily, Braydon, and Bailey, I will respond to you all in writing very soon! :-)

See more children's drawings here.

CHRISTMAS 2012

 

Giclée prints and signed books!

All prints are signed, and all books have a signature and a small drawing and can be personalised on request. Payments can be made via PayPal. To order email me at whackothechook@internode.on.net.

PRINTS

'Meanwhile' from THE GREAT MONTEFIASCO

480mm x 270mm

AUD$180 + postage

Very limited stock available!

'I've Come About The Assistant's Job' from THE GREAT MONTEFIASCO

 250mm x 230mm

AUD$100 + postage

Limited stock!

'And The Crowd's Gone Wild' from TORTOISE V HARE THE REMATCH

 510mm x 260mm

AUD$180 + postage

New!

BOOKS

THE SHIKKER COLA COWS by Andy Small (2000)

Hardcover; Children's Picture Book, 40 pages; 280mm x 225mm

(My very first published book, illustrated entirely in biro and published in 2000. Being self-published with a print run of barely 500, this book is a rarity)

AUD$20 + postage

THE GREAT MONTEFIASCO by Colin Thompson (2004)

Hardcover; Children's Picture Book, 32 pages; 255mm x 235mm

AUD$25 + postage

Limited stock!

CIRCUS CARNIVORE by Mark Svendsen (2006)

Hardcover; Children's Picture Book, 32 pages; 285mm x 215mm

(The Australian edition of this book is extremely rare, I only have two copies myself. However, I have copies of the US edition available)

AUD$25 + postage

WHACKO THE CHOOK by Mark Svendsen (2007)

Hardcover; Children's Picture Book, 32 pages; 255mm x 235mm

AUD$25 + postage

Very, very, very limited stock, only about 3 available!!

THE PUMPKIN EATER FROM PONDICHERRY by Bruce Atherton (2008)

Hardcover; Children's Picture Book, 32 pages; 285mm x 215mm

(With a tiny print run in Australia, this book is rare!)

AUD$25 + postage

JACK AND THE ALIENS by Damien Broderick (2002)

 Softcover; Children's fiction, 63 pages; 198mm x 128 mm

AUD$15 + postage

Only 1 left!!

JACK AND THE SKYHOOK by Damien Broderick (2003)

Softcover; Children's fiction, 98 pages; 198mm x 128 mm

AUD$15 + postage

Only 2 left!!

ORDER NOW

HAPPY WORLD EGG DAY!

New prints!

Giclée prints of this illustration are now available!

Book: TORTOISE V HARE THE REMATCH by Preston Rutt
Dimensions: 51cm x 26 cm
Price: $180 + postage (via Paypal)

Email me at whackothechook@internode.on.net to reserve your print!

Starring Gilbert Gottfried as Charlie!

MONKEY DON'T Teasers

Here's a collection of teasers for my book Monkey Don't!. I've had fun making these, it's been ages since I've done any animating. I did these using Anime Studio Pro, a great program for cut-out style animation. I hope to play around with it some more.

FAQs Part I

There's a question I get asked often:

Why does Charlie have a tail yet Furley doesn't?

Spread from "Monkey Don't"

I should be well-rehearsed at answering this question, but, I'm not... the simple answer is, I-don't-know! I don't have a satisfactory answer, I've never given a satisfactory answer, and you won't find one here either.

If I did have a reason for docking Furley, I've completely forgotten it. But this troubles me, because I have no problems remembering what my brain was thinking for books almost twice as old as Who Flung Dung?, and WFD is only about 5 or 6 years old! I've gone through this over and over in my head, and I've even wondered, could it be, I actually forgot to give Furley a tail? Surely not!... I'm too pedantic about fine details to forget something like that! Furthermore, I don't drink and I've never taken drugs, so that rules that out, and I highly doubt there was some sort of deep underlying philosophical reason for it, though I could always make one up...

After some cursory research through my archive, I discovered an interesting thing — early roughs of Charlie show that he didn't have a tail at one point also...

But when I look back even further to the original Furley design in the very first draft, Furley himself did have a tail! Though, Furley wasn't called Furley at this point, and he resembled a sock monkey (the reasons for the dramatic change to Furley, is for another post...).

So, basically, the evolution, so to speak, of these monkey's tails throughout draft stages went like this: Furley and Charlie started with tails, then they both dropped their tails, but at the eleventh hour Charlie grows another tail, but Furley remains without — so why wasn't Furley's tail reinstated? I'm not sure... There were six drafts of Who Flung Dung? in total, and for the first five Furley had a tail. Was it laziness? Possibly, it is one less thing to draw each time, but I doubt that's it.

It's a mystery for the ages! If I can't answer this question, no one can! Or can they? Why don't you tell me how Furley lost his tail! Perhaps there's a story in it, a prequel to Who Flung Dung?? Hmmm...

Curiously enough, no one ever asks me why Furley is bald...

MONKEY DON'T Teaser

Here's a little teaser I did for my latest book Monkey Don't, using Photoshop, Anime Studio Pro and iMovie. Enjoy!

Knitted Toys!

A friend recently sent me a link to Ebay where she'd found a set of knitted toys based on my characters from Who Flung Dung? up for auction. I was really flattered someone took the time to create these, so I placed a bid. I was outbid at the last minute unfortunately, but I contacted the seller, and she very kindly made me a fresh new set. In record time too, a mere two days or so! All the way from the UK my package arrived Tuesday, much to my delight. So now, here they are, the cast of Who Flung Dung, in wool!

Furley

Charlie

Elephant & Rhinoceros

Python

Crocodile

Crocodile

Lion

Vulture, as a finger puppet (my favourite!)

Gnu (my second favourite)

Crucial details...

Furley & Charlie, rear view

She even included a little knitted poo for Furley's head, a wonderful touch!

Unfortunately, the little knitted Charlie has already begun wreaking havoc with my other toys! Curse you Charlie!!!!

Thanks again Linny, I'll treasure these! :-)

Happy Birthday Mark and Marg!

In recent days there have been a couple of milestone birthday celebrations happening. My Mother-in-law (and her identical twin sister) turned 60 on Sunday, and author/friend Mark Svendsen turns 50 today. In honour of this event, Mark's daughters put together a special book made up of one page contributions from his friends and relatives. Coincidentally, my wife and sister-in-law organised the same thing for Margaret. So I had my work cut out for me.

I did this pinup for Mark...

'Pretty Pennyfeather': acrylic and gouache; based on a rough from the unpublished sequel to Whacko The Chook

And a 'Monquet' for Margaret...

A.k.a 'Monkey Bouquet'; acrylic and collage; there are precisely sixty chimps in this bouquet

Happy birthday again! You're both awesome!

WHACKO THE CHOOK

It's been a while since I've done a post here, so here's a Whacko The Chook puppet I made a few months back...

I'd like to do something more substantial with it one day, when I've made a body. Whacko The Chook was always intended to be a series of books, but no publisher would commit to that, so Mark & I have considered other mediums for her, namely film. We were approached by a TV producer at one point who talked about making her a TV series, but he proved fruitless. Either way, this ol' broiler will be reincarnated in one form or another...

NOT THIS LITTLE BLACK DUCK Review

A lovely review of Not This Little Black Duck on ABC local radio...