scamp: an irish illustration blog

Found Line Exhibition

BRENB — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:03:25 +0000

Signal Arts Centre is pleased to present this collection of work by artist & IGI Member Brian Gallagher. He has exhibited in many shows and his work features in private collections nationally and internationally. Some notable clients include Le Monde, London Evening Standard, Sunday Independent, Penguin Books and Harper Collins. He currently works as a full time Illustrator/Artist in Dublin.

Signal Arts Centre
1 Albert Avenue
Bray, Co. Wicklow

Opening Reception Friday 19th March 7p.m. – 9 p.m.

For more info about Brian and his work visit Illustrators Ireland.

Industry Insight

BRENB — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:10:24 +0000

Late in January Designer and Book Publisher Mark Murphy was asked to be part of the jury for the Communication Arts Illustration Annual competition. He put his thoughts and observations on a very interesting blog post.

Book with a View | 8

David Maybury — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:50:44 +0000

Raymond Briggs shouldn’t need an introduction. He’s the godfather of UK children’s book illustration – and having taught at University of Brighton he has managed to influence plenty of current illustrators (including PJ Lynch).

Best known for creating the seasonal favourites Father Christmas and The Snowman - as well as Fungus the Bogeyman – there is a cannon of more than twenty books and 13 awards (including two Kate Greenaway and a Children’s Author of the Year).

There is always the sense in Briggs’s work that he makes his books for himself rather than for any target audience. He believes that children can cope quite nicely with adult subtleties and he’s happy enough to risk an equivocal or even an unhappy ending. This is one of the things that give his stories a depth that many contemporary illustrated children’s books lack. It is tempting to think of this as a British trait: certainly, of the crop of American books this summer, few can resist an empowering ‘Hollywood’ resolution. – Tim Adams

***

I’m no expert and open to any/all recommendations – I’d love to find books that I’ve never come across – so if you have a suggestion, send it on.

codex seraphinianus

stephen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:26:43 +0000

Recently placed online in its entirety the Codex Seraphinianus is a visual encyclopedia of an unknown world with undeciphered alphabetic writing by the Italian artist Luigi Serafini. And here’s a Believer article on the book.

Spot the dog and me

stephen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:30:11 +0000

To celebrate Spot’s 30th birthday Illustrator Eric Hill shows how he draws ‘my little puppy’ and explains how he fell into writing the books almost by accident.

Donough O’Malley’s NY Sketchbook

Alé Mercado — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:55:01 +0000

These sketches of the big apple were from a recent trip I made there, a surprise birthday present (very nice indeed). Some of my family who live in South America were visiting so I got dragged over on a plane at the last minute.

A lot of my previous artwork contained cityscapes which I love, so what better place to go than the big N.Y.
Also for a current personal project I’m working on I need some really good reference of the city, so along with a few quick doodles I amassed a ridiculous amount of photos.
Mostly of really boring mundane stuff like fire hydrants and taxis. Anyone flicking through my digital camera will think I am an odd chap indeed.

It’s the difference in the normal aspects that I like, that’s why I was interested in these road signs on the corner of Madison Ave. and E60 street.
Just very different from Ireland and, well, cooler.

When doing sketches I find it too easy to get sucked into trying to get every detail, which just doesn’t work sometimes. I thought it best to just try and keep the rough shapes and outlines of the cityscape here.

When walking cross the Brooklyn bridge, it was rammed with tourists, to the annoyance of New Yorkers trying to cycle past. Also there were a lot of art students doing incredible detailed drawings of the bridge. So being embarrassed and lazy I decided to concentrate on the negative space of the sky which after all makes the outline what it is.
That’s my story anyway and I’m sticking with it.

This was done in the Metropolitan Museum which is an incredible place. You could easily spend your entire trip there. But there was a lot of bars to visit also, so I didn’t.

The mundane again. Don’t you just love these traffic lights? Probably not if you’re stuck in traffic but after an overload of drawing buildings my eye was drawn to something smaller with some detail I could fit in, in a small amount of time.

DRAW_ERS Live illustration Event

Alé Mercado — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:32:29 +0000

Drawers is a co-production between the IGI and the people at South Studios – a small visual arts business complex based in Dublin. The show features 14 IGI members and the rest are designers, photographers, architects and a fashion stylist next 26th March.

More info in www.illustratorsireland.com

It’s a Tiny Little Horse show

BRENB — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:30:44 +0000

Tiny Little Horse presents an exhibition and indeed a celebration of their poster work for CSS, Morrissey, Flight Of The Conchords, Battles and many more.
Also featuring original artwork and ‘hopefully’ some live screen printing.

Tiny Little Horse features the work of Gav Beattie and IGI members BRENB and Chris Judge.

Opening Launch is from 7PM, March 11th at The Shaw Space in The Bernard Shaw and runs for 2 weeks.

Ronald Searle at 90

stephen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:07:07 +0000

Illustrating and cartooning legend Ronald Searle celebrated his 90th recently. Above is a recent interview with Channel 4 news.

WIT Student Book illustration exhibition

stephen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:41:15 +0000

An Exhibition on book illustration by 3rd students of the Waterford Institute of Technology runs from 3rd – 20th March at Waterford Central Library, Lady Lane, Waterford City.