Brian Coldrick Illustration

MUGSHOTS

2012-01-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

Here are four pieces I did as a Christmas present for a friend. They chart her maturing from little brat to grown up brat. As I didn't know her before college, the first two exercise a little artistic license.

WOODEN KING AND WOODEN QUEEN

2012-01-25T11:27:00.000-08:00

Here are some designs I did for Millennium fx a few months back. They were for the look of the Wooden King and Queen from the Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe. They evolved from something resembling a creepy Ent to something closer to a medieval relief sculpture or a chess piece.

The guys who built them did an amazing job of creating suits that had a cracked hard wooden texture but still allowed the actor to move about. Here's the finished King messing with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

IT'S A MAT!

2011-09-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

After the last post's Lady Gaga, now to Time Lords. More concept work for Millennium fx, this time the unstoppable Dr Who. First up is a bunch of designs for David Walliams' character Gibbis from last weekend's episode "The God Complex'. Now the final design used for the sculpt was not one of mine but these are along similar lines. I did like my weird balaclava type head sock which was a nod to my playground memories of how pulling the collar of your school jumper over your head made you look like a moleman.

Walliams and the finished make up were both great: sneery, petty and cowardly but strangely likeable. I had nought to do with the episode's other alien creation, the incredible minotaur.

Yesterday's episode "Closing Time' featured another creature whose look I worked on. A foe from the Dr Who series of my youth, the Cybermat returned. I had more to do with the final design of the Cybermen's pets than Gibbis. Some of my first doodles are much closer to his original look and some were a nod to the look in more recent computer games; but the final one used is a cute little worm fellow whose head and eyes were an attempt by me to mirror the shape of the modern cybermen's face plate. He lost his scurrying fingers and tail tendrils along the design stages, making him a tad adorable for an evil alien. Luckily his mouth plate slides back to reveal a very unpleasant set of teeth.

Here's a fan trailer with lots of mat action:

One very satisfying nerd fact for me is that the cybermat's puppeteer was the supremely talented Tim Rose, who created and operated, amongst others, Admiral Ackbar. 10 year old me is so impressed right now.

My close personal friend Lady Gaga

2011-08-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

Double post part 2: Her Ladyship's square chin.

This part is all dedicated to Lady Gaga as I recently did a bunch of concept design for the good folks at Millenium fx who were working on some prosthetics for her latest video "Yoü and I".

I can't claim any real say in the final look of the mermaid tail, that was much more down to the incredibly talented sculptors at Millenium, but the gills did come out like the slash ones in my doodle. In the end they made up some spare molds and they stylishly stuck some gills to her cheeks as well. Nice.

I did much more stuff for her cyborg parts. You can see below the various stages of her arm and neck pieces. They're in vaguely chronological order so you can see them go from really glam to mechanical to finally somewhere else. Once again after my initial drawings all the hard work was done by the sculptors and the folks on the shoot, but I like that the weird chin block made it to the final video.

You can also see in the pics how, as things progressed, I spent less time on suggested hairstyles and then even colouring when time became tight. The work rate of everybody involved turning around such a complicated shoot was pretty impressive.

Here's the finished video!

The 3rd man not on the moon.

2011-08-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

Part one of double post to make up for my tardiness in updating. For you today: Nicholas Cage, Roald Dahl, Irish culture and romantically noisy cinemas...

First up here's a poster I did months ago for a children's production of Roald Dahl's classic The Witches. The show was put together by the good people at DADA, who I'd worked with before on a poster for a production of Peter Pan. It's pretty creepy but Dahl's sense of humour was wonderfully dark so I think I can get away with it.

Next up is a commission for an old friend from college who wanted a doddle for her husband as an anniversary gift. She sent on an incredible list of various idiosyncrasies for me to play on. It led to this drawing of herself sitting in a noisy cinema surrounded by various incarnations of his foibles.

Dublin is up for World Design Capital 2014, our bid is being led by the good folks at Pivot Dublin. They held a dinner at the Hugh Lane Gallery for the assessment panel and asked various illustrators, designers, photographers etc to create a placemat to add some fun and variety to the place settings. This is my effort which features a host of characters, all being slightly bizarre nods to Irish figures, myths and historical and literary characters. Anyone get them all? The sloth in the bottom left I'll give you.

Last up is a recent piece, a poster for the Hollywood Babylon movie night. This coming showing is dedicated to mad genius Nicolas Cage and in particular Vampires Kiss and Wild at Heart. Cage gets a lot of flak for some of the cheesy action movies he churns out but it's hard to knock the guy who has Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation under his belt. Hell I really liked Drive Angry! So in honour of himself I did this flippable playing card style poster. They're going to be screen printed up and available on the night, this Saturday (WRONG! it's next Saturday 27th, oh dear - ignore date on poster) and also through the Hollywood Babylon site. Go!

Part 2 of blog update in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....

The Moving Picture (and a squirrel)

2011-03-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest project I've worked on has just recently come to completion. I was approached by the folks at the Pool to design all the characters and backgrounds for a fully animated ad for the Eurospar chain of shopping centres. It was quite a task, spanning from storyboarding to stylising existing logos and signs.

Here are some early character designs, first up being Ball, the mischievous family dog who provides a lot of the personality and humour in the ad.

Next some of the designs for the family; Mom Avril, budding emo daughter Holly and energetic son Max.

These were polished up, drawn out as character sheets for the animators to build 3d models from

...along with with some vehicles for the street scenes, most important being the family jalopy:

...and of course the staff populating the Eurospar (and a squirrel):

The tone and feel of the backgrounds were worked up from early on, here's a first attempt at a street scene...

...which, after some story rejigging, was eventually replaced with:

And here's the family house:

So all this (and a lot more) was taken by some incredibly skilled folk and turned into a moving world. The backgrounds were mapped onto 3d shapes so the camera pans and zooms would pick up a sense of depth. The character models were animated acting and reacting with personality, and all came together in the finished product:

Eurospar - Easy Peasy from The POOL on Vimeo.

You can see the ad on Irish television right now.

Blog 2: Blog in the City

2011-03-23T02:42:00.000-07:00

Hello internet,
I'm afraid I've neglected this blog for the last while. Since my last post I've left fair Dublin to move to the UK and worked on some (hopefully) interesting bits and bobs. Seeing as I've been meaning to do an update for 6 months now I've retired the sloth pictured from above in place of a new classy banner. Classy.

Last November I was back in Dublin and visited the Zoo and in particular the Sloths. My affectation for all things Slothie are well documented, so it was amazing to hang out with the satisfyingly big, scruffy and characterful creatures. As a thanks to the great Zookeeper who introduced me to them I did this piece for her. It features the sloth relaxing in his shared digs with some of the other creatures who live in Dublin Zoo's South America House. The squirrel monkeys with the piggy bank are a reference to when one distracted my girlfriend to allow another to nick a fiver out of her pocket. Clever monkeys.

Up next is a commission, a gift for someone to give their boyfriend. It's Saul Tigh from the rebooted Battlestar Galactica series. I haven't watched the show, apparently it's up there with recent tv classics like Mad Men and Sopranos... but with space ships and sexy robots. I remember when it appeared I was disinterested after I learned they weren't using the original show's theme music.

There's nothing worse than mentioning Christmas in Spring, but this is slightly anti-Xmas to begin with. It's a piece I did for myself featuring the Krampus, a character from seasonal Germanic traditions. He's the ying to Santa's gift-bearing yang. The Krampus punishes children who've been naughty, beating them with sticks and taking them away in his basket. Go Krampus GO! Prints of Krampus are available here.

Finally, another commission. This time it was a gift for a sister. The suggested references were cooking, Breakfast at Tiffany's, butterflies and data analysis. A heady concoction.

I have lots of other stuff to post up here very soon, most notably some work I've recently completed for an animated tv ad. I've also been doing some concept work for a special effects company which has varied from prosthetics for Lady Gaga's face to, most excitingly of all, a creature for a very well known BBC medical/time travel show...

If you're about Dublin I have a piece in a group show entitled 'Graphics Unleashed' in the Blue Leaf Gallery. There are some super talented folk in the mix and I highly recommend throwing a look in. It opened last week and finishes this Friday so chop, chop.

More really soon...

Oktober Festering Monsters

2010-10-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Following on from a previous illustration job I'd done along a similar style for Paulaner, I recently did this piece to celebrate Paulaner's long history with Oktoberfest, the festival celebrating giant glasses of beer. It depicts the origins of the event, namely the wedding reception in 1810 of the Crown Prince in a field outside Munich. Instead of a run of the mill wedding anniversary he decreed there would be a festival each year to commemorate the occasion. A massive annual knees-up definitely beats an annual dinner and a movie with the increasingly older Princess. Here it is in full:

And here it is with the fancy Paulaner Graphics:

Cheers!

A very different recent piece of work was coming up with some character designs for The Spenglers, a family of giant hairy blue monsters who are currently to be seen promoting Sky Plus. I was one of several artists working on their look, and while the finished characters are a combination of various designs, there's still some of my original messy doodles in there.

By far the biggest geek joy I've had on a job of late, was to see the finished four giant hairballs strolling about on the set of one of the commercials. The costumes were made by the talented folk at Millennium fx and I now wish everything I drew was to be laboriously turned into a walking, talking reality by them.

Linden Village, Pan, Skunks, Kingdok

2010-07-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

The Temple, the group show of work by me, James Kirwan and Christian Reeves opened last friday in Monster Truck Gallery in Temple Bar. It was welcomed by a raucous crowd and featured such highlights as a visit from plain clothes Gardai telling us to control the crowd and unsavoury gentlemen in tracksuits testing a can of linden village cider tied to the end of a fishing rod to see if it was empty. Classy. The show runs till tuesday 27th. Go see and bring your wallet. I'll put up photos of the show on flickr very soon. Here's a bad scan of one of mine, a religious icon of an image-conscious emo kid:

In the meantime some photoshop eyecandy. Here's a poster I did a while back for a production of Peter Pan featuring a cast of children. Unfortunately due to my tardiness the run of the show has been and gone but for more info on DADA, the organisers, go here.
Coincidentally just after getting the job I was in London so I went to see the statue of Pan by George Frampton (with extensive help by J.M. Barrie himself) in glorious, sunny Kensington Gardens. My poster is based on my sketches of it. Very enjoyable research indeed.

More recently I worked on a private commission for Jennie McGinn, one of the contributors to fashion blog extraordinaire What Will I Wear Today. I worked with Jennie before creating illustrations for a report on children's libraries for Kildare County Council. This time round the brief was basically whatever came to mind! After a pint with Jennie at which it was revealed to my surprise/ horror that bum bags are apparently back in fashion, I decided to do it on unlikely trends. Balaclavas, jodphurs and skunks anyone?

My recommendation this month is Comic epic 'Bone' by Jeff Smith. I bought the whole run of this in one 1000 plus page tome about 6 months ago but whizzed through it when I choose it to be my read while minding the exhibition. It's an amazingly charming, exciting and hilarious mix of old school goofy comic character capers and Lord of the Rings style fantasy epic with some very witty philosophical musings on life along the way. The pacing and artwork is practically a guide to how to use a comic book page. Here's Kingdok one of my favorite creations from the world of Bone. Poor old Kingdok.

Also go see Inception, it mightn't be quite the water-tight classic that some are proclaiming it but it is by far the cleverest most idea-laden mega-budget blockbuster ever. A big hollywood film that doesn't dumb down to it's audience deserves success. I rather see the equivalent of Inception each summer than Predator vs Shrek 8 or Aquaman: The Movie.

Bye Bye

Bow Down to the Exit Sign

2010-06-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

I'm very happy to announce an upcoming show of brand new doodles and scratches by myself and the great James Kirwan and Christian Reeves. It takes place next month in Monstertruck's swanky new gallery in Templebar.
James and Christian are amazingly talented artists and old friends and I'm chuffed to be sharing the bill with them. Here's the full release blurb and promo doodad:

The Temple

Brian Coldrick
James Kirwan
Christian Reeves

Monster Truck Gallery
July 17^th – 27^th

Opening reception Friday 16^th July, 6pm – 8pm

An exhibition of new work by Brian Coldrick, James Kirwan and Christian Reeves. Taking note of the cast of characters and situations to be found in the heaving mass of subcultures, pilgrims and image worship at the swirling center of the modern city, the three artists have created a host of paintings, drawings and 3d work which pokes an eye at the robes, sacrifices and symbols of those who bow down at the temple of the city. Penitent drunks, merciless hen nights, iconic goths, preachy chuggers, awestruck tourists all weave their way in and out of the early houses, late bars, hipster stores and head shops that make up the city's sanctuaries and apses.

Having exhibited widely individually, this is the first time the three artists have worked together on a show. The Temple will see not only new work from the trio but a series of collaborations merging their styles and mirroring the melting pot of the city center.

Brian Coldrick

Brian is a freelance illustrator and artist based in Dublin and London. A lifetime spent reading comics, watching films and goofing off has led to an eclectic set of influences with Edward Gorey, Max Rebo and Flann O'Brien all swimming around his brain. Work can vary from stuff that ends up on telly, to drawing pictures on a stage in front of a drunken crowd. Commercial work is balanced with personal projects, be it sloth-themed board games or free magazines with no words. As an artist he has exhibited widely and frequently. Haven taken part in numerous group shows and collaborations, February 2009 saw his first solo show, "Shrunken Head" take place at Monster Truck, Francis Street.

James Kirwan

Since graduating from NCAD in 2005, James has exhibited in many group shows in various places such as Monster Truck, Temple Bar Gallery, Film Base and the RDS Art Fair. He has had two-person shows with close friends Deirdre Byrne and Christian Reeves with whom he also lived with and set up Across the Way Gallery and Studios in Kinsealy House, north County Dublin. ATW ran for three years and housed three successful group exhibitions, one of which was in collaboration with Monster Truck Gallery. MT also held James’ first solo show in 2008 called ‘I’m (not) doing really well’. James likes to draw, paint and make collages.

Christian Reeves

Since graduating from N.C.A.D. in 2004 Christian has exhibited in various places across Ireland in spaces ranging from prestigious galleries such as the RHA and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios to seedy nightclubs and derelict barns. Christian was part of a collective of artists who formed Across The Way gallery in Kinsealy House north County Dublin where he worked and lived for three years.
Drawing influences from graffiti art, politics, skateboarding, religion and nature to create his work, Christian’s first solo show "trendy nonsense" ran in Monster Truck studios in April 2009.

Evolution of Schoolboy Evolution

2010-05-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

I recently worked with the good folks at Atomic on some illustrations for a poster they were putting together for Lifestyle Sports. It featured a series of Darwinian-like evolutionary steps of a schoolboy as he shed the dull trappings of his uniform and became a summery soul.

Here's the first sketch:

Then my first slight change to make him younger:

After which it was decided to go much younger:

Then youngest version as sharp & crispy finished inks:

Then colours taking him from grey school to bright summer:

And then the final poster with Atomic's swanky text:

Overall a fun project to work on.

I've a backlog of stuff to post up here from before and after the evolution poster so i have good intentions to post again before another month and a half gap.

In the meantime, as a stuff-I-like section, I finally got round to reading Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. It's been on my to-do list for years after some serious recommendations and I thought I should pass on the high praise. Ostensibly kids' fantasy books, they are full of some stunning bouts of imagination and heavy philosophical musings.

As some illustration of their contents here's a picture of a talking polar bear:

Bottom Drawer

2010-03-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
Tomorrow (Friday 26th) sees a interesting event/exhibition take place in South Studios just down from Fallons Pub by St. Patrick's Cathedral. 25 of some of the best talents in Irish illustration, photography, design and fashion (and me), will each be customising a chest of drawers. Half the pieces will be made live, throughout the day. It's open for one night only so come on down. I'll be drawing away all day until and during the show itself. Should make for a great range of oddities. There's an amazing bunch of heads lined up to take part.
BC

Winston Churchill impersonator speaks.

2010-03-11T08:14:00.000-08:00

Here's an opportunity to see me ramble about the Beano, Beckett and the sexy cat from Dogtanian. In case you missed it, it's my talk from Pecha Kecha last year. Go to the Irish Architecture's Youtube channel for a whole load of amazing talks from other folks. Because of the format each talk is under 7 minutes. You'll hardly notice the time whizz by!

Gay Rod Weed

2010-03-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

GCN, the Gay Community Newsletter, is not immune to the current economic woes of the nation and so a fundraiser exhibition is taking place in the Front Lounge on Temple Bar's Parliament street. I was kindly asked by the esteemed Mr. Will St. Leger to put something into the mix. The show's titled 'Under the Influence' and so I leaped at the chance to do a shameless but loving impression of one of my favorite influences, Edward Gorey.

If you're not familiar with Gorey's work I can't recommend him enough. His pictures create a atmosphere, humour and tone, regularly imitated but rarely pulled off (stand up Mr. T. Burton). Masterpieces like "The Ghastlycrumb Tinies", where a child for every letter of the alphabet meets a gruesome rhyming death, are sure to raise a smile. But seek out other books, like the wordless "The West Wing", which is brimming with his skill of composition and the implied weird.

Here's my paltry rip off, entitled 'The Beginning of the End":

Now unfortunately I was away for the launch of the show last Friday and I'm now too late to inform you in time but you can do almost as well as attending by watching this. Get down there and buy something.

Oh and 'Gay Rod Weed' is my attempt to recreate Gorey's love of anagrams of his name. If you can do better, answers on a postcard.

...ehhh... like.. you know... ehh.. inter...eh..view... and stuff

2010-03-03T07:09:00.000-08:00

An interview with rambling lispy me by the delightful Liam Geraghty from the mighty Comic Cast, Ireland's premier comics related podcast:
HEAR ME SPEAK!

Do I come across like the least motivated layabout ever? Answers in the comment section please.

Here's a picture to liven up this otherwise boringly type based post, enjoy:

Flea ridden Panda

2010-02-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

Hello internet
I got to make the poster for this month's Dublin Flea Market. They've had an illustrious and eclectic variety of people create it in the past including the great Alan Clarke, Paddy Lynch and Stephen McCarthy. I decided to do it as a fake fashion mag cover. Some sort of forgotten pun about accessorising was the starting point. Anyway it gave me an excuse to look at issues of various, stylish, vacant gold like id and dazed and confused. And here's the result, complete with dog ears and frayed edges:

I'll also have a stall at the Flea Market itself. I'll be flogging a selection of wares; posters of some of my favorite piece, some paintings and some doodads all at rock bottom prices. ROCK BOTTOM! Thought that deserved capitals and an exclamation mark. If you're around Dublin this Sunday it's all to be found in The Co-op on Newmarket square. It's just off Cork St, Dublin's primary street for abandoned buildings and soulless apartments ...anyway, come down and exchange money for goods and services.

Coming up next week is the next exhibition curated by the good folks at "For the Love of..." There'll be live drawings shenanigans by some very talented folk at the opening, more info here. This time the theme is change and I've got a piece in the mix. It might be a clever commentary on the westernisation of China but it's probably just an excuse for me to draw pandas. It's called it "Panda Rok Panda", go buy it on friday.

Be good internet.
BC

Kali armed, labyrinthine, over socialised thetans.

2010-01-26T14:58:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year. It's now February but I'm allowed say that, right?
Here's a couple of caricature commissions I did over the Christmas period. Don't usually do this but I had a bit of spare time (or at least I thought I did).

First up is a chap named Mario (hence the plumbers pipes and mushroom) and his multiple interests in his multiple arms.

Next up is Tadhg, whose stable of interests included, amongst other things, Stanley Kubrick films and photography. I zeroed in on these on it allowed me to research and recreate the labyrinthine pattern on the carpets from The Shining. Confusing.

Up next is something done at least this calendar year. Two intrepid friends of mine, the estimable Mr. Steve Ryan, photographer of the year and Mr. Conor Creighton, chronicler of the continent have taken it upon themselves to set up the Unoffical Embassy of Ireland in Prishtina, Kosovo. As part their excellencies' adventure they've asked some of their associates to make and send them a postcard which describes Ireland to those unfamiliar with the emerald island.
For my effort I tried to visualise the strange social phenomenon that no matter who you meet you seem to have at least one friend in common. Perhaps even a Mexican, a cat or a ghost?

Last but not least is a recent favorite of mine. A personal piece which muses what an associate of mine may look like as a thetan exterminator. No thentans were hurt in the making of this piece. If you're a scientologist, no offence meant.

More soon, to do with me potentially selling you things.

Battles, games and where's wally...

2009-12-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

I've a real mixed bag of stuff to post up starting with some photos of the recent round of Secret Wars, the live drawing competition. It took place on the Friday of the weekend of the Offset conference/festival, in the very jammed and very raucous beer garden of the Bernard Shaw pub in Portobello. I was on the Offset team in the highly esteemed company of Chaz from the London Police and Serge Seidlitz, and then joined along the way by Bob, the other half of TLP, and Tara McPherson.

General Mayhem
Our wall o'art
Unwell Slothie

Despite the skills of this A-Team of doodling (and me), we lost out to our formidable rivals on the night, the Secret Wars team of Stephen McCarthy, Mick Minogue and Dan Leo. Darn.

This defeat does at least provide me a neat link to my next picture, my piece for the 'Toys of Christmas Past', a show at the Little Ghost Gallery which was recently set up in Kilkenny by the previously mentioned Mr. Minogue. The show opens on the evening of Friday 11th. My piece is called "The Social Network", and is an homage to the gloriously unsocial Christmas gift that was the Gameboy.

Who needs friends when you have Mario.

Here's the end result of a project that started over a year ago and is now out and about in the world. I had to illustrate the results of a survey of kids on their local library which was put together by the talented Ms Jennie McGinn for Kildare Library and Arts Services. It takes the form of a Where's Wally-ish cross section of a fantastical Dream Library which combined all the kid's suggestions, from study areas to underground raves.

This illustration was on one side of a newspaper style print out which had lots of info on it and was also illustrated and designed by me. Unfortunately I don't have this at hand as I recently dropped my back up hard drive. Clever. I'm saving up to have everything on it recovered (hopefully).

More soon.
BC

Sexy Mo

2009-11-12T05:55:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to say the piece I did for the tie-in Movember exhibition of moustache inspired art is up on ebay, along with all the other amazing arts. You can bid for them HERE. And you can see all the work in the South William bar on (logically) south william street.
My piece features a gaggle of buxom brunettes, knackered after an energetic orgy with a large moustache:

Have to take this opprtunity to sing the praises of Offset last weekend. Amazing to get the chance to see people like James Jean, Dave McKean and Tara McPherson speak about their work here in Dublin. Big thanks to those who came along to my talk on Sunday and a massive thanks to Richard, Peter and Bren at the Small Print for all their work organising such an extravaganza.

BC

PEEP-IGI-KUCHA-SECRET-SET

2009-11-04T06:31:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy week of stuff happening. Peepshow, an exhibition of erotically themed art by a fine selection of illustrators and artists is currently running in Monstertruck gallery on Francis Street. Don't worry, my offering is only pornographic if you look very, very closely.

Tonight in Solas on Wexford street there's an exhibition of work from the past year by IGI members. My piece for the 2009 AIB calender is in the mix.

Tomorrow I'll be talking at the third Dublin Pecha Kucha night in the sugarclub on Leeson street. Strictly 20 slides and 20 seconds a slide. So if I'm boring it'll be over quickly. It's only a fiver in and there's some amazing people presenting (and me). Come down for an evening of edutainment.

Friday the incredible Offset officially kicks off in Liberty hall. Hope you have a ticket as it's extremely sold out. There are some of the best talents in the world speaking over the weekend. Great to see this happening in rainy Dublin. As part of the action on friday night, I'll be taking part in Secret Wars, a live drawing competion in the Bernard Shaw in Portobello.

Saturday night sees more potential drawing in the Twisted Pepper on Abbey Street.

Sunday morning I'll be speaking at Offset in the Off room around 11.30. Come along (if you have a ticket) and behold my exhausted frame. I'll be going through some of my work and influences and such.

A massive salute and kudos is owed to the good folks at the small print for their hard work in organising all these amazing events.

In non-me event news I highly recommend you make it along to Time/Line, an exhibition of the skateboard photography of the supremely talented Richard Gilligan. It runs TUESDAY 3RD-8TH NOVEMBER @ PLANE/SITE GALLERY (Laneway across the road from the baggot gap) LAD LANE DUBLIN.

And as for some actually illustrations, here's the cover of the Autumn programme for the fabulous Riverbank Arts Center in Newbridge which features illustrations by yours truly.

Movember the worldwide charity of sponsored moustache growing, is in full swing and as part of this year's action, Ireland's Tintin and Snowy, Conor Creighton and Steve Ryan have produced Eurotash, a book examining the world of the european hairy upper lip. Buy it here now! Here's some of the illustrations I have in it:

That's enough for now.

Busy...not lazy

2009-09-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

No post for two months. Bad Brian.

Rather than catching swine flu or falling down a well, I've just been busy. There's a lot of stuff that'll I'll have to post up here in the next couple of weeks, but I've got to start somewhere so...

LeCool is a free weekly internet magazine with lots of suggestions for how to spend the next seven days. There's an edition for Barcelona, Madrid, Lisboa, London, Istanbul, Moscow, Budapest and, for the last few months, Dublin has joined the ranks. Each week they have a different artist, photographer or the like create a cover. I was asked to do one and so I decided to do a riff on the summer sun being chased away by rain clouds, unaware that this would still be fitting when the cover was used a couple of weeks later. With three years in a row now, I think we can declare the Irish summer officially dead. RIP

Last year I did a flyer/poster for a season of shows by female artist at Monstertruck Gallery & Studios called 'Attack of the 50ft Women' (I know this is odd as I'm not a female artist). Anyway this year they're having a season of (mixed gender) painting shows and they've kept the classic horror movie theme. So I give you...'The Thing that couldn't Die'.

The most fun you can have in a field in Laois, the Electric Picnic,

is on this weekend and once again I'll be drawing/painting at it as part of the Graffiti/Art area. If you passing by say hello. I'll either be drawing on a pink boat or on a fake train carriage. I'm easy to spot at the moment, I'm still sporting a ridiculous moustache, hacked out of my beard last week in honour of an Eagles of Death Metal gig.

Finally as a stuff-I-like-and-so-should-you entry check out the absolutely stunning drawings of Leestroy here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leestroy/

Also check out another favouite of mine McBess, and the rocking video he did for his band the Dead Pirates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD1Rrfc0y-M&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmcbess.com%2Fmusic.html&feature=player_embedded
It's like Felix the Cat rocking out. Yes.

I'm also on a pretty good run of seeing stuff in the cinema as I can easily recommend Moon, Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Inglourious Basterds. But to be fair before Moon was Terminator: Salvation (no IMDB link).

Lots more to post soon. Going to put some new stuff up on the website too. That's all for the mo.

Dreamy

2009-06-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

A while back I was asked by Mr. Tom Wild to submit a couple of pieces to a book of illustrative work he was putting together for his degree project. The theme was vaguely dreams or dream-like stuff. Well it's finally all printed up and ready to be ordered by you and/or your design company!
Hardback will be around £60, paperback around £40
Have a look a here:
http://www.tomwild.co.uk/lucidity/photos.zip - (53mb) 12 HQ pics of the prototype book
and here:
http://www.tomwild.co.uk/lucidity/index.html - (13mb) Full online version of the book.
to confirm that you want it.

There's really some great work in there (as well as my doodles).
Hat's off to Tom for all the hard work putting it together.
BC

Monk or Drunk

2009-06-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Wow 2 posts in one day!!!

Did this a few weeks back but forgot to post it up, it's for a new ad campaign for Paulaner beer featuring illustrations from myself, Mr Colm MacAthlaoich and Sir Brenb. We each got a curious anecdote from the history of Paulaner to illustrate.

Mine was on the incident where Medieval Munich was severely thrashed by a mob rioting over rising beer prices. One of the few buildings to remain untouched was the Monastery where Paulaner was brewed, so beloved was the said brew.

I like beer too.
Here it is as part of the finished poster.

SCOOP: Mr Cat, the negative ghosts have escaped again!

2009-06-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here's the piece I've just done for the upcoming charity exhibition/auction organised by the good folks at SCOOP. It's a simple pen and ink number, not a computer in sight. A girl and a cat-headed zookeeper chase after some escaped mini negative ghosts. As it's for charity I can insist that it's worth millions.

Here's some info on the auction and it's impressive line-up.

The SCOOP Art Auction is now pencilled in for the Sunday the 5th of July, in the Pygmalion Bar and Powerscourt SC on South William St and we are getting busy putting together the most diverse and talented collection of artists and artworks ever seen in our capital. We will launch the event with some free plonk on Tuesday the 30th of June in Pygmalion, and will have all pieces on show in the days running up to the auction.

So far we proud to announce that we have such artists (in alphabetical order) as the world famous hip hop photographer B+ (Brian Cross), Bren B, Gaetan Billault, Fergal Brennan, Sarah Brownlee, Brock Butler, Bob Byrne, Paul Byrne (aka Poncho), Tom Byrne, Antonia Caffrey, Alan Clarke, Brian Coldrick, Brioni Connolly, Eugene Conway, Hugh Cooney, Darragh Crotty, Danleo, Nina Divito, Karen Donnellan, Jason Dunne, Killian Dunne, Emile, Maurice Fitzgerald, Natasha Gavrilovic, Giita Hammond, Paul Kunle Harris, Tommy Headon, Jane Hilliard, Sarah Hurl, Myra Jago, Dillon Joyce, Jane K, Mo Kelly, Jacqueline Leddy, Brian Lynch, Ramon Kassam, Lauren Kavanagh, Al Kennington (aka Synth Eastowood), Elizabeth LeJeune, Ingrid Lyons, Aine Macken, Jose Manuel, Maser, Conor McGrath, Lisa McKenna, Noel Mealy, John Mernagh (aka The Chemist), Emmett McGlincy, Morgan, Ailbe O'Connell, William O'Neill, Bernice Prendiville, Shona Pfeiffer, Ruth Power, Ribo, Sheila Rennick, Peter Scroope, Sarah Shiel, Slik Blik, Shane Sutton, Christopher Sweeney, David Sweeney, Dave Uda, Keith Walsh and Jenny Watkins already on board.

Head to www.myspace.com/scoopcharity for more info

The Macathlaoich sighted

2009-04-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

The amazingly talented illustrator and artist, and all round good chap Colm Mac Athlaoich has just put up his shiny new website. It's full of sickeningly great work. Go be impressed now!

Town < Country

2009-04-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

I'm luckily enough to live beside (and be part of) the "Across the Way' gallery and studios in the wilds of north Dublin. This Friday sees our collaboration with the powerhouse of art and skulduggery that is Monstertruck gallery and studios. Basically a selection of artist associated with Across the Way will be exhibiting in Monstertruck, opening at 6pm. At 8pm buses will come and, for a small fare, take the heaving crowd of art lovers out to Kinsealy and Across the Way where a selection of artists associated with Monstertruck will be exhibiting.

There's an amazing spread of artists taking part and art openings are always more fun when they involve schooltour-like bus trips. Click right here for all the info.

Here's the image for the flyer I did. It successfully references playing cards and battenburg cake. Score!

....and hey presto...

West Shoe Forward

2009-03-24T07:28:00.000-07:00

This is a job I completed a while back but the campaign has just launched so there's no better time to post it up. It's one of a new series of posters for Asics shoes called Left and Right. Each poster represents two halves or opposites (so Art/Science, Up/Down etc), with one shoe of the pair planted in each half. I was working on East/West.

The poster went through several stages of development, as there was lots of discussion about what elements best represented each hemisphere. First up was this rough with the central image being a figure for each half; eastern girl and western boy. Underneath them were lots of circle icons of various cultural references.

I did one more streamlined version of the figures -

-before it was decided that the smaller icons alone would work best. They became a central floating compass thingie

Then they were finished up to this (where 'east/west' has become 'west/east' to sit better with the compass idea)

Which went through one last round of tinkering to become the finished poster-

I always find it odd just how different a finished job can be from an initial concept, especially when several people's input has shaped how it's developed.

You can catch the other posters in the series here.
BC

Shrunken Photos

2009-02-09T07:24:00.000-08:00

I've posted loads of photos of the exhibition up on flickr here.

Exhibition Launch

2009-02-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday evening saw the opening of 'Shrunken Head', my first solo show, at Monstertruck gallery and studios on Francis Street. A fine gaggle of art lovers braved the snow and cold to hang out with some sloths and shrunken heads. The show runs until Tuesday 17th. I'll be posting up a full series of photos of the work in the next day or two.

Shrunken Head

2009-01-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

Next month sees my first proper solo exhibition. It opens on the evening of the 5th February in the fantastic Monstertruck Gallery and Studios on Dublin's Francis street. Entitled 'Shrunken Head', the bulk of the show will be a series of portraits of alter egos, pen names, second identities, fictional characters etc. Needless to say my old friend the Sloth will be making an appearance. I'm hoping a few 3D additions will come together in time as well...

Naughty Physics

2009-01-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year. Been meaning to post this for ages. It's my piece from the Allied Irish Bank 2009 Calender. For this year's date displaying extravaganza they had a selection of Irish illustrators create something based on a place/location of hidden interest. I picked a hill hidden amongst the Comeraghs, near the Mahon Falls, somewhere in county Waterford. This hill reputedly has the curious ability to cause an idle car to roll uphill. UPHILL.
Anyway the pic explains this oddness with a cross-section of the hill revealing lots of faeries with a giant magnet. Naughty Physics.

The calender features a great selections of curiosities and creativity from other illustrators. Go into a bank and hassle them till they give you one or have you arrested.

Too much stuff for one title

2008-11-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

Hello all, a variety of stuff and nonsense to post up this time round.
To start off I'll go back in time in the Electric Picnic festival at the end of August. I finally have a couple of photos of stuff. Both are of the same fellow I drew on the back of a pink boat in the middle of a field. Crazy festival hijinks, whatever will they think of next. Anyway I did do other stuff but this guy was by far my favorite. He's a kind of victorian swimmer. His best feature were his little legs which were actual bits of the boat that stuck out at the back. There's more shots over at the flickr page of the inimitable Emma Price, who was also doodling for a free ticket AND actually took photos of her stuff. Wise.

(and yes that is me, oddly color coordinated with victorian bob)

Next up is a poster illustration for the Irish Youth Foundation's Children's Hour campaign. The idea is to donate the equivalent of an hour's wage to the charity. For more info head over to childrenshour.ie and iyf.ie

A while back I did a couple of banner illustrations for columns on the Bodytonic Music website. I recently did three more similar character pics after I was asked by one of the original column writers, Diesel Weasel, to come up with Sky Clown, Parsley Panda and Seal of Approval.

Another recent interesting job was coming up with an elaborate 30th birthday card for a friend for her fellow (and now fiance, congratulations). It's basically an update of the 25 card I'd previously done(it's on my site), but a lot looser in style and random facts. Fun (if a bit of a headache) to research.

And finally, as I recently got a new camera, here's a photo of the Sloth, wearing a stylish cravat and pondering the nature of toast.

That is all.
BC

Boston International Underage Chess/Tattoo Convention

2008-10-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

Boston's Weekly Dig magazine has an odd cover by me this week, some creepy kids playing chess against an evil tattooed arm. It's a piece I did a while back and has always been favorite of mine so I'm glad that lots of Bostonians are being forced to look at it, cheers Tak!

To say nothing of the Dog

2008-09-26T05:39:00.000-07:00

I've just done a couple of pieces for the good folks at HKM (who put out Totally Dublin) for one of their other magazines, the business/entrepreneur type SelfMade magazine. First up for the cover, being quite sound and deadly, they let me draw a crazy robot. He's 'self-making' lots of various things out of the gloop that passes along the conveyor belt below him.

The products tie in with some of the articles in the mag, bulbs for energy saving, tree for eco-friendly gardening (or something along those lines). But the little happy triangle character ties in with my other illustration for the same issue.

The article was about the difficultly with bringing in skilled labour from abroad because of the hassle associated with getting work visas. This somehow became lots of triangle guys not being able to fill a triangle hole because of the circle doorway they had to pass through. Strange. It also all takes place in some kind of Japanese walled garden. It was pretty late when I drew it up so maybe that explains the general oddness of it all. Still fun though.

And a happier scene for the smaller spot pic.

Ahhhh. Cute shapes.

There's also October's eye on dublin for Totally Dublin Magazine. It bizarrely came to my attention that I've never done one based around Halloween, so here you go. Scary hoodie kids giving the classic monsters a hard time.

Ahhhh. Cute monsters.

And for this post's stuff I like section it's 'Three Men on a boat, (to say nothing of the dog)' by Jerome K. Jerome. I read it in a couple of sittings while minding an exhibition.

Over a hundred years old but still very funny and sharp, like some kind of Victorian 'Withnail and I', without all the booze and drugs.

Over and out, BC

IMMATATE

2008-09-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I probably should have put this up before the show opened but anyway...

Myself and the unstoppable Colm MacAthlaoich organised a show as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, called IMMATATE. The show opened at MonsterTruck Gallery & Studios last Thursday. The basic idea for the exhibition was to invite creative professionals such as architects and designers to create a piece of modern art. As you can imagine this led to a wonderful eclectic mix of mix being on display.

For my sins I attempted to make a Zoetrope, a simple animation device, and make animations where very little happened. All a tongue in cheek riff on the anticipation and ultimate disappointment which seems to go along with much video art. Unfortunately my craftsmanship consisted of a nail through some cardboard so all that could be seen was a grayish blur. But luckily (and I feel in keeping with the creative process behind modern art) I had titled the work 'Disappointing Zoetrope', so it seemed as if I had intended it not to work all along. Hooray!

Here are animated gifs of the three sequences I made (click them for motion based fun):

The Sloth watching TV,

An unfulfilling Jack-in-a-Box

And a simpleton admiring a Zoetrope.

In other news the Electric Picnic went spiffingly (from what I remember). I'll dig up some photos for the next post.

Squirrels, Octopi, Giant Phones...

2008-08-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hello, first off I have to thank everyone who's got in touch over the new website, cheers all. Also big thanks to Revolverlover, Andy, Scamp, Illustrophile, Drawn and anyone else who posted up the site.

I've been crazy busy these last few weeks but I guess that's a good complaint. First thing to show is a pair of illustrations for the Bodytonic Music website. My old Totally Dublin conspirator and currently Berlin based hack, Conor Creighton, got on to me to knock out some quick characters to accompany two online columns for the new site. A ridiculously open brief, the only suggested ingredient was squirrels!

I thought octopi are always a good addition as well.

Next up is an illustration for a poster for schools. It's based on an Irish language poem Glaoch Abhaile (Phone Call home) by Áine Ní Ghlinn. The commission came through the juggernauts of graphic design, Conor & David. The poem and some details will appear on the poster alongside my doodling. I tried mixing some really clean inking and colouring along with my usual mess of pencil lines.

There's also a new eye on dublin over at my other blog but sure I might as well save your tired finger a click and stick it up here as well. It's a simple, dour one this time round done to commemorate the recent death of the Irish Summer. We barely got to know him.

Once again I thought I'd throw in something that I've come across and love. Kiskaloo is a comic strip by Chris Sanders, the clever chap behind Disney's Lilo & Stitch (curiously, as well as directing the film, he did the voice of Stitch). The strip features the adventures of Sesi and her out spoken cat.

Word of advice, read them from the start as hopping in halfway, although fun, probably won't make a lot of sense.

That's about it, lots more stuff on the go but I'll wait till I have some shining finished pictures before I stick anything up. I'm off to the fantastic Electric Picnic music festival in Stradbally tomorrow to set up some walls which myself, the unstoppable Christian Reeves and a bunch of others will be drawing on all weekend. If you're heading down knock by and belittle my artistic abilities. BC

NEW WEBSITE... and other stuff I like

2008-07-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

I've finally, after much back-tracking and dawdling, got around to redoing my website, check it out. I won't be messing around with it too often so I'll be using this blog to post up any news and/or nonsense I have...for instance:

Looks like I'll be doing some art type graffiti stuff at this year's Electric Picnic Festival at the end of August. I'll be joining some other very talented artists and most excitingly of all a possible reunion of the the Tender Trio(myself, Christian Reeves and Brooklyn exile, Stephen Kelleher). Screw the Sex Pistols and My Bloody Valentine, this would be the biggest comeback of the weekend. Also...

Scott Pilgrim, Rating: Awesome. Completely randomly came across this brilliant comic by Bryan Lee O'Malley and then quickly devoured all four volumes. I urge you to do the same, it's become one of my favorite things ever. Word of advise, don't read the blurb on the back, just dive in and be surprised. And...

The Man who was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton; imagine Sherlock Holmes meets James Bond, written by Flann O'Brien. Yes it's that good. Between this and Scott Pilgrim I've regained fate in the world.

Next time I may have some actual illustration to post up. BC

THIS IS THE BLOG

2008-07-25T05:58:00.001-07:00

Hello all, this is my blog where I'll be putting up some work, sketches and anything which generally amuses me. To start off I've a bunch of recent stuff to get things rolling.
This is from the July issue of Totally Dublin. It accompanies an article, writen by Mr. Conor Creighton, about an evening he and I spent (voluntarily) at an A&E. Needless to say some oddness was witnessed, but to be fair both his article and my illustrations embelish reality a little.

Another poor A&E customer.

The most impatient chap in all the A&E.

This is my piece from the recent CandyKaraoke show at Monstertruck Gallery. The show featured over 70 creative types riffing on their favorite record cover. I could chose no other than Doolittle by The Pixies, which featured stunning original artwork by Vaughan Oliver. No beautiful photographic collages for me though, I simply did a painting of the cover's monkey, happy now that a labotomy had removed all his troubles. To see all the other work from the show head over to Candy's flickr page.

For their stall at the recent Taste of Dublin fair, Barry's Tea invited some illustrators to customise a teapot. My effort featured Little Red Riding Hood chasing a jolly wolf on one side, and then the two of them taking a break for a cup of tea on the other side.

Ok, that's easily enough for a first post. I will try and have something new go up every month or thereabouts. Be good, BC

BLOG BLOG

2008-04-08T05:12:00.000-07:00

I am a blog