Shout about the 9×5

Shout Back, 2018 (Digital Print on wood)

For those of you in Melbourne – the bi-semi-annual Illustrators Australia 9×5 exhibition is currently on at the Collingwood Gallery in Smith Street until July 26, 2018. There was a great turn out for the opening night last Friday, and a record breaking 120 entries as well! For the first time, works presented were not only “traditional” paint on wood (all of the pieces are presented on 9×5 inch sized pieces of wood, reflecting the Heidelberg School artists of yore who used to paint ‘en plein air’ onto cigar box lids), contributing artists were also able to submit their pieces digitally, to be printed on the wood instead. I was amazed by the quality of the detail and colour – and, yes, that is my piece above: ‘Shout Back’.

Inspired by this new direction in gallery presentation, I wanted to push the medium a little further and decided to experiment with my first piece of ‘augmented reality’ artwork. I really had no idea how to go about this – I knew about the principle, of course, but not about which software or apps would be suitable. After a few dead ends, I came across a group of app developers in Vienna who have developed an app specialising in AR for artists – Artivive . I did a short animation in Photoshop and After Effects to expand on the ideas of the still image (you can download the app for Apple or Android and check out the results by viewing the image above through the app). I was pretty happy with the result!

I was also happy that the piece won ‘Best Digital’ piece on the night. Managed to score a pass to attend ‘Looking Glass’ digital drawing sessions at Jacky Winter, so I’m rapt! Thank you to generous sponsors Procreate (which I already use on my iPad Pro and am keen to learn more about). I’ll let you know how I go!

Shout about the 9×5

IA 9×5 Exhibition

soniak_9x5-web

We are fast approaching the 19th Illustrators Australia 9×5 show – for those of you who have no idea what that means, where the hot hades have you been?! To get you up to speed, many years ago – I think it was 1995? – the committee of Illustrators Australia decided on creating a unique exhibition, in which members could contribute new, original work on a theme. The main criteria was that the work had to use a 9×5 inch piece of plywood as its base. Fast forward to 2015,  and the chosen theme is “Playtime” – and you are all invited to attend the exhibition opening at the Abbotsford Convent on November 13, 6pm onwards. All works will be available for auction  with a reserve of AUD$195. For those who can’t make it, you are welcome to make an offer online and IA will bid on your behalf. A preview of the show is  available here .

My piece, above, has been inspired by kitten observations and is entitled “It’s all Fun and Games until Someone Loses an Eye”

IA 9×5 Exhibition

Risographica! 3

My work will be featuring in an upcoming group show at Lamington Drive in Collingwood next week (for those of you who don’t know, Lamington Drive is the gallery of everyone’s favourite Illustration Agency ‘Jacky Winter Group’). Every few years they invite artists to create artwork for a ‘Risograph’ – which is a kind of a newfangled / oldfangled copy machine with limited but seemingly crazy colours.

For this show, everyone was limited to two colours. To give you some idea about how these prints are made, here is the artwork I supplied:

soniak-risographica-B+W

The picture on the left will be printed in fluoro pink, whilst the image on the left is destined to be yellow. All in all, you never know quite what to expect – how the colours will mix when overprinted, and indeed if the paper itself will  line up properly… happy to say I don’t think it turned out too badly:

soniak_risograph

This group exhibition will see ’28 of Jacky Winter’s finest’ explore the medium of the A3 2-colour Risograph. All works will be sold in limited editions of 10 for $50.00 each, with all profits during the exhibition going to Oxfam’s International Crisis Fund – supporting the response to humanitarian crises worldwide, by helping those most in need when a natural or a man-made emergency occurs.

Opening night is Wednesday October 14, 6-9pm.
The exhibition runs October 15 – November 7, 2015.

Where?
Lamington Drive – 101a Sackville Street Collingwood

Artists include:

Andrea Innocent, Beci Orpin, Bobby Haiqalsyah, Craig & Karl, Eamon Donnelly, Eirian Chapman, Emma Leonard, Gemma O’Brien, Georgia Perry, Guy Shield, He She It They I, James Gulliver Hancock, Karl Kwasny, Kat Chadwick, Kate Banazi, Lachlan Conn, Lilly Piri, Madeleine Stamer, Mel Matthews, Mel Stringer, Neryl Walker, Oslo Davis, Ross Murray, Sean Morris, Sonia Kretschmar, Sophie Blackhall-Cain, Timba Smits, Travis Price

risographica-invite

Risographica! 3