illustration and design

Logo DesignKatrina Fawns

Created :: Illustrator

CD Cover DesignKatrina Fawns


Business Card DesignKatrina Fawns

Created with :: Illustrator

Illustration for T-shirtCommissioned by Amy Common


Illustration for InvitationCommissioned by Amy Common

Created :: Hand drawn, scanned and composited in Photoshop

Poster Design + IllustrationThe Rouge Balloon

Created :: Photography, scanning and composited in Photoshop and Indesign

Cd Wallet + Cd DesignThe Rouge Balloon

Created :: Photography, scanning and composited in Photoshop

Poster Design + IllustrationThe Rouge Balloon

Created :: Ink drawing , scanning and composited in Photoshop

Music Website Banner

Created :: Indoor flash photography, scanning, digital re-touching, pencil drawing and digitally coloured and composited in Photoshop

http://www.myspace.com/rosiecatalano

Logo DesignNikki Catalano


Business Card DesignNikki Catalano

Created :: Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign

Website Designwww.nikkicatalano.com.au (launches in December 2009)

Created :: Dreamweaver; html and CSS

Illustration for Wedding InviteCommission Amy Common

Created :: Watercolour painting composited in Photoshop

Photography+ RetouchingPorcelain : Photographic Series of 7

Created :: Flash indoor photography (medium format camera), Scanning, Digital re-touching. Printed onto Quality artist paper at A2 size

Character Design IllustrationPony-Tales Children Television Show


Book Illustration + LayoutWritten by Rosie Catalano + Printed by Trafford Publishing

Illustrations Created :: Pencil, coloured pencil, scanning and digitally coloured in PhotoshopBook Created :: Indesign

4 5

The smell was of dust and lavender. The sound was of nothing, well past the rhythm of cicadas. When Mitsu awoke, she knew her mother was gone.

10 11

Wind and sand began to batter their faces. It swarmed like a plague of tiny insects. The witch held Mitsu in her arms, and as she hid, Mitsu could hear the ferocious gale howling in her ears.

Eventually the storm died down, the sand settled, and both the witch and little Mitsu found themselves surrounded by sandy dunes as far as the eye could see.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“The Dream Wilderness.”

Mitsu looked around, searching across the dunes.

“Your mother isn’t here,” the witch said.

Mitsu’s heart couldn’t have sunk any lower.

“She is in the Dream Scenes.”

16 17

Then she saw her mother.

Relief flooded through Mitsu’s body. There she was, enormous, but her mother all the same. Mitsu couldn’t wait to shrink her down and get her back home.

But just as she neared, her mother reached up and grabbed her own face, pulling it so hard that it came off like a mask, revealing a grotesque stranger’s face underneath.

Mitsu screamed. She fell back and watched as what was once her mother’s face came crashing to the ground. It lay there for a moment, still and hard like a shell. Then another giant reached out and snatched it up. To Mitsu’s horror, the giant placed her mother’s face on top of its own.

Soon they were all tearing off and replacing their faces, then snatching them off one another, letting them fall to the ground in front of little Mitsu, who watched, frozen to the spot.

Mitsu felt ill and weak, until she felt herself being lifted up into the witch’s arms and carried back to the Dream Wilderness.

Twelve chairs. Mitsu stood in the centre. She gazed up at the adults, each sitting in the circle. They appeared to be made of plastic, like old fashioned dolls with missing eyes and yellow skin. She didn’t like them very much. She didn’t like this place at all. Everything about it made her want to run.

26 27

Then she noticed something very peculiar in the mirror. It was her reflection, but unlike her ordinary reflection this one wasn’t copying her movements. It was looking directly behind Mitsu, screaming with what would have been a blood-curdling scream if any sound existed in the room. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was open, and now she was pointing at whatever stood behind Mitsu.

Turning around, Mitsu came face to face with the hulking man. Up close he smelt like whiskey and sweat, and she could see his decaying teeth clenched tight behind his dry old lips. He made a grunting sound as he raised his axe in the air, ready to strike a blow upon Mitsu.

Without a second thought Mitsu held up her hand, and just like that a rotting peach materialised in her grasp. The axe swung down, cutting through the peach, and slowly the nectar made its way down her wrist and dribbled onto the floor.

Before he had time to raise his axe again, Mitsu ducked under his arms and sped out the door, down

the stairway, across the room, through the hallway

and out the front door.

50 51

Mitsu was desperate to run away to safety, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave her mother now that she had finally found her. So she sat down next to her and took her by the hand, which was sweet and sticky, wet with peach nectar.

The wave came nearer. Mitsu held her breath.

She could hear it roaring as it approached. It was only a metre away, and then an inch, then a millimeter. And then it turned to dust, and did nothing more than tickle her skin.

Relieved, Mitsu turned to hug her mother.

But her mother was gone.

28 29

Now she found herself outside, in the dark, in a lonely abandoned suburb.

All the lights were out, no cars went past, and every shadow began to resemble the man with the axe.

Mitsu pelted down the footpath, unsure of where she could run to. She didn’t know if it was safer in a house where she could be cornered, or out on the street where there was nowhere to hide. Now felt like a perfectly good opportunity to return to the Dream Wilderness, but the witch was nowhere to be seen.

22 23

Wooden staircases, wooden walls. The house was gloomy. It made Mitsu think of spiders and snakes, and gaunt old people. She curled up alone in a corner.

Before she had a chance to think of any more horrible things that could be dwelling in the house, she heard a noise coming from outside.

Through the window she could make out the shape of a big, hairy man.

Mitsu watched as his axe ate through the wall with thuds and crashes and he emerged on the other side.

He reminded Mitsu of a bulldog crossed with a troll. Every step he took made the floorboards groan under his weight.

86 87

The Sandman walked on ahead, leading them back to the dark tunnel, one step after the other, and calm as always. He seemed perfectly oblivious to the drama that had only just occurred.

With the witch in one hand, and her mother in the other hand, Mitsu couldn’t wipe the smile from her face.

“Mum?”

“Yes honey?”

“Can I sleep in your bed tonight?”

56 57

Mitsu began to have a look around, peeking in and behind various objects, walking further away from the puppy in her search. Yet as she moved away, the puppy became quiet, and as she took another step farther out of its reach, the puppy’s eyes began to pool with water, then cry, its large tears hitting the ground below with great plonks. Mitsu found that the more the puppy cried, the more grief-stricken she herself felt, as though the puppy’s sadness was her own, eating away at her heart.

She walked back over to it, feeling the ache in her chest lighten as it became more playful.

As she stroked its fur, she found that there was a rabbit sitting happily in the puppy’s front pocket, its ears poking up. After a moment of appearing shy, it popped its entire head out from its hiding spot, and indicated for Mitsu to join it.

“You want me to climb in there?”

It nodded its head.

“Oh, okay then, but I can’t stay long. I have to find my mother.”

Without too much trouble, Mitsu managed to pull herself up and into the pocket. Her feet rested safely in the pouch, and she felt perfectly at ease.

60 61

Finally she made it past the puppy’s ears and onto its head. The antenna continued to pulse, each wave forcing its way through Mitsu’s body, draining her of strength. She held out her arms, took hold of the antenna, and used every last bit of her might to break it. At first it bent, becoming more and more round with strain, and then, suddenly, it snapped.

Expecting a burst of energy, or some kind of thunderous clap, Mitsu was surprised when she opened her eyes to find that the world still looked the same.

She slid down the puppy’s fur and landed with a thud, waiting for the puppy to attack her or lick her…or anything. But it took no interest in her, and merely sat, watching the cars go past with its tongue hanging out.

Then Mitsu felt a familiar elephant skin hand slip into hers, and she began to rise up through the sand, back to the Dream Wilderness.

70 71

“That witchy witch was clever, wasn’t she? Hiding your mother here,” the witch continued. “Oh yes, she is very near by. But you won’t see her. No no, not while I have you, not while she has her.”

Mitsu scanned her surroundings. Only palm-trees and caterpillars could be seen. “But I can’t see her.”

“Of course not. You’re not looking hard enough. But what does that matter? I’ll kill you before you see her again, and she will be trapped here forever.”

By now the caterpillars had surrounded the two of them, their spiky fortress impenetrable. Mitsu was caught. There was nowhere to run. Then she remembered: she could fly!

Mitsu closed her eyes and tried concentrating. She felt her feet lifting up off the ground. She rose higher and higher. But when she opened her eyes, she was face to face with the witch, who was holding her up by her pyjamas. Mitsu’s feet dangled in the air.

Illustration for Magazine CoverSymphora Magazine :: Amy Common

Created :: Paint, coloured pencil, photography, scanning and composited in Photoshop and Indesign

Mounted Illustrations

Created :: Watercolour, pencil, ink, scanning and Photoshop

http:://nikkicatalano.etsy.com

Mounted Illustrations and Tag

Created :: Watercolour, pencil, ink, scanning and Photoshop

http:://nikkicatalano.etsy.com

Interactive Buttonhttp://www.myspace.com/rosiecatalano

Created :: Photoshop

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