Mike HB

Back Again!

2011-12-06T21:20:00.002+11:00

Greetings.

Firstly, my apologies. The amount of time I had to spend on uni work this semester was far greater than what I'd thought it would be, so instead of being able to upload some new artworks every couple of weeks or so, I pretty much had to spend all my remaining time working on that instead. Thanks to anyone who kept checking for updates, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. Unfortunately, this will likely be the case for next year as well.

However, there's a number of important news updates, as well as a number of new artworks in the upcoming weeks.

News update number one... My entomological illustration came third in its category of the Australian and New Zealand Entomological Societies' Illustration and Photographic Competition, winning me a handsome fifty dollars! The prize money came as an extra shock to me, as, according to the website, only the people who came first and second in my category were supposed to receive money, not third.

The second news update is a new competition I've entered in, as a part of my course, for the future publication of a book entitled 'The Flora of the Hunter'. The assignment/competition was to scientifically illustrate two plants of the Proteaceae family. I chose to do two types of Banksia. Very excitingly, the winner of this will receive the Tina Offler and John Patrick Acquisitional Botanical Illustration Prize, being two hundred and fifty dollars. Additionally, the winner, and to the best of my knowledge any honourable mentions, will actually be published in the book. I don't know when we will find out the results, but I'm definitely looking forward to finding out who's going to be published.

Thirdly, as some observant readers may have already noticed, I now have my own official domain name! While www.mikehb91.blogspot.com is still just as functional, there is now the brand new and official www.mikehb.com! From what I can gather, you'll generally be redirected to the official site, but there shouldn't be any major differences between the two addresses. But remember... www.mikehb.com!

And... That's about it for now! Thanks to everyone for reading this. The site's been far more successful than I'd imagined it would be. I've gotten around a thousand views since I announced it six months ago. Unfortunately I don't have an exact number, as my views were accidentally tallied as I was creating the site, but the support's definitely there.

Thankyou!

Slow Month...

2011-08-31T23:34:00.000+10:00

So!

With the uni semester starting again, I haven't had much time to work on things around here. As such, the Digital Sketches have taken a major back seat, and I haven't been able to write up a detailed summary of the Botanical or Medical illustration pages. However! The good news about being back at uni is that I'm getting more Studio and Field works done, they're just going to take a few weeks to surface...

In regards to updates since last time, everything's basically just got a much larger focus on study than anything else. For example, the last few Digital Sketches relate to my current subjects. The bird sketches are for Studio, the fish-in-the-shell is Field as well as Visual Communication, and the black and white natives on red backgrounds relate to my Natural History External Project. As far as the other pages go, I've just uploaded two new Studio illustrations, fresh from this semester, and there will soon be more to follow. The Field Illustration page is finally being uploaded and updated as I speak, and should have a number of updates in the coming weeks. Interestingly enough, the most recent work we're doing in Field doesn't actually involve much field work, instead focusing on the potential applications of field work, which is why you'll be able to find a finished poster design there shortly...

Other than that, things are moving along pretty routinely. Updates may be much less frequent during the uni semester, but I'm hoping you'll find them much more interesting than the odd Wacom sketch.

Thankyou very much!

Spread the Word!

2011-07-27T21:49:00.000+10:00

Greetings!

After all the work I've been doing on my site, it's finally fit for viewing! Be sure to check out all the tabs above to see what I've been up to. Currently, only the Field, Botanical and Medical Illustration pages are still unfinished, but everything else is up to date! I've also added a "Follow by Email" button to the sidebar for anyone wanting to subscribe to updates, and every page is now able to receive comments, so let me know what you think.

To anyone wanting to subscribe or comment, basically all you need to do is follow the prompts. To subscribe, enter your email into the "Follow by Email" box and click "Submit". A pop-up should appear with a CAPTCHA. Fill it out, click "Complete Subscription Request" and you should receive an email notification every time I post an update! As for comments, while previously only people with a blog or Google account could comment, now anyone can. If you want to, and don't have any of these other accounts, just select "Name/URL" from the drop down menu and fill in your name, or simply post anonymously!

In addition to this, I've made a number of other changes too. I've implemented a neat "lightbox" system for viewing images, which will simply enlarge images instead of redirecting your browser to the image links. Navigation links have been added to the bottom of most pages, making finding your way around the site much easier. Furthermore, I've added a unique "favicon" to my site, being the small "HB" symbol in the address bar or tab, and removed an irrelevant Blogger taskbar that used to automatically show at the top of the page.

Other than that, I've made a few general changes to the layout of the Natural History, Studio and Scientific Illustration pages, which mainly consists of limiting the number of paragraphs above the first image of the page. I haven't actually removed any written information... That information is now simply located closer to the bottom of each page, making it easier to see the images, which allows them to be the focus of the page instead of the text.

And that's pretty much it! I'm also aiming to add a universal Gallery page to the site, just as soon as I figure out the best way to do so, as well as finishing the aforementioned unfinished pages. I've also just returned to uni this week, so while the Digital Sketches updates might slow, there should be some new Studio and Field updates within the next few weeks, once the Field page is up and running...

So... Thankyou! Don't forget to check back for updates and tell everyone about the site!

Getting There...

2011-07-19T12:58:00.001+10:00

Howdy!

Slowly progressing with getting everything uploaded to the site. Currently, the Natural History, Scientific and Studio pages are all up and running, as well as the Digital Sketches and the lengthily-detailed Entomology page. My basic aim was to accommodate everyone in the way I designed the pages, which hopefully justifies the sheer amount of text for each of the scientific illustration pages. If you're not particularly interested in the whole process, the lead-up images are still there for the viewing, and if you're curious about a particular lead-up image, the information regarding that will generally be pretty close by.

Field Illustration should be up within a couple of weeks, and there are still a few more Studio illustrations to be uploaded, not to mention that there should be a fresh supply of tasks to be completed when next semester begins.

I'm still looking to update and/or improve the currently completed pages. Recently I managed to format the Digital Sketches page as a thumbnail gallery, which is much more faithful to how I originally envisioned it. I'd wasted a lot of time trying to set it out like that in the first place... Turned out to be an easy fix in the end.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how the site's coming together. I'll have to actually start advertising it soon!

Thankyou!

Digital Sketches are Here!

2011-06-24T15:58:00.001+10:00

Greetings!

I've finally been able to get the first lot of images up! They're available here. The format isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it's functional and I'll be looking into ways of improving it in the future.

Basically, this is a collection of quick digital sketches I've done using my new Wacom digital illustration tablet. I had two thoughts with this. Firstly, I thought doing a quick sketch or doodle with the tablet each day will help me not only get familiar with how to use it, but also help to develop my skills. I don't really feel like I've ever actively practised drawing of my own accord before, so I'm hoping this will be particularly beneficial. Secondly, making the choice to upload it for everyone to see on this site and Facebook should help motivate me to make sure that the final product is of an acceptable standard each day. If I wasn't uploading them, I wouldn't really care about how they turned out, which would defeat the purpose of practising each day.

Also with these images, I wanted to be able to keep the site active. Without this tablet, I'd really only be uploading the work I'd done at uni, and the problem with that is that we're not always tasked with producing that many completed works. For example, last semester we were only really given three tasks to carry out to completion, compared to the first and second semesters, where we usually had about ten or more. Hopefully, keeping the site active will keep people interested, and if you're genuinely interested in what I'm doing, I can at least do you that courtesy.

Obviously these sketches won't be of the same quality as my university work, and their quality will vary dramatically depending on how much time I get to spend on them each day, but hopefully you'll usually see something you like. Feel free to leave any questions or comments. Let me know what you do and don't like, and I'll try to tailor my sketches accordingly.

Thankyou very much! My more detailed works should be up shortly.

Blogger is GO!

2011-06-23T18:25:00.000+10:00

Greetings everyone!

This site’s just something I’m starting in order to share what I can with all those who’ve expressed interest and support in the work I’m currently doing. I always assumed that I would ultimately have my own website to advertise my work and provide contact details, so I guess this is just the beginning.

Surprising to me was how many people seemed to be interested in actively following my progress, yet alone simply seeing the work I’ve done. Funnily enough, I haven’t actually met a lot of the people who’ve expressed such interest, but they have provided a lot of the encouragement and motivation to get started…

So here it is! Up by popular demand.