Screentone Cowboy

I haven't really had a chance to do any sketching before in Manga Studio, I just went straight to work with it to ink my latest book. This here cowboy is the first sketch I've done with the program. I've used screentone before, but only the physical stuff.

Viking Marauders

This is another illustration from the Robin the Hoodie book. It might be my favourite. It's not often I get to draw vikings, so I decide to go with the fetching, but historically inaccurate, horns on helmets.

Best-Loved Irish Legends

I haven't had a chance to post these before, these are a couple of the illustrations from Best-Loved Irish Legends. The deadline was really tight on it, it worked out at about 2 days per spread (which is two facing pages to you non-publication types). I put loads of work in to make sure the illustrations were still good quality.

Tiger Lily

This is an as of yet unfinished painting. It's quite small and I'd like to paint a larger version eventually.

I'm illustrating another book at the moment so most paintings are on hold for the time being.

Hey Red!

My back started hurting again today, I also skinned my big toe and hit my funny-bone. I knew it was going to be a good day when I got up this morning.

Stephen's adopted this painting and all I know is big, red hair is awesome.

Robin the Hoodie

I recieved my copy of Robin the Hoodie yesterday. I'm really happy with how it came out, it's the first book where I've inked it physically. Stephen and I are moving in opposite directions, as he uses more digital media I use more physical stuff, it's how we keep the force in balance.

There was some ink splatter I wanted to use behind Crack Beard, but the printers were worried about how it would print. I mocked up a version anyway for my own sake (but it's elsewhere), it helps the smoke stand out.

Update: I just discovered the Crack Beard story was dropped. Dang! That was one of my favorite illustrations.

Stephen Working

It's nice to be back at my desk after the forced hiatus, and here's a sketch of my view from said desk. Stephen working away with my lectern in front of him, he's either drawing Die Hard: Year One or doing his sketch for Eclectic Micks, maybe I'll take a peak and check, I don't think he noticed me sketching.

Watercolour Sketches

My back's still out, but it is getting better. I haven't been able to do much and it's driving me stir crazy, so now and then I do a bit of sketching and what not, until it gets too uncomfortable. These paintings are the most recent of these art therapies.

I haven't touched watercolour in a good while and I was going to say something more here, but I have to recoup from being hunched over blogging on my laptop. Cheerio!

Baby got back problems!

I threw my back out yesterday doing tumbles, apparently I'm not 4 years old anymore. Today I did nothing but quest for pain relief.

On the plus side my A4 scanner is working again, although this painting was photographed along with the one from the previous post. The lighting was far from perfect for this, but whatever, you get the gist.

Scanning Issues

The lil' scanner I normally use is bust, and the A3 Brother scanner makes everything way too saturated. I spent the last hour trying to either make little scanner go now, or trying to adjust the colour settings on the Brother. So photograph it is, of course that's not great either, but it's nice to see the picture in situ. The second image is what the Brother scanner did, shame on it.

Another Red Head

My new book came out yesterday: Best-Loved Irish Legends. I saw it on the shelves in Waterstone's when we went to town today. I might just post some art from it, but in the meantime here's another lady, painted in a loose choppy style.

Red Hair, White Nipples, Warm Heart

Here's another of my looser paintings, this way of working uses up so much more paint and fairly gunks up the brushes. Why the white nipples? . . . Got milk?

Studio Pics

Look at this little fellow I rescued from the side of the road using the Lisbon Treaty leaflet, turns out it is good for something. I believe this little guy turns into the Street Walker butterfly, it's like Pretty Woman or something, yeah there's some gentle humour, right there!

Below are some photos of the studio. There's my Kläppe chair on the Lusy-whatever rug, that's there in case of spillages. That picture on my desk is finished now, all painted up.

You watched it, you can't unwatch it.

Everybody's favourite crustacean, Dr. Zoidberg. I've never done any fan art, except for a drawing of The Maxx on my homework journal when I was in school. So I thought recently what the hell am I doing, there are so many things I love, remaining untouched by my graceful hand (heh heh).

Stephen was suggesting I work straight to paint without an under drawing. This idea intrigued me, I was thinking of loosening up my painting style, which is hard to do with a detailed drawing underneath. Watch out there's more of these loose paintings to come, including a large baboon, a very large baboon. And lots o' naked chicks.

Beautiful and Creepy

Check out this beautiful and creepy video here of a ball joint doll. If you don't know anything about ball joint dolls you're missing out on a whole world of creepy fun and very androgynous boys.

Sketches

I wasn't going to write anything here because I'm tired, so very tired. I've had two late nights and too much pizza.

I've completed a new painting and once we get the big scanner up and running I may scan it and even post it here. I also have photos of the studio, which I may post too. I have great plans. Anyway tired, mucho tiredo.

Acrylic mediums for Glazing

Here are the acrylic mediums I use for glazing. Granted you don't need so many, but I like to experiment to find my favourite. Most importantly all the brands have a gloss and a matte version. This can effect what your doing with the paint, matte's good for drawing on top of and using watered down paint on. Gloss is crisper looking and good for isolation coats, what's an isolation coat I hear you say? What do I look like a walking dictionary!?! Look it up fool!

At the end of the day I keep going back to the Liquitex mediums, the Daler-Rowney stuff's a bit thick and the tub's ridiculous for something of this consistency. The Golden stuff isn't bad, the acrylic ends up looking very delicate like watercolour. The Phoenix and the wolf below were painted with the Golden satin medium.

My New Book: Best-Loved Irish Legends

Here's a preview of my latest book, of course the writer thinks it's her book as does the editor and all the publishing house and maybe even the printer, but really it's my book. Look at it sitting there on my desk, yep, definitely my book!

Aw, I'm so happy with how this came out. Emma did a great job on production. Me kissing up? A little, but it's true all the same. She talks about it here on the O'Brien blog, what a sycophant I am, that is.

It's out on the 7th September.

IKEA and Starbucks? Screw small business!

Here's a little sketch from a few days ago, done while sitting in the local Starbucks. There was a market set up just outside with plenty of opportunities to sketch people.

I went to IKEA again on Wednesday and bought the legs for my desk and a few dribs and drabs that took me about an hour and a half to pick up because of the size of the shop. My Dad and I were waiting in the van minding the dog, while my Mum and brother were inside having a look round, when an alarm went off, this big loud voice announcing that there was a technical fault with the shop. I couldn't help but think of Gremlins 2: "Fire, man's oldest enemy...". As it turned out it was a faulty fire alarm, but maybe because we're Irish or just plain paranoid our first though was BOMB ALERT!!

Anyhoo, the studio's looking great now, we have our two desks pushed up against each other and can walk all the way around them and everything's white like a rapper's crib.

Bear necessities and IKEA

We went to the Irish opening of IKEA yesterday and met the fanfare outside. I would have been happy to have waited 'til the next day, but we needed our desks ASAP. We got there an hour before the opening and had to endure the entertainment, the worst of it was probably the 98fm trucks blasting out Bewitched. When we got inside the staff were lined up on either side waving flags, I thought this must be what royalty feel like . . . awkward!

We scooted quickly through the store and got lots of help from the staff who were just lovely. But, unfortunately they only had one pair of legs for the desks, so I'm doing without for the moment, Stephen's need is currently more urgent. I did get my chair though, the Kläppe, yep, I got the Kläppe. I gave it some consideration, but decided against getting the Kolon (floor protector) for it.

We also got some Billy shelves and when I pealed opened its cardboard box two of the shelves popped out and fell on my foot. Oh man, that hurt! Anyways, I gotta go back tomorrow to get the legs for my desk and maybe pick up some egg cups.

Maned Wolf

I did this in my new moleskine A4 watercolour sketchbook. There's A3 sketchbooks as well, but at that size they're better for working in at a desk.

We've got a great view from the kitchen window of our apartment, we're on the top floor and there was a short thunderstorm a few hours ago, which we could see approaching from a distance. I glanced up just in time to see a bolt of lightning.

We Have Moved

We moved about a week ago and we've been without the internet until now. Still trying to get a few things in order (mostly my head).

Here's an old rough for a sample illustration for ASBO Fairy Tales, I recently finished illustrating its sequel Robin the Hoodie.

Lil' Medusa and The Aphid Farmers

Here's another picture of a Young Medusa I did a good while ago. I'd forgotten all about her 'til now. She was created in Painter. The internet is so bad here I wasn't sure it would upload. We'd get it fixed but we're planning on moving soon, we've been tempted away by high speed broadband.

There's an infestation of black aphids being tended by ants on the palm tree out back. This was the best I could get with the macro function on my camera. Getting real close to them I could see the little aphids raising up their butts for the ants to collect the nectar. One of them was waggling its butt like crazy.

Mermaid

Here's another old sketch, made with heavy use of a tortillon. There's a version which had had some colour PhotoShoped over it which I'll dig out.

Noh Mask

This is from a little while ago. Just a simple monochrome wash of a Noh mask. I went through a short lived phase of painting these.

My current illustration project is tipping along quite nicely, I'm on schedule. I have two previous projects which I'm waiting on to be printed, then I'll post some of their highlights. I met Susan, an editor at O'Brien Press, when visiting my parents, she gave me the inside scoop on what stage they're at in production with my latest book for them. Thanks Susan!

Inks and New Portfolio Site

I've been doing a bit of inking and while I still love the dip pens I've had a lot of fun with the brushes. The first bear here was inked with a brush and the second one with a G nib, he's not finished yet, but it was mostly an experiment. The trees are inked with a brush pen and a nib.

I've a new site for my portfolio, which I was working on yesterday. There's still more to do apart from uploading the artwork. Having had problems with uploading websites in the past I was a bit confused about what route I should go, until Stephen suggested just making another blog, and reassured me with a "that's what most editors ask for". So I knocked this up in a day. I salute you Stephen and your clever brain.

Doodling Online

These are just some little sketches done on an online drawing program and then screen captured. The tools were of course very basic, but that can make it all the more fun.

Rainbow Pencils and Harry Clarke

I went to see the Harry Clarke exhibition in the National Gallery on Thursday and while I was waiting to meet my Mum and brother I bought a rainbow pencil in the gift shop. I used to hate rainbow pencils when I was a kid, but I was looking to try them again recently. There were several different colour variations and this was the last one with the CMY primary colours. It's a lot of fun to sketch with, I don't know if I'd use it for a finished picture, but I am thinking about it.

The Harry Clarke illustrations are amazing and so detailed. The lines are so skinny, I've inked lines ten times the size of his and been worried about them dropping out in print. He took seven days to complete one piece, I have to say I wish I had a deadline that would allow me to put that much into an illustration.

Pan's Labyrinth stage 3

I did some more work on Pan's painting, it's still not finished yet. Click here for the previous stages. I closed the sketchbook too soon and the pages got a little stuck together, most notably on the chin.

There's been building works going on next door for the past two days. The house was vibrating with noise, but that's nothing compared with the alarm that went off a few doors up at 4.20 on Saturday morning and lasted until 9ish. After an hour went off again, it was impossible to work or even think (never mind sleep) so we left for town. It's lovely and quiet at the moment, just some birds chirping outside, bliss.

Some Good Support

My bank card got swallowed by an ATM today, fantastic!

Anyway here's a little story about paper. This is the paper I used to paint on:

Daler Rowney have fairly recently changed the smoothness of this paper (and the weight). It's now just cold pressed but it used to be so shmooth. The advantages of the old stuff were several fold: a paper capable of taking ink and watercolour; good for glazing techniques; readily available in big newsagents; affordable enough that you can just muck around on them and not feel like everything you do on it has to be a masterpiece.

Now that it's just cold pressed like every other pad of watercolour paper next to it on the shelves it's lost the first two qualities.

Here's some stuff from 2006 on the old paper:

The paintings in my first post were also painted on this stuff.

I was trying out some Arches Hot pressed and these were the results:

This paper's a lot pricier, but I got this block for free from my wonderful and kind Stephen. It is really, really nice, but it doesn't handle the dip pens as well as the old Daler Rowney Aquarelle.

DR Aquarelle:

Arches hot pressed:

These are the exact same zoom and size. But it is VERY zoomed in. It's more something you notice when your drawing.

Well, I've yet to test out every other hot pressed paper under the sun and that is fairly probable.