Study morning...

I recently went to a study morning in the National Gallery; Fables and Fairy Tales in Art. A little bit of blurb about it from their website:

"This Study Morning will enable visitors to enter the magical world of Fables and Fairy Tales and see some enchanting images created by artists, poets, storytellers & illustrators in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Guest speakers will explore the art historical and literary backgrounds, together with a focus on the illustrator-creator of some contemporary images of fairies and fantastic creatures. It will conclude with a guided tour of the display Fables and Fairy Tales."

It was a fasinating way to spend a Saturday morning, I got loads of great ideas and learned of some new illustrators that I didn't know much about at all, including Richard Doyle and Richard Dadd. It was a great way to pair the study morning with the exhibition. And of course to see the Harry Clarke illustrations again (there was an exhibition of his on a few years ago that I attended). I love his illustrations and stained glass windows so much.

New baby illustration...

Rosebud gets her picture...

Finally, it only took me a year to get the finger out and paint a picture for my niece, Rose. She is over a year old now. Better late than never!!! I have included my sketches here and some photos of the various stages in the process.

Illustration Boot Camp...

So I am going into week 5 of Illustration Boot Camp and I am loving it. There is a lot of work involved, which is tough as I am out the door in my job too, but it's worth it!

We had to design an ATC (Artist Trading Card) for the first class. This is my effort:



For week 2 our homework was another ATC, the brief for the ATC was a list of different birds. Here's my sketches and then the finished card:







For week 3 our brief for the ATC was our own Zodiac Sign, I am Tauras. When I scanned it in though, the ring of beads went a bit funny:



For week 4 our ATC was a self portrait - YIKES!!








I have just uploaded the ATC work for the time being, but we are working on projects in class too.. We have done editorial illustrations, self portraits and lots more... I will keep posting!

Introducing Edward...

So I have not updated this blog in a long, long time. Bold me. What's new, I here you not ask? I got a new job as a Graphic Designer, so that has taken up a lot of my time. It's a lot of large format print work, so I am learning loads, as up until now I was mostly a multimedia designer. I also got a kitten, as you can see from the pictures. His name is Edward. So been busy having fun with him.

I haven't been doing a lot of personal work, so I have signed up to Illustration Boot Camp with Adrienne Geoghegan. I'm really looking forward to it and hope I am not too rusty with the aul' drawing! I'll update with all the bits and bobs I'll be doing with the boot camp.

Presents...

Ok, so I haven't updated this blog in a long time. Just been very busy recently, I lost my job at Christmas, so I have been re-jigging my website and hope to launch the new site next week. Here are some designs I have been working on, first up a mothers day card for my, well, mother...


Next up, more work from my sister. This time she wanted to give people presents for birthdays and christenings. They have the childs name, date of birth, time of birth, weight at birth and also the date that they were christened. The photos are of poor quality, but my scanner went kaput, so they were taken with my very shakey hands...

Chinese New Year Paintings...

Some more paintings for the Chinese New Year characters...

Happy Christmas!

This is my Christmas card that I printed and posted to all my loved ones!

Where have I been...

Been very busy lately, so I have not found the time to update this site. As you are aware, I have set up Paper Lantern Studios. I also got a Graphic Design job Mon-Wed, so that has me kept busy too.

It was my nephews (Freddie) christening on Saturday. As he was born in the Chinese Year of the Golden Pig I painted him a picture (and one for his brother Sam).

More painting...