Matt Godden – Page 34 – human : artist

2008/01/142022/12/16

blue still life

This was my first work in our table series of drawings. The objects were wooden positive templates for producing moulds of machine parts.

The A2 sized piece is on watercolour paper which was stained with the blue watercolour paint, then the drawing was done using a skewer dipped in ink, and applied right-handed (I’m a lefty). I’m happy with the small touches of red, and the blue areas that break the shapes with multiple overlaid perspective. An important lesson in this piece was using a broken and frayed skewer, and rolling it while advancing perpendicular to the roll to apply a line texture over and over, sortof like repeated stencilling.

2008/01/142022/12/16

red flag collage

Produced for the collage project. I wanted to try working big on this one, so it’s around A0 size.

The very first rough planning versions had the central black box and strips offset slightly higher of centre. I brought it back to centre for a sense of symmetry, but looking back at photos, I really prefer the off-centre version. I see why my drawing teacher used to keep telling me symmetry was something of which to be wary.

2008/01/142022/12/16

three panel collage

This was produced as a part of the collage project we did at college, and was actually a recycling effort for paper staining that was done for a failed piece.

Each panel is a little under A4 in size.

2008/01/142022/12/16

rainbow

Aside from the rainbow landing on the roof (from this angle) of the college I was studying and working at, I could also say that’s where the unicorns live entirely on beans.

2008/01/142022/12/16

edge of the storm

Another bit of fun playing with silhouetted architecture and clouds.

If you rotate the image 90 deg clockwise, it kindof looks like one of those easter island faces in profile. Ahh peridolia, such fun. Next thing you know. it’ll be jesus in a sweat stain.

2008/01/142022/12/16

cloud surface

The bougainvillaea branch sticking up on it;’s own, makes it look like the foregound is giving the storm the finger.

This is another of those reference / stock images I use in the comics for creating backgrounds. It looks like porridge.

2008/01/142022/12/16

rays of sunlight

Come on, how could a person not photograph this? Aside from the near perfect spread of light, what I really like about this is the way the centre of the cloudmass is bright and filled with defined structure.

It all looks a little too perfect.

2008/01/142022/12/16

sun through smoke xmas 2001

To days later, December 27th, and this was sunset. Yup, that’s bushfire smoke making the sky look like that. Thick enough that you could look at the sun as a discreet, hard edged disc with no discomfort at all.

2008/01/142022/12/16

xmas smoke layer

So here’s a photo from my mother’s apartment. You can see the Harbour Bridge near the centre, and off to the left in a gap between the trees, a city building. The North Sydney skyline is to the right of the harbour bridge, and above it, the layer of smoke.

2008/01/142022/12/16

xmas 2001 skyline

And here we go, the money shot.

On the right North Sydney, in the centre the Sydney Harbour Bridge, to the left the Opera House, and behind it, the city. Just to give you an idea of the amazing scale of this, and remember, it’s all smoke. The lighting was amazing too, that’s a pretty accurate image of the light gradient at the time.