Cover for the Ninth issue of the now defunct BRISTLE comic strip anthology, which was edited, produced and published by Brent Willis. Based in Wellington, Brent's anthology featured mainly (although not exclusively) comic makers living in Wellington New Zealand. I painted this cover in water colours and gouache. The significance of the worm comes from the comic book's mascot, known as the Bristle worm, who featured on a number of the covers and usually the inside front page. I was commisioned by Brent to produce the cover for the Autum issue which gave me a nice orange colour theme to work from. The composition is a pastiche of William Blake's "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed With the Sun" and a cover from a Conan The Barabarian collection. It was difficult for me as it was the first water colour painting I'd done, but it was gratifying to pull off some of the effects that I was trying for.

Warm Fuzzies Wellington: Illustraion Job

This is the cover image from a pamphlet for the Warm Fuzzies Wellington project;

Part of Sustainability Trust - http://sustaintrust.org.nz/warm-fuzzies-wellington

This was a really great illo job for Dr Willemijn Vermaat's Warm Fuzzies project

with all the lovely folks at the Sustainability Trust.

I made six pen and ink drawings of this character design.

The Trust is a great charity that helps people who can't afford better heating and 

insulation, sometimes it's just a matter of advice and education, sometimes it might

just take a set of thermal curtains and fresh carpeting. In fact if you have any curtains

you don't want please contact the trust as they accept these in donation and then

fit thermal material to them to give to people.

CULTURE VULTURE

2006 ZOMBIE WALK POSTER

I did this poster pro bono  publico for a person in Wellington who was tied up with

this Zombie Walk "event", or what in the seventies they used to call a "happening".

The last Zombie Walk was attacked in the media as being in bad taste. As I 

understand it the ZW tried to provide a charitable angle to the event. Unfortunately

the illness they tried to support must have been ill-chosen as some victims and their

representatives rallied against the ZW charity drive as being insensitive to the symptoms.

Sort of amusing really, but a shame as it tarnished the walk rather badly.

I'd have thought the illness they should have supported would be Zombism, or at least 

the victims of such in Haiti. Some of whom must still be around, and even if they're not

a Zombie dowry to Haiti would seem by far the best charitable target.

The Holy Coast: poster art.

All About The Story

All About the Story is a commercial website, a content agency providing editors of magazines, newspapers and web sites with articles, images and cartoons.

One of my images on allaboutthestory.com

I have posted some of my work there and look forward to it getting further into the public sphere.

http://allaboutthestory.com/

My Profile page at allaboutthestory.com

 Here's my profile page at :

http://allaboutthestory.com/users/385-matthew-kelly

Prices are listed at either a syndicated rate or else at an exclusive rate. This designation is chosen by the artist/writer.
All of my pieces are up for syndication at $60.00 each.

Please use my email contact listed on this page to set up commissions or discuss purchasing original art.

3 works, two new this year, one from last century.

Acrylic pant on orange cardboard - a bit larger than A3 but not quite A2. I have always found children's (and some adults) attraction to diggers, trucks and active building sites very charming. Their spellbound wonder transforms the stark realities of such noisy industrial wastelands into magical realms of fascinating action!  This piece is a study towards a children's book on the subject.

 Finished inks (dip pen and sable brush) on a 4 page short story due to be published in Wellington local comic anthology "Bristle" and will be released at Armageddon at the end of this month over Labour day weekend (there is no webpage for 'Bristle' but this google search has a selection of pages with info on the comic, how to order it and which retail stockists hold it).
 This is an experimental piece, although I think it fair to say it is a self contained narrative. It's an experiment in evocation, to try and present the surreal world that appeared in my imagination, the area of dreamlike experience that is not completely defined and empiricle. It owes a lot to Noir Film tropes and to surrealism I should think.

 

This cobweby old bit is a parody of the treatment that North America's mainstream comic industry gave to it's only New Zealand themed superhero: The Tuatara. The character first appeared in 1977 in a comic called Super Friends, he became a member of a team called Global Guardians and his last appearance was in 1994 in a comic called Justice League Quarterly, where upon he was left in a coma.
While I had not followed any of The Tuatara's adventures at all, I had come across him in the late 1990's and decided a send up was in order. The page was something of a challenge to other NZ comics creators but apart from one response the idea faltered.
This was probably done with marker pen, perhaps some brush and ink too and then coloured in photoshop.

Several examples.

Gouache colours over nib pen and ink.
This is the cover for a christmas card which opens on the image below!
Gouache colours over pen and ink.
Nothing makes a good picture like putting lots of time into it!
I'm happy with this card concept, I feel it captures the magical state of transformation that comes with the trappings of christmas.
Photoshop for the blue colour over brush and ink. Some dry brush for textural effects in the cloud and for the tree bark.
A rough monocromatic style.
Gouache colours over brush and ink.
Always handy: an apologetic birthday card for use when you remember that you forgot someone's birthday.
I think the naive qualities of the drawing style and caligraphy, emphasized by all the imperfections add to the sentiment of aplogetic failure.
This one is from a five page horror story entitled "Horror Pie". It's brush and ink and was produced for a local comics anthology called 'Bristle'.

Last Christmas: Colour Illustration

Brush and ink and photoshop for colours.
I burn up my brain once a year trying to figure out how to put a kiwi into traditional Christmas card scenarios.
email me at
matthewkellyillustration@gmail.com
for illustrtation enquiries.

Colour Comic

Above is my winning entry to a New Zealand library competition.
I used photoshop to create interesting textures and colours in this madcap 4 panel bit.
Matthew.
For freelance illustration enquiries email me at matthewkellyillustration@gmail.com