May 16th saw the arrival of the third Adobe Behance Portfolio Review night at The Copper House Gallery in Dublin. Once again, it was hosted by Lukasz Kulakowski and featured a range of speakers including award-winning Illustrators Ireland member Peter Donnelly. The annual event brings together local creatives in cities and towns around the world to present and discuss their work through their use of the online platform Behance.

Photo © Kevin Goss-Ross 2013

“It is a great occasion to network with the local creative community” says Peter. “The crowd on the night was a brilliant mix of people coming from design, photography and illustration. The opportunity to speak and hear about how people develop their work is always fascinating and it opens communication between those working in different creative fields.”

Behance is growing strong in Ireland with many professional creatives now joining the portfolio and discussion forum as the leading way to promote their work online.

As part of the Dublin Writers Festival, prolific children’s book writers and illustrators Hervé Tullet (France) Sarah McIntyre (England), Sara Fanelli (Italy) and Niamh Sharkey (Laureate na nÓg, Ireland) will be giving a talk on their various routes into illustration. This session is sure to prove both enlightening and inspiring for professional and aspiring illustrators alike and best of all is free! The event will be held in The Ark on May 21st and more details can be found here:http://www.dublinwritersfestival.com/event/getting-drawn-into-professional-illustration

Regan Hutchins recently went on a walkabout with children’s book author & illustrator Kevin Waldron in Dublin Zoo – if you know his work (which you should – amazing) then you’ll know why they picked that particular venue…

Originally broadcast on Culture File on RTE Lyric FM, you can now listen to the podcast here…

Danleo is an Irish Artist with a very unique; clean and colourful style. His work draws heavily on nature and organic forms, frequently merging the grotesque with the beautiful to stunning effect. He works in a variety of different mediums and says of his work ” The aim is to create works that look as if they were created using vector software but have been painted by hand. Inspiration can come from anywhere and anything, however I owe a lot to the cartoons and comic books of the early nineties as these where the things that led me in this direction.”

For more check out http://danleodesign.com/

Impressive is the best way of describing the line up for the Annual CBI conference taking place the next 18th and 19th of May in Dublin.

Guest speakers include translator, festival curator and journalist Sarah Ardizzone, ‘Prince of Preschool’ Hervé Tullet, bestseller John Boyne, comic book heroes Sarah McIntyre, Alan Nolan and Rory McConville, Claude the Dog’s creator Alex T. Smith, author of The Weight of Water Sarah Crossan, Brazilian author Ana Maria Machado, Cló Mhaigh Eo publisher Colmán Ó Raghallaigh and recent Caldecott medal winner Jon Klassen.

For more information or to simply book your place, visit the CBI website.

Over on the Illustrators Ireland blog they have just posted the first part of a ‘Bologna Book Fair Questionnaire’, whereby they asked members who had attended this year’s fair the same set of questions, to see what their various experiences were like.

If you are an illustrator who is interested in the publishing industry, this is a must-read for you.

Part Two will follow over the next couple of days…

Illustrators Ireland member and Scamp contributor Ale Mercado recently went to his homeland of Spain to launch his beautiful new book, Pablo Pájaro, and he talks all about the launch over on the book’s blog.

It really is a stunning looking book – one of those you will reluctantly hand over to your children in case they crumple a page or smudge a corner. Probably best to get an extra one for them…

If you purchase a copy now you can be in with a chance to win a Pablo screen print, so head over here to get the book…

We were very pleased to see the return of Ireland’s best comics & illustration podcast ‘The Comic Cast’.

The return episode has reviews of Chris Judge’s new book ‘The Brave Beast’ as well as a chat with the creators of amazing new design game ‘The Extraordinaires’ which features the work of Steve Simpson, Matt Griffin, Steve McCarthy, Niamh Sharkey and Chris Judge, as well as BrenB & Neal McCullough…

They also take a trip over to London to talk to the good folk of amazing comic publishers ‘NoBrow’…

You can stream it here, or subscribe with iTunes.

Welcome back fellas!

This Tuesday 2nd April will see an exclusive preview lauch of The Extraordinaires Design Studio..

Made by the good people at The Creativity Hub (makers of Rory’s Story Cubes), The Extraordinaires Design Studio encourages creative thinking and team work, among other things, in it’s players.

It features the work of several of our members, including Steve Simpson, Chris Judge, Steve McCarthy, Matthew Griffin & Niamh Sharkey, and this Tuesday people are invited to come and test the game out for themselves at the RHA Gallery, Ely Place, Dublin.

Steve Simpson, Matt Griffin and Steve McCarthy will be there to help with the design process (and share the pizza), so it will be a fun event all round…

If you would like to go, please RSVP to Tess Purcell -tessp@thesmallprint.ie.

Are you a budding illustrator? Illustrators Ireland are offering the chance to have your portfolio reviewed
by leading illustrator professionals! Sign up at this years OFFSET event at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre.