Once Upon A Place

Artists often borrow from or pay homage to the work of other artists. 
Some artists also steal other people's ideas simply because they haven't the skill or imagination to originate their own.
I hope it is always clear when I make a visual quote from another person's work that it is done with the utmost respect for the original artist, and for valid artistic reasons. 
Here, for example, is the cover of  Once Upon A Place, edited by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer and illustrated by me.
Most of you will have noticed that the figure on the rocky foreground, is a visual quotation from the best known painting by Caspar David Friedrich, "The Wanderer Above the Mists".
The stories in the anthology, Once Upon A Place, are set not only in different places, but also in different periods. I hoped to hint at that variety by showing a boy wearing modern dress but posed as in Friedrich’s two hundred year old iconic image. It was also my way of my way of saluting one of my favourite paintings.

Checking The Proofs of New Book

It's so good to finally have the proofs of my new book on the Mayflower and the Pilgrims.
It's starting to look like a real book!

The Fairy Kiss

Here's a gif showing a 3d image I did for the cover of Helen Maguire's book, The Fairy Kiss.
I enjoyed the idea of working in 3d very much. Having very little experience in the area though, I approached it in the style of the old Disney multiplane camera.

Mysterious Traveller Shortlisted for the CBI Book of the Year Awards

It's an honour to be shortlisted for the 24th CBI Book of the Year Awards for my illustrations to "Mysterious Traveller" by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham.

The Nutcracker Artwork

I was messing about with this image for an event that the IGI (Illustrators Guild of Ireland) are going to do with The Art Park in Dublin.
The illustration of the Nutcracker was originally done for an exhibition and a book for Whowhatwherewhenwhy Belfast.

The Snow Queen Re-issued

We've been tweaking the cover of The Snow Queen again as Andersen Press is going to reissue the book this winter.
I think the festive red type works well against the icy Queen in her palace.

"The Country of the Young: interpretations of youth and childhood in Irish culture"

The Four Courts Press have just published this very interesting book:"The Country of the Young: interpretations of youth and childhood in Irish culture"

I was honoured that Kelly Matthews (co-editor with John Countryman) asked to use a detail of this rough I did for my Children of Lir stamp for the cover.


Here's the blurb:"Throughout the history of modern Ireland, cultural representations of youth and childhood have served as focal points for discussions of social and political issues. Topics for the essays in this collection range from Famine-era women’s autobiographies to filmic portrayals of post-Good Friday Northern Ireland; from considerations of Patrick Pearse and Máirín Cregan to Anne Enright and Claire Keegan. The result is a complex and provocative view of childhood experiences in modern Ireland, and of the ways in which youth and childhood have been interpreted in the work of Irish writers, politicians, dramatists and filmmakers."

My Russian Book Covers

Many thanks to my FaceBook friend Maxim Mitrofanov who sent me these Russian covers of some of my books.

I do get sent most of my foreign editions but somehow I don't think I had seen these.

For me the Russian typography adds a beautiful quality of mystery to these covers.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Here's another one from a year or two later. It represents the wicked Queen who was Snow White's stepmother admiring herself in the magic mirror.
It was published in the Candlewick Book of Fairytales and was used on the cover of one edition of that book.

Images from The Once and Future King

I did this drawing at college. It shows the Wart meeting Merlin, a scene from "The Sword in the Stone" by TH White.

I'm sure I must have posted it before but it was a very key image in my college career and it directly lead to me doing this book cover for the book for Collins one of my first publishers.

TH White's "Once and Future King" series is still my all time favourite work for young adults.

The little vignette of the Wart and Merlin reading appeared on the back cover of the book. I can't find the book for sale anywhere on line. It must be a bit of a rarity.

.

The Country of the Young

I was recently asked to hunt out this rough I did several years ago for a stamp design based on "The Children of Lir".
The rough, complete with sticky tape and photocopied serrated edges, will be used on the cover of a book of academic essays edited by John Countryman and Kelly Matthews.
It is called "The Country of the Young: Interpretations of Youth and Childhood in Irish Culture" and publication by Four Courts Press is in April or May.
Below is the finished artwork that I did for the An Post stamp design.

Happy Halloween!

Just to get into the Halloween vibe a little bit, here is the cover artwork I did some years ago for a book of ghost stories for Poolbeg Press. It was called Quiver!

"Sarah, Plain and Tall", the artwork

Here is the full painting of the "Sarah, Plain and Tall" book cover, showing that nice old house on the back.
I've loved Andrew Wyeth's work since I was at school, and I think I was trying to achieve a little of the flavour of his work in this piece.
It wasn't until I got to art college that I discovered the work of his father, NC Wyeth, who then became one of my all time favourite artists.

"Sarah, Plain and Tall"

I was talking in an earlier post about the cover I once did for "Sarah, Plain and Tall" by Patricia MacLachlan.

I managed to locate the paperback cover, but I'll add a picture of the original watercolour art soon, as the back cover shows the old prairie house, which is probably my favourite part of the image.

All My Book Covers