Naturama and My Naturama Nature Journal out now

Number one best seller!

A dream project for me as a life long nature lover, Naturama and My Naturama Nature Journal were a joy to illustrate. I got to work on researching and drawing Irish wildlife throughout the seasons and I’m so happy with the result. The books were co created with the writer Michael Fewer and published by  Gill Books. Naturama came out first and is a beautiful introduction to Irish wildlife, regardless of whether you live in the countryside or in the city, there’s lots of things to learn about and get you started as a nature enthusiast. It was so cool to see it become a number one bestseller and meet loads of wonderful children who were loving the book! My Naturama Nature Journal has projects for children to do outside and field guide notes sections to write and draw in. It gets everyone outside turning rocks upside down looking for worms :) Click here for all the latest Naturama related news…. 

Naturama summer forest scene with sleeping fox

A handsome fox having a little stroll in the summer sun, painted and animated in Animate CC.

About me

Portrait by Firechild Photograpy

I’ve just finished a year long course, studying animation, and I’m looking forward to working with an animation company, making bigger projects and collaborating! Please send me all the good vibes that I find a place that’s right for me :) I facilitate a variety of art workshops for children and adults and they all centre around cultivating a love of nature. I’m on the artists panel for 2018 for The Dock arts Centre in Leitrim, for workshops engaging the local community. Some examples of past workshops include nature journalling, nature printing, wildflower sketch walks and making nature mobiles. In my own art practice I love having a hand drawn feel to my work. I teach a digital illustration workshop and am skilled with creating work digitally, but I always like the idea of making the computer side of things invisible – using it to enhance my drawings but letting the end result feel hand made. My undergraduate degree is in Architecture (B.Sc from UCD), I have a Masters in Digital Media Technology (DIT) as well as Certificate in Animation (Pulse/Griffith College) and a Certificate in Entrepreneurship (NCI). I am also an Adobe Certified Expert in Illustrator.

Watch me on TV talking about Naturama (2016) and how I draw. If you can’t see it on youtube, watch it here on Facebook..

Upcoming Workshops

I have two workshops in the Lexicon Gallery Dun Laoghaire on September 29th as part of Sea-Change: IADT 21 years of art, film and animation. The first one (11.30am – 1pm) is a seaweed printing workshop for adults and the second one (2pm-3.30pm) is a sea monster making workshop for children. Book tickets via Eventbrite here for the seaweed one (€5), and here for the sea monster one (free).

My next Digital Illustration workshop is in Fumbally Exchange Dublin on October 20th and 21st (more details here). 

Benson Street Hoarding Illustration for Dublin City Council

If you take a walk down Benson Street in Dublin 2 you will see a very colourful little area amongst all the dust of the nearby building sites!  I was commissioned by Dublin City Council to design a  55 metre long illustration on a hoarding around the building site for a new park. The drawing moves through the four seasons and is packed full of native flora and fauna, and features some local landmarks too. Below is a simple animation I made to show you the full thing…plus more photos here….

For this project, I did most of the drawing by hand in my notebook, then scanned it in and worked it up in Illustrator.  I collaged hand coloured work with vectorised, digitally coloured elements. I collaborated with the printer to have everything perfect so they could make a series of panels to fit with the perimeter of the site, taking into account the corner elements and the slight slope. Once printed, the site contractors took care of the rest and installed it over a day. Let me know if you go see it!

Need to learn how to draw digitally? Or simply want to make the most of your hand-drawn work using Illustrator? Check out my Digital Illustration Workshop

Locations

I’ve started a new series of paintings in Photoshop based on movie scenes, see more here…

Scene from Bladerunner 2049

Scene from the movie Murder On The Orient Express

Scene from Murder on The Orient Express

View full portfolio here…