Skeletor's bad day.

New Sketch Dailies theme this week. It's villains, and first up is Skeletor. Loved this guy when I was a kid. Ah, memories!

Monsters sketch

Playing around with different texture brushes in Photoshop.

Link!

Something new for Sketch Dailies' latest theme... LINK!

Does a bear crap in the woods?

Just a quick digital illustration of a bear doing, well, like the saying goes... does a bear crap in the woods?!

Harley Quinn loves her puddin'!

Another one for Sketch Dailies. This time the awesome creation of the genius team of Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, The Joker's squeeze, Harley Quinn!

Good Morning!

Good morning! Just something that popped into my head and I wanted to illustrate. May have something to do with the fact that I'm having a kid in July, may be completely unrelated....!

Snakes on a dame

Sketch Dailies post number 2. This one was a bit tardy, but it was a busy week, and took a while between other things. The theme was Medusa. The post was this-

In memory of Egon

We were all sorry to hear of the passing of Harold Ramis yesterday. Director, writer and actor, of course Ramis will be remembered for Ghostbusters. But he also made some savage films in Groundhog Day, Caddyshack and Analyze This. He'll be missed.

So Sketch Dailies decided to dedicate today to Ramis and his iconic character, Egon Spengler. Here's my contribution. Do... ray.... Egon!

Hercules for Sketch Dailies

So the twitter account Sketch Dailies posts new themes for each day to which artists post their drawings. There's some incredible work on there, and some seriously talented artists. I threw my hat into the ring last week with a meh drawing, and followed it up with something a little better- Hercules-

American Hipster

Well, it only took four months. Between a wedding, thank you cards, work, and getting knocked-up, this is something that took me far too long to complete. That fire escape on the right? Two week's work. 

Anyway, here's American Hipster. Based on the Grant Wood painting 'American Gothic,' I had the idea of doing a more contemporary, cartoony version after a sketch I doodled in one of my Moleskines. So this is it. I have a bunch of in-progress images that I'll post soon.

First post of 2014! Journey

Happy New Year! So recently I got my hands on a PS3... solely to play The Last of Us. But then I remembered that the game Journey was also available on the system. It's a great little game and really simple and beautiful. So one night, I got it in my head to do a little animated gif of the main character. So... here it is!

Have plenty of stuff to come soon. I'm working on a piece that's pretty damn laborious, which kind of explains why the blog has slowed down a bit lately. Hope to rectify that soon!

MERRY GIFMAS!

Just a little bit of animation for the festive season! Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, and a happy new year! Here's to good things in 2014!

Digital painting 101 - Tonal Study II - Vases

The second in the series of tonal studies I've been doing lately. This one was a little more complex. I also tried to get in a bit more texture into the subjects. This was something missing from the apple.

For the next one, I think I'll return to something more organic. There's not much texture in a smooth jug!

Giving thanks!

So recently, I finished the final part of the everlasting wedding project! It all started with the Save The Dates. Then came the all-important Invitations. And finally, we have the Thank You cards. These were sent to all the guests and the lovely folks who were so generous to offer us gifts for the wedding. So if you are one of those and you haven't received a Thank You yet, it's on it's way!

This is just me and the wife, looking into the future. The wife is triumphant after having broken her leg seven days before the wedding... having surgery five days before... and still managing to get back on her feet for the wedding. She done well, she done!

Digital painting 101 - Tonal Study I - Apple

So I've begun learning digital painting properly, as I've sort of flown by the seat of my pants up until now. I've also started trying to get a handle on lighting and colour in theory, as those subjects, I know very little about. It's certainly a challenge. There's a lot to learn, but it's actually quite an interesting subject.

So to that end, I decided I'd try doing a regular series of studies to try and lift my game. The first one I tackled was a pretty simple black and white photo of an apple. Simple subject. Quite difficult execution. But hey, for my first attempt, I'm actually pleased with how it turned out. Vast room for improvement though. Still, every race starts with a first step.

SKETCHBOOK... PART XIII

So while the busy months have been ticking by, I've continued to sketch in the Moleskine. The book is almost filled, so in the next few weeks, I should be cracking open a new one. If I've learned anything from this book, is that I should do more finished... as sketches go... sketches. Here are two more-

The first is a couple of hipsters. I'm currently working on this as a bigger piece which should be finished soon enough.

And a kid playing with his RC Robot in the park.

Four Seasons

Well, it's been a busy few weeks! Between weddings, leg-breakings, and a whole host of other activities, the blog has been pushed down the list of priorities. But that doesn't mean there's been no work going on! I've a few little projects coming up, and this is the first.

The 2nd Animation Art Show takes place next week in the Science Gallery in Dublin. Last year was a great success, so it was only natural that a second show would take place. For this year, I decided to go traditional, rather than doing a digital piece. So out with the brushes and paper, and here's what I did.

It's just a little watercolour illustration depicting a scene around a lake in the four seasons. Hope you guys like it, and if you're in town, pop along to the show. It's for a great cause, The Children's Sunshine Home.

The final, painted piece. Watercolour on bristol board. I really like the medium and paper.

The initial pencil sketch.

Work in progress.

Detail 1.

Detail 2.

The final, framed painting.

That's it for now. Plenty more coming soon!

"Headspace" Australian National Youth Mental Health Foundation Illustrations Part 2

So here is the final part of my illustration job for "Headspace," The Australian Government's Youth Mental Health program. The final illustration deals with self-harm. Obviously, this is a very difficult subject to deal with. And the illustration didn't want to show self-harm directly. No blood. So, instead, it was decided that to show a teenager somewhat isolated and withdrawn would be the best way to go.

SELF-HARM-

This illustration started out as five girls sitting around, chatting, with one girl different. Isolated. It was decided on draft two, that two of the girls should be boys. The brief stated that there should be a mix of ethnicities included.

The final illustration.

Detail of the self-harm girl.

Teenagers detail.

 Teenager detail #2.

The final illustration as used in the self-harm infographic by Lauren Hollern.

This was a really nice project to work on. The palette was limited, which was a bit of a challenge. And trying not to go all cartoony was also somewhat unusual for me. But for my first properly paid illustration commission, I really enjoyed it!

"Headspace" Australian National Youth Mental Health Foundation Illustrations Part 1

Okay, long blog title! So this is what I've been working on for the last few weeks. I mentioned last month that I was approached to do some illustration for "Headspace," the foundation that deals with youth mental health in Australia. I finished the project two weeks ago, and this long blog post is all about that. So... enjoy!


ANGER-

The brief for 'Anger' was to be a young man, a teenager, struggling to pull apart a wall, surrounded by debris of that wall. This was the original sketch for that piece-

After going through line work and painting with Photoshop, here is the final illustration. I was limited to a certain palette, and flesh tones, so what you'll see in these illustrations is... a limited palette-

A close-up of the dude's face. I was quite happy with the tip of the nose and the fingers... for some reason-

And the final infographic by Lauren Hollern, that was posted on the Headspace website, and their Facebook page-

SELF ESTEEM-

 This one started out as a male and female. One happy and outgoing, the other shy-

On the second pass, it was decided that both of the characters should be the same person, different personas, facing a mirror-

The final illustration-

And the infographic by Lauren Hollern-

So they are the first two parts of the project. I'll post the final part, self-esteem, next week, as it was the largest part of the project.

Me and the future missus invite you to a little shindig!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm getting married in 4 (jesus!) weeks. And part of my duties was to design the invitations for the day. I decided to go with a design inspired by Alphonse Mucha, using the colour scheme for the wedding. Here is the final design.

And here are the invitations after they were printed up on watercolour textured paper. They were printed by the great people at Daintree Paper in Dublin. Pretty pleased with how they turned out. Soon, I'll post a work in progress to show how I got to the final design!