Life after the Imaginism Workshop and the Home for Peculiar Children...

Well it's been just over a week since I got back to Australia from the Imaginism Workshop in Toronto. I've achieved a few things since I've been home, including a lovely sunburn!


All the things I learned from the workshop are constantly shouting at me from inside my head, but alas, I have to get some things out of the way before I start on my new, fresher, kick-ass portfolio. Some of these things I have to get done are pretty damn cool, but some are... underwhelming.


One of the cool things I'm working on at the moment is a collaboration with Sydney writer Damian Madden. This will be a short film for Tropfest 2012. Progress is still at first sketches stage, but I'm pretty confident it's going to be pretty awesome when finished and on the bigscreen. I can't say much about it at this stage, but it will include a bad-ass killer carrot. I'll post some more info about it when I can. :)

Cover for Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar
Children by Ransom Riggs

I've been researching and collecting inspiration for my new portfolio. I've taken Bobby Chiu's advice and have started researching films that are at concept stages, which will become the inspiration for my new pieces of work. And there are a lot of really cool films rumoured to be happening over the next few years! One of these is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. This is a book I purchased while at WorldCon in Reno in September. It jumped out at me from it's very crowded spot among the rest of the novels, on one of the many tables of the many vendors selling books there. I was surprised that this book seemed to levitate off the table in front of me (which is fitting since the cover shows a levitating girl). As soon as I read the blurb on the back I was hooked, not to mention it's published by Quirk Books who have some titles I'm very attracted to! 


'A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.'


So this great book is going to be a film, and, here's the best part, there's word that Tim Burton is going to take it on. Oh man, what a great combination! Those familiar with my style of work will know that drawing creepy kids is one of my specialities. So, really, there is no question about it, I MUST work on this film adaption! I was born to create art for this film, I believe it whole-heartedly. 


So here's where the real work begins! I know the book, the story and the characters well, so it's a great project to start my new portfolio with. I can't wait to get started!