The Rabbit Star Shining Bright

This one is for the kids.
On the way to the rabbit star.
Statistics:
• Name: T Leporis
• Type: Vitamin B class star – visibility good.

Abbreviation	Lep
Genitive	Leporis
Pronunciation	/ˈliːpəs/, or colloquially/ˈlɛpəs/; genitive /ˈlɛpərɨs/
Symbolism	the Hare
Right ascension	6 h
Declination	−20°
Quadrant	NQ2
Area	290 sq. deg. (51st)
Main stars	8
Bayer/Flamsteed stars	20
Stars with planets	3
Stars brighter than 3.00m	2
Stars within 10.00 pc (32.62 ly)	3
Brightest star	α Lep (Arneb) (2.58m)
Nearest star	Gliese 229 (18.83 ly, 5.77 pc)
Messier objects	1
Meteor showers	None
Bordering constellations	Orion Monoceros Canis Major Columba Caelum Eridanus

Merry Christmas - 2011

Merry Christmas to all friends, clients and casual visitors to kenrinkel.blogspot.com. This is my christmas card that I am sending to clients, friends and family this year. it features Santa Claus as a happy man revelling in his time spent underneath the mistletoe. Internet surfers around the world may be familiar with Christmas and Santa Claus but maybe not so much mistletoe. 
Mistletoe is commonly used as a Christmas decoration, and according to custom, the mistletoe must not touch the ground between its cutting and its removal as the last of Christmas greens at the winter equinox; it may remain hanging through the year, often to preserve the house from lightning or fire, until it was replaced the following Christmas Eve. In cultures across pre-Christian Europe, mistletoe was seen as a representation of divine male essence. Whoohoo!
It was described in 1820 by American author Washington Irving in his "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon": "The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases."
I think these days it would be prudent to ask first.
Joyeux Noël 
Ken Rinkel

I'm Not Scared - IF

 

The first thing that came to mind when Illustration Friday's suggested topic word of 'Scary' was remembering all the dressing up and anticipation for the North American festival of Halloween. Which as an occasion is catching on in my Aussie neighbourhood more and more each year. 'The harvesting of the lollies' night is one candy companies, retailers and and (lets not forget the kids) are loving. A bag of free candy from the neighbours just for dressing up! Wow! Kids aren't stupid.

The second thing that came to mind was a book I illustrated in 2005 for Blake Education. The images here are just some from 'I'm Not Scared'. This was for their Gigglers series and was aimed at reluctant primary school readers. Above is a page where an Ogre appears and below is the printed spread where the Bunyip is appearing.













The story was about a father and daughter ghost talking about what they found most scary.
Each scary 'monster' mentioned manifested. Then, as each monster mentions what scares them it then manifested. And so on. It was a great little book written by author Wendy Blaxland and was great fun to create and play around with scary fun characters, including the father and daughter ghosts, an ogre, a giant and Australia's own billabong frightener the Bunyip.

The illustrations were created digitally from scans of the roughs and was the first book that I extensively used photoshop filters for texture. Below, is the cover image showing some of the character faces.

Waterwatch manuals - NSW Department of Environment & Climate Change (DECC)

These images are a few of many for the NSW government's Department of Environment & Climate Change 'Waterwatch' manuals and guides. Waterwatch is a program where community groups and stakeholders monitor and test water quality in their local waterways. They then can record their results on a central database that the NSW government uses to get a greater understanding of the states water resources. Above here are two images from the 'Landholder' guide and three from the 'junior' (school) guide.  

'Waterbug' images. These little fellows were used in information breakouts as well as on a water quality visual chart.

'How to' There were a great many instructional images showing how to use the various bits of equipment  and how to follow a process. It's important to get these accurate as these are for the collection of scientific data and the margin for error must be reduced for accurate interpretation of the data collected.

All images were finished created using adobe illustrator. Most started life as pencil sketches though some were created fully digitally.

TACHYON Gardens - character & Starflower

Detail from another spread. This one has one of the little characters examining the energy containing Starflower.

I have entered the full spread in the Wacom 5th anime contest.
http://www.wacom-asia.com/

TACHYON Gardens - characters in space flight - detail

TACHYON Gardens - characters in space flight - detail of the previous image with my signature overlayed for © protection

CREATION

I've been moving from one studio to another and have been digging up some older images from storage. These are a few spreads from the first picture book I illustrated called 'Creation' in 1995. It was voted as a notable book of that year by the Children's Book Council of Australia. Words by Sarah Crawford. and published by the now defunct Starfish Publications. Text runs along the bottom of the page below the illustration spread.

These are photos of some of the original oil paintings for the book.

I have a number of book stored in my studio from my publisher.
They are and available for purchase with delivery by Australia Post.
Prices* today including Postage & inc GST in Australia. $33.00.
To Canada and the USA including Postage CDN$38.25 USD$38.25
I have a paypal account so we can arrange payment through that.
picills@optusnet.com.au
* Please note, price subject to change depending on shipping costs.

Monkey Mission No9

This was an image created as an adjunct to the Monkey Match books.
A sketch of a book cover, image and typography and book concept. Monkey Mission No9

Monkey Match books X2