Illustrations for '365 Reasons to be proud to be Irish.'

Last year I worked with Anova books to illustrate one of their new Portico titles '365 Reasons to be Proud to be Irish,' by Richard Happer. The book is part of their popular culture and humour section and their 365 series. The book takes a look at Ireland's rich history, heritage, traditions, landmarks, culture and more.

I enjoyed working on this project and I really liked the fact I was restricted to using only black and white, it was a fun challenge! This was the first book I illustrated (now I'm on my fourth) and I absolutely love working on book projects and in the publishing sector - it's nice to have projects with a lengthier timeframe and I love seeing the final product!

Icons used throughout the book

I hope you like the final artwork, there were 18 illustrations in total so here are some of my favourite images from the book. Please feel free to get in touch if you would like to see more. 

Waitrose Kitchen March 14.'

This months feel-good food illustrations were all about sweetcorn, lime, flat leaf parsley, cauliflower, puy lentils and sweet potatoes. I can't wait to try out the recipe for sweetcorn fritters with avocado and cherry tomato salsa, sounds and looks delicious.

'We'll always have Paris.'

Next month I'm taking a trip to Paris. I'm really looking forward to 6 days in the city soaking up the inspiration and filling a sketchbook with some new work. I'm planning to go to the usual tourist attractions, The Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Montmartre etc and hopefully take a river cruise down the Seine and see a show at the Moulin Rouge. There's also La Roseraie de l'Hay-les-Roses a rose garden that houses over 3000 species in 3 miles of flower beds that I would love to see.

In preparation of the trip I've been researching other artists sketchbook work. I found a really great book 'Paris Sketchbook,' by Jason Brooks (renowned fashion illustrator) that documents his fascination of the city in this 'part guidebook, part illustrated journal.' It's really interesting to observe his sketchbook practice in relation to his commercial work. Below are some extracts from the book that are particularly inspiring…

I love the playfulness of The Eiffel Tower made up of different typefaces, the shape is so iconic that less is more in this depiction. The postcard collection is so aesthetically pleasing, I love collections and it would be fun to start my own collection of something whilst on my trip.

I like how the book is split up into various sections: architecture, the street, le cafe, fashion, shopping, art, a to b and la nuit. It helps give a balanced view of the whole city but it would also be fun to focus on just one study of something. I'm excited by the idea of going into a Parisian cafe and ordering a table of French desserts and spending the day drawing them, eating them and sipping on coffee :) A few other things I love in the book were the little silver foil cut-outs of iconic landmarks of Paris. It's good to look at basic structures and have fun experimenting with different approaches, I'm going to try to incorporate this into my drawing. I also loved the inserts of translucent tracing paper type dividers with inked quotes - love this idea, the ink drawings on coloured pages with simple blocks of white, the collections and groups of objects - doorways, lampposts and the small quick studies of the people of Paris. So inspiring!  

The Artworks new 'Thank You' mailer

This year The Artworks decided to create a special mailer to thank their clients, existing and future for thinking of their artists for so many lovely projects. I popped in to see them on Friday and got my very own pack - a gorgeously designed package that opens out displaying 6 thank you cards each illustrated by a different artist. I thought it was a great idea beautifully executed and I'm so chuffed to be part of their team. There's lots of exciting things happening at The Artworks this year so stay tuned and if you are a commissioner of illustration and haven't received a pack head over to their website to request one - you don't want to miss out!

What's on my bedside table?

Here's what's currently on my bedside table... Perfume, a comb, hair slides, hand cream, fresh flowers, my phone, mirror, a teacup containing a bird necklace and night serum.

Waitrose Kitchen February 14.'

I'm really enjoying working on this lovely commission for Waitrose Kitchen 'Feel-good food.' This month it's all about mushrooms, turnips, fennel, mussels and kalamata olives! I made the Italian baked aubergine whilst working on this and it was delicious! 

In love with…drawing

In between commissions I occasionally take on personal portrait pieces, they're always fun to do as I love drawing people and I've found recently in my commercial practice I seem to be drawing slightly less of them.

I will always adore drawing characters, I remember whilst I was an art student one evening I filled a whole concertina moleskin sketchbook of portraits and it was when I clicked with drawing people - sometimes there's a creative block where you hold back drawing a certain thing that you feel you can't, you can build up an almost fear of drawing that thing. I did that with people, but that evening I sat and drew and drew and it finally clicked. I think with drawing it's a process of practise and constantly evolving.