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…. 

BA (Hons) Animation

This fox is my main character for the short film I’m making in Colaiste Dhulaigh as part of my Animation Degree.

I’m currently studying animation so learning loads of new skills as well as learning how to use my old skills in a new way. Very excited about getting a job in animation! It’s going to be a big transition but can’t wait to get going. If you want to follow along with my work in progress I have a learning journal here.

Meet the Artist with Maiden Moose

Read my interview as part of the Meet The Artist series with Maiden Moose, where I talk about my creative process and how I do what I do :) https://maidenmoose.com/meet-the-artist-melissa-doran-illustrator-animator/

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!

Locations

I made a small collection 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…