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

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/

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…

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.

‘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/

The good folk at the AOI have launched their newest publication of the brilliant Varoom magazine.

They say:

“Varoom 21 holds a variety of projects from the contemporary Pictoplasma character festival, an exploration into the broken rules of childrens magazines in our society today, the use of design and illustration in a comic brand and the value attributed to an image of David Bowie.

Contributing editors share perspectives from images of fashion, the strange role in character design, a rendition of illustrator’s rules (including not wearing slippers that are too big for you) and why a recent show was called as “an adreniline rush like no other!”

So definitely worth a read for any illustrators out there…

See more at this link…

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…

Last year’s Offset saw Illustrators Ireland members Ale Mercado (alemercado.com) & Matthew Griffin (matthewjgriffin.com) take to the stage in the Second Room for ‘Routes Into Illustration’, about how to get into the business and how to stay there…

A must-see for any aspiring illustrators out there…

Routes Into Illustration. OFFSET2012. Sunday from OFFSET on Vimeo.