artwork – Page 15 – James Foley

Quokka- master chef

I reckon George looks good as a quokka. Had to cut off his ears to make him look bald, but hey, it seems to work.

20100701 725 master chef — Quokka, issue 725, July 1 2010- master chef

Sketchy Vikings

While Norman was in the Shetlands researching, I was at home in Perth, doing some research for the pictures.

I made a few initial sketches of Viking things- costumes, houses, the bows of ships, rune stones, helmets… Norman has a huge collection of books on Vikings, so I wasn’t short of material. These sketches gave me lots of ideas for how the pictures and characters might look. (I haven’t shown all the sketches here, because don’t want to give away too much of the story).

first-research-sketches — In all the kid's reference books about Vikings, they show these cool little carved chess pieces. There's two in this sketch- the king up the top, holding the sword on his lap - and the warrior down the bottom, biting his shield

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Quokka- Cow Parade

The Margaret River Cow Parade is finishing up- we got this cover illustration in just in time.

The cows are being auctioned on July 10. Get down to the South West and see them while you still can.

In the back right, I’ve included a cow painted by myself and other members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, WA chapter. Check out this post for more info.

20100624-724-cow-parade — Quokka, issue 24, June 24 2010- Margaret River Cow Parade

Quokka- End of Financial Year special

To make things different, edition 723 had two versions of the cover- an extra large wrap-around, set in daylight, and the usual cover, set at nighttime.

20100617-723-EOFY — Quokka, issue 723, June 17 2010- End of Financial Year (cover 1)

20100617-EOFY-night — Quokka, issue 723, June 17 2010- End of Financial Year (cover 2)

Quokka- World Cup

20100610-722-World-Cup — Quokka, issue 722, June 10 2010- World Cup

Quokka- Bridal Expo

I’m behind quite a bit in these covers- here’s one about a Bridal Expo that happened recently.

20100603-721-Bridal — Quokka, issue 721, June 3 2010- Bridal

Quokka- Robin Hood

The new Robin Hood film is out, featuring a Gladiator-like Russell Crowe.

This Quokka Robin Hood is more like the Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn version…

20100527 720 Robin Hood — Quokka, issue 720, May 27 2010- Robin Hood

Quokka- Eval Queneval

I hope this doesn’t mean my Quokka covers have jumped the shark…

20100520 719 Eval Queneval — Quokka, issue 720, May 20 2010- Eval Queneval

Quokka- Days of Change #2

Here’s a second cover supporting the Days of Change campaign, sponsored by Quokka Press.

20100513 718 DaysofChange2 — Quokka, issue 718, May 13 2010- Days of Change #2

Digital colouring in photoshop

Here’s a rundown of how I colour the Quokka cover each week. I’ll use the Easter cover as an example.

I use Photoshop CS3 and a Wacom Intuos 3 graphics tablet to do the colouring.

I do quite a few things to get to the colouring stage:

1. I draw a sketch at final print size, and get it approved by Quokka Press
2. I set the sketch onto my lightbox, and lay over some watercolour paper (190 gsm smooth)
3. I ink the lines in using ordinary black ink and a Hunt 120 nib