The White Whale.

Here's some stuff I did working on a submission for Hunt & Gather's Exhibition 'Bill Murray: Chasing the White Whale." Which is on tonight at the Library Project in Temple Bar from 7PM.

OFFSET x SOUVENIR: POSTER

As mentioned in the previous post, I'm uploading my final poster today. I think the development through the other two posters is pretty easy to see. I really like to draw things flying.

OFFSET x SOUVENIR groundwork

 Hey. I had a busy year last year and didn't update this blog even once. I wasn't drawing a lot either to be honest except for posters and other quickly lashed out functional designs. I'm actually not sure about the longevity of this blog. I might end up moving somewhere else entirely... but for now here's some work I did for this event organised by Mr Steve McCarthy.

I can sort of indecisive at times.. so I ended up doing three different versions of the poster. These are two unused designs. I'll post the final poster on the day of the event.

Happy New Year

It's been a very long time since I've had something I felt was right to put on this blog. I've been very busy the last few months with a supper club that my boyfriend runs. Mostly anything I've drawn in that time has been connected with the blog and suppers in one way or another, mainly making a lot of posters which you can see on my tumblr.

Here is a little thing I wanted to do since the start of winter:

Family Portrait.

Spent most of my weekend working on this. Acrylics on the lid of a wooden wine crate. It's a late submission for a charity auction. Hopefully it'll get accepted. Below the camera-phone quality photo is the digital colour sketch I did before hand. I need to paint more. It was fun.
It's a sort of a family portrait of cacti. Inspired by the Old Man cactus and Old Lady cactus in the middle. It ended up a bit crowded and I prefer the shapes and sizes in the digital but I guess this is what happens when you haven't painted in about a year. Also this is easily the biggest piece I've ever painted.

lol, hypermasculinity.

Gift to some friends. The 80s send their love.

JOAN

The last scene of "Torch Song": Joan Crawford's character glides in like a Dalek and exterminates everyone. Genuinely terrifying.

Falco

I can explain but I won't.

FIGHTING

I was helping out with a kumite competition for kids today at my dojo. Some of the kids were hilarious. This one kid acted like he had an epic kung-fu soundtrack in his head the whole time... or thought he was Vegeta from DBZ. When I was fixing his dogi before his match he looked across at his opponent said in a dark voice: "Let's see what he's got." Also, he didn't walk; only stomped. After every round he'd wheeze like crazy even though he obviously wasn't out of breath. INTENSE.

Wasting time.

Was meant to be drawing something else but I was at a lecture by Brenda Chapman yesterday and something she was talking about made me want to draw a lady based on a swan. An idea that's been done but too often with long hair and generally giving some delicate, whispy sort of impression. I hate that so here's my version. I dunno about you but in my experience swans are badass and kind of scary. If you've got some bread, you better hand that shit over bro.

BEETROOT

I think one thing that I'm struggling with at the moment is a lot of the things I'm interested in are abstract ideas so nothing especially comes to mind when I have some free time with my sketchbook or photoshop. I'm also kind of weary of drawing characters. So here is a drawing of my winter hero: the beetroot. I got a lot from my dad (who knows not what to do with them beyond picking them in vinegar and putting them in jars, a tragedy for another day) and was struck by how great it is. They've got a very satisfying solid feel, the violent purple colour is amazing and because these are dirty great right-out-of-the-ground beets they have this nice rough brown part at the top that's all warty and interesting. The stalks/leaves which I didn't really draw here, can be eaten too and like the the beet, dye everything a really pleasing pinky red colour. (Though this can be not so great when being the Kitchen Goddess that I am: transferring them from sink to chopping board, ending up dropping them on the white tiles that I just cleaned.)

Anyway, Beetroot are great and with with River Cottage Veg as my guide, I've learned that there's loads you can do with them. They're good friends with dill and horseradish and make a very nice soup together. I've roasted loads of them with thyme and balsamic vinegar. Walnut and beetroot dip is delicious too. Being so sweet, they get on like a house on fire with chocolate apparently and can be worked into desserts to produce some interesting results.

This year if I can't plant my own, I'll definitely have to badger my dad into growing some other varieties like the ones in the second picture. So pretty!

動物

Uh.. I don't have a favourite animal. But I really enjoy native wildlife and maintain that badgers never get enough love. So here's a badger with a cup of cocoa.

stone in a well.

The  other day I found an unofficial English copy of Murakami Haruki's Pinball 1973. This is a quick sketch of my impressions of the first fourteen pages. It's very Early Murakami. All the hallmarks such as casual dips into the surreal, animal-centered mini-missions, mysterious knowing nameless female characters and a sense of quiet futility.

Speedpainting

Some speedpainting I did yesterday. The characters in the top picture are Niamh's lovely pirate couple. They're a lot of fun to draw.
COLOUR ♡♡♡♡♡

xo

Here comes the sun.

Here's another drawing that's about as interesting as a bowl of fruit.

Le printemps

Been working at this solidly for two hours. I think this is what it's meant to look like but I'm not sure anymore. It's for print in black and white magazine; something I was conscious of when I was designing it since I rarely work in black and white. This was interesting.

Boring

 Image for a thing with Inklude. The theme as you can see was 'boring'.
I drew this because this kind of dinner makes me want to cry tears of pure boredom.