Nude Study of Christina

Keeping on the theme of life drawing, here is one I did a couple of weeks ago of Christina, who is a life model from Lithuania.
This was done in charcoal and chalk on grey Ingres paper.

Portrait of Jim Lucey

Here's another life drawing I was very happy with.
It's as much a portrait study as a figure drawing.
I have gotten to know the model, Jim Lucey, very well over the years.
I don't think a connection with the model is essential to create a good drawing, but it certainly seems to help me.
Jim is particularly good at holding his pose, and he would concentrate very hard on keeping his eyes and his expression fixed too. Unfortunately, some life models tend to let their eyes drift all over the place.


I used red wax stubby crayon, and white chalk on Ingres paper for this one. The thick stubby crayon stops me getting involved with too much finicky detail.

Recent Life Drawings

I'm really enjoying my life drawing these days.
Click here for a link to a slideshow of some of my drawings.

The Publication of "Lincoln and His Boys"

Tomorrow, is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and "Lincoln and His Boys" written by Rosemary Wells and illustrated by me is now in the bookshops. I've been asked on to the Tubridy show tomorrow morning on RTE Radio 1 to talk about the book, and about Lincoln generally.
Kevin Stevens who wrote a very interesting piece on Lincoln in the Irish Times yesterday will also be there, so hopefully we'll all have an interesting discussion.

Here, to celebrate his birthday, is a happy picture from the early part of "Lincoln and His Boys".

Caomhnú Literary Festival

I had a great time in Cavan at the Festival on Saturday and Sunday.
I was delighted to meet Celine Kiernan who took this shot of me with one of my Gulliver paintings in the county Library.
Celine has done tremendously well with "The Poison Throne" the first of her Moorehawke Trilogy. Her mother and father were also there, and it's hard to imagine two sweeter people.
Joseph O'Connor, author of The Star of the Sea and Redemption Falls gave a very interesting and humorous reading, and Professor Terence Dolan was wonderfully entertaining on Hiberno-English.
Meeting Terry was a real inspiration. He's a great character, and a shows tremendous spirit in the way that he is getting over the stroke he had last February.
Best of all was seeing my old pal Josephine Brady, who commissioned the Gulliver Murals.
Many thanks to Kathleen and Catriona, who brought me back to Cavan. I was so sorry to hear that snow stopped some of the events on Sunday.