Maria Murray

Paper Over Cracks

2012-02-03T17:41:00.008Z

I recently completed the artwork for Slow Motion Heroes' new single Paper Over Cracks. It's a great tune so fingers crossed it goes really well for them! I worked with a theme the lads are developing for the single video, based on a paper bird. I forgot to credit myself on the back though! Major DOH moment for me!

Painting the Ganges

2012-01-20T12:47:00.002Z

So this is the finished painting, I think I took it so far in acrylics that I didn't have that much to do it it in oils, next time round i'll work it up less in acrylics before going in with oils!

Painting the Ganges - Work in Progress!

2012-01-17T15:21:00.009Z

I've been working on this painting as a birthday present for a friend, based on a photo from our time in India - an incredible sun-rise boat trip on the Ganges. I'm pretty new to painting, and am working from acrylic into oils, i've done the base in acrylic and now i'm hoping to fine-tune it a bit by going to go back into it with oils, it's all a bit ropey but sure we'll see how it goes!

Slow Motion Heroes vs Wall Of Sound

2012-01-03T19:41:00.011Z

It's been a very busy few months, only getting time to blog stuff now! I finished up college for 2011 at the beginning of December and spent the next couple of weeks developing animations for projection at the Slow Motion Heroes Wall of Sound gig. The three animations looped on a projected background through out the gig. The animations were based on the artwork for three of the EPs. It was my first time doing anything like this, if I was doing it again i'd definitely make a few changes but over all I was pretty happy with the result.

I uploaded just a minute of each animation to Vimeo (see below). On the night the animations were longer with lyrics from the songs overlaid on top. Definitely enjoyable and something i'd like to do again! Unfortunately I took no photos *kicking myself* but I have this pic of the lads soundchecking before the gig with "One Liners" in the background.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T17:16:00.000Z

Wohoo! 2012, looking forward to it, x

Anni Albers - Original Op Artist?

2011-12-21T21:08:00.009Z

I'm doing some research for a vj animation i'm currently working on for Slow Motion Heroes. It's for the upcoming "Wall of Sound" gig on the 28th of December. I'm doing a short projection animation of about 4 minutes, each minute reflecting one of their 4 eps, at the moment i'm working on the (soon to be released) "one liners" ep. My idea was to make something based on op-art, initially I had the work of Sol LeWitt in mind, the textile designs of Anni Albers (which I LOVE!) also sprang to mind as being very similar. I just wanted to share some of the images i've found here. If you're interested, Gunta Stolzl (her peer) also has some amazing textile designs, very inspirational stuff!

First Time Oil Painting

2011-11-28T16:44:00.009Z

We're doing a colour module in college at the moment, I tried oils for the first time last week & here are the results, pretty ropey! But it was definitely interesting and enjoyable. CLUE: paint the whole thing in acrylic first, and then just use the oil to highlight tones, light and shadow. That helped me anyway, parts of it I tried painting only in oils & they turned into a mucky mess.

Le Chat Noir Vintage Fair!

2011-11-27T19:31:00.014Z

I'm just back from Le Chat Noir's second vintage fair, i'm on such a happy buzz after it! It was a lovely day, I paired up with my friend Sarah to run a stall with prints, badges, screenprinted tees, some hand-drawn shirts, vintage clothes & jewellery. Jill (from Wild Floral Couture) and Leona did a great job organising it.

There were some fab stalls from Turquoise Flamingo, Wild, Mercury goes Retrograde, Rosa Through the Looking Glass, Alice Halliday, Peacock and Ruby, Miss Daisy Blue.... the list runs on! I'm focusing on the Cork stalls here, there were loads of great stalls. It's also really inspiring seeing so many women starting their own businesses, in these times of "no jobs here" they're really making opportunities for themselves. I wonder as well is the massive interest in vintage at the moment anyway related to the global economic collapse? Maybe people are looking for ways to consume less and live more sustainably via recycling. Plus I guess vintage is just gorgeous!

So you can possibly tell i'm in a bit of a gushy mood after what was a really fab day! Here are a few photos from the first Vintage Fair in May and Le Chat Noir photo shoots, can't wait for the next event!!

New tee designs

2011-11-12T19:18:00.002Z

With the Christmas markets coming up i'm putting together a few new tee designs.

I also just bought a badge maker, world domination, here I come!

3d Visual Elements

2011-11-10T21:54:00.016Z

As part of the Applied Art course, we presented our 3d visual elements group project today. Here are a few shots of our installation. We focused on using cardboard, newspaper and bamboo and a limited number of motifs throughout the piece. We aimed to use careful construction, repetition and composition to balance geometric with organic forms, and heavy lines with lighter lines. We've to take it all down tomorrow, it's going to be hard after the work and thought that's gone into it!

Johnny Burger Pimp

2011-10-28T14:00:00.006+01:00

Who is the mysterious Johnny Burger Pimp? I don't know, but his work is great.

My First Raku!

2011-10-24T17:56:00.005+01:00

My first piece of raku ceramics! The process was so interesting, after bisc firing we painted our pieces with copper oxide glazes. I painted this piece with a turquoise copper oxide glaze, the bright copper is as a result of the fire in the cooling process (cooling in damp sawdust!) burning all the oxide out of the glaze, leaving only the copper. It's science!

Here's some photos of the process:

Lisa Yuskavage - Dublin Contemporary 2011

2011-10-20T13:07:00.010+01:00

I finally visited Dublin Contemporary yesterday, it was great, a lot of really interesting work from the gamut of contemporary disciplines. I particularly enjoyed the exhibition in the RHA, maybe this is partly because I preferred the layout, I found it easier to assimilate the art in the big bespoke gallery spaces than in the small rooms in the main exhibit. Having said that, some people said they loved the feeling of going into each individual contained space, that it felt like stepping into a different universe each time.

Lisa Yuskavage really stood out for me among the painters there. I had come across her images in print and online before but they really didn't prepare me for the reality of her paintings. The work is BEAUTIUFUL, lovely soft tones, very private yet inviting scenes, gorgeous juicy female figures! "Juicy" seems like a strange word to choose but voluptuous just doesn't cover it.

If you can see her work in the flesh I highly recommend it, it's stunning!

Hopefully i'll get a chance to post more about the exhibit, i've been up the wall since I started back at college!

Jewellery at Future Makers

2011-10-15T12:35:00.016+01:00

I'm just back from the Future Makers exhibtion at Wandesford Gallery. A lot of very inspiring pieces, too much for one blog post, so i'm going to concentrate on the jewellery here.

I LOVE jewellery. I especially love progressive, modern, design-orientated pieces, anything bold, colourful and witty gets my vote! These are some of my favourite pieces from the show, featuring Filip Vanas, Theresa Burger and Sam Hamilton.

I just came across Future Makers flickr stream! Wohoo! Happy browsing, the work of Charlene McFarland, Anna West, and Bridget O'Gorman also really stood out for me.

Santa.... if you're out there... I really really really want one if those Filip Vanas rings... (this one)....

Drawing 101

2011-09-30T18:56:00.008+01:00

We had the first week of Drawing 101 in college this week, 3 full days of drawing! Delighted! Extremely intensive though, absolutely exhausting, standing at your easel concentrating for the best part of 7 hours. Here's some of my work, observational drawings on garlic. When I started on Wednesday morning that 2B pencil was full-length, looks like i'm heavy on the pencils!

London / Brighton, Summer 2011

2011-09-27T19:19:00.007+01:00

Some photos up on my flickr of my trips to London and Brighton this summer, that's the nicest "bicycles will be removed" sign i've ever seen! Incidentally the photo of Alexandra Palace was taken at the I'll Be Your Mirror show. We just went for the Sunday and it was AMAZING, incredible venue, God Speed You! Black Emperor and Portishead blew me away, God Speed You! had some great visuals as well, their whole set was incredibly integrated into one mind-blowing piece. Great buzz in the Rose Garden that day too!

It was my first time being to Brighton, such a great spot as well! We basically ate ourselves almost unconscious at Terre a Terre (twice!), Food for Friends, Jamie's Italian and not forgetting the incredible breakfast at possibly the best B&B i've ever been to (bar Anngrove Lodge of course!), The Twenty One.

I love London! And Brighton!

Culture Night 2011

2011-09-26T18:18:00.012+01:00

Another great Culture night in Cork last Friday night! We strolled around to the Wandesford Gallery, the Backwater Artists, Christchurch at the Triskel, the English Market and Camden Palace.

There was a great atmosphere everywhere we went, it's really heartening to see the number of people who come out and engage with the various shows and events around town, there's a great sense of community. Camden Palace was rocking as usual! Loads of music, art installations and people having a good time. The dogs were also back again en masse, this time for sale.

The photos featured here are all from Camden Palace, unfortunately i'm not sure who the artists are!

Not Pop

2011-09-23T15:29:00.008+01:00

A while back I previewed EP artwork for Cork band Slow Motion Heroes' upcoming new EP, Not Pop. The lads released the artwork on Facebook this week so now I can show the full thing here! Not Pop is the follow on EP from Pop, the idea was to create two very contrasting EPs in terms of musical style, I was contracted to do art work for both so I tried to reflect this in what I produced. Looking forward to the Not Pop release on Oct 8th in Bradleys on Barrack St and seeing the work in print!

You can download the EP from here, strongly recommended, it's fantastic!

The Market Bench Project Pt 1.

2011-09-20T21:38:00.012+01:00

I made my first market bench maquette! Based on a chilli, it's made from recycled clay so unfortunately we won't be firing it. Can't wait to paint it!

We're all making a number of benches, my second bench is based on fish fillets, hopefully not obvious from ground level but very apparent in an aerial view. I'm thinking of Jean Jullien's work here! In the New Year we'll pick one bench from all of our designs to make.

Beginning the Market Bench project

2011-09-15T19:32:00.013+01:00

BIG NEWS!! I'm a first year undergrad student at Applied Art in Crawford College of Art and Design as of this week! Wooo!! As a result i've bid a sad goodbye to DEIS. I've had a good 5 years here and have great colleagues. I'm really excited, also scared about money but mainly really excited.

We started our first ceramics project yesterday. Making a bench based on the theme of market. I got myself down to the fine English Market and took some snaps. I was thinking of doing a ridiculous / hilarious tacky bench commemorating the Queen's visit, covering it with fish motifs in reference to that brilliant photo, in the style of the typical ridiculous / hilarious tacky ceramic monarchy memorabilia! I've kind of gone from that idea now though, instead i'm thinking of making a giant chilli bench, bright, colourful, and I love chillies, is that enough of a reason?! Art college: you tell me! I was at Electric Picnic earlier this month and they had this great art piece in the Body and Soul, a giant table & chairs, it creates a lovely surrealness sitting on something that makes you feel tiny, so I guess that's what i'm going for with this chilli! I'm also thinking of the fab Mae West couch created by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali.

Here are some of my pictures from today, I love the market!

In Other Words

2011-08-30T12:57:00.013+01:00

I visited the Glucksmann current exhibition "In other words" at the recommendation of my friend Lauren Baylor.

Language and text and their construed meanings are the central theme of the exhibition. The works explore both the subjectivity and objectivity of text, abstracting that most defined of human expression. Micheal Stumpf's sculptures (photographed here) were among my favourite work, as was Tim Etchell's "The Future will be confusing" and Kay Rosen's clever and playful paintings exploring the connections between the literal meanings of words and the graphical formation of the words themselves.

Interestingly, the gallery is also exhibiting the Book of Lismore at the moment. While the antiquated rendering of text in the 15th century manuscript is in stark contrast to the thoroughly modern and often witty exploration of language in the In Other Words exhibit, similarities can also be drawn in that in both cases the artists are attempting to push the boundaries of text.

It took me back to the Mira Schendel and León Ferrari exhibit I visited in Madrid last year. That exhibition explored language in a way I had never encountered before and left the viewer with questions relating to the dual nature of human expression in terms of spontaneity and restraint.

If you can't make it there yourself, more photographs are available on the Glucksmann facebook. Some of the photos in this post have been taken from the websites of the artists themselves, namely Kay Rosen, Joseph Noonan Ganley. The Micheal Stumpf image is via artnews.org.

Wanderlust.....

2011-08-17T16:53:00.008+01:00

I have such wanderlust at the moment... been looking at my trip advisor travel map:

and my flickr.... feet itching so bad!!

Wedding Invite

2011-08-12T20:10:00.002+01:00

More messing with wedding invitation typography, embellished type this time, still not sure where exactly it's going!

Animation Summer Camp Work

2011-08-04T09:33:00.007+01:00

So here are the rest of the animations the young people did in our animation summer camp. So proud of them all! They all did so well and it was so great to see how happy they were with their work!

Animation Summer School!

2011-07-22T15:50:00.007+01:00

Mars Party from Maria Murray on Vimeo.

Sample animation from this summers Animation Summer Camp. We were delighted with how it went! The group were great, 13 kids aged 7 to 14, they all worked really well together and produced some really great work!

The camp ran from the 18th - 21st of July in the Educate Together school, Herons Wood, Carrigaline.

More messing...

2011-07-18T19:57:00.002+01:00

Logo necklace!

Jewellery Making

2011-07-11T19:10:00.006+01:00

Lips set, fun weekend!

Ed4Life

2011-07-04T10:32:00.004+01:00

This logo was developed for a new structured PhD on offer in CIT in the life sciences area. The client was looking for something modern, not too formal, with a strong nod to the life sciences area. The brief required that the logo work with the official CIT logo, which informed the colour palette for the logo.

Invitation Handdrawn Typography

2011-06-16T11:40:00.009+01:00

A draft of some handdrawn wedding invitation typography i'm working on, I like it so far! Though maybe it's a bit too blobby, let's see where it goes...

Animation Summer School!

2011-06-10T18:13:00.003+01:00

I'm running an animation summer school this July in Carrigaline with 3 other facilitators, i'm really excited about it! The site is animationspace.weebly.com/. That came together very quickly during the week, weebly.com is the quickest / handiest thing ever.

Forbidden Fruit!

2011-06-07T19:28:00.008+01:00

I was at Forbidden Fruit this weekend in Dublin, it was a brilliant way to spend the June bank holiday weekend! I've been working with POD for the last number of months to produce promotional design work for the festival (see top poster). I also designed merch for the festival, i've featured the tees here, I designed a hoodie and art print as well.

This was a really enjoyable job, projects where I can indulge in loads of colour and handdrawn text are my favourite! For more info on the project, check my website here.

India 2011

2011-06-01T15:45:00.007+01:00

Just put my photos from India up on Flickr, such a great country! Can't wait to go back.

Check out more photos here.

Life Drawing 2010 / 2011

2011-05-22T16:28:00.004+01:00

My Thursday night life drawing class with Eileen Healy finished up a few weeks ago, i'll really miss it! It was such a relaxing two hours, I learned a lot from Eileen as well, i've a selection of the work on my site. Can't wait for the class to start up again!

Arts, Participation and Development Exhibition!

2011-05-12T16:42:00.012+01:00

We exhibited our projects for the Special Award in Arts, Participation and Development the first weekend in May. The course was developed and run by Mayfield Community Arts, a progressive and innovative community arts centre based in Cork. It was such a pleasure taking part in the course, it was very energising to learn new ways to use art as a medium for social change and to meet so many people with the focus and positivity to pursue that end!

Our own project dealt with Social Inclusion. We delivered workshops to digital media students in the Digital Hub. We developed the workshop specifically for the students, exploring social inclusion issues alongside story telling and character development techniques.

The workshop is documented on our Flickr account, a resource pack to allow anyone deliver the workshop is available at issuu.com. Check out the course website for info on the other projects.

Below is a print from Tom Doig which was also exhibited as part of a series of work produced within the course. I love it!

New site - Thinksmart Technologies

2011-05-09T14:03:00.003+01:00

New client site recently live! This went live just before I left for India, I got a lot of work done that month!

The site was developed for Thinksmart Technologies to replace their existing site. Thinksmart are a Cork software start-up company doing incredibly advanced work in their field. The challenge was to take the wealth of existing, highly complex information and present it in a more digestible way to the lay person.

Check it out here.

Biodiversity Challenge!

2011-05-04T10:43:00.009+01:00

So things have been very quite from me on the blogging front the last few weeks, that's because i've been in India! It's been great, hopefully i'll get around to updating my flickr this weekend with photos.

Before I left I was tearing busy with a lot of contract work, here's the Biodiversity Challenge floor game I finished for Global Action Plan just before I took off. I loved this job! It was so much fun. It's being printed 3mx3m, so pretty huge! It'll be used to teach kids about Biodiversity in a fun / informal way. The different squares represent threats and aids to biodiversity.

Pop

2011-04-03T22:10:00.006+01:00

Seeing as this is going to print this week (or maybe next) I guess it's fine to put this up here! The finished cover for the Pop EP from Slow Motion Heroes.

I ended up paring back the original drawing in photoshop and just using one element of it in the final thing, can't wait to see it in print!

Biodiversity Challenge...

2011-03-27T17:53:00.003+01:00

Completely up the walls this weekend, i'm working on a floor game for kids, here's a snippet of what i'm doing.

I got my wacom cintiq last week as well! Sooo deadly, definitely speeding up the work process as well, I need it at the moment!

The Wedding Studio

2011-03-20T20:22:00.004Z

Just finished a new site, wohoo! Love finishing projects. The site is here and you can read about some of the process here. *high five*

Not Pop - Preview

2011-03-13T17:35:00.006Z

Part two of two images (pop here), just a preview! The work should be totally finished and printed by the end of April, wohoo!

More JR

2011-03-08T10:30:00.012Z

I blogged about JR a few months ago and since then he seems to be cropping up everywhere with incredibly inspirational and motivating projects and films. I watched the above video today and it really blew me away. My favourite quote from it:

"Art can change the way we see the world, art can create energy"

*salute* JR's artworks and ethos are consistently insightful and effective, he executes his political message forcefully and elegantly, producing emotive and humane installations that are both deeply personal and political. His work makes an undeniable truth of the assertion that art can change the world.

It's International Women's day and I have to admit I got a bit depressed reading sad statistics on sites like www.weareequals.org, important to read them and be aware of them, but depressing none the less! JR's amazing work cheered me up, Women are Heroes:

POP...

2011-02-27T18:59:00.005Z

Yesterday was a total write-off due to a college reunion Friday night, but got a good bit of work done today, here's a sneak preview! LOVE this project, can't wait to have the work finished and printed.

Screenprinting!

2011-02-22T09:32:00.019Z

Had such a great weekend at Cork Printmakers. I love screenprinting! So much fun, Marianne Keating is a great teacher as well!

Here's some of what I made, a couple of posters and a stack of tshirts, plus two tote bags. The paper is 700g cartridge, YUM, and check out the deadly gold foil and red puff ink!

Chica

2011-02-17T15:39:00.003Z

Working on some images to screenprint at the weekend (yay!). Not sure where this one is going but I like it so far... I must be in a Spanish mood today!

Spring!

2011-02-09T18:17:00.004Z

In honour of the arrival of Spring, and the upcoming general election!

String Theory

2011-02-06T17:17:00.006Z

Last Thursday and Friday I was in Dublin giving a workshop in the Digital Hub. It was my main assignment for an course i'm doing at Mayfield Community Arts. It was a first for me and a really interesting / challenging day. The workshop was centered on developing narratives & characters based on the concept of social inclusion and I delivered it with three other girls doing the course.

As a result i'm a bit behind on work and have been drawing all weekend, here's a preview from yesterdays session, mmmmm.... lovely sharpies....

Chloe Early / Stuff 4 Designers

2011-01-21T10:01:00.007Z

More blogging! I'm doing a weekly (Thursday) post on Stuff4designers. My first one went out yesterday and focused on Chloe Early, an incredibly impressive painter. I saw her boyfriend, Conor Harrington (another amazing painter!) give a talk at Electric Picnic a few years ago, this was my first introduction to his work and what led me to Chloe's work. It's so beautiful! I would LOVE to own one!

The post is here, with more images and a slightly more articulate reflection on her work (I hope!).

Tune in to stuff4designers every Thursday for more examples of stunning work, plus any random day for some great insights into web design!

Full Circle Exhibition

2011-01-08T20:10:00.008Z

I went to the final evening of the Full Circle exhibition in the Wandesford gallery today. Organised by Noeleen Doheny, the exhibition was a response to a brief given 8 years ago, the dreaded "Black Squares Project" (just as ominous as it sounds!).

Spurred on by stories of former classmates losing their jobs in the well-documented "current crisis" in Ireland, Noeleen organised the exhibition both as a tool for self-promotion for the designers involved and as a morale boost at a time when jobs are scarce on the ground.

The exhibition had some really interesting work, my favourite posted here - Noeleen's playful and crafty response to the old nightmare brief. I think it's the first purely graphic design exhibition i've gone to in Cork, it would be great if this was the beginning of more such exhibitions!

Happy New Year 2011!

2011-01-04T09:48:00.010Z

Happy New Year!!

These copic markers are unreal. They were a Christmas present from my boyfriend, best Christmas present EVER!

Atomic 4

2011-01-02T19:18:00.006Z

Another version of my Atomic illustration! This is the fourth (and final!) now and my favourite (previous ones here, here and here). It was drawn using a black sharpie, tidied up in photoshop & coloured in illustrator. I think the compression on blogger is making the image look weird, again!! For me it looks better here, on my site.

Happy new year!

Christmas Morning, 2010

2010-12-25T12:17:00.006Z

Happy Christmas! This was this morning in Carrigtwohill at my parents house, It's so peaceful here. Commence the day of many naps, lots of food, lots of wine, intermittent boredom!

Where's Me Pencil?

2010-12-22T08:26:00.006Z

New blog action at wheresmepencil.blogspot.com. Initiated by the unbelievably talented Tomás, myself and five other friends are contributing to it weekly, i'm on a Tuesday, the day after Tomás, talk about being shown up! So far i've just posted stuff from my life drawing class. I'm finding it really interesting to see what everyone else posts, there's a great mix of styles / approaches. Above is the latest, very beautiful, offering from Tomás.

It's only in it's second week, feel free to stroll over and check it out.

[r]evolution of a sun album cover mock-up

2010-12-14T09:02:00.012Z

So I had some time on my hands and put together this for the upcoming [r]ev album, they're getting Con Cremin (amazing artist!) to do the actual cover, so really this was just an exercise for myself, the design for it was hanging around in my head for a while, so I said i'd get it out!

The lines represent solar / heat flares, they were created using the blend tool in Illustrator, very handy! Tutorial here, with really annoying ads that they make you sit through (grrr... I actually hate video tutorials, give me text anyday). The "Hell" text is hand drawn, based on patches the band used to have (recreated patch image below), and the "revolution of a sun" text is a free font ("existence") found on dafont.com,

Can't wait to see the actual album cover! Con's stuff is unreal.

Tops

2010-12-09T23:28:00.006Z

So more messing with the fabric markers, here's a sample of tops I did for the Rebel County Market (next Sunday!) Eventually I want to sort out an online shop, here's where I am at the moment though!

Cintiq Messing!

2010-12-08T15:31:00.006Z

So I was at my friend Will's house the other day, and (finally!) had a go off his Cintiq, it's UNREAL! My new #1 most-wanted object of desire.

Here's our collaborative masterpiece! Haha, it reminds me of dodgy college projects & lots of messing!

Crane Fascination - Rotterdam 2010

2010-11-26T10:05:00.008Z

I was in Rotterdam last week for another MEP European project meeting with the NMCI. My colleagues in the NMCI are always great company, full of interesting stories about life at sea!

After the meeting was over we went on a short boattrip around the port, which is HUGE! 3rd biggest in the world apparently, there was all this huge machinery and massive, complicated cranes. They looked amazing! Like huge steel dinosaurs, or something from a George Lucas film, deadly!

More over on my flickr

Cork Accommodation Site

2010-11-24T21:02:00.008Z

I feel like i've been neglecting this blog the last few weeks, i've been tearing busy though, loads going on! Projects ending / beginning, trip to Rotterdam etc

One project that ended was the Cork Accommodation site. It's finally live, wohoo! Felt good to get it out, read more of the background here on my website.

I've a few illustration jobs on the horizon at the moment, more about them when they get sorted....

SLOOP2Desc Interim Meeting / Slovenia 2010

2010-11-04T22:02:00.013Z

I attended the SLOOP2Desc interim meeting in Ljubljana (finally learned how to spell that!) Slovenia last week. It is a EU Leonardo sponsored knowledge transfer project aimed at giving teachers new skills in development of web2.0 learning resources.

We have LOADS of work to do as it is approaching the interim report mark, DEIS is the evaluator in the project so i'll be writing the evaluation report of the project so far over the next few weeks.

Ljubljana is lovely! Beautiful city, very friendly people. It was bizarre there at night time, the streets were deserted, the architecture in the centre of town is really elaborate and ornate, so it was like wandering around in some empty, overblown, moonlit stage set. I also visited the Castle while I was there, it's been redesigned and is now a really interesting piece of modern architecture, coolest castle i've ever visited! Anyway, here are a few photos, more over on my flickr.

Messing with a Logo

2010-10-25T22:36:00.010+01:00

So i'm always trying to settle on a logo i'm happy with, here are the latest doodles, based strongly on the RGB / digital design theme of my website. These are all stylised "m"s, I prefer the tall 3 strokes one, there's something slightly architectural about it. My boyfriend pointed out that it also looks quite facist, mwahaha... tremble before me!

In other news, i'm discovering some really dodge Tori Amos songs on hype machine as we speak.... "cool on your island" ?! -- abort abort!!

David O' Reilly - Please Say Something

2010-10-21T09:53:00.003+01:00

This BLOWS MY MIND. Seriously, it's incredible, the most moving piece of animation i've seen in ages, perhaps years, perhaps ever! I saw it yesterday for the first time and it blew me away. I love the audio in it, the graphic style of it, the beautiful work with colour and b&w sets and the emotion and heartbreak of it all. I'm going to have to watch ALL the David O' Reilly animations now, in the hope that they're all this beautiful!

Delicate Heart

2010-10-13T20:52:00.004+01:00

Here is the final version of the "delicate heart" illustration (words by my brother). It looks totally different to how I first imagined it, always interesting when that happens!

Prep - My heart is delicate

2010-10-06T19:49:00.017+01:00

Like snow falling,
on warm ground

This feeling,
My heart like
snow,

Is delicate,

My little brother, as well as being a maths & physics genius (boast much?!) also writes poems, he lets me read them some times and this particular one really stuck in my head, i'm working up an illustration around it, so far it's starting to look way different than I had imagined! I'm doing a lot of experimentation with scanning and photographing different materials, as well as a lot of drawing & redrawing the heart.

Lisbon, Elvin Meeting

2010-10-05T13:05:00.011+01:00

Last week myself and a colleague, Shane Cronin traveled to Lisbon to attend the third ELVIN (European Languages Virtual Network) project meeting. ELVIN is a European Union (EU) Lifelong Learning Programme Project aimed at creating an informal social network to support and facilitate language learning.

DEIS has developed an online social network which will be opened up for piloting on the 1st of November (stay tuned for a link!). This meeting concentrated on developing pilot action plans for the upcoming usability tests.

In the meantime myself & Shane got to enjoy Lisbon, it's a fantastic city! It reminded me of an Edinburgh in the sun, it's very old with layers and layers of old streets and arches, quite the labyrinth! One of the highlights was spotting the Blu and Os Gemeos murals I blogged about a while back. So exciting to see them in real life! I'd love to know the process behind doing something like that. The black silhouette photo above is on the building next to the Blu and Os one. It's very striking as it is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's still under development. Here's a few photos from the weekend. More on my flickr.

Hair Illo, The Cork News

2010-10-04T11:01:00.005+01:00

Check it out! I'm delighted, The Cork News (purveyors of fine local news and lifestyle) have published my hair illustration from a while back. Pick up the issue around town over the next week, loads of great stuff in there.

Culture night Cork, Camden Palace, The Dog Project

2010-09-27T22:27:00.011+01:00

It was Culture night in Cork last Friday, i'd heard a bit about it from twitter and facebook but hadn't really planned on going along, until Camden Palace sent out an invite on facebook, their event looked great (as usual!). Myself and a friend (Shell) decided to go along. The timetable went something like this:

Time table for events:

DOWNSTAIRS
6pm Introduction to Hacker Space Cork
8pm Capoeira performance
4-10pm Open studios
4-10pm Circus Sqare open for all with introductions to workshops
4-10pm Electric Underground Showcasce
For details check http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=149645435074539&ref=ts
4-10pm Make your own button badges!

UPSTAIRS
4-10pm Dogs Dogs Dogs.An exhibition of the Dog project
6-7pm Free contemporary dance class with Inma Moya Pavon
7-7.20pm Poetry performance by Nuala Leonard
7.20-8pm Shape Note Singers talk and performance
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000933733395&ref=profile#!/pages/Shape-note/108698082487372?ref=ts
8-10pm A Public sharing of the Re:Birth Project
Check out www.therebirthproject.com

ALL DAY CAFE OPEN WITH YUM EASTERN EUROPEAN FOOD

I managed to catch some of the Electric Underground showcase (unreal! Photo above), re:birth and the Dog Project (photos above plus youtube video). I love the Dog Project, it's a simple idea, well executed, which never fails to bring smiles to faces! There's more info on the Dog Project on Facebook. I missed the Shape Note singers, who I heard were amazing, all in all another lovely evening in Camden Palace.

Myself and Shell also managed to hit up the Backwater Gallery, the English Market, the Crawford Gallery, Basement Space and the ESB substation that night. I was really inspired by the number of interesting and accessible events on around the city, I don't know if it's a result of a possible sliver lining to the recession but there seems to be a more and more diverse range of arts and music based events happening around town, all for free, perhaps these days people have more of their time to give. Whatever it is, it's definitely making our city a richer place to live!

Margaret Durow

2010-09-22T20:06:00.005+01:00

I've been meaning to blog about Margaret Durow's photography ever since she was featured on my friend Lucia's blog.

Margaret Durow's photos are so beautiful, the really take my breath away, she's recently updated her site so you can check her out there and on her flickr.

More MWM

2010-09-16T13:57:00.007+01:00

A while back I blogged about a number of deadly murals I came across on the web (not in real life, unfortunately!).

This music video based on MWM's murals is now doing the rounds online, it's gives a nice insight into the process behind huge undertakings such as these, as well as also being a very nice piece of stop-motion animation. I love watching the murals grow over the walls!

Read and see more here, at buzz-beast.com.

Fabric Markers = New Hoodie!

2010-09-11T12:30:00.008+01:00

I bought fabric markers at Vibes and Scribes a few weeks ago and am only just getting around to using them, fixing up this old hoodie, wohoo!

PS, That lovely countryside is the view from my family home in Carrigtwohill, relaxation station!

Slow Motion Heroes

2010-09-01T21:52:00.010+01:00

This is an illustration i've been working on for Cork band, Slow Motion Heroes. It's meant to be slightly retro sci-fi, I think it's slightly influenced by Mad Men, which i've been watching loads of and I LOVE! I went for retro due to the bands slightly nostalgic tone, and sci-fi cos "Slow Motion Heroes" made me think of the moon landing, again possibly an influence from Mad Men! I had a pretty solid idea for what kind of font I wanted to use so I drew one myself for it.

God I just noticed there, how many times can I say "slightly" in the one post?!

Other work news, we made our Elvin Beta V3.0 release today, wohoo!

Atomic 3

2010-08-25T22:05:00.016+01:00

So as I mentioned recently i've been trying to develop an illustrative style for myself. This latest idea for an illustration (based on Blondie's Atomic) has already had one spin. Here's the second, it's totally different to the first, though based on the same drawings, I guess it's brash & loud like the first one, but in a totally different way! The type is all hand-drawn here as well, as if you couldn't tell!

Tomorrow's going to be an INSANELY busy day at work as we polish up the AIB animation to get it out to the client for Friday, so this has been nice to clear my head for the evening.

MAI Animation Screenshots

2010-08-23T16:23:00.007+01:00

Just finished a first pass of the MAI animation, there's a lot of camera movement in the animation which is nice, gives it some fluidity. Have to find a backing track now, aargh! It takes ages to go through the stock music sites.

Atomic 2

2010-08-20T12:28:00.011+01:00

Am crazy busy at the moment with MAI / Elvin / AIB. Just taking a quick break to post this image of the latest incarnation of "Your hair is beautiful". I had fun experimenting with hand-drawn type, the best kind i'm starting to think!

I'm also working on another watercolour version, as I mentioned previously i'm trying to work towards nailing down a style, it's hard because there are so many different styles I love! I think I might have to settle for having two styles... one of which is this colourful, playful style.

Now back to work!

Storyboards - MAI

2010-08-19T12:32:00.007+01:00

Storyboard samples from MAI animations i'm working on at the moment. It's mad colourful (as you can see!) because the logo is so colourful, and the software itself is all colour coded. Parts of it are quite similar in style to the Sigtec animations I did last year (eg, the industry icons), this is because they are actually partner companies. This first one should be finished by the end of the week, HOPEFULLY!

Am simultaneously managing the development of an animation for AIB and the social networking project we have at the moment, so a lot of juggling!

Atomic

2010-08-12T08:38:00.019+01:00

I want to produce a series of illustrations based on song lyrics. The first one being "Your hair is beautiful" from Blondie's Atomic (I love that band!). This drawing is based on a photograph, i've still a good bit from the finish line, i'm really trying to discover / develop my own style with these.

JR - AMAZING

2010-08-10T17:24:00.010+01:00

After an INSANELY busy day in work, working on the Elvin Elgg-based social networking platform for learning. Soooo much to do! All interesting though.

For some quick relief, I had a look at some of JR's latest work in Kenya, I LOVE his work, it's awe-inspiring stuff. These images are some of his most famous, from the favelas in Rio and the Kibera slums in Kenya. He highlights the human faces (literally!) behind the social issues we often conveniently choose to ignore and he does it in a positive, humanist way, LOVE IT!

Lovely Graffiti

2010-08-08T23:03:00.007+01:00

Was out & about in town over the weekend & spotted these, deadly!!!

Stunning Website....

2010-07-21T12:49:00.005+01:00

http://wonder-wall.com/#project/en

I've never blogged about a website before, but my friend Laura just passed on an AMAZING one on facebook. It's for a Japanese interior design company, why are all the coolest things from Japan?! It's so gorgeous, amazing movement & lovely attention to detail, normally I don't like sound in websites, but the use of sound here really really works, I could play with it all day, sooo nice.

New Logo

2010-07-14T13:10:00.009+01:00

So this is a logo design i've been playing with for a while, it started from an origami style, I also wanted it to look drawn / handmade. I had plans to animate the spidery intertwined "M M" on it, but god knows if i'll ever get around to that! It's quite far away from the pixel RGB identity i've been using for my site, I wanted the new logo to reflect my interest in illustration and handdrawn work.

Wallcandy - Ennis 2010

2010-07-08T15:52:00.008+01:00

Just came across Wallcandy, a street art initiative in Ennis. I love the idea! Much like guerrilla gardening, this sponsored guerrilla art takes on drab areas of the town and makes them interesting and colourful, would love to get this going in Cork! These kinds of pieces inspire surprise, delight and curiosity, great to see it happening in Ireland which can tend to be down on street art at times!

Murals!

2010-07-02T15:32:00.010+01:00

So i've been looking at murals getting my thoughts in place for the EP proposal we want to submit, here's a few lovely ones i've found!

The first of these is from Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn via Weheart.co.uk. The second is from Blu and Os Gemeos via designyoutrust.com and the third is from Matt Moore via designworklife.com. I love them all! Can't wait to get stuck into ours.

***edit*** Came across this interview with Mark Moore on MocoLoco, interesting interviews, lovely pictures!

Electric Picnic Mural

2010-06-23T19:32:00.010+01:00

Just found out my poster was shortlisted for the EP poster comp!!! I'm so delighted!

In other EP news, myself and two friends (Deirdre and Lauren) want to put in a proposal to make a mural at the Body & Soul Electric Picnic event this year. I've been working on the design and this is where I am with it.

I've lots of ideas about where to take it, originally I was going to have it very brightly coloured with black outlines, but now I think i'm going to keep it as a line drawing, draw all the lines in different colours and leave a lot of white fill. I think using a lighter hand on it will hopefully leave it more inviting, more open to interpretation and should suit the atmosphere of the Body & Soul area. I took my cue from the Body and Soul website, "an enchanted landscape", in developing this image.

Slightly unrelated, I love how biro scans!

***edit*** Now in colour, done in illustrator, hopefully we'll get the submission in this week....

Old London Transport Posters

2010-06-23T11:17:00.004+01:00

Love these! Via Elvis Communications

Summer Solstice Mural

2010-06-16T13:29:00.005+01:00

Met up with Lauren & Tomas last night to put together rough ideas for the summer solstice mural, here's what we came up with, I won't be there to paint it (booo!) and i'd imagine the finished piece will be a lot more developed than this! Much will be added organically on the day, can't believe i'm missing it! It's going to be painted this Saturday in Midleton

Electric Picnic Comp

2010-06-15T22:43:00.029+01:00

I just submitted my entry to the Electric Picnic ad competition, wish me luck!

Seeing as there was so much text that had to be included I decided to make it the main feature. I wanted it to be really colourful and hyper looking. I thought it would be visually interesting to mix the hand-drawn type with the isometric buildings. The three isometric temples represent the hierarchy of acts. I decided to do the names of acts in handwritten font, like the bubble handwriting kids do. The other spin off aspects of EP are represented by smaller isometric blocks. The idea is that it's all connected and it can be either a universe or a tiny microcosm.

EP stipulated the image be submitted in jpg form, which i'm a bit worried makes the colours in such a bright / flat image a bit pixelated and dirty looking. Here it is in .png anyway.

*****edit**** My poster has been shortlisted! Voting tomorrow, i'm so delighted!

New Tshirt Designs

2010-06-02T12:01:00.012+01:00

My friend Lauren and some other artists are organising a Summer Solstice Celebration Day in Midleton this June. As part of the day there'll be a little market, i'm renting a stall with my friend Fred. I'm selling tshirts, Fred's selling jewelery, should be fun!

Here's a few designs i'm getting printed at shirtysomething. The first two are inspired by Alvin Lustig, who I think is AMAZING. The third is a rework of an old poster graphic.

I'm going to do a few more sketchy ones by hand with laundry pens, really looking forward to doing them. When they're done i'll take pictures and stick them up here too, and hopefully i'll have a few pictures of the day itself, we'll be painting a mural and other fun things!

World Cup

2010-05-26T11:54:00.006+01:00

I just got shivers watching the new W+K Nike ad, man I wish we were in the World Cup :(

Original "France" Drawing

2010-05-26T11:26:00.008+01:00

I blogged a while ago about some concept illustrations I did for Cork band Slow Motion Heroes.

I've been getting old illustration work together and came across this, I mentioned in my original post that I spent quite a bit of time working on the buildings, the perspective and texture, really the bulk of design work went into those elements, so I thought it'd be worth popping this up here.

Workwise, i'm tearing busy as usual, doing more courses for the NMCI and another promo ad for NAIRTL. On a totally unrelated note, i'm listening to Massive Attacks Heligoland on Grooveshark, really liking it!

New Website Navigation

2010-05-18T22:49:00.010+01:00

I'm working on a new dimension to my site navigation. I'm thinking of changing the navigation to incorporate a flash animation using these rollover images for "Blog - Work - About". I'm toying with the idea of printing out the outlines and painting them, or colouring them in illustrator, early days yet! The first image here has been done in pen and colouring pencils. The "work" & "about" image are in pen.

Oil Pastels!

2010-05-11T12:56:00.008+01:00

I've been getting back into oil pastels after a (long!) hiatus, you can get really intense colours with them. I experimented a bit in photoshop with this image, breaking it up and layering it to bring out the colours even more. I was thinking of Paul Gauguin images when I did this, hoping for a slightly tropical/intimate feel.

It's been a crazy month with Dubai-Volcano-Romania, things should be getting back to normal now I think....

Nairtl Screenshots

2010-04-28T09:08:00.013+01:00

Wow, so i'm just back from Dubai almost TWO WEEKS late due to the Icelandic Volcano God.

I'm tearing busy, lots of lost time to make up for, some niggling adjustments to the Nairtl promo (screenshots above) plus I have a lot to prepare for the Sloop2 meeting in Romania next week. First time going to Romania! Am intrigued.

And to finish... best volcano joke i've heard so far... "yo momma so fat, when she was cremated flights in Europe were cancelled for a week!" Ahaha!

Amazing PIXELS!

2010-04-08T13:22:00.010+01:00

I'm still up the walls for that Nairtl video BUT...

this just turned up in my twitter feed via elvis communications

It's fantastic!! I had to go and find out more about, it's from One More Production and was created by Patrick Jean, One More Prod's latest signing apparently. Deadly stuff!

A Working Bank Holiday...

2010-04-05T14:53:00.006+01:00

Tearing busy at the moment, finishing off storyboards for NAIRTL need to get into production today to get it done for Friday.

Here's a sample of the storyboards. I scrapped the earlier varied colour palette in favour of something much more minimalist which I think works well and better reflects NAIRTL's visual identity.

Hence, my poor uncelebrated bank holiday... though I am going to see Kick Ass later so it's not all bad!

Paper Installations!

2010-03-31T19:48:00.009+01:00

My new favourite things!

Came across these deadly paper installations, first by Paper Donut, the second by Lenancker Romain via weheart.co.uk and the third by Le Creative Sweatshop, via designyoutrust.com. They're so much fun and so colourful. They have a great sense of freedom and creativity, love them!

I am not an artist

2010-03-27T19:15:00.017Z

Had fun doing this little gif today for I am not an artist. It popped up on design you trust during the week so I filed it away to do at the weekend! It's curated by Soon in Tokyo, I think it's a really cool idea, like a digital version of contributing a patch to a quilt, wonder how long it'll run for?

It was done in photoshop cs4, which has a very handy animation feature. Feel like I did something productive with my Saturday now, which from the outset seemed like it was doomed to a be a hangover write-off!

Self-Indulgence!

2010-03-26T16:15:00.005Z

This is a very self-indulgent post, but then that's what I guess this blog is about!

I love doing colour palettes for projects, they just give me so much satisfaction and I love looking at them for some reason (I know - NERD!). So on that note, here's one I did today for a NAIRTL marketing animation.

Lovely colours, lovely squares, satisfaction!

Visualising ELVIN

2010-03-24T16:33:00.002Z

I’ve been working today on visualising the ELVIN social networking platform, the different interactions and the different tools etc that will hopefully pair learners and learners as well as learners and content. We have a skype meeting tomorrow with all partners so hopefully these will go a long way in making sure everyone knows what we’re talking about!

There’s a lot to work out but visualising the process really helps!

Here’s an example of one of the diagrams.

Pastel Portrait

2010-03-21T21:27:00.006Z

Love Pastels.

This is done in oil & chalk pastels, can never make up my mind which I like more!

Steven Meisel Vogue Shots 2008

2010-03-16T09:44:00.006Z

Steven Meisel seems to be popping up in my twitter feed at the moment (here and here). Reminded me of my favourite photo shoot of his for Italian Vogue (above), deadly stuff! I love the flat perspective/tapestry look of them. See more of that shoot here.

edit**** Even more Steven Meisel in my twitter! He's great.

BCO Asteroid Chaser

2010-03-12T16:53:00.004Z

In DEIS we’re involved in serious games research. We designed, prototyped and piloted a game last year in partnership with the Blackrock Castle Observatory. More about it on my website here. We’re now modifying that game based on the pilot results and further feedback from the astronomers at Blackrock. My role involves designing all the graphic elements of the game and producing cut-scene and in-game animations in flash, which basically means drawing and animating spaceships and meteorites, nice one!

This storyboard panel was produced using illustrator, photoshop and poser3d. I used a nice and very simple comic book effect on the figure and the neon effect in illustrator also came in handy!

Stephen Murphy + Pierre O' Reilly

2010-03-10T09:03:00.011Z

A friend just turned me on to the beautiful paintings of Stephen Murphy.

He's doing a show with Pierre O' Reilly (composer + holder of best name ever) this Friday at the fantastic Cork School of Music, should be good!