The Nutcracker

This is the cover of the Nutcracker book that W5 are publishing to coincide with the launch of the exhibition's second run starting in mid-November.
Just like last year, W5 will be showing all the original art and drawings that I did for the giant walk-through display.
I'm delighted that the book will also be available to a wider audience from Amazon.

Life Painting of Des

I was very pleased with this recent painting of Des.
He's great at holding a standing pose like this for several hours without complaint.
I particularly like the little passage of loose brushwork describing his right hand. My usual habit would be to delineate each finger, but I've been leaving my paintings a little bit unfinished recently, and I think they are all the better for it.

Two Pictures of Angelique

Here's another great drawing from my life drawing session, where the artist has included me in the background.It's always interesting to see how another artist tackles the same subject that I've been painting, and Oisín Roche has really surpassed himself with this charcoal and pastel study. He has included an extraordinary range of colour and tones, and has tied the whole composition together masterfully.

The painting that you can see me concentrating so hard on is shown below.
A rather more pedestrian effort than Oisín's, I'm afraid, I wasn't having a good morning.
The model is a very nice French girl named Angelique.

The Fairy Kiss

Here is a giff showing a piece which is the latest of all the 3d layered experiments that I have been doing.
If the picture doesn't move a little bit, just click on this link, and you should be able to see it working.
I was asked by Helen Maguire to design an image of a fairy blowing a kiss for the cover of her book of poetry entitled The Fairy Kiss.
The really intriguing thing for me was that the cover was to be reproduced in an advanced lenticular 3d process.
Helen works with 3d artist and photographer, John Mitton, and when she showed me their amazing 3d work, I knew I had to have a go. The giff gives just a rough idea of how the 3d image will look when printed.

The RUA Conor Prize for a Figurative Work

At last week's opening of the RUA's Annual Exhibition in Belfast, I was thrilled to be awarded the Conor Prize for a figurative work for my painting of Clown Johnny K.
The prize commemorates William Conor (1881 – 1968). Described as "Ulster's best-loved artist", Conor was perhaps best known for his drawings of working class Belfast people, so I am particularly honoured to have won the prize bearing his name.

The RUA’s Annual Exhibition runs from the 2 – 31 October 2009 in the old Northern Bank on the corner of Waring St and North St, Belfast.

Balor of the Evil Eye

I was selecting some images for an article in Fantasy Art Magazine, a Chinese print and on-line publication.
Here's one of Balor of the Evil Eye from "The Names upon the Harp" that I hope they will use. It is my favourite illustration from that book and, of all my book illustrations, I feel that this is one where I got the technical balance between tight descriptive painting and atmospheric mark-making just right.