“All you will need is a pencil, some paper, a global recession and some corporate anger and you’ll be able to draw this handsome fellow.” – Merill Kazanjian

Watch the making of video of the concert poster DKNG made for  Explosions in the Sky here.

Illustrators Ireland member Eoin Coveney was recently approached by Sony Ireland to produce an illustration to accompany the new single by Christy Moore- “My little Honda 50″ - the Client’s concept was to film a time-lapse video of an illustration to accompany the song instead of the usual route of showing stills or other arbitrary imagery…

I first listened to the song several times over and was immediately struck by how clever the lyrics were. This was something with a knowing Irish whimsy- the typical “big fish” story you just know can’t be true and yet, part of you wants to believe it as it’s so charmingly told.I concluded that I wanted to show something (hopefully) of the real rural Ireland rather than the more clichéd urban view of what the country is like. I dispensed early on with the idea of showing Gombeens on scooters or indeed any people (unusually for me) and decided to just go with the bike itself, nestled in a typical country backyard jumble of objects that might build up over years.

The old petrol pump recalled for me a link to old Ireland- plus I’ve always found them to have a very nostalgic tug to them.Once the concept and rough had been okayed by the Client, it was time to figure out how it might work in time lapse. I decided to break it down into 3 parts- first, to draw a rough pencil, then a scanned and printed version of the finished pencil was inked over. Finally, a scan of the finished ink was printed onto bristol board which I then coloured in real-time.The great guys behind the filming and editing them blended the 3 versions seamlessly into the finshed video.

Dan Sinker, the author of ‘The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel’ gives a brief evolution of Paul Hornschemeier‘s cover for the book here. Do take a peek at Hornschemeier’s quite brilliant daily drawings too.

Illustrators Ireland member David McClelland was invited to do some live painting last weekend at Kings of Concrete a street art, music, dance & urban sports festival held in the Civic offices, Wood Quay, Dublin.

Below are a few of his sketches, final piece and a video of the making of the street art piece ‘Fire in the Hole’.

‘Oh I say’, brush pen & gouache on paper.

‘Ye Goth Prophecy’, brush pen & gouache on paper.

‘Lonely tree’, brush pen on paper.

‘Surprised’, brush pen on paper.

David McClelland with the final artwork – ‘Fire in the Hole’, acrylic and paint marker on board.

IGI Member PJ Lynch offers us a great insight into his amazing work process. Enjoy!

It seemed like a nice break from my long term book projects when Adrian Fitzsimon of Chemistry asked me to do a an illustration that would be used in newspaper ads and on 48 sheet posters to herald the Examiner’s series of articles on boozy Ireland.

The deadline of one week was tight for me, but I liked the humour in Adrian’s idea of subverting heroic Celtic imagery and so I agreed to do it.

The client’s rough shows the central figure of a Celtic heroine who is a bit the worse for drink. I homed in on her as the key element and knocked out a few sketches.

At the same time I sourced some good costume reference online, as well as pictures of young boozers, and I printed these out.

I quickly got the drawing of the beautiful girl’s face, but suggestting her drunkenness was not at all easy. It pretty much all had to be shown in her face, as her pose was to be upstanding and heroic. The photo of Pixie Geldof with one eye slightly more open than the other was a particularly useful inspiration.

I tried a few different poses with her left hand (you can see where I taped on the newly drawn arms) and, through feedback from Adrian we settled on the idea of the girl holding the last of her tinnies by the plastic grip that holds a six-pack together.

I knew that would be tricky to draw so I worked from some photo reference of my own hand (and my own tinnies).

Whilst I was drawing the figures I was also scanning open source Celtic knotwork for the borders and the roundel. I had to do a lot of work in Photoshop to make them fit and to join up convincingly.

The client wanted the main elements on separate layers so I printed each of my finished drawings on to a separate sheet of watercolour paper, stretched them onto boards and got stuck into the painting.

The fun part of an illustration for me is usually the painting although I must say in this case the knotwork was just a pain.

Having the separate layers worked out well for me when I scanned and imported the paintings back into Photoshop. It was great to be able to control the colour, contrast and tone of individual elements, and even to try out two or three different backgrounds in order to achieve a harmonious final result.

Being mindful that the poster was going to be printed more than three metres tall, I also did a good deal of digital painting, particularly on the central figure. You have to be really careful when touching up a watercolour in this way that it doesn’t lose it’s organic charm and end up looking very airbrushed. I hope I hit a good balance.

All in all this job was a lovely change of pace for me. As someone who mostly works in children’s books, it was great to play about so much in Photoshop, and you’d be surprised how seldom I get the chance to draw drunken yobs, and girls throwing up on  the green fields of Old Ireland.

pjlynchgallery.com

I’ve had quite a few people ask me how I went about painting my white wolf studio shoes. Hopefully to empower you to make your own he has created the following small step-by-step of how I created the shoes.

View the Step by step.

IGI member Philip Dunne delights us with a very detailed step-by-step of one of his illustrations. Check the link below and amaze yourself. Step-by-step here

A custom skateboard art show featuring 30+ artists in aid of Kings of Concrete. Featured artists: ADW / Anto Sands / Asbestos / Askim / Barry Hughes / BRENB / Canvas / Chris Judge / D$ / Dan Leo / Donal Thornton / Gavin Beattie / Glenn Leyburn / Grim / I Am Doom / Jine / JOR / Lints / Loki / Maser / Mick Minogue / Morgan / Richard Gilligan / Richard Seabrooke / Risto / Splinky / Steve Simpson / Studio AAD / Unthink / Wes Trumble / Will St. Leger / xTTr & more. – The Bernard Shaw, Portobello, Dublin, Ireland July 2nd to 4th 2010 Official launch Friday 2nd July at 8pm. All decks will be available to buy for 250 euro each with 50% of the proceeds go towards the festival. More information at www.kingsofconcrete.com and www.alwaysreadthesmallprint.com


All 30+ artists had the same starting point, a blank deck. As this was a fund raiser (and a chance to raise profiles) we had a open brief. Sometimes they can be the most difficult projects to get started on. Until you make the first mark, it could be absolutely anything.

I started by sanding the varnished board to give some grip. I also filled in the ready made holes with wood filler. Recently I’ve been working with a chilli sauce brand called “Inferno”. I thought this would be a good opportunity (and the deadline was quite tight:) to use the 2 skeleton characters again. Before rubbing the design down I sprayed the board dark blue and then gave it a crackle coat of green. It did start to look and feel like a pool table at this stage.

The original designs for the delicious Mic’s Chilli Inferno Sauces. (out soon)

I transferred the design onto the deck using print outs and chalk. Lately, I’ve been using Folk Art acrylics, they come in tidy little bottles. None of that fiddling with tube caps. Great for flat colour.

In all it took about a day to paint.

Carpe Noctem Seize the night

The finished piece varnished.

The exhibition looked fantastic. It’s amazing how different they all turned out. You can see Chris Judge’s brilliant board just to the right of mine.