Sketchbook: Sticks and lilies

I love Posca pens, so much.

I also love watching cactus drawings come to life with shading - the most painful/rewarding drawing experience available.

Love things: Every love story is a ghost story

It's safe to say that all I do now is draw, hang with my dog and partner, and read books by or about DFW.

Oh, and I sometimes look for urchins. There should also be more pictures of snacks in this set, because there has been a lot of snacking.

Iris

Artist // Kate Gagliardi // OK Gag

All images by Kate Gagliardi.

Young, vibrant, fucking amazing -- Kate Gagliardi.

Check out more at OK Gag.

☯ ☽ Wasson in the west ☾ ☯

Images via Honestly WTF, from the Coveteur.

How perfect is Erin Wasson's place in Venice -- it's like her, embodied in a house.

And on a tangent, these shots remind me of my room in the big white Queenslander on the hill in Brisbane. One wall was entirely papered in drawings -- Bowie fan art and scrawled 3am reminders to myself -- gig flyers and setlists, wrist bands, receipts (2 x bottles of Jack, 2 x packs of cigarettes), expired medicine and cigarette packs, jewellery hung on hooks, and photos shot on a fisheye Holga. And a polaroid of the wall, pinned to the wall itself.

On the floor were the red snakeskin boots, the cowboy boots, the Doc Martens, the low-cut thrift-store men's boots with the chisel toe, cuban heel and the metal embellishments. The turquoise belt buckle, the silver jeans, the Radio Birdman and Def Leppard shirts, and the felt hat with the guinea fowl feathers in the band. A combined library of classics -- Irvine Welsh to Mark Twain, Don Delillio to Jane Austen, journalism textbooks to literary anthologies. A bunch on unfinished canvases.

Also on the floor was me, with a Jack-n-coke, a paintbrush, my dad's ripped Wranglers and a shoelace to hold them up. 

And sitting on the bed was a girl, with tattooed arms that remind me of Erin's.

Δ To the water Δ

Stylist/creative direction: Tami Snodgrass
Photography: Reece Pottorff
Model: Jazmin Repollo
Prism + Sol @prismandsol

Yesterday, Humble jumped in the creek where we go for walks, and when she got out she sat shivering at my feet. This morning, on the drive to the train station, my hands hurt, and my feet hurt, and I could see goosebumps through my stockings. Last night, we cranked up the gas heater in the lounge room for the first time this year. I drank tea with honey while I made warm, oven-roasted food...

The incipient creep of winter in Melbourne definitely makes the crisp-bright-warm summer images coming from the northern hemisphere all the harder to bear. And it goes double if they're coming out of an island paradise, like these shots from Prism + Sol's latest lookbook.

All I can think is: how do I get there?
... and also, how can I acquire all of those turquoise beauties?

Baby forever

Verdant

Images from here, here and here.

Go outside Δ Observe the changing of the seasons Δ Collect feathers and stones and bones and make a shrine Δ Wrap your palms around a huge mug of honey-sweet chai tea Δ Curl up on the couch with your boy or your dog or your cat – whoever loves you boundlessly Δ Read or re-read a book that challenges the way you see the world Δ Dig your toes into cool sand or fine freshwater gravel Δ Walk fearlessly at night to a place where you can see the stars Δ Drive the coast road Δ Crank Springsteen or the Stones or the Doors or Aerosmith… or whoever-whatever your parents played you when you were young Δ Buy new boots Δ Pin brightly coloured diamonds of crochet to big tree trunks Δ Draw power symbols on your palms Δ Plant a hanging garden of succulents Δ Paint something huge and colourful and irreverent Δ 

Δ Enjoy April Δ

Between the wish and the thing...

... the world lies waiting. 

A bit of Cormac McCarthy wisdom for your Monday morning.

xx

The bay

Tilkah eagle necklace; boyfriend's Volcom shirt; Dr Denim jeans; Windsor Smith boots; vintage glasses and rings.

So this weird thing happened when we were celebrating this latest new year's eve, which I keep forgetting about and then remembering -- we were camped on a beach in Eden, drinking around a bonfire, and I looked over and saw some strange shadow, like the size of a medium dog, walking up the beach. Not being a native of the southern states of Australia, I couldn't work out what kind of animal it was. I thought it was a goose, actually. But as it turns out, it was a black swan, which I'd always thought were freshwater animals. More and more this year I've been spotting them on beaches and in bays, and I like to think of them as a good omen. 

Plus, it's just one more thing that I still find foreign and exciting about living down here. 

Sketchy Fridays: Long weekend time loss...

... and the eternal raging hangover.
Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend! I know I am -- perhaps a little too much...

Artist // Abbey McCulloch

All images by Abbey McCulloch

Falconer gloves on a blurry girl holding a budgerigar? ... Just one of the many things that make Abbey McCulloch's work great. That and the fact she walks the fashion-illustration/fine-art line like no one else.

She also had a pretty entry in the Archibald.

She's currently firing up my colour-and-raw/messiness-inspiration ... hopefully I'll get some painting in over the weekend. 

↢☽ Lone coyote ☾↣

Photography: Kesler Tran
Model: Rayne Ivanushka
Stylist: Chloe Chippendale (Instagram: @chloe_lovestoner) 
Fringe Vegas necklace by Heyoka Leather available here.
Crystal necklace by Torchlight available here.

Wow... new drawing muse, perhaps?

☼ The rising sun ☼

Photographer/stylist: Shae Detar

Model: Elle from Nous

I was walking down Elizabeth Street early this morning -- looking at the old building facades above the shops, waiting for the sun to climb over Flinders Street Station, admiring the fact that the streets of Melbourne's CBD are tree-lined -- and I was thinking about how autumn makes me really, really love this city. Winter makes me hate it, but right now the air is crisp and clear, the days are long and I still live in the best city ever. 

So when I saw these images that Shae recently shot in the mountains behind LA, I only felt a tiny pang of envy for the coming spring in the northern hemisphere... Just one look at these and you can feel the Californian sun. 

Shae's work as a photographer and artist is second-to-none... Check out more here. 

Sketchy Fridays: Eventually...

Late by two weeks and a couple of days... here's what's in my sketchbook lately. 

xx

●◐◑◖ Spirit Messenger ◗◐◑●

Photography: Aaron Feaver
Model: Shannon Roxanne
Stylist: Chloe Chippendale of Born to be Wild Blog
HMU: Debbie Gallagher
Shop the collection here 
via Sugarhigh and Lovestoned

I speak from experience when I say those teal velvet flares are amazing, but overall, I think Chloe says it best:

Jewel-toned velvets, mala beads, Nepalese treasures, mountain caves, nag-champa + the spirit of George Harrison. Enter-in our latest lookbook, light your palo santo, slap on Mr. Harrison's Collaborations album with Ravi Shankar + let the music take you there...

The fox and the bambi

So these are some little illustrations that I kind of forgot about sharing...I created them for the beautiful and talented make-up artist Luciana Rose, who recently launched her blog Fox and Bambi.

As with all illustration projects, there were some images that didn't fit, didn't work properly or just plain weren't the one, but I really love everything that I created while working with Luciana... I love projects that push me and teach me something, and this was definitely one of those. 

Also, this cool thing happened...  The lovely people at Sportsgirl featured me on their blog, and did such an amazing job of pulling together my disorganised images and ramblings... I'm really stoked with how it turned out.

Check it out here.

☪

Hollywood heart

Photography by Emman Montalvan
Styling by Wild at Heart Vintage
Model: Kelley Ash

All wardrobe available at Wild At Heart Vintage

via Dossier Journal

Here in the southern parts of Australia, our Indian summer just came to an abrupt, somewhat seemingly unfair, end. For the first time this year, I noticed it was still a bit dark out on Flinders Street when I got into the office. I also, crazingly enough, found myself wearing tights with pants over the top over the weekend... meaning it is cold, and I shouldn't be allowed to talk about style at all. And while I didn't really like it being 40°C, I'm going to really hate it when the mercury sinks down to around four.
So, thoughts naturally turn to chasing the summer into the northern hemisphere, and where better than California? I'm pretty certain I won't make it over there this year, but I can't wait to go back and explore more of the USA, and the above shoot from Emman Montalvan and Kelley Ash definitely helps the daydream process... Also, I'm making mental notes about ink-blue and pink tie-dyed maxi skirts/slips and cut-off faded denim jackets -- but I've got to act quick, before it gets too cold for anything but massive layers, jackets, boots and beanies.
Which in itself, doesn't sound too bad.

☪ ↢ Awake ↣ ☪

Thousand mile mind

All over the place. My mind needs to catch up.

I'll be back when there's more hours in the day.