It’s amazing to think that we’ve made it through another academic year already. In LIT Clonmel, that means a few things: it’s deadline season, it’s exam season, and it’s almost time for the annual Pen & Pixel exhibition!

One of our assignments in college this semester is to create a 30-second advert for a product of our choice. I picked Zippo lighters; mostly because the product itself is pretty cool, so I found it easy to come up with an strong, visually dynamic idea which would sum up the product well. I'm having a lot of fun with it, and it's starting to come together now, so I figured I might as well start sharing the process involved in it as I make progress. Here's step one: The Pitch! ...Which, in this case, also includes styleframes and the storyboard.

It's been a long time coming, but The Chicken Song is finally here! Ruth Butler and I have been working on this project for a few months now, and we're both incredibly excited to be able to share it! Ruth, always a treasure trove of ideas, developed the story and song, while I've been busy developing the visuals and animation. The journey has been a fun-filled one, so do please press play, check it out, and subscribe to Ruth's YouTube channel or my Facebook Page or other social accounts to keep up-to-date on our musical adventures! And be sure to have a very happy Easter too!

For some time now, I've been thinking about my little pocket watch logo, wondering whether or not I should update that as my icon across social media. I had a few good brainstorming conversations too, which made me wonder if it was time to start using something digital, something more characterful, and/or something closer to a visual representative of me as an artist. With all that in mind, I decided to draw up this little stylised version of myself as a character. I'm not 100% sure that I'll use it as planned (I'm pretty attached to my pocket watch!) but it was a fun little experiment all the same. :)

The weekend before last, I was lucky enough to spend some time in the company of a few incredible people with amazing drive and determination. The musicians, and all those involved in making the first Ortús Chamber Music Festival as successful as it was have been wonderful to work with and an inspiration all around!

And so, as promised, here's the full and final piece! I had a whole lot of fun with this, and hopefully I'll be able to do more work like it soon. I've also entered this and two other pieces (this and this set) into the LSAD Drawing Awards this year, so if anyone is intending to go to that exhibition, keep an eye out for it! 

A few weeks ago, I shared a little collection cats  I'd been drawing as practice. Today; I'm sharing the canine equivalent.  (I'm also playing around with monotone palettes too!) 

I've been thinking a lot about music lately. Craving new music, falling in love with old favorites again, and working with music in a lot of my art and design work too. I realized the other day that of the four projects for/with other people that I've got in the works; half of them are for musicians, directly related to their music. That, together with the news of Bowie's death, I couldn't help but draw inspiration from the great joy that there is in listening. 

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year! For my part, it felt good to chill out, watch movies, and catch up with friends, new and old. It was also a pure delight to draw whatever I felt like for a change! The second half of last year got pretty intense in terms of creating for other people, so it felt good to draw just because I wanted to.