Lisa Jackson Art

Big Bad Wolf

2011-03-18T04:53:00.000-07:00

Black Cat Marvel

2011-03-08T11:36:00.001-08:00

Physical inks on watercolour paper.

Obama Caricature

2010-10-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

This was drawn in Manga Studio, it's probably the best program for inking.

Character for The Wren

2010-09-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

My design for a character for Jason Connor's The Wren. She's either a Mab or a Meabh, what do you think?

Underwater again

2010-08-25T03:03:00.000-07:00

This is a sketch I did a little while ago. Notice any recurring themes?

Progress Report

2010-08-23T05:41:00.000-07:00

This is still a work in progress.

Work in Progress

2010-08-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

I'm painting this lass on a medium sized canvas. As you can see it's in the very early stages, I plan to darken the darks and lighten the lights. Oh yes, and also paint midtones while I'm at it. Lots to do.

Tiger

2010-08-11T07:44:00.001-07:00

My painting of tigers and other big cats continues unabated. I like adding a tiger here and there 'cause they add a big splash of orange to a piece. I used to hate orange, but I think I might love it now. This is quite a small painting, 7 x 5".

Pin Up

2010-08-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

Art for Sale

2010-08-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Water Nymphs

2010-07-26T04:04:00.000-07:00

Dublin City

2010-07-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a painting I did of Dublin. I'm really happy with how the clouds came out.

Spock

2010-07-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

It's probably a bit late to be recording my dissatisfaction with the new Trek film, but I may have been expecting too much to begin with.

My New Website

2010-07-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

My new website is up: http://www.wix.com/LeeIreland/Artwork

The opening for the Mill Theatre Summer Group Show was yesterday. We had a lovely time thanks to Aoife, who did a brilliant job organising it.

Summer Group Show in Mill Theatre

2010-06-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

I'll be taking part in Mill Theatre's first summer group show.

Submariner Albino

2010-06-01T08:19:00.000-07:00

Sketch Overload

2010-05-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

These ladies were sketched a little while back. They were a lot of fun to draw. I was originally going to sell them and I still might on Etsy or something, now there's commitment.

Bear in a hat

2010-05-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

This is an illustration for a story I wrote myself. I do like to ink now, but when I first tried it I was trying to be all neat and precise and it wasn't really working for little ol' clumsy me, but after looking at people's work like Dave McKean and Bill Sienkiewicz, you know the greats, I realised inking didn't have to be slick to be good. This is just an initial illustration, the story's half written, so I haven't submitted it to anyone yet. I'm working on other things at the moment, but hopefully I'll get round to completing it one day.

Warrior Fields

2010-04-15T01:58:00.000-07:00

I've submitted this and one other painting to the RHA annual exhibition. My grandmother and aunt both had work exhibited at the annual exhibition years ago. If I get accepted I'll be continuing a family tradition and thus have to force my offspring to take part.

Medusa Sleeps

2010-03-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

I'm currently approaching galleries and showing them my work. This is one of the paintings I'm showing. I borrowed my Dad's digital SLR and took some proper photos of my paintings finally. It took an age to set everything up and they looked all grainy, then I realised I had it on the wrong ISO and had to take the photos all over again, sigh!

Doll Face

2010-03-08T04:47:00.001-08:00

Ah, spring light, it makes me so happy. Maybe I have season effective disorder or something. I'm just so strongly effected by the light quality. There's a cute little cafe at the top of Waterstones, but I always avoid it because the lighting in the place is intensely blue.

Above is a close up of a painting I was working a couple of days ago. Her figure takes up all of the canvas. I gave myself seasons as a theme and she was supposed to be summer, but I'd rather not tie the painting down to it's theme, just let it grow in a subconscious sort of way.

Ghosts in the Temple

2010-02-17T04:57:00.000-08:00

This had been sitting round for a while being almost complete. I finally put the finishing touches on it today, and I've just got to sign it now. I'm very fond of this painting, it just came together so nicely and so easily. It was done over a painting that just wasn't working, but the old painting did help to shape the composition, so it wasn't wasted in a way.

Painting in Progress

2010-01-19T08:14:00.000-08:00

This painting's still in progress. There are a lot of stages it went through already, which helps add to the texture. The lighting's is bleaching the photo in the top right corner, but that's kinda nice, maybe I'll lighten it.

The big face on the left was based a little on the Curio robot, but it's starting to look a bit like Eve from Wall-E.

Happy Snow Days!

2010-01-10T05:26:00.000-08:00

Watch out, I'm going to get you with a snowball!

There hasn't been snow like this in Ireland since I was a little kid. I'm remembering what it was like to play in the snow 'til your gloves get soaked through and your fingers go numb.

Yesterday Stephen and I made a snowman out the back of the local Starbucks (and the back of Subway too. Okay, maybe we're not in Ireland, this could be anywhere). I scrounged around in the rubbish and came up with two Volvic bottle tops for the eyes, which couldn't have been better. Stephen called him Paul Newman since they are blue.

We got some photos of the two of us holding Paul Newman's hands, thanks to a couple who were passing, but only some of the photos would work on my femputer. Well, Stephen has them, let's see what he posts.

Near Death Comic

2010-01-06T05:36:00.001-08:00

Stephen's started something magical and I'm very proud, like peacocks. It's his first graphic novel and you can follow the creation process on his blog. It's deadly!

We're currently enjoying the snow, sleet, hail, lightning and thunder from our warm apartment. You can usually see the city past this victim of the economic downturn pictured below.

My New Easel

2009-12-30T06:17:00.000-08:00

I've inherited a couple of easels, but this is my first bought specifically for my needs. Stephen bought it for me for Christmas. It's a Mabef M33 easel. It's very tiltable, and most importantly just light enough for me to move about the place (which is some feat with my spaghetti arms), but still sturdy.

Another of his presents is on the floor behind, the Fat Duck Cookbook which is resting on the bookstand my Dad made for me many moons ago. The cookbook has tonnes of Dave McKean's illustrations in it, which is why Stephen bought it for me. I presume he's not expecting any culinary miracles.

The painting on the easel was started before Christmas, I painted it resting on my desk to begin with. I'm much happier painting on the easel.

Self Portrait

2009-12-17T16:57:00.000-08:00

Here's a little sketch of yours truly. I used a Koh-i-noor Nexus, which I bought in the US years and years ago.

Chris the Christmas Tree and the A&E

2009-12-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

We got our Christmas tree yesterday. It was Stephen and my first tree together and Stephen's first live Christmas tree, he's enjoying the pine freshness throughout the apartment. He nicknamed him Chris.

Anyway it was all so exciting I ended up in A&E last night with the most incredible pains in my stomach, just an extension of the illness I've had for the last three weeks. I had been feeling a whole lot better recently 'til then.

These paintings were done a little while ago. I painted them on the floor (not directly obviously, they're on 100% cotton paper) on a large sheet of plastic. Stephen's getting me an easel for Christmas, I do have a portable easel stored away, but there's something about working on the floor I always enjoy. But when we get the sweet Mabef easel I picked out I'll be a bit more organised and be able to paint bigger paintings too.

Red Riding Hood

2009-11-21T04:56:00.000-08:00

Screentone Cowboy

2009-11-01T15:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-19T04:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-15T04:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-06T04:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-21T05:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-07T04:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-31T04:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-27T02:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-23T14:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-10T03:29:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-28T13:12:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-07-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

We went to the Irish opening IKEA yesterday and met the fanfare outside

Maned Wolf

2009-07-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-22T06:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

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.

Mermaid

2009-06-20T03:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-06T06:54:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-05T05:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-30T05:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-15T07:57:00.001-07:00

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.

Faces

2009-05-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

You know you're busy when going to the loo counts as a holiday. I'm just working away as usual, but I will be taking half a day off soon to go see Star Trek (punches air).

The first of the sketches above are cartoonyified self portraits, not very much like me, but that wasn't the aim. The second one was a little acrylic sketch I did on some left over paper from my current illustration work. I had to order the paper in specially for this project. I'll post some of the highlights of these illustrations after they've been published, for now they will remain a tantalising mystery.

G nib etc.

2009-04-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm busy at the moment with illustration work and I've been painting solidly for the last 3 days. There's paintings covering every available surface, including taped over my computer (I have my reasons). But in the mean time, here's something unrelated I did a while ago.

This is a sketch I did with a G nib, I'm pretty enamoured with these nibs at the moment. It was done in a Moleskine which always acts funny with wet media and the ink bled a bit on it.

Here's the little blighter, this particular one is made by Deleter and as you can see was purchased in Forbid, not one of the usual places I get my art supplies. You get 3 in a pack, which I reckon is to shift more stock. I found an old one I had ages ago (made by I don't know who), it looked broken with the two bits twisted open, but they just popped back into place, neat!

Here's a bunch of my nibs. The one at the top is a Brause 361 and is an old favourite, I'm using it at the moment on my illustrations with acrylic ink and it's working very well on the rough support.

Nude 2

2009-04-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketches from facing pages of my sketchbook.

I went to Cirque du Soleil last Sunday with my family. Needless to say it was spectacular. We were very near the front, so it was pretty intense.

Afterwards we went to Leon, a French bistro, where as well as my own meal I finished off the 3/4 of the large steak sandwiches my parents left on their plates. 'I want to go to there' (again).

Nude

2009-04-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

Never let it be said that I don't enjoy drawing nudy ladies.

I like to wear my hair up

2009-04-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

This is a quick sketch done in Painter.

Mum's Birthday Card

2009-04-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

This is the card I made for my Mum's birthday a few days ago. I used the acrylic ink Stephen got me for my birthday. I really like using these inks like watercolour. The colours are really vibrant and they don't tend to dull on drying like regular watercolour does, that always bugged me.

The Fairy Tale Book

2009-03-31T04:26:00.001-07:00

These are some of the illustrations from my most recently published book. I'm really, really happy with how these came out (of my hands, my talented, talented hands!).

I'm currently working on a book in colour for O'Brien Press, which I'm really enjoying.

Here's The Fairy Tale Book on Michael O'Mara's website.

Some bloke

2009-03-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

I've been posting a lot of pencil sketches of late and I've got some inked sketches I'd really like to post next time. I've been trying out my Deleter nibs, I really like the G nib, the line quality isn't so far removed from my pencil work.

Sketch of a lady

2009-03-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Paddy's Day! This lady is just a sketch done on scalubrious* cartridge paper.

*Turns out this isn't a real word just something my parents used to say a lot. I had a devil of a time trying to find the correct spelling. From context I believe it mean luxurious, typically, but not exclusively in reference to food. Of course I'm being sarcastic the paper is like KVI brand.

Fork it over!

2009-03-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

I now have a nice relaxing schedule, comparatively so, so I have time to do things like blog and sketch and blog those sketches. Here's a sketch I did on the back of a bright yellow folder.

The last thing I was working on is to be shown in Bologna to buyers, so I might not be going to the Bologna Book Fair, but my work is.

Sketches in colour no less.

2009-03-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

The big guy here has been painted with watercolour. It goes onto Moleskine sketch book paper kinda weird, it beads a bit when you first paint on it and it never really takes the watercolour properly, it can smear after it's dried and then rewetted, as I discovered today.

The lady was inked with a brush pen.

Sketches

2009-03-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

Some more sketches from my Moleskine. My personal favorite is in the bottom right hand corner.

More Sketchy-Wetchys

2009-03-07T04:22:00.000-08:00

Life Drawing

2009-03-06T08:55:00.000-08:00

It's been 8 years since I last did life drawing. I wish I hadn't left it so long, not because I'm unhappy with the results, but it was so enjoyable to do, I've been missing out all this time.

Flowers for my Birthday

2009-03-05T01:53:00.000-08:00

My Dad got me flowers for my birthday. They're just beautiful, great colour combo too. With my experience with colouring I appreciate this sort of thing (should I be adding smilies here to indicate my glibness).

There may be further birthday related posts for a while, it's the only thing I've got to discuss other than work.

More sketches

2009-03-04T01:09:00.000-08:00

I have some life drawing to post and I will when they're scanned. But these puppies were ready to go:

More from the Moleskine

2009-03-03T03:03:00.001-08:00

I've been super busy the last month and I was ill too, but finally I have a little free time to blog and stuff.

Here are some Cthulhu-esq sketches I drew on my birthday with my new 0.7 mechanical pencil. It's a pentel graphgear and it's really snazzy. I love drawing with 0.7's, you can get a lot of line variation out of them.

Cat-Lizard-Thing

2009-01-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a little picture I made on a website where you can do a bit of collage.

In recent news I co-starred alongside my Dad in my brother's college film. It's a superhero's origin story. It involved running around for four hours in the cold and rain down by the much sanitised, now colourfully lit docks.

Flying Monkey

2009-01-06T12:27:00.000-08:00

The Wizard of Oz was on twice over the Christmas break and I found those flying monkeys rather charming.

My first Published Card

2009-01-05T13:42:00.000-08:00

After years of painting cards for my family's birthdays and the likes, I have a card that's available in the shops.

I only had one day to paint this and I painted it much bigger than it would be printed, A3.

Some of my Dolls

2009-01-04T16:03:00.000-08:00

I started painting my Munny up, he's in the early stages at the moment, the very early stages! He's going to have a blingin' medallion, which I might use gold leaf for.

Beside him is my new kokeshi, which Dad got me for Christmas and behind them are my Little Apple Dolls. I have one more who's not in the photo, her name's Animula. Not my choice, I would have called her Black-Eyes-Like-A-Shark's-Eyes.

My First Review

2008-11-30T07:17:00.000-08:00

Sweet! My first review (that I know of, I'm sure someone's made their feelings about me known somewhere before). This was in BookFest for the Children's Book Festival. The review is for the book The Henny Penny Tree by Siobhán Parkinson.

Dublin Comic Con & Hellcat Colour Sketch

2008-11-24T07:32:00.000-08:00

I've not fully recovered from the Dublin Comic Con because I'm a delicate flower, but it was a great night. Or nights for other people who were partying a lot harder than I was. I really need to build up my stamina or maybe I should just not sit on concrete steps in cold weather while waiting round for people.

Anyway, here's an old colour sketch of Hellcat. She all twisty like a cat. Yep, cats are like that, all twisty and stuff. That's cats for ya.

Sketches in me Moleskine

2008-11-22T05:06:00.001-08:00

Here are some sketches I did last night while watching Shaun of the Dead. As you can see they are totally inspired by the movie. I don't know why there's a turquoise tinge over the whole thing, if anything it should be yellowish.

Kokeshi Dolls

2008-11-21T06:55:00.000-08:00

Here's some more Japanese inspired stuff I've done. My little kokeshi dolls. Traditionally they're painted wood, but these I made out of paper clay. The smallest is little over an inch high, she was the first one I made. I've made three others for my family. The one on the left needs a little more sanding before she's fit for painting.

Noh Mask

2008-11-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed painting this. I always thought these masks were for kabuki theatre but they're for noh theatre which is a few hundred years older.

I wanna paint more of them, especially the hairy noh masks.

Pan's Labyrinth

2008-11-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

Here is a work in progress, which I started ages ago in my Moleskine. One day it may get finished, I don't know. But I'm pretty happy with the interim stages so far.

ASBO Fairy Tales

2008-10-28T07:45:00.001-07:00

At the moment I'm illustrating a book of regular fairy tales, which is a bit weird after illustrating these anarchic versions.

ASBO Fairy Tales on MOM's website.

One new book and two slightly older ones published by Michael O'Mara

2008-07-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

I've just finished illustrating a new book for Michael O'Mara. The deadline was pretty tight, but I got it finished in time, phew.

Below are the previous books I illustrated for Michael O'Mara. The bottom two illustrations for the books were done in the style of Anne Anderson as requested.

The Nursery Rhymes Book on MOM website.

The Games Book on MOM website.

Images copyright Michael O'Mara.

Regarding Mooney's Bust

2008-07-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

Stephen's making a bronze bust of Mooney for his wedding. I volunteered to make the armature.

There are some very good instructions in the book From Clay to Bronze, but I had to make a few substitutions as there isn't an extensive line of plumbing materials in the local hardware.

There are no threads on the pipe or the thing (possibly a floor flange) holding it to the board so I used epoxy glue. I also had to cut the pipe with a hack saw.

I'm so proud of my work, I may be a little disappointed when it's covered up in clay.

Father's Day Card

2008-07-08T02:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the card I made for Father's Day (several weeks ago now). Why an orang-utan? Because my Dad likes orang-utans.

On another note, I once caught a banana this big.

The Henny Penny Tree

2008-06-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

After working on Ice Dreams, I illustrated The Henny Penny Tree by Siobhán Parkinson for O'Brien Press.

This was a wonderfully fun story to illustrate. It's a warm quirky tale about three sisters who are given coins by their Uncle Fergus. At first Littlest doesn't know what to do with her copper coin.

Here it is on their website.

These images are copyright O'Brien Press.

Ice Dreams illustrations

2008-04-01T04:38:00.000-07:00

These are some of the illustrations I did for the book Ice Dreams, written by Grace Wells and Published by O'Brien Press.

Grace's story is warm and witty and just fantastically written. The village of Moutsouna is in trouble after their only source of income, the ice factory, shuts down. The twins have a plan to save the community, but it will take everyone working together to pull it off.

Here it is on O'Brien's website.

These images are copyright O'Brien Press.

My Colouring on Angel Covers

2008-04-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm finally putting up some of the work I did over the last few months.

Here are the covers I coloured for Angel: After the Fall. The pencils and inks are by a Mr. Stephen Mooney.

I think my favourite is Cover 5, Illyria and

Gwen getting all charged up in red and blue.

He can't pay bus fair, there's no room for change in his fuzzy little britches

2007-12-11T04:41:00.000-08:00

I've been so busy with work of late I have neglected me blog amongst other things. So here's a cute 'tail', to fill some space on here. Copied from www.dailymail.co.uk.

Bus drivers have nicknamed a white cat Macavity after it has started using the No 331 several mornings a week.
The feline gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings - he then jumps off at the next stop 400m down the road, near a fish and chip shop.
The cat was nicknamed Macavity after the mystery cat in T.S Elliot's poem.

Line and Wash

2007-09-21T05:53:00.000-07:00

Little Mermaid

2007-09-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

Paintings

2007-09-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

Little Red Riding Hood and Wolf

Gymnast

Gymnast detail

Young Medusa and Cerberus