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September 30, 2010#

Paddy’s Evening Out

A small picture book with no text by John S. Goodall, it has to be one of the first books that i ever owned. The hard cover is now separated from the pages at the spine from over use back in the day.

Paddy, a pig, goes on a date to a show with dancing girls, magicians, acrobats and a live orchestra – i suppose a kind of variety show… He and his partner are given balcony seats in a BOOTH up on one side the stage. While waving her fan, his partner looses it over the edge of the balcony, and in reaching to catch it, Paddy goes over the edge. The book is him running around trying to hide and not make an arse of him self in public – and failing.

The book has half page flaps that drive the story by allowing smaller incremental changes for each page, which i though was brilliant as a kid, and still do, as it turns out.

September 29, 2010#

Inspiration and Documentation

Been clearing out the office a bit in the hopes of child-proofing it somewhat. Maybe it’s just a fantasy, but the aim is to be able to do a little work periodically with the little ‘uns up here…. may only be able to check and send an email, or something less involved than actually painting, but i thought it’d be worth preparing the space.

In doing this all my old kids books and art reference books have been rediscovered, so i thought i’d periodically have a flick through some and write a post on why they survived every book cull over the past 34 years or so…

I’ve also been thinking about perhaps documenting my process a little more – trying to use the screen capture stuff – mostly for my own amusement, but it’s possible some other out there might get a kick out of it! Will probably go into how i’m using Painter as well, to keep track of the softwares many many many options. Like, i’ve just discovered Dirty Mode in the Artists Oils…. it’s a little check box – been sitting there for the past year and a half – did i ever click t to see what it did? No….

Feel free to let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see.

Stay tuned!

September 22, 2010#

Acrobat

Submission for this weeks Illustration Friday topic “Acrobat”.

Chance to try Painters Tinting brushes – i quite like them!
September 21, 2010#

Waiting

A piece that was put on the back burner some time ago, as it all seemed too daunting a task for me – an actual landscape scene (of sorts).

Mostly i draw characters or cartoons that may or not be in some sort of environment, but with this one i was actually aiming to paint the environment, with the figure being a secondary consideration. It started with the mushroom on the tree, and the rain lead to the mushroom providing shelter, hence the figure.
Other opportunities of study for me in this work were the concept that objects in the distance are somewhat hazy, ill-defined and much paler than the middle ground, and the foreground objects darker and slightly out of focus too – all these aspects helping to achieve a more convincing 3D space; and using a somewhat limited palette of colour. I’ve used many colours now, and also have a history with black and white, so it was a fun challenge trying to limit the number or colours used.
I’m reasonably happy with this study, and somewhat relieved to have it finished…

Here’s a still’s animation of the process. Not great quality, but maybe next time.

September 17, 2010#

Blacker Pastures

I’ve been playing with image ideas to go with the name of this blog. The name Blacker Pastures came from the idea that where greener pastures might be better than where you are, blacker pastures might be worse some how.

I found after 4 or 5 years living in The Emerald Isle there was a few different aspects that made me think that perhaps i’d moved to blacker pastures, which is in a sense why i started this blog – to pull my self out of a rut, and find something positive to focus on, and drawing and illustration has generally been has always been something that i enjoyed.
So in a somewhat literal translation of the phrase this image was produced.
A field or pasture – plenty of those in Ireland.
Lashing rain – plenty of that in Ireland, and on of the things that had begun to kill me.
Black ink and simple, chosen to make it kinda blocky and ‘logo’.
Originally i was thinking of a making the animal a sheep, as it’s what i think of when i think of pastures (possibly cows too), but i’ve had a few run ins with goats driving in the country, and i like the silhouette more. Besides, they’re horny…
Submitted for Illustration Friday topic “Proverb”, after finding the proverb “When rain fall, sheep and goat have to mix” (Trinidad and Tobago).
I stopped at the goat….
September 8, 2010#

International Rules And Greyhounds (For Trick:Tigers and Dogs)

International Rules is where the Australians get a team together from varied AFL teams, compete against Ireland – who have also put together a team from varied Gaelic Football teams – in such a way that generally leaved the Irish nursing many a bruise. In fact the Irish had cancelled the competition for the ‘foreseeable future’ after one bad year where several of the Irish players broke nails during the match.

oooooohhhhhhh – fighting words. C’mon, y’softies….
Anyway, it’s on again soon.
Also, something about a new greyhound stadium opening in October.
Not sure what else to say about this one, other than i had fun painting it for the Limerick Post.
August 31, 2010#

Nymph In Milk Bath. In The Snow (Normal Lindsay Made Me Do It)

I was looking to try out some more Water Colour brushes, and as i’ve never really tried to draw a female face i set out to do so. It seems i was unable to pull very far away from the cartoony faces i normally do, but managed to get closer to a ‘pretty’ face – though i’m not completely happy with it.

The ears turned up along with the hair as i began to be reminded Normal Lindsay’s nymphs and playful nudes. If you don’t know what I’m on about, look it up.
I needed to put her in some sort of context, and as i wasn’t really in the mood for f*ck-arseing around concentrating on clothes, i just worked down the body til she appeared to be partially submerged. And i wanted to draw some boobs. Lets call it an exercise in painting buoyancy….
August 31, 2010#

The Moon

Quick sketch that started out as nothing and didn’t move too far from that.

Just wanted a very small light source on a dark night.
August 5, 2010#

Still Life With Frock

I once hear a man lovingly refer to his annoying wife as pear shaped woman. It was at my wedding i think, and no, it wasn’t me….

Alternate titles for this might have been:
“A pear, even in satin, is still a pear”
“Yes, but it looks good on“
“Satin 1. Pear 0.”
There’s something about this shape, and it’s need to be draped in satin, that has a similar allure as a flame might for a moth.
Why? I have no idea.
A study of reflective cloth, and fruit skin. That being said, i didn’t actually dress up a pear in a delightful lavender number, rather the scars on my brain, from witnessing outfits such as this, on nights out in Limerick, provided all the reference i needed.
Submitted for Illustration Friday topic Artificial –
“Sick of the artificial women in the media? Behold: the real shape of things to come.”

Used in local rag’s New Year’s Resolution article.

July 28, 2010#

Attack Of The Zombie Hotels

Zombie hotels, standing largely empty, lifeless, are being kept alive for no clear reason.

They are able to under cut accommodation costs of B&B’s, Ireland’s more ‘traditional’ form of accommodation, and the B&B’s are feeling the pinch.
This is what i’m told, anyway….
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