My very first children's picture book commission - previous work had been in black & white and devoted to illustration of poetry, medieval fables and history, (Lots of lovely battle scenes with blood, swords and headless corpses; and the occasional naked damsel). Little did I know that I was painting myself into a corner; a corner filled with Australian wildlife...and no bleedin' newspaper to put down anywhere!
I have always followed - and have striven to practice - the motto of, 'If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well'. It seems that my depiction of the animals found between the pages of this book, were perceived as evidence that I was, above all, an illustrator of cute, furry, feathered or scaly Australian animals. All I ever seem to draw or paint for publishers are the aforesaid animals. I feel like the actor who, in the early part of their career, puts in a good performance as a villain and ends up only be offered roles as the baddie. Type Cast, that's me.
over the following weeks and months I'll be posting all of the Australian creatures I have depicted so far. I'm still a relatively young man, so this could be a, very, long running blog if past commissions are an indication of what's to come. (I'll probably be doing Aussie animals on my death bed.)
A confession here before this blog goes any further, I draw and paint animals of other nations quite willingly, I also enjoy doing so. See my other blog, here, and you can view the full gamut of my illustrations of foreign creatures.
So, without further ado, here they come.
Cheers. RWS
