The Big Guide to Irish Children's Books

This is a cover I did around 2000 for a guide t0 Irish Kids' books edited by my friends Valerie Coghlan, and Celia Keenan.

Valerie and her husband Rex bought the painting afterwards.

The model for the boy was my nephew Daniel. 

He'd be pretty embarrassed by it now as he is an aspiring rock guitarist, and a pretty cool dude.

The Bee-man of Orn, cover art from sketch to painting

Here's a little video showing the process from sketch to the finished painting of the cover of The Bee-man of Orn by Frank R Stockton.

Shiver

To get back to the theme of book illustration; here is a cover that I did about ten years ago for an anthology of ghost stories published by Poolbeg Press in Ireland. 

It has not been seen very widely, but was always one of my favourite portfolio pieces, so I think it's a good idea to share it here. 

Sleeping nude

Here's a large drawing that I sold in last year's life drawing exhibition.

It was about four foot wide as I remember.

I've been drawing and painting small pictures for years and years, but now at last I seem to have realised the importance and impressiveness of working on a large scale, probably as a result of the Gulliver murals I did in 2006.

Of course when you are working towards reproduction in a book, this is hardly relevant, but over the years I have exhibited more and more, and the size of the picture is very important here, not least when it comes to pricing a work. 

There is also a great feeling of achievement when you create a big piece of work. 

Sarah: Life Painting

Here's another of my paintings from the Life Drawing Exhibition at the United Arts Club in Dublin.

This one has a distinct Gwen John feeling about it.

There is a report on the exhibition and it's opening on Scamp

Nude life painting.

Here is an oil painting that I'm showing in a group exhibition at the United Arts Club in Dublin this week.

As it was based on a drawing I had done from life in twenty five minutes, I couldn't include a great deal of detail in the painting. However, it is all the more atmospheric for that. This is what I love about my life paintings, as opposed to my illustration work.

The Starlight Cloak

This is a design I did for a Polka Theatre production of The Starlight Cloak. 

The story was based on an Irish version of Cinderella called Fair, Brown and Trembling.

It's always nice to do a one-off image like a theatre poster or a book cover. You don't have to worry about repainting the same character in different poses, and you can concentrate all your creativity in one picture rather than pacing yourself over the length of a book.

This one was from 1995, when I was looking a lot at the work of Gennady Spirin, and I can clearly see that I was trying to emulate Gennady's clever way with shadows.