"Chica" digital download available on Etsy!

I just posted a digital download of my illustration, "Chica" to Etsy. So crazy because I actually posted here about it this month 7 years ago when I made the illustration and screenprinted it at a workshop. I don't know why that makes me feel strange! I guess life has just changed so much, that feels like another lifetime and another person in a way.

Pricing these is always hard! People sell downloads of art so cheaply online, I did put this slightly cheaper than the others... I don't think I can bring myself to go cheaper than that!

New digital download prints on the shop...

I've been enjoying getting into the world of Etsy and it definitely gives me a sense of accomplishment to see how much work I have, I pretty much always feel like I need to be doing more, so it's satisfying to see that I actually have a lot to show for myself!

I noticed that you can sell work as a download also on the site, and I went back to the many digital illustrations i've done over the years and threw up a few different examples - shown here. All work available for download can be found here.
Yay art!

TUO 2017

I recently completed the new poster for The Underscore Orkestra 2017 tour, featuring past and present incarnations of Jorge, woo!

The Underscore Orkestra tour 2016

I recently finalised the new poster for the TUO tour for this summer. I'm including three of my beautiful bellydance friends, Briona, Kateo and Jane from Suadela, as well as the musicians (of course!) Jorge Kachmari, Linda Joy, Thomas Hodson and Brian Leach. Tours with this band are always so much fun so i'm aiming to capture that in this poster. I'm also looking at old vaudeville style posters for inspiration, as their sound reminds me of this. Woo!

World of TUO!

Illustration based on the amazing January I had on tour with The Underscore Orkestra & Suadela Bellydance. Videos to follow!

Brian Tattoo Final Final Ultimate Finished

Ha!  So the title is a joke about file names I had in college,  I guess only my m&ms would get it.

Anyway,  couldn't leave this alone & I think I like this one the best, all done in ballpoint pen.  I forgot how nice they are to draw with.  I felt the photoshop one was possibly too much of a mish mash of different styles... though I might go back & try & sort out the hair on it....

The geometry of innocent flesh on the bone causes Galileo's maths book to get thrown at Delilah who is sitting worthlessly alone but the tears on her cheeks are from laughter.

This is also my first time posting using the blogger app, so hopefully the formatting isn't gone all weird...

Tattoo Design

My brother Brian asked me to design a tattoo for him based on the Bob Dylan lyric "the geometry of innocent flesh on the bone causes Gallileo's maths book to get thrown at Delilah who is sitting worthlessly alone, but the tears on her cheeks are from laughter"

This is where I am with it, I have my usual versionitis where I keep at things and never know which is the finished one! I think i'm done now though, and i'll let the rest up to Brian and the tattoo artist, although looking at it again, maybe she's a bit too ghostly... and maybe the gradient line in her hair is too straight... argh!.

Here's some of the initial thumbnails exploring ideas, mostly done in airports over the summer....

Prep for lino

This is based on a photo taken by my lovely friend, artist & fellow art teacher, Natasha Edmondson. I'm planning on turning it into a lino triptych print, that was meant to happen this week but I got sidetracked with the Suadela poster. It WILL happen though!

Contrast 2014

Aileen Keenaghan

Cliodhna O'Connor

Hugh Heffernan

Kate Delaney

The Visual Communications degree show opened on the 29th of May. Unfortunately I didn't make the night itself but called in to see the work later in the week. As always I was really impressed with the standard. I'm getting really frustrated with my camera phone as the quality is so terrible!! New camera on the horizon...

Rules of the Road 1967

I found a rules of the road book from 1967 in my parents house, love these retro, colourful illustrations! Way nicer than the current rules of the road!

Linsey Levendall

Just came across the work of Linsey Levendall on the amazing blog booooooom.com.

While i'm a long-time admirer of his studio, Bison, it's my first time seeing his solo work, it's AMAZING. Such incredible detail, and it's all hand-drawn. He provides us with a really insightful bio on his Behance site:

Linsey is a self-developed multidisciplinary creative originally from the Cape Flats of Cape Town, South Africa but now living with his wife and two dogs in a small town in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. He works closely withThe Black Heart Gang and Shy The Sun as a conceptual designer on groundbreaking animation for both the local and international market. He also makes up one half of the duo Bison.

In his spare time, Linsey compulsively illustrates in various mediums for both business (on freelance projects) and pleasure. He says his intricately executed and seemingly disturbing work is driven by a need to be in sync with his subconscious thoughts and dreams.

Linsey defines his work as being engaging decadence ,mildly trippy and takes great joy in entertaining the viewer with obscure controlled chaotic worlds and strangely interesting and complex characters. While his skill lies in his versatility and ability to adapt to various styles, he finds himself mostly drawn to Cubism, Surrealism and Pop Surrealism. In his work he aims to stay open to evolving and preserving unconventional thinking.

He has some amazing photos on his Instagram as well.

Maths Book Illustrations

I recently finished work illustrating a maths book for educate.ie. It's my first time illustrating a book and i'm really looking forward to seeing the finished product in print!

The book is for first year maths students. I've featured a few of the illustrations here.

Good Wives and Warriors animate!

Just came across this Good Wives and Warriors animation through Computer Arts. Their illustrative style fits perfectly into a psychedelic trance-y type animation. Can't wait to see more of this from them!

Here they are chatting about their process, I love what they do, it seems like a stream-of-consciousness, i'd love to hear about how they go about planning for these large scale paintings. Do they plan? Or do they just go with whatever comes out?

You can see more of their work on their website, I blogged about them last year as well.

Photoshopping Pt. 2

Last week we had our first photoshop session as part of our New Media module. This week was our final afternoon of it, good fun all round! This is my second final image - I think! I'm always tempted to keep messing with them, but we just have so much other stuff to do that I don't have time!

It's a collage of photographs taken at the Giant's Causeway, at a gig and of loads of graffiti and some Gaudi glass in Barcelona.

Photoshopping

This afternoon as part of our series of lectures and workshops in New Media we created few photoshop images. Here's the first of mine, I need to finalise another one next week. It's a combination of a photograph of my eye and a photograph that I took on the Conor Pass. I was initially drawn to the photo because of the really strong dark triangle in the foreground of the image. It happened accidentally but made the composition of the photograph stronger and more interesting. Trying to hold myself back from too many miscellaneous Photoshop effects and filters as I was doing it! I'd forgotten how much fun photoshop is. It was really nice hearing other people's reactions to it as well when they hadn't been exposed to it before, they were all blown away by what you can do.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! "Stay glad, dream good" : resolutions from this list by Woody Guthrie in 1941.

Kristian Hammerstad

I'm doing illustration with one of my first year classes at the moment. I've rediscovered a load of illustrators that I used to follow fairly closely, but kind of lost touch with due to becoming so busy. I love these illustrations from Kristian Hammerstad! Really fun and retro, tapping into an old school b-movie horror vibe.