As part of a Bic pen promo artist James Mylne recreates Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring in 90 hours.

The Dublin Sketchers group have a ‘Sketchcrawl’ fundraising event this Saturday 15th May. It will start out in the Grand Canal area before moving down past their Leeson St offices and the Concert Hall to the Grafton St area, with pauses at each location for people to sketch. More info here.

Irish comic artist Paddy Lynch is launching the second issue of his brilliant comic Last Bus, his personal anthology of stories.

Get your first peek as it steps out into the public domain this Thursday night from 8pm in the Bernard Shaw. Come on down, have a drink, have a dance and take away a small piece of homegrown underground comic art in all it’s inky glory.

For more info go to www.patrickl.net

Creative Review have extended the date for submissions to their first Illustration Annual to Friday 16th of April. Only two days to go!

Following on from our highly acclaimed Annual, and Photography Annual we are launching a version just for Illustration. The very best work will be showcased in a special July issue of CR.

Mr. Steve Doogan has posted pictures on Flickr and Society6 of all the artworks created for the Drawers exhibition he curated Friday in South Studios. An incredible body of work to say the least.

A show of 26 customised chests of drawers from 29 illustrators, designers, photographers and a fashion stylist. The brief was open. Ten illustrators worked entirely on the day of the opening, Friday 26th March 2010. A co-production between the Illustrators Guild of Ireland and South Studios.

Creative Review recently announced that they will be launching an Illustration Annual in July which follows on from their successful run of Photography Annuals. They are currently open to submissions and deadline is March 21st. Skip over to their website for more details.

Illustrator Wendy Ding has created these lovely drawings for a stretching or “deskercise” guide for designers and illustrators who sit at their desks all day. Definitely needed after an all-nighter. In her own words:

I’ve started to make a regular routine out of these exercises. At first it felt like a nuisance but over time, the benefits settled in. I feel more limber at the end of the day and not as tired. The key is to take 5 – 10 minute breaks away from the computer every hour or half-hour if you’re extra keen. Take this time to stretch and rest your eyes. This will keep you in tip-top shape for the new year!

Here’s a great blog by musician Rob Richards which collects frames from various vintage cartoons of the beautifully painted backgrounds. There’s is usually a crazy character or two tearing through these scenes, distracting us from the amazing backgrounds. There’s something almost eerie about how quiet they look without the characters. The palettes in each layout are also something to marvel at.

Apple’s new iPad looks pretty fancy but there’s not much about it that would entice creatives into using it. No muti touch Photoshop or Illustrator!

One nice app that will be available on it will be a full size Brushes app which is already popular ion the iPhone.

More about it on Gizmodo

Andy Rementer has been producing a brilliant, funny weekly comic strip called Tecno Tuesday for the last few years. A great way to waste away a dreary afternoon with a cup of tea.

Also check out his London Marathon video.

(Thanks Mike)