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.

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…

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.

‘The Illustrated Beatles’ has been invited to exhibit at The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast (May 2-12) potentially in the ‘Oh Yeah Centre’ (the lovechild of music journalist Stuart Bailie and Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody) It will be a fantastic occasion for Illustrators Ireland, especially for our talented members living North to present this stellar collection of work to the city of Belfast.

http://www.cqaf.com/2013/

Illustrators Ireland have posted another batch of recent work by their members, so have a look here.

This is David McClelland’s most recent fictional audio/visual short story, imagining what Pope Benedict XVI’s last day as Pope may be like.

View Papa’s last day – mini comic on David’s website…

Last Saturday, the Red House Children’s Book Awards took place in London, where Illustrators Ireland member Donough O’ Malley was in the running for a prize for his brilliant work on World of Norm.

See more over on the Illustrators Ireland blog…

Here’s the latest collection of responses to a One-Word Brief by members of Illustrators Ireland.

The word this time was ‘Arriviste’:

(a-ree-VEEST) noun

1. A person who has recently attained high position or great power without due effort or merit; an upstart.

2. An unscrupulous, vulgar social climber; a bounder.

[French, from arriver, to arrive, from Old French ariver.]

The members of Illustrators Ireland have once again posted a collection of their favourite work from the last month…

It’s a particularly fine collection this time – have a look here.