Official Launch of Pigs On Parade

It's official, Pigs on Parade have officially been launched by the Jack & Jill Children's Foundation! I'm still busy working away on my pig and the deadline is drawing near. My pig will be collected this Saturday 29th November. Right now i am finishing off details of the pigs features and i will then have to varnish it, so i have a busy few days ahead but i am delighted to be part of such a great art initiative. 

The Jack & Jill Children's Foundation have officially launched what will be the biggest Pigs On Parade and public arts initiative to take place in Dublin in January 2015!  Irish artists Vincent Devine and Willie Redmond, both from Co. Offaly, unveiled the first two completed Pigs at Art Source in the RDS.

Vincent Devine’s pig design called Relativity is based, according to the artist, on abstract realism drawn from his subconscious called ‘Relativity’ and represent the mother and father of the child; representing the Jack & Jill Foundation, surrounding and draping the parents in a comforting and supportive way.

Willie Redmond’s pig design is inspired from the bogland landscape where he grew up in Offaly aptly named ‘Hog in a Bog, can’t see the tree little pig for the woods’. The Birch Trees are prevalent in the piece which conveys depth and water through bogpools and floating leaves; both dramatic and distinctive pieces incorporating their style on this unique canvas.

Similarly to the Big Egg Hunt, Pigs on Parade is a public arts initiative organised by the Jack & Jill Foundation that will see 100 unique pieces of art in the form of painted and decorated life-size fiberglass Pigs designed by leading artists and designers going on display in public accessible areas around Dublin City in January 2015. All Pigs are available to be sponsored or purchased in the lead up to the parade.

“We are very excited to launch Pigs on Parade both from a fundraising perspective and as it creates unique pieces of art for the public to view. The monies raised from this campaign will support home nursing care for our 300 sick children nationwide. On behalf of the families we support, thanks to Oman, UPS, Q102, and Kia Motors for the support to date for the campaign and also to all the 100 artists on board and to David Southern for spearheading the whole project for Jack & Jill.” – Jonathan Irwin – CEO Jack & Jill

In January 2015 Jack & Jill will invite people to find the fantastically designed ‘Pigs on Parade’ that have been created by the talented artists from around the country, with a chance to win lots of fantastic prizes. All the Pigs will then be auctioned off online and will culminate in a live auction in March 2015, all in aid of Jack & Jill.

Watching The World Go By : Dry Point Printing

During the week I have been experiementing with "Dry Point" printing on my illustrations. I havent done any dry point in a number of years so it was good to get back into it. Shadowing and atmosphere were the aspects that i was hoping to achieve. Here is some information about the Dry Point printing process.


Development work : Composition

This image of achieved  by drawing onto a perspex plate of plastic, using a scribe tool. The harder you work onto the perspex the deeper the line and the darker the line will be once printed. Also the closer the lines are scribed together, the more ink in that area and the deeper the tone. Different line qualities are achieved by presser applied to the  scribe, line direction and various techniques. Other techniques examples could be cross hatching, dots or circles, each will have its own print quality. Remember that when you print your work, it will be the reverse image of what is scribed on the plate.

 

 

Development Work : Atmosphere / Tone



Once your plate is scribed, it is then inked up using oil based etching ink. The plate is then rubbed down using fabric known as "Scrim" and then acid free tissue. Meanwhile watercolour paper should have been soaking in preparation, this the then blotted down, to remove any excess water. The plate is then rested on the printing press bed while the paper is placed on top of it, then they are sent through the press.

 

 

TA Dah....

 

 



Close up
 

Once your image has been printed you can see if you would like to alter the piece , you can work back into the plate to achieve deeper lines, although when using perspex for this method, it has a limited printing ability. Which means that line quality and clarity will alter after it has been printed a number of times. This method of printed can also be done using a copper plate which would be more durable. This is merely the tip of the ice-berg in what can be created as various colours and interacting plates open up so many possibilites.


Drawing Inspiration from Disney Legend Mary Blair

 Mary Blair (October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978), was an American artist who was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Cinderella. She also created character designs for enduring attractions such as Disneylands It's a Small World and an enormous mosaic inside Disney's Contemporary Resort. Several of her illustrated children's books from the 1950s remain in print, such as I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss, She also designed many characters for advertising in the 1950's. Mary was honored as a Disney Legend in 1991.

Personally i am a huge fan of Mary's work, i look to her drawings when i am struggling with colour and shape. Looking at her development work for Peter Pan is like receiving a masterclass in colour concept and theory. I also find her character designs very helpful to study, personally i look at these for inspiration in posing and "weight." I could look at Mary's work all day.........

"The Elves And The Shoemaker" Character Development

Over the past two weeks i have been designing characters as part of the Picture Book course i am attending. We have to select a fairytale story and re-design a main character. The story i picked was "The Elves And The Shoemaker," i loved that story when i was growing up, the thoughts of Elves which came to help in the middle of the night was very believable to me!! I decided to re-design the main Elf character. I played around with many idea's of what she could look like and what style would be used to draw her. For inspiration i looked towards the amazing Disney artist Mary Blair, the brains behind the design of "It's A Small World" and the feature film's of "Peter Pan" and "Alice In Wonderland."

Here are some of the character development sketches I've created, (sorry the photo quality isn't that great) :

Daily Doodle

Coco (Sheltie) & Kiwi (Poodle) WIN at a local dog competition!! I had to draw it :)

Daily Doodle!

Looking down! 

Must Love Dogs

 

A watercolour illustration which i did earlier this year. The inital drawing is done with my trusted Pentel Pocketbrush, possibly the greatest pen ever invented if you love the fluid nature of ink! ....oohh but dont bring it with you on a plane, they have been known to leak with the cabin pressure!

 

The Artist Notebook Project

The Kildare Artist Notebook Project is ran by the Kildare Arts Office and it invites artists at all stages of their development to participate in the project. Artists are invited to fill a notebook in a creative way. Each notebook is then donated to Kildare County Council Arts Service to become part of a permanent touring collection. I am extremely excited to be part of this project, i am one of those artists who cares their notebook with them at all times, and i have always been that way since my early days in art college! So a chance to glimpse at other artists' notebook's always interests me because sometimes i feel that you learn more about an artist from their development work or rough idea's than their finished pieces.

Since i've had to hand over my notebook to the Arts Office, i decided i would document my notebook, I then made the photographs into a stop motion flipbook animation.

The offical opening of the Artist Notebook Project took place on Saturday 18th October by Dr Maebh O' Regan, in the ever impressive "Riverbank Arts Centre" in Newbridge. The exhibition is also part of the Kildare Literary Festival 2014. Check out the Kildare Artist Notebook Project website for more information on the Artists and where the touring exhibition will be next
http://www.kildarenotebookproject.com/

 

 

Sketchbook Peek

Doodling some garden gnomes!... Sure why not!  

Sketchbook Peek

Hey there Mr Polar bear! Ink on paper

Spring Is On The Horizon

"After Winter Comes Spring" is a chalk board animation which i created a number of years ago. It reflects the economic crisis the country was experiencing of the past number of years. As budget day 2015 is upon us there is rumours that some taxes may be reversed, could we be getting over the hard times? Is spring on the horizon?

Sketchbook Peek

Sealed with a kiss! Nothing is cuter than a seal pup.....

On the Pigs Back!

Today i received great news that the design i had submitted for the charity event "Pig's on Parade" has been selected! Wahoo! The event is to raise money for the "Jack and Jill" foundation. Artists are selected to design a fibreglass pig, the pigs are then displayed around Dublin for a period of time then they will be auctioned off to raise money for the foundation. I can't reveal what my design will be (under strict orders) but i will be updating my blog on my progress. Now all i have to do is await the arrival of my lil pig :)

"The Tiger Who Came to Tea" and Me

Tonight i start on my "Picture Book Creation" course. We are asked to bring in a copy of our favourite picture book. Ive chosen to bring Judith Kerr's masterpiece "The Tiger Who Came to Tea."  Growing up i would always get this book out from my school library just to marvel at the pictures in it, it got to the stage , when i was in an older class, where my teacher banned me from taking it out because i "shouldn't be taking out picture books" at my age. Little did she know id be still looking at it almost twenty years later!

A poet, a baker, a picture book maker!

Ive decided to get back into the habit of using my blog to promote the work and illustrations that i create. Tomorrow i start a new venture, i have enrolled on a year long course in which i will create my own picture book. The very thought of this excites me so i am looking forward to getting pencil to paper! Hopefully i will get into the habit of keeping this blog updated on my progress.

Artist in School Residency 2013: "Penny And The Big Top"

Over the course of several months I had been collaborating with twenty-eight pupils in Scoil Choca Naofa in a stop motion animation group project funded by the Kildare Arts Office. The project involved all students in a third and fourth class mix, and seen pupils learn the art of stop motion animation. Pupils explored the theme of “A Trip To The Circus.” They took inspiration from Alice Maher, Kara Walker and Shaun The Sheep! Learning about all elements of animation, from scriptwriting, storyboarding, character design, set design to final production shooting. Pupils collaborated their idea’s, stories, characters and imaginations to create one final stop motion animation production. The result of which was a seven minute short.

          The first phase was writing a group story and developing a script, from here each student was assigned a scene to sketch the storyboard, then they designed and made a character and a prop or set piece. The collaboration of each pupils work began in the next phase, when shooting began, taking reference from previous storyboards produced. Each pupil gained hands on experience of animating characters, adjusting lighting, managing sets and deciding on camera angles, alternatively referred to as “Lights, Camera, Action!!” Pupils also recorded narrating the script, known as a “voice over.”          Once all the production photography had been shot, I digitally combined the audio with the visual imagery, then added a musical soundtrack, with sound effects.

          A great hype was created around the school on the day “Penny And The Big Top” premiered for the first time pupils seen their hard work come to life. Each pupil got a certificate of participation and a DVD copy of the animation.

          During my time in Scoil Choca, I hope that I have made an impact on the pupils perception of art and it’s limitless possibilities. All pupils were alert, smart, imaginative and keen to learn. They enjoyed all activities and the school and class teachers were continually supportive. The skills they have learnt will last them much longer and they have experienced the power of collaboration, working as part of one team.
          The finished animation is viewable on the school website or is available for viewing in the school.
https://vimeo.com/85248709