Weekly drawing 40: Storm Boy and Mr Percival

Another story I would love to illustrate 'Storm Boy' by Colin Thiele. I wish I'd read it earlier. As a kid I loved the movie and would dream of rafting along watercourses with a friendly Pelican.

It is truly a beautiful tale of father and son living among the elements on the fringes of society.
.. "between the Coorong and Murray Mouth..." ..."Their home a rough little humpy made of wood and brush and flattened sheets of iron from old tins..."

In the movie the father seems cold and distant to his son. Which is unfortunate because he is warm and caring in the book. Thiele cleverly depicts a hard man of the land who has removed himself from society but would do anything for his son.
The movie adds it's own spin on the story which is typical of movies based on books. I just don't know why directors or scriptwriters feel the need to chop and change a story which already works.

Weekly drawing 39: Mother and child

"They had always been together, for a time they were one..." Joel Tarling

Weekly drawing 38: National year of reading 2012

Everyones getting into it..

Weekly drawing 37: Reading is fun - drawing two

For more information see:
Weekly drawing 37: Reading is fun - drawing one

Weekly drawing 37: Reading is fun - drawing one

Westmead Children's Hospital has a great children's library for patients 'The Book Bunker'.

My wife and I have enjoyed the great collection of books available in hospital for our child. It's an amazing resource and it has allowed us to travel light because it means we can borrow and return all the books, DVD's and talking books we need without leaving the hospital.

So this weeks drawing is the start of an idea I had to promote 'The Book Bunker' and encourage children that books are so much fun. Even monsters in their spare time are sneaking off to read.

I thought it could be incorporated into a poster and children could colour the poster in themselves.

For more information about The Book Bunker see link:

http://www.scholastic.com.au/corporate/bookbunker/

Weekly drawing 36: Midnight in the Sargasso sea

Eliza & Errol
It's a Moray love story by Joel Tarling

"...Two Eels from others
sides of the world.
Different cultures, different values.
One love to bring them together.
The feel good summer romance, crossing the cultural divide..."

Weekly drawing 35 second drawing: Hot in pursuit of litter bugs

"Hot in pursuit of litter bugs" I thought this could be great premise for a Children's story

Weekly drawing 35: My Bed is a Boat

My Bed is a Boat
by Robert Louis Stevenson

My bed is like a little boat;
Nurse helps me in when I embark;
She girds me in my sailor's coat
And starts me in the dark.

At night I go on board and say
Good-night to all my friends on shore;
I shut my eyes and sail away
And see and hear no more.

And sometimes things to bed I take,
As prudent sailors have to do;
Perhaps a slice of wedding-cake,
Perhaps a toy or two.

All night across the dark we steer;
But when the day returns at last,
Safe in my room beside the pier,
I find my vessel fast.

Weekly drawing 34: The Little Warrior

Two sketches drawn from my daughter's bedside in intensive care.

1. The Little Warrior returns
2. The Warrior grows up

Weekly drawing 31: Hope

CICU - Sydney Children's Hospital Randwick. Little babies hooked up to monitors with hundreds of chords. No parent wants to see their child like this.

This is a hard ward, but I wouldn't want our poor little baby anywhere else. These people are saints.