Illustration Friday - "Poise"

A wee sketch I knocked out this morning, a beautiful nude at her toilet admiring herself in a handglass.

This is inspired by the work of an illustrator I recently stumbled upon, Master John Broadley of England.

Pretty happy with this for a first attempt. Delighted not to be using overlaid textures for a change, which always feels, guiltily, like over-egging ( something I am always prone to do, it seems).

Click on her to enjoy her full beauty! Hehe

Guardian Sport -25 March 09

A piece I did today for tomorrow's Guardian Sport pages.

About anger/ petulence/ abusive behaviour and general miserable narky gittishness on the football pitch, as demonstrated frequently by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, and how, unchecked, it does them and their careers a disservice.

Pretty happy with this. Not a bad likeness of the man ( potato) Rooney, methinks. Replaced his Vodafone logo with a fizzing time-bomb. Texture shown on the grass is created by overlaying scanned in, & much-used, blotting paper over a flat green block of colour.

As always, click on the image to Enlarge.

Tweed Cycling Club - West Mersea Oyster Run

On Saturday last Nick and I joined the Tweed CC, our maiden trip with them, for the Oyster Run, a jolly jaunt from Colchester down to West Mersea for oysters, seafood, wine, champagne and general bonhommie upon the sea-wall.

A fine group of chaps and ladies, congenial to a man and all sartorially outstanding. A fine group and great fun.

In honour of the trip I have created this little commerative 'poster' - encre de chine, dip pen and a scanned-in photo of a couple of native oysters out of the garden.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

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!