Restaurant magazine -April (?) 2009

A piece I finished off yesterday for regular client Restaurant magazine.

In order not to sink in the looming financial storms you've got to keep a tight ship if you want to survive.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

Klodznán Zoo - Pashka the Artist

A character from the fictional Klodznán Zoo series that I forgot to stick up on my blog. (you can view the others here)

Pashka has high ideals, so has to live at all times with crushing disappointment. He paints through the night in a frenzy fuelled by Slivavich, the Schlavkan sloe brandy.

Guardian Education -17 March 09

My regular slot at the Guardian, Phil Beadle's insightful and often hilarious column on the wacky world of Education.

This was about the word 'satisfactory' - usually very positive, but when applied to a teacher's performance somehow very damning - it seems to mean 'we think you're sh*t!'. Beadle proposes seven more forgiving grades of assessment, as opposed to the four harsh ones currently in use, shown here as the names of seven dwarves.

I'm very happy with this - having the idea approved, the characters, the rough-ish linework and the limited palette, all good.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

Notebook Numero 128

The inside cover of my current notebook.
I've been numbering them since my second year at art college in Dublin,
and get through one every couple of months or so.

Click on the image to Enlarge

Variant, issue 34, Spring 2009

Some illustrations I recently did for left-wing art-newspaper Variant. http://www.variant.randomstate.org/

These are for the Spring issue, out any minute. Look out for it at a cafe, gallery or arts space near you. http://www.variant.randomstate.org/distribu.html

The article was called the Tyranny of the Ad Hoc, by John Barker

Created using Staedtler pigment liner and Indian Ink, composited in PS

Cafe Gallery Projects - Make Shift & Bend

Flyer ( recto and verso) for a show at the Southwark Park Cafe Gallery space in April, curated by my friend Liz Murray.

As the show takes as its loose starting point the idea of DIY and 'Make Do & Mend' in response to the Credit Crunch ( amongst other things) we thought an invite reminiscent of a WWII ration book, with hand-rendered and distressed text, was an appropriate look.

Hope to see you there!

Ren Pesci Birthday Invite

An invite my good friend Ren Pesci asked me to do for his forthcoming 60th Birthday.
60 Brooms, as they say in France! He doesn't look it

Ren's surname, Pesci, is Italian for fish and was the starting point for this nautically themed request. So there's seven fish on display here ( and I suspect maybe a couple more concealed within this saucy sea captain's pants!).

The cap'n himself is based on my very recent Paul Bunyan image ( see previous post).