Australia Vs Ireland (Rugby)

See how i put Australia first?

Limerick Post piece, for the Australia Vs Ireland Rugby match played same day as edition. Needless to say, the picture, though dawn in advance, with the brief "Asutralia are gonna kick our arse" - or words to that effect, does reflect the gist if the match.

Ireland did play quite well, but unfortunately though numbering only 2, Australia were about 10 times the size, and looked like a couple of brawlers....

No Weeding. No Pruning.

Cartoon done for the Limerick Post.

An article about the ruins on farmers property that are heritage listed, and as such may not be interfered with in any way - not even to clear away any plant-life that may have over grown these teetering mounds of prospective rubble, which is what many farmers would like to do in order to maintain them somewhat- though it's apparently fine for the farmers cattle and sheep to graze all over the things.

Was that the longest sentence I've ever written....?

Cork Vs Limerick (Hurling)

Limerick take on Cork in the hurling, and are up against Aisake o hAilpin.

This is quite possibly a true representation of the difference in height between the average Limerick player and o hAilpin... not that we should let that lead to the assumption it will be an old fashioned arse-kicking.

Again.

Used in the Limerick Post newspaper (and online edition) for article about this match.

Ripple (Watch That Flubber Fly)

This is another Illustration Friday piece - a quick Oil Pastel sketch of what i initially thought doing of after hearing the topic - "Ripple", but before i read about the oil spill fund raiser thing....

A fat man slapping his flab. I have done this myself.

This was just for the laff - the proper one is here....

Ripple (Death By Oil Slick)

New one for Illustration Friday topic: Ripple.

The word was chosen to coincide with a fund raiser to help with the Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe (Oil Spill), other entries can be found here.

My first response to the word Ripple was, as usual, puerile and mildly perverse, but then I figured it could give me a chance to do something that I hadn't done before, which was using the Water Colour brushes.

It was also nice, as they requested a particular size, which gave an added limitation to the piece.

What began as doodling away with the pencils, ended with some subtle colour washes and fiddling around, and I'm kinda happy with the way it turned out. Makes me feel all arty....

Ireland vs New Zealand (Optimistic)

It was suggested i do something for the upcoming Rugby Union match between Ireland and The All Blacks for Ireland tour of Australia and N.Z.

The possibility of it being used in a Limerick newspaper prompted me to pick one of Limericks most recognised and celebrated of rugby players, not to mention the current Munster captain, to use in the image.

I wanted it to be a Ireland supportive take of the match, with the giant man, O'Connell, towering over the kiwi's.

Later I learned that a) Paul O'Connell isn't on this tour, and b) Ireland are likely to be completely hammered by the apparently far superior team, the All Blacks.

I really should pay more attention to these finer details.... There's still time; i might have another go.

Surprised At Discovering No "Serious Consequences" Under The Sofa, The Taoiseach Practices His Look Of "Steely Resolve"

Taoiseach (tee-shuck) is the Irish official term given for the leader of the country; the equivalent, i suppose, of Prime Minister. The unofficial term given for the this leader of the country, is "Biffo".

Triggered by a great line uttered by a friend, in response to the news that there would be "serious consequences" for Israel should any harm come to the Irish being held after the Gaza aid flotilla massacre. Article here.

It was also a chance to practice painting this man, possibly the most uninspiring of individuals....

Extol The Virtue

First illustration for Illustration Friday, this weeks topic was Slither. It's open to interpretation, but i found myself seeing the word and it's connotations in a slightly different way....

Update: I might just add here - i'm living in Ireland, where a report into the shocking child abuse, sexual and otherwise, of male and female children alike, was released recently.

Girl And Bear

Saw some pencil work recently that reminded me of how wonderful pencil work can be. I particularly like pencil for soft toys and children so, in an attempt to get away from using Painter's Artist Oils brushes and have ago at the Pencil brushes, I went with doing a bit of both.

But as i have been doing a lot of fairly straight ahead nice work, I couldn't help adding a little bit of blood to this one...

Update: Submitted this for Illustration Friday topic: Trail.