Anna Barrett Welcomes You

Merry Christmas! It's the end of 2011

2011-12-16T09:12:00.000+13:00

This year, we're having a white Christmas!

Dan and I made a few of these pop-up cards for our family. Done in watercolours and cardboard.

The three of them in their glory.

Some photos from the WIP

A very quick prototype

Makin a mess up on the loft

The cutout pieces are ready to be glued on

And they go on the card

Dan hard at work

Me hard at work

Merry Christmas, everybody! May nobody eat too much yellow snow.

Comic Book

2011-11-09T08:31:00.000+13:00

I've been privileged enough to work on a comic book project with a team of talented artists.

I've recently had to illustrate a few chapters, and Chapter 8 is one of them. Here are a couple of samples.

Dan's been helping me out with the colours and I've been finishing off the pages with the lettering. It's been a fun project and I'm glad I got to try this out.

Stripes

2011-11-06T21:51:00.002+13:00

Dan was working on his new drawing for Illustration Friday.

The new word is "Stripes", so I decided to join in. This is just a quick drawing in ink on paper.

Halloween Monster Window

2011-10-18T16:33:00.000+13:00

It's almost Halloween! I've finally finished a comic book illustration project, so I've been working on another personal illustration.

Quick sketch

Pencil drawing

Finalised in pen

Scanned in Photoshop for some colourful times!

Three Wise Monkeys

2011-10-02T20:34:00.000+13:00

I have been feeling a bit burned out from work, so I decided to work on a personal project.
We have recently been watching Bill Bailey's documentary on baboons. So I thought I'd have a go at drawing those furry creatures - Baboons that is. Not Bill Bailey.
Baboons always seem so emotional, so I thought I'd incorporate their nature into doing "Three Wise Monkeys"

Hear No Evil - They are loud, so when they scream, I imagine they can't hear shit.
See No Evil - They tend to flash their buttoms to initiate friendship
Speak No Evil - They are only quiet when they have their mouths packed with anything edible.

Here's a rough sketch I did to figure out what I wanted it to look like.

And then finalised it in pen before imitating the woodcut look in Photoshop.

I wish I could've done the real printmaking but alas, I do not have all the equipment with me.

Fiona and Ross' Wedding Invite

2011-08-06T19:28:00.023+12:00

My good friend Fiona is finally getting married after dating Ross for 8 years. So of course I offered to do their invite for her. They are a couple of really fun and interesting people so I wanted it to show in the design.
She really liked the end result, and because that means I don't have to get her a wedding gift, so am I. (Just kidding!)
Congratulations again to Ross and Fiona. I can't wait till the wedding.

Portrait Marathon

2011-06-24T01:23:00.001+12:00

Dan and I have been doing quick celebrity portrait sketches in our spare time.

It's been pretty fun to compare how we've drawn each portrait, although I haven't always got it right with some of them - strangely all females)

Click for larger versions

Great actors:

Comedians:

Mythbusters crew:

Back To The Future!

Inspiring Stories Film Festival Poster

2011-05-23T12:08:00.004+12:00

Inspiring Stories Trust is a new organisation that trains young kiwis to become better film makers.
They have asked me to design a poster for their end of year film festival.

I wanted to keep the essence of "inspiration" in the design, but still fun enough to get the young viewers' interest.
After so many different ideas and concept drawings, I finally came up with the design I liked.

And the final pencil sketch

ReignDrops Music Video

2011-03-15T12:40:00.001+13:00

While I was frantically packing up to move to another city whilst getting things prepared for my wedding I was fortunate enough to pick up a project to work on a music video for ScholarMan.

Here are some of the designs that were used in the video.

Panda Project

2010-12-05T22:56:00.001+13:00

"Do As Pandas Do".
A panda illustration contest I entered. I cannot for the love of god take good photos of this painting.

Some closeup shots of the painting.

And pre-painting tracing of the drawing on the canvas

Prehistoric

2010-12-04T21:09:00.000+13:00

Marylin and Elvis portraits as dinosaurs for my work at dinosawus.com. Done about a couple of years ago for a puzzle game. Thought it was somewhat fitting for the new IF topic.

Art Books for Christmas?

2010-11-25T09:32:00.003+13:00

I've been frequenting a very insightful book review blog created and written by "Parka".
Since it's a month away till Christmas, I thought this page would provide some ideas for art book lovers out there.

Here's a list of some of his readers' favourites if you don't know where to begin:
I would definitely recommend Peter de Seve's "A Sketchy Past".

Another book Parka definitely recommends is The Daily Zoo Year 2.

If you have any questions regarding any of his reviews I am sure he wouldn't be hesitant to answer your questions. In return for publishing detailed reviews with photographs and videos of the books, Parka has a list of his reviewed books on Amazon where you can purchase from and he gets a small commission which goes towards his book stocks.

Sneaky

2010-11-22T00:55:00.052+13:00

Recently I found a cool illustration contest site called Illustration Friday.

This week's topic is "Sneaky" so I couldn't resist doing a quick illustration for it.

I thought it would be humorous to apply the notion of being "sneaky" to something that was very static (ie a gargoyle). It only makes sense that the first thing they would do if they could move is to eat whatever was around it. And how convenient that little birds like to nest on rooftops.

And here are some quick concept sketches to see which perspective worked the best.

Charlie Chaplin painting

2010-11-18T12:29:00.029+13:00

I got a few days off this week so I decided to do a personal project.

I've been wanting to do a portrait of Chaplin for a few years, so this was a good chance to pull out my paint brushes.

A few preliminary sketches.

Final drawings of the characters

Stretching the paper, and on go the first washes!

By this time, the lines had been washed off, so it helps to refine them.

Dan and Anna's Corrugated Palace

2010-10-30T09:21:00.068+13:00

This was our concept for a website screen. And back then we were also going to call ourselves "NoSuchLuck" - Which explains the rugged look about this piece.
But the more we thought about it, "NoSuchLuck" with this "Give us money" theme didn't sound promising - especially to future clients.
However, as we were already half way into the project, we decided to finish it anyway. So here it is.

Dan and Anna's Corrugated Palace - Final

And these following drawings are to show you how we work together on our collaborations.

Draft - First few ideas of overall layout and feel we want to achieve

Developed composition - A much more elaborate and thought out draft of what the final should look like

Typically, Dan starts it off with his assigned graphics as I am busy procrastinating.

He then gets my approval and starts to colour

A few weeks pass us by, and I start on mine

During the process, a few things change - by this time we have decided to scrape this idea for our website.
We put together what we've done, and this is what it looks like before we begin the editing process, which is another huge collaboration.

This is the portrait we used in the illustration

And yay! The collaboration is complete. The collaboration itself doesn't take long to do as we're used to working together and we communicate with each other very well. I just need to stop being a workaholic.

Peter Boyle and Sam Eagle

2010-10-29T16:37:00.069+13:00

Boyle and Sam Tea Cups

Another one of our Muppet + Star pairings. I have to say it's been pretty entertaining trying to come up with the appropriate matches for the Muppets.
Initially, it was these two pairings (Bill Bailey + Rowlf the Dog; and this current piece) we were joking about that got us on this huge project.

The idea was to plant these two grumpy characters in a playful and colourful environment.
Surprisingly the bigger challenge was the ridiculously pastel background. The hideous blotches of colours seemed very apt in a Jim Henson fanart - Have I mentioned that we are big Jim Henson fans?

Quality shots of my Boyle Sketches

There are a few cliches you can easily spot in this illustration also.

Cliches - those are my favourite.

Here's one of them! It's a love heart! Aww...

In case you haven't checked out, here is a link to my partner in crime, and to his blog. He likes to upload bigger pictures for those who are blind.

Froggies in Onion Soup

2010-09-23T19:46:00.008+12:00

Froggies are finally re-coloured.

This web version makes it look very yellow for some strange reason.

I felt that it would be more humorous to have them soaking in a cup of onion soup.

The sketches of the new drawing can be seen here

Originally this drawing was done for an elective class at uni, so it was rushed, and I thought it deserved a second chance. So here it is.

Enjoy.

Bailey and Rowlf Make Music

2010-07-22T15:25:00.009+12:00

Took a day to gain some motivation, and instead of relaxing we finished the colour job on our new collaboration. It took hardly any hours, and surprisingly, putting it together was relatively easy (compared to our MI collab)

We're very happy with how it turned out.

We have a few more celebrity-muppet pairs to do for this particular project, so I'm looking forward to working on them.

On a totally different note, the new movie Inception is totally awesome.

Brit Comedy meets Muppets

2010-07-22T07:10:00.007+12:00

So my partner and I have decided to do another small collaboration.

We were watching Black Books a while ago and talked about how Bill Bailey resembled Rowlf from the Muppets.

And since he's good at drawing animals, he got Rowlf, and I have Bill Bailey to work on.

This was my concept. I am totally out of practice because I haven't drawn for a while.

Busy Busy in America

2010-07-15T03:22:00.008+12:00

Haven't had any time for personal projects as my main job and other things (like, my life) have been getting in the way.

However I managed to do the placement cards for my good friend Nat's wedding.

Here are some photos I took. First of all, some concepts:

Everyone did a tremendous job making this happen, and look how beautiful it turned out!

Leaving the states in a month, so hopefully I'll do more travel blogging before I leave, and maybe one drawing at least!

Froggies Revisited

2010-03-16T20:00:00.013+13:00

This was a concept I came up with for one of my assignments at uni a few years ago.

The original can be found here:

I really liked the concept, but I didn't do a very good job colouring it in,

so I wanted to revisit the concept with watercolours!

Here's the "new" concept.

This time, the frogs will be sitting inside a bowl of French Onion soup! Mmm-mmm!

Update:

Lineart done!

Dancing Girls in Colour

2010-03-09T19:17:00.009+13:00

Finally completed the watercolour paintings of the dancing girls.
I'm quite happy with how the green girl turned out.
Think these pieces look good for an experiment.

The idea came from my habit of dancing around whenever I'm doing the chores.
And I thought it'd be quite cool to do somewhat pin-up-ish paintings of silly women.

Here's the pencil drawing in panorama!

Dancing girls sketches

2010-03-04T20:07:00.003+13:00

Finally started another project.
Using watercolours to paint these in individually and then combine them at the end

A sneak-peek at the W.I.P:

Couple's Dilemma

2010-03-03T23:16:00.005+13:00

Just another concept I had going around at the back of my head for a few years.

I thought it would be funny show any couple's dilemma in the most uncomfortable environment - GYM.

Just so nobody gets offended, I am making fun of both genders in this drawing.

I don't like to single anyone out.

I will refrain from explaining too much about this drawing and let the viewers get the joke on their own (believe me, it's more fun that way... for me)

OH one thing I would like to point out however is the woman's quote.

"OH I KNOW!" is from one of my favourite shoes, Fawlty Towers.

And of course, the sketch

And the work in progress

Creative Displays Slimline Flyer

2009-11-05T11:24:00.005+13:00

A flyer created for Creative Displays jewelry expo.

Monkey Island Final Illustration

2009-10-27T21:09:00.010+13:00

Final Lineup + background! woohoo! Yes. Terribly exciting stuff.

But look, here's an even more exciting old school PIXELATED version of it:

Let's jazz it up while staring at the colouful pixels by listening to the MI theme song!

This was an awesomely fun collaboration with Dan Barrett, which only took 6 months. We were going at godspeed pace. Whipping up 1 coloured character per month! - wow!-

Click here to view his characters for our MI collab!

Monkey Island Characters - Elaine & Murray

2009-10-27T21:01:00.005+13:00

One of the first designs and the LAST character to be coloured.
My goodness. What WAS I thinking with all that crazy amount of details.
Took me 2 nights to render and finalise this drawing.
But I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

And oh, who can forget our lovable Murray:

Doesn't he look absolutely dashing with that orange goo pouring out of his what used to be a mouth? Awww
He's my hero.

Monkey Island Characters - Voodoo Lady

2009-10-27T20:54:00.003+13:00

Oh, yes. The great Voodoo Lady.

The one who lives in the smelly swamp with a bunch of dead things.

She is awesome.

And of course, once again I got to illustrate her for her awesomeness.
It was quite exciting to design her throne - which was the start of my 3 month holiday. Yay for my never ending creative block!

And check out this cute little guy with an olive on his head.
This whole piece tends to blend into the background too much because of her mighty swampness.
So here's a close-up of her beautiful face and her voodoo supplies.

And of course I messed up the first drawing of her in her throne (believe it or not, this was AFTER a clean up)

Monkey Island Characters - 3 Headed Monkey

2009-10-27T20:37:00.008+13:00

Hey look! A Three-headed Monkey!

Monkey Island Characters - Stan

2009-10-27T20:18:00.006+13:00

From the beginning, it was a bit of a competition to pick him.
Both Dan and I really wanted to have a go at illustrating him again. But in the end I won the battle because I'm scary.
Stan was one of the best characters to redesign.
I like his 80's corporate salesman appearance (with the patchy fake tan! - see below)

What's he selling, you ask? Some kind of mouth wash that thickens your saliva - beef flavoured. Mmmm refreshing!

Monkey Island Characters - Meathook

2009-10-27T20:14:00.006+13:00

Meathook - Another love of mine before I started on this massive project with "Dr. Dan"
His oiled up meaty bod was really time consuming for an innocent little ol' me.
This illustration turned out to be one of my favourites however (one can only guess why). And I'm sure if he was a real character, I'd help him put wax on his hooks any day.

Monkey Island Characters - Lemon

2009-10-27T19:24:00.005+13:00

Another wonderfully camp character I just had to draw. Who could resist the tangy Lemon.
There are little in-jokes in every illustration too, by the way.
Such as that banana behind his back... That's all I have to say.

The colouring job was a bit of a pain because I'm not the best at rendering shiny bods.
Also, to maintain the cartoony look and feel of the Lemon head without making it look too flat was a challenge.

Here are some very random concept drawings and ideas I had going on in the beginning.
I can now point and laugh at what a fool I was... although I quite like the fishnet idea still.

(For a collaboration piece with Danster

Monkey Island Characters - Otis

2009-10-27T18:25:00.006+13:00

Otis is one of my favourite characters - as are the other MI characters I chose to do for the full MI fanart piece (collaboration with this "cool" fella).
But for this particular illustration I wanted to make him appear more camp than usual.
I'm very happy with the way his pants and the socks turned out.

Here are some super quick concept drawings!

Monkey Island Characters - Herman Toothrot

2009-10-27T18:11:00.010+13:00

This was one of the first characters I decided to tackle in April 2009 for the MI collaboration with Danster.
It wasn't as time consuming as the other characters, and it still obtains enough details and characteristics for this funny hippie from the Caribbean.

Below are some quick concept drawings

To give you an idea of how much time we spent on each illustration, I think this one took me about 3 hours in total? But this was the quickest colouring job I did.

Emilo Fart

2009-06-04T20:35:00.005+12:00

Emilio Estevez Colouring Competition

The original lineart by Dan Barrett

Jester - Final designs

2009-06-02T18:41:00.005+12:00

To view the full project, click here

Jester: more designs

2009-05-19T09:47:00.006+12:00

Full bodied Jester

Typeface concepts for the logo:

Concept development:

More concept drawings

April - more watercolours

2009-04-06T12:26:00.005+12:00

The watercolour buzz continues. A portrait done for one of my good friends.
Caught her eating bread straight from the bag once when she was hungry, so I thought I'd use that idea for her birthday gift.

Watercolours on A5 (148 x 210 mm | 5.8 x 8.2 in)

March - watercolour month

2009-03-30T08:39:00.007+13:00

Thought I'd do a few personal drawings before this month was over.
It's only getting busier at work, and I get less time to sit down and do personal drawings.

These are some of the concepts I had for a while and finally got around to doing. And I really didn't want to spend more time in front of the computer colouring in, so I fetched out my painting gear.

Watercolour on paper

210 x 148 mm | 5.8 x 8.2 in

Another cupcake related drawing. I'm quite happy with how the gag came out all subtle-like.

Watercolour on paper

148 x 210 mm | 5.8 x 8.2 in

Jester Colour cntd

2009-03-14T19:45:00.004+13:00

More Jester colour concepts!

Jester

2009-02-28T15:47:00.010+13:00

This is another project I've been working on.

Hopefully it'll look awesome and satisfy my client once it's done.

Jester drawings

Logo concepts

Colour scheme concepts

AnnaSawUs

2009-02-08T07:57:00.008+13:00

My work blog.

Thought I'd post something here because it's been a while.

Midnight Snack

2009-01-04T00:18:00.004+13:00

This is the result of a long hot weekend full of pests and a lot of pirate movies.

Beach Cowgirls

2009-01-01T17:46:00.006+13:00

A brand design for a clothing company

(amount of time given= 2 hours. urgh)

Covert Improv Poster

2009-01-01T17:41:00.005+13:00

Done for Covert Improv Comedy gig

The Price of Binge Drinking

2009-01-01T17:12:00.016+13:00

This was my end of year animation project

It was THE most challenging project I ever had to tackle, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and am hoping to do more motion graphics in the future.

Poster for the exhibition

Workbook

This was what my room looked like while working on this project. Although I am happy to have gotten rid of them all and re-plastered my walls with more pleasant posters once it was all over.

Shaun of the Dead

2008-12-29T12:26:00.008+13:00

From left to right: Pete Serafinowicz, Tamsin Greig, Dylan Moran (as Harry Potter), Jessica Hynes, Simon Pegg, Lucy Davis, Martin Freeman, and Nick Frost.

I always enjoy seeing good comedy actors working together. And you see that quite a lot in British shows/ films.
In this particular piece, I wanted to show connections of these actors in terms of the shows they have done together (it was such a good lineup. It was a shame Billy Bailey wasn't a part of it)

If you're as geeky as me, you can look for references from Black Books, Spaced and The Office.
Enjoy!

Funny Catwoman

2008-12-28T11:00:00.023+13:00

Coloured!
This illustration took me 2 pain-striking days with a really old mouse.
I'm happy with the end result even though I still prefer the sketch over the coloured version.

Auckland Driver

2008-12-28T10:35:00.015+13:00

A personal project - I live in Auckland, New Zealand where it's the norm to start swearing as soon as you get behind the wheel.

Mutha Uckas

2008-12-28T10:04:00.013+13:00

The Flight of the Conchords family:

From left to right: Kristen Schaal (as Mel), Jemaine Clement (as Jemaine), Bret McKenzie (as Bret), Rhys Darby (as Murray Hewitt)

This is a combination of a few gags from some of my favourite episodes.

Each character is so lovable, hilarious and has his/ her trademark. I really enjoyed working on this piece and am looking forward to watching more of their stuff.

Mutha Uckas - Process

Old Coloured Pencil Drawings

2008-12-28T09:42:00.015+13:00

Cupcake Queen

My other passion - baking. So much I even considered becoming a professional baker

Cupcakes

Mmm... I wish to do a proper painting of these yummy baked goods.

Gender Twist

I thought this concept was quite humorous when I thought of it. As we get to see a lot of couples that seem to have switched roles and are happy with it.

The Battle

This was a gift for Dan Barrett - solely based on his "social life".

Looking at it now - 3 years after completing this piece, some of the references seem very confusing and odd, but I do remember having fun working on this piece.

Like Father Like Daughter

This is a portrait of my dad and myself.

Our senses happen to be extra sensitive during the hayfever season. I guess having lawn-mowing-obsessive neighbours doesn't help this fact either.

Sniff Master

An observation of 'the male species' I see on a daily basis.

Their sense of smell seems be somewhat more developed or "useful?" than any other senses.

2008 Christmas

2008-12-23T23:42:00.009+13:00

Merry Christmas!

(Happy Jesus day!/ Happy Hanaka!/ Maseltof! etc)

How ironic. My first blog post being a humorous religious anti-shopping christmas card..

Anyway, to those who are shopping-phobic like myself,
BE BRAVE.
Be encouraged by this image of Virgin Mary protecting her Christmas gift, Jesus.
And make your parents proud.

Have a safe Christmas.