Keep Going, Little Snail

now in production!

Keep Going, Little Snail, my new animated short, is now in production, with the help of The Arts Council of Ireland, Donegal County Council and Creative Ireland, and Westmeath County Council.

Little Snail overcomes various obstacles in their quest to reach the best dinner ever – the lettuce plant.

Growing Up Human

new book in the works :)

October 2024 News

Delighted to let you know that I got awarded an Artist Bursary from The Arts Council of Ireland in 2024 from the Young People’s, Children, and Education section. This is to help me with the development of my non fiction children’s book, Growing Up Human. The book will be all about connecting to nature, trusting your intuition, and holding onto the playfulness and creativity that is so important in both childhood and adulthood. I’m making a series of beautiful nature illustrations right now for it. Each illustration will become animated when you view it through an app on your phone through Augmented Reality. So excited to create this! And now I’m doubly excited to be accepted on a short course with IADT and the Creative Futures Academy – Immersive Storytelling – where I will be learning all about AR, and doing some app building in Unity.

Make It Move

new online stop motion course

I’ve created a fun course where you will learn stop-motion animation by making short animations inspired by the natural world. It’s live online, and the next one starts in January 2025. More info here…

A Quack Too Far

My graduate short animation (2019)

A fox settles down to sleep for the day, listening to the beautiful birdsong in the forest. However, a noisy duck moves in next door and won’t shut up. What does the fox have to do to get some peace?

Click here to watch it.

Naturama

#1 Bestselling Irish Wildlife Book for Children

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 (I was called Melissa Doran back then!) 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 (12,000 copies sold!!) 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 so is the perfect companion book designed to be brought out and about with you. Click here for more Naturama info….