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....

Willie - Published!

A post without an actual illustration, rather a digital clipping from the online version of the local newspaper - The Limerick Post - who have used my illustration of Willie O'Dea in an article about his life and reflections after the kerfuffle of the last year leading up to his stepping down as MoD.

Link to article in the digital edition here.

Link to the original post here.

Breakfast: Ten Week Old Perspective

For Illustration Friday topic 'Breakfast'.

I have a 10 week old, and this weeks topic triggered the thought that this must be what she's looking at fairly regularly.....

Fall

And i dont't know if i'm ever coming home.... take that last train t Clarksville.

Don't be slow.

He Was All Like "Wha...??"

Quick sketch. Trying to capture a kind of confused look of the face of the hunter about to become the game.

Then i gave him ears like that...

There's a screen capture too i'll put up in a while.

Home Early

A quick study of skin, weight and shame....

No real reason for it, other than for the laugh.

Comrade!

Was just flaffing around, and ended up with something that was a cross between people i saw on a recent trip to Krakow, Poland, and a russian strength guru i've come across in my quest for fitting in exercise around small children.....

The Bear

Another in the Animal Series i'm working on.

Started this a while back and abandoned it as it wasn't clicking for me, but have it done now.....

The Octopus

Finally! Back to the animal series, and the octopus is complete.

This too a lot longer than the others because of the suckers and tentacles.

Damn near killed me....

In Event Of Emergency

Ever run out of toilet paper?

Every so often, through practical experimentation, over the past 20 years, this technique has proved it's self to be relatively reliable, if not quite time consuming. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of steps 5 and 6, and urge any who need to adopt this technique when the time comes not to rush. Take all the time available to you. Trust me.

Just felt that some knowledge needs to be shared, in the interests of surviving various otherwise potentially disastrous scenarios.

Submitted for Illustration Friday topic Satelite - When a fresh roll might as well be in space....

Limerick Vs Kerry (GAA)

Piece for Limerick Post.

Looks like Limerick hasn't won the Munster Senior Football title in 114 years, and they're going to give it a shot this weekend.

Kind of bizarre that Limerick hasn't won in that long, and for the Irish that's just how long it's taken, but as some one who is relatively new to Ireland and really knows nothing about the sport (other than the suspicion it's where AFL came from), it struck me that Limerick haven't won this title in about half of the history of Australia under white settlement.

Seems much longer to me now....

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.