Doodle I started when I was on the phone earlier. Wasn't too hard to find reference. Go to Ken Coogan's blog to see some proper caricatures, his Irish writers series is class!

Sketchers yesterday.. excuse the brutal draftsmanship, I was sitting out on the tiny Bewleys balcony looking up and down Grafton Street in the freezing cold. Still at least I could smoke out there, so the lungs were warm!!

Hair yesterday, gone today!

My sister got me the coolest birthday present, these goggles. They're bigger than the ones I had been using but now I get to see the used plasters and dirt at the bottom of the pool in widescreen. These will drive the women down in the sportsclub crrrrrraaaaaaaaaazyyy! I just know it! Anyhoo something different to distract from the bad art on the site! Oh and cheers to Garrett O Donoghue for puttin the pic below up on facebook. He still has hair, I've none. He's pickin his nose, I'm the sexbomb on the left. Centre of the pic is Maria Wessel (pronounced vessel). Ah hair, how I miss thee. I still remember the Vidal sassoon smell in the mornings after a shower. Now for some reason I smell like rubber! The pic was taken by some inhouse studio stalker in Filmkameratene in Oslo circa 1997 I think.



And one final pic I had in a drawer here, taken by the incomparable Chris Scully during a second stint in Oslo circa 2000. I should probably have realised the only solution was to shave it off at this stage! Ha ha. There you go, you turn 35 and the retrospection begins. I guess it's all downhill from hereon in! I'll tell you what though when I think back I was a real nob, it's only recently I've become uber-cool! Ha ha!! Oh and just to clarify none of the art behind me at this desk below is mine, I didn't work on the Iron Giant and the black and white image was a location design by the uber-talented Svein something or other, can't remember his surname. I did do the space caravan stuff behind the lightdesk for something or other. And the photo of the guy rowin the boat above the desk is my Ol' lad when he visited for a weekend and we travelled up to the Arctic circle to Moskenes (Google Earth it!) for a weekend and drank ourselves into oblivion! Yeah I was 26 then and he wouldn't let me row the boat! Ah I guess I was very weedy back then. Oh and we stayed in a cottage when we were there next door to the Kuntze family! Ha ha! Childish I know!



Normal art posting, the main aim of this blog I guess, will resume shortly.

prickin around on sketchbook pro again this evenin, good fun

I'm boardin in photoshop at the moment and after work today had a prick around with some of the pencil brushes I downloaded from the internet. Don't blow it up, canvas is a bit too big, it's really messy, and I only spent an hour on it so it's as short on detail as it could be. Probably looks better if you just squint at it!
Got a comment there from a Romanian artist called Einah, his blog is worth the trip.

This was from the sketchers a couple of weeks ago. I just did a bit of prickin around with it in photoshop afterwards. The original was pencil and marker.

Watched that James Stewart Tonight show clip again and did a few sketches.

Any audiobook/ radio play enthusiasts I bought the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo on itunes for 50 cent! (It's 50 something hours long!!!!!!!) Since reading the book, think it's thirteen or so years ago now, I haven't come across anything else that's come close to the pure page-turnability of it. I started listening to it on Friday and finished it last night. I'd recommend it to anyone.

On a side note this dude, Edward Ernest, left a comment on one of my recent posts. Really outstanding work.

Ruff Yuki Fanart

-quick update - my sister's new babbie was christened at the weekend so I never got around to get much done on the piece, but here it is so far. I was usin' illustrator cause I haven't done anything with the program in ages. Anyway, work work work. I'll hopefully get some time to finish it off shortly. Cheers for the comments.



Takin' a day off boardin tomorrow, sketched this after work today, apologies for the ruffitude of it. I'll replace the finished version if I get it finished tomorrow. Just hadn't posted in a while thought I'd throw something up to keep me interested. I'll send it on to the facebook fanart group when I'm finished. I got the special edition book, beautiful inspirational compilation to have around.

A couple of caricature gifts I did up recently.

This chick is ex-Stardust and now Dreamworks model artist extraordinaire Nadja Bonacina, whose birthday I missed on the facebook yoke, something I don't check often enough, though I don't have 'get into facebooking' at the top of my list of things to do! Strange caricature in fairness, when I was back in Berlin, 10 years ago now, caricatures of everyone were floatin' around the studio, and when I sat down to do this one 'The Swiss' hadn't really aged?!?!?!? Well for some! Ha ha!

The dude in the shades is the uber-talented Matt 'Tooninator' Boismier, who leaves comment after comment on the blog here, something I should be more dilligent about myself. Side note on this dude, his current facebook profile pic has him standing shoulder to shoulder with Glen Keane!

Above is some completely random fan-art inspired by District Nine. When you've seen it you'll know where I'm comin from, they're not good-lookin creatures at all. This is my version of a half-human half alien woman! (prawns as they're referred to in the movie! ...hence the giant prawn on her head...) Sorry if you enlarged it, it looks a lot better in a smaller format. It started out as a sketch of Mel B from the daily rag and ended up like this somehow!
Also head over to Colin Lorimer's blog for details on how to get a hold of his UXB comic. There's pencilwork and a couple of finished pages previewed on the blog, so well worth the visit.

From DunLaoghaire last Sunday with the sketchers. The sketch turned out muck, made a bollix of the sky. I was prickin around with it durin the week on the cintiq and I'm not goin any further with it. the digital work is a lot lot darker than what's posted, I had to prick around with the balance levels, should have started with a ref pic, still the sketch was so rough I couldn't make out half of what I'd drawn, probably wouldn't have made any difference.

I've really let this blog go over the summer, have to try to get back into it. I'm workin on a comicy thing in my own time, continuing on from the ruffs posted a coupl of weeks ago, and rather than just plough into it and start drawing I thought I'd just spend a month or so gettin character designs together that I'm comfortable drawing. Something not too complicated like, with simple shapes. Anyway, this would be the closest I've come to the female lead character. I had Marnie playing the other day and found the anti-heroine Lil (Diane Baker) a good study. There's one line in the original novel that sets her up as a sexual tease; temptress; provocateur type, and even though it's only a line that is discarded and laughed off fairly quickly, by the two lead characters, there's probably something to it, and there should probably be a touch of sauce about her. Anyway, there you go. I have loads more, mostly on post-its, I'll post them whenever they're presentable. Right now like everything else it's all a mess! Hope everyone visiting here is having a good summer.

Really ruff and messy cintiq freehand distraction. When I get the other few pages done I'll go over'em properly and ink them properly. I decided that since I don't really have a great imagination for ideas and such, that to keep me going after work ends durin the day I'd do a few comic pages based on sequences I really like out of books I've read. I have a few more scenes after this one, it's an opening sequence this one. Anyways apologies for the unreadability of it. It's my first time drawin freehand in photoshop, I wanted to give it a whirl, only thing is I love sketchbook pro. Great for sketching.
Laters.

YUKI 7 Trailer

With North Korea's fingers up to the rest of the world, politicians everywhere scamming our hard earned cash, and famed bald Brazilian football legend Ronaldo (not that w****r playin for ManU) starring as the face of a new hair restoring product; the legend that is Stephane Coedel - of Kid Cole and Clay pilot fame and much more - Kevin Dart ,the artistic evil genius behind the operation, and plot-twister Ada Cole comes the trailer for a superhero who might just have what it takes to restore our faith in humanity (or at least give us a good old fashioned, much needed, cinematic saucy spy experience)! The whole thinkin' behind this is great! Artwork is spectacular too! I've nothing to post myself, very busy! Laters

"A Kiss From Tokyo" Theatrical trailer from Stephane coedel on Vimeo.

Recent sketch outings from the last week. Cheers for all the comments on the 'Lost' post, really appreciate them.

-edit- the weird one on top of the skeletal volleyball player was sketched at the Bodies exhibition, currently in Dublin. The figure has been plasticised and the shoulder blades and muscles were pulled out. In case people thought I was entering a psychotic phase!

LOST!!!

I'm 'Lost" watchin the f'in show!! Quick doodle after work, although I did spend way too much time on the background! Ha ha!

really quick sketch before bed, the last few had been lackin' a bit of colour so I threw a bit in there. I didn't have time for any background so I just did a newspaper search, and found one with patrol written on the top. It means nothin' at all at all.

Always liked three wheelers, just pricked around with an old sketch on the cintiq.
Laters..

Traffic lights with the Dublin Four Courts in the background. I love traffic lights!

Sketchin in Collins Barracks yesterday. I didn't like the sketch I did, so I pricked around with it on the cintiq this evenin. Cartoony shit, whatever, sue me!

weekend sketchin....

A3 hence the double scans!

HAPPY EASTER!

Have a good one!

Newsflash!!!! I added all the links from my google reader on the left, so feel free to click away. All amazing work there!!

Also a guy called Tel Coehlo left a comment, I added a link to his blog on the right, his work is fantastic, well worth checking out!

Sketch from the Botanic Gardens earlier with the Dublin Sketchers.

coulda been a cool animated show ha ha

Congratulations to Richard Kelly, of Prickly Pear Productions whose film 'Walter' won best Independent Animation at the Canadian International Animation Film festival. I did the background work on it and Ed comped in after fx. Good stuff anyway! Fair play man! Enjoy the celebrations!

Greetings!
The pics are a couple of a batch of illustrations I did for Zink films, for a website. I think it's alright to post'em as they're up on the web now. I've removed the company logo just in case. Anyways, just getting back to finishing this board after a couple of days getting my accounts together. Think I'll break that credit card. Dangerous in my hands!!!

Thilo Rex R.I.P.

I received an email from a Stardust co-worker, Steffen Harder, on the passing of Thilo Rex, our old Potsdam boss. I thought I'd post it on the off chance that any of my ex Stardust colleagues visit the blog. He was a good man and will be missed, dying at the young age of 51. He was found in his apartment following two days' unanswered phonecalls. I didn't know him as well as the rest of the crew that stayed on during the financial difficulties the studio was going through at the time, but I will say that my memories of the time there have entertained buddies and colleagues in pubs, bars or wherever I've ended up since. He was one of the great characters I've come across in the industry since I began my career.

photo courtesy Garrett 'O Donoghue

we had a light dusting of snow this mornin, worse elsewhere in the country. Anyway quick warm up in sketchbook pro - Coco and Chopper, think Coco's earned herself a visit to the vet, there's some foul stench coming from her mouth at the moment, must need a tooth pulled or something.

Just had another prick around there with another old sketch. Really rough but I'm up early boarding tomorrow. Seems to be snowin outside..

cintiq is here

shit this is brilliant. three hours into the storyboard pro trial and i'm flyin it! It kick's ass altogether. No more writin. But the cintiq itself is better than sex! well whatever sex is fairly good too!

SKETCHCRAWL 10TH JANUARY

DENTIST VISIT ON FRIDAY

Dentist visit on Friday. I started route canal back in October, and I was meant to go back in December but I forgot entirely about it. So Monday, chewing gum, temporary filling comes out, legend! Bell rings in the head. So back to it on Friday. I did this up as a gift so maybe she'll go a little easier... fingers crossed! Ah no great dentist, never thought I'd have the guts to go back last year after the last guy cause he was an absolute butcher!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Happy Christmas everyone, and New Years Greetings. Turkey time!!!!!!!

WIP at the moment. Teaching myself how to paint properly digitally, time consuming, but I gotta lotta time!! Ha ha! The bird is part of the rough stages of my first pinup. There's a thread on the drawing board away from caricature for a change for me. The other is a piece I'll probably end up using as my ecard for christmas.

For a Bjork thread on the drawing board. There are some amazin pieces up there already, well worth the gander. Adjusted thanks to pointers from Board colleagues. Think it works better. Her jaw in the original was more Grace Jones than Bjork.

Therese in her raincoat WIP. Have to get back into this one and get it framed before Christmas. Laters. And cheers for all the comments, some of my older posts are still getting a few notes. Much appreciated. Photo taken with my mobi, sorry about the blurriness. Her teeth have to go in and stuff, shit I could make excuses for it for a while, I'll hold off until I have the final version to post.

Laters

Started this this afternoon for my other niece Sophie. It's fun painting with oil on canvas board beats the wacom. Still a long way to go though. I'll let it dry a tad over might before I go in and refine it a bit tomorrow sometime. Laters......

The Amazing Adventures of Kid Cole & Klay from Stephane coedel on Vimeo
I hadn't checked my google reader thing there for a couple of days and I happily and delightedly came across this pilot. It's absolutely fantastic and I wanna see more! Check it out now!!!!!!!!! Come on Cartoon Network you gotta go with this show!!

Great new Tommy Lee Jones thread just kicked off on the Drawing Board, well worth checking out.

couple of pics from a christmas present I'm doing for my niece.

Typical Dublin suburban scene

I have loads of reference for the Got Your Nose short I laid out. Below are a couple of inspirational or style doodling that Ragnar provided so we could tackle the short with some gusto and enthusiasm, I loved the work.

Saturday night. I'm on anti-biotics after havin a tooth out, so off the drink for the weekend. Decided to have a prick around with a bit of the painting after a days boarding. It's painful work for a non-painterly person!

Quick Obama sketch. I did a couple but I over-cooked them. Anyone who wants to see a great Wolverine/Jackman caricature click here, it's by Neil Davies, unbelievable work.

Newman's Best mate

Well maybe not... but they were both SPEED DEMONS

'nother Newman

another Newman... I know I know this is turning into a Paul Newman stalker site ... well it's not! I'm learning through the talented heads on the DrawingBoard that you don't give up if you think you've gotten close enough to your chosen subject... you keep plugging away. I like this piece more than my others, it's more fun and not so serious. I got the photo reference from IMDB again.

Update on the painting. This takes me an age, but I'm gonna keep plugging.

Another Audrey attempt.. and a stab at Diana Rigg

Tribute to a legend

Sad news this weekend with the passing of a great. He was three of my top ten film characters Butch Cassidy, Henry Gondorff (The Sting), and Frank Galvin (The Verdict - no relation! ha ha!). Anyway real shame, he was one of the best.

I had a wee stab at Audrey Hepburn, there's a thread goin with great stuff on the drawing board at the moment. I'm tryin out these new brush-pens I got from Fran and Mooney's mate Christian's shop on Thomas Street, well worth the browse in there.

-edit on this one. I tried another one because the first didn't look like her at all. Think I'm gettin worse. The second one looks like a Disney villain on about sixty fags a day. Still the blog is still alive!! ha ha

just doodlin; a common time for bed scene..

I found this site the other day and just did up a real quick (two hours or so) animatic on the current assignment, the site has loads of great animation and interpretation of the audio files, well worth checking out 11 Second Challenge. Mine is a bit ropey. After spending a year and a half up to now, without the audio for the shows I've boarded, it presented something completely different. I hope there was enough time to read the biscuit getting dropped into the cup gag. Anyways all fun and games, back to the real job now.

Pizza Anyone????

The future of air-travel with the ever-present oil crisis. As hot air goes we have plenty of people running our country to keep the traffic in the skies going for the next year alone! ha ha!

mornin' warm up

Cheers for reminding me Colin, the scene in Strangers on a Train as seen in the reflection of the victim's bifocals. Great filmmaking and one shot out of a shedload from that one particular fim. I unfortunately flicked on a movie channel last night to find Van Sant's Psycho remake. What a tool! Shit film. Where did execs Universal see the merit in giving a lesser filmmaker, with inferior acting talent, the opportunity to recreate an all time classic. Soul destroying.

Anyway I got the link to this site a while ago, thanks to the John Nevarez blog, from where I sourced the screenshots, well worth checking out for filmmakers, storyboarders, whomever. Misenscene101 Enjoy!

An homage to Hitchcock for creating one of my favourite films of all time. Dialogue, photography, story, has it all, brilliant! Forgive the brutal linework. I find drawing directly onto the computer with the tablet annoying, bringing me back to when I was eighteen in school and none of my drawings looked or turned out the way I'd hoped. I was gonna clean it up with illustrator but it'd've taken all night and I have work tomorrow. Laters..

train carriage doodle

Our fearless new Taoiseach, about to lead us into another recession. Really ruff

another hurling one I left the pencil layer over this one because it looked better and a bit meaner.

apres dinner mind not on the job

Quick muckin around before I hit the sack. Have a pile of work on my plate at the moment. Just tryin to do somethin non-work related a day to keep the brain from fryin'.

watched some of glastonbury the other night, thought I'd post this video. Elbow are f***ing good!

Had 'President's Men' playing while I was working earlier, brilliant flick. Love the sequence where Redford doodles on his pad while trying to get Howard Hunt on the phone for a comment. He ends up talking to a secretary in the Committee for Re-election offices and his hand, armed with pen, hovers over a freshly drawn picture of a bad-guy (Dick Tracy style). As the secretary, at the other end of the phone, informs him that Hunt was also a spy-novelist, Redford proceeds to draw sunglasses over his bad-guy face. Brilliant touch. That's only one nugget out of hundreds in that film. Pakula kicked ass on it. Anyway finished work around 10.30 and doodled this from an image on the net.

Arshavin? Arsin' around! There was only one winner in the battle of the number 10's last night. Arsenal midfield maestro Cesc Fabregas!

spent a couple of hours in the gallery this afternoon

You're know you've lost your witness when the cameras are above you.

Above is a ruff, really ruff breakdown of Paul Newman losing the credibilty of his witness in 'The Verdict'.

I hope it's readable, but it's fairly straight foward. It's at shot eight, where the judge intervenes that Newman becomes the hunted (as it were). He's the smallest man in court, or basically by the use of the camera he's made to feel that way. At shot 14 he's finally beaten. Anyway I was just going thru it and thought I'd post. But I love the staging. It's probably not clear from my ruffs how well the dp/director use the background elements with perspective, the backgrounds are practically a character in themselves. The shots of the witness on his own in the dock use three point perspective brilliantly.

Hope it makes sense.

Hands and fingers are ken-ackered, been workin non stop for weeks now it seems, really lookin foward to a holiday; this was done loosely after I found a great photo of him, took about fifteen minutes. Don't know if it works or not. When I was drawin it I noticed there's something very Kennedy-like about his features. Anyways...

My niece Therese up in the air, one of her favourite ways of keepin us fit.

Greetings,

I'm workin through the weekend again, had the dvd player on in the background until the early hours of this morning and found a hidden gem, or well, just something I hadn't noticed before. One of my all time favorites, Lumet's 'The Verdict' was playing and I hadn't realised there was a commentary. Anyway, rather than dig out another dvd, I hit play again. Lumet spoke in detail about storytelling, shot composition, acting, editing, lighting the whole nine yards all the way through. It's by far the most educational breakdown of a movie I've ever sat through. At that stage it was pencils down, and I was riveted. When I have some free time I'll sketch out some of the shot breakdowns, just to show how he used the camera to tell the story. This is goin back to my rant about that brutal film 'Rendition' a while ago, and how directors an DP's aren't getting it currently, bar only a few shining lights. But for anyone who visits this blog with an interest in story, to watch this movie with the commentary and listen to Lumet talk about the production with the passion he had for filmmaking it is a must see!



Laters.

It was a common operation, back in the day. The patient would have a 'keye' removed from his head. Usually, or from what I can gather, it was an operation performed in an effort to stave off madness, or a way to treat a patient deemed mad. The patient being operated on here had his 'keye' removed from his head with considerable success. I know this because there is an inscription, not included in this reproduction, when translated says; "Master, cut away the stone – my name is Lubbert Das." Here's a link to his blog, still alive and not quite so mad, now speaking with a Northern Irish accent and going under the pseudonym Colin Lorimer. Living far away from Bosch's hellish depictions of 16th century Netherlands, in Vancouver; making a decent living in the animation industry.

Pyjama Madness!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spent an hour or so this mornin gettin my glasses replaced and my eyes re-tested after my niece therese got at them one too many times. To my disdain some ol' one came into the shop and paraded around trying on glasses dressed in her pajamas, complete with rabbit-eared slippers. At least she had the decency to wear a pair of knickers - I added the top of the pantyline. But her arse, her belly, her unsupported tits, Jayzus, were all hanging out. I love women as much as the next guy, but this is getting ridiculous. Pajamas are NOT an exterior fashion accessory. I've seen 'em bend over wearing thongs in tescos .... shite! look, I don't mean to bitch but I feel physically ill when I see bellys hanging out. Maybe the eye test will open her eyes hopefully! But look, how can this be healthy, the godawful smells that must be following these people downwind must be godawful! UUUUUUUUUggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Adding a p.s. to this post; I just got my copy of the Kung Foo Panda art of book in the mail there, really nice stuff. Anyone who hasn't seen it the opening sequence is great. Maybe it's cause at heart I'm a traditionalist and 2d was my television dessert, but it blew me away. I would have killed to have been a fly on the wall watching boarders pitch their ideas for that sequence. Shite it was good!

warm up doodle of Sophie learnin to get used to the water,,,

Sketches from the park opposite the Gallery on Sunday. Good day, hopefully we'll start to attract a few more heads. It was a bad weekend with the bank holiday and all of that. But we enjoyed it.

My 200th post wahaay!

The thing above is the coloured up version of a cartoon I did of my niece Therese reachin into the cookie jar, I started colouring it when I was waiting for the script for the next episode, finished it off there this evenin when I finished thumbnailing. I wanted to practice hair a bit, still somethin' 'chewbacca-like' about it, but I'm gettin a bit better, just have to keep pluggin away on the practice. Anyway, it was fun. I started with block shapes in illustrator and added shadows and texture in ps. Still need illustrator for pieces like this, kind of keeping it in between the lines in old kid colouring terms, and the pen tool is more 'tom' friendly in illustrator than the same tool in ps.

Something Old and Something Very Old

Above was one of the original designs for my Kid Columbo idea, guess I thought he should have a dog cause bein a Columbo he'd've been a snoopy git.

And this one was a gift from the legendary Art Leonardi when I worked with him back in the last decade on Stevie Stardust. He animated on the original Pink Panther movie intros. Funny thing about the guy was he carried around a pencil case with one or two black pens, and a shedload of pink ones, to keep the rest of up entertained with Pink Panther drawings. I guess it was hanging on a wall with the sun shining on it cause it's a fair bit bleached out now. Anyway nothin new so there you go. I did finish up on Simsala Grimm boarding. It had only been drips and drabs the last couple of months but finished my work on it now. So totally focused on Ballybraddan. Great fun altogether!
Laters..

These are a year and a half old now, should be safe to post. Rob asked a few of us to try our hands at an action sequence to push a Power Rangers promo after one of Mike Moon's project ideas at Disney. I got assigned the yellow guy, who was the smallest, Robiny type character and Rob gave me a crack at the 'Power Up' sequence. Think it was abandoned or was sent for 3d development instead. We had no scripts or anything so it was real off the cuff stuff. It was fun anyway, and at the time I hadn't boarded anything for a spell so it was fun to get back into it.

I was workin an ad pitch job over the weekend. It was a bit of fun. Not sure what the craic is with posting, although these two panels give nothing away about the product. Still it was fun, and it was the first time my pencil-work was still on display after the colour had been done, I'll have to start cleaning up much cleaner! Bit of fun anyway, these were the two panels I liked more than the rest, without giving the product away.

Laters..

I've nothing new to post, I'm up to my proverbials in it. Spending the weekend boarding on Ballybraddan for Monster. The hurling show. In all fairness the most fun I've had boarding to date. With the boarding, hours can vary by the amount of script you decide to plough through per day, and it's hardly ever 9 to 5, but I'm findin with this show that the hours are longer, without realising it myself. The character designs are great to work with, and with the popularity of hurling increasing in the smoke here (Dublin - following the under 21's Leinster final win last year, and losing to Galway in the U21 all Ireland - at that one meself woeful performance), I've a feeling that come the championship next year, when the show goes to air, there'll be a fair few Ballybraddan fans walkin to Croker with their parents. Above is one of the hundreds of post-it panels.

Zodiac, bloody good flick, had great sequences. I just sketched out a couple of shots to illustrate.

Greetings,
This was in the picture library on the hard drive. I did this back three or four years ago when Boulder was finding it's feet. They invited us all to submit ideas for a company logo. I think I'd had a few pints the night before cause I added text to some pictures of models with larger than life jugs - 'boulders'-childish I know - but we all cracked up looking at them. Anyway, just as tribute to a talented bunch and wishing them all the best!

there's a flash thread on the drawing board, but it's under the girls headings, so this wouldn't qualify, but I just had an idea and drew it up.

Watchin series 5 after work, thought I'd do this one. I read this guy's autobiogrphical 'Just One More Thing'. It's not really an autobiography, just a compilation of a few dozen or so short anecdotes. There was one where he'd visited an optometrist when he was younger, and explained, when the doctor asked him to read out the letters on the chart with his right eye (could be his left eye, can't remember), that the eye was glass. The doctor asked him to do his best anyway! Here's the reference for the sketch. I fiddled with bits and pieces of it, because it wasn't working in places, but it's gettin there. Best one I've done of him. Even though the expression has changed from the reference image.

When I was checkin my email this mornin one of those reunite with past graduate ads popped up, so after havin a crack at Sophia yesterday thought I'd use the picture as a warm up thing, before work. Anyway lunch over, back to it.

I took a break and did this up after browsing a Sophia Loren thread on the drawingboard site. Haven't posted anything there in ages but the thread is definitely worth the look, there are some amazing portraits of her on it.

Greetings,

I was browsing thru a couple of blogs and found this link. First time I'd heard of it but for animation geeks out there it's pretty good. Podcasts of animation interviews. Have a listen

I just updated the links section, they're working now I think. There are a few extra ones in there aswell; Barry Reynolds is character designer on Ballybraddan, the show I'm currently boarding, and Jason Tammemagi is the show's director. If I left anyone out send me a mail and I'll update.

Laters..

coco on a post-it sleepin' away while i work in the corner of the room....

just doodlin watchin a movie on the internet there, turned out a bit weird. I was usin the hepburn pose as a reference for hair and stuff but it wasn't intended to be her likeness. somethin different anyway

Therese gets ready to escort my ma to dump the post in the postbox.... it'll be handy when I can send her over to buy my cigs, save me the trip.

tried to do a recall sketch from the bus-stop earlier..

An old ruff action sequence for the Kid Columbo promo....

Nothin much goin on, boardin away here. Found this in the drawer of shit that hasn't been binned. Carter early days stuff. I think there were about five or six other panels, but I don't have 'em..

Greetings,

I'm workin away on the monster Simsala Grimm episode, and surprisingly getting thru it fairly alright. A bit complicated here and there, with the amount of characters involved or whatever, and sometimes a bit more time consuming than normal, but okay on the main.

But above is the final draft of my ol' lad's caricature/commission for the Golf Club. Well I can honestly say, that for the first time ever, I got the nod from everybody; pat on the back or whatever. He's not allowed to view the drawing, it's a revealer in the club, on a particular day in March. But it's a f***ing weight off my shoulders. It's taken several drafts, close to ten, and each was wrong. A couple of times I was gettin really pissed off with it. It's a fairly big deal for himself, and for me I suppose, cause I could nab a few more commissions out of them and make an annual thing out of it, but the last couple of years captains were dealt a half arsed effort, for the money. But this year it's a different style and has the likeness of the subject to boot. Anyway thank Christ!

Dedicated to Tom Galvin

Okay okay, this may look a little arrogant from the offset, but I got a mail from this dude in the States with the coolest name in the world... you got it Tom Galvin!! Anyway he sent me a photo of himself and one of his brother and we're all fairly identical, bar an age difference. So here's his caricature. See if you can spot the resemblance! Yeah and he imitated my profile pose. Guy is a legend! Ha ha Tom Galvin is a legend!!!!!! Yeah and still training myself to paint ... this one on sbpro2.

Seasons Greetings!

It's a bit of a mess but hopefully this time next year i'll be well able for the digital painting side of things. Yeah and how do you paint hair and fur????

All the best.

Diggin' around for reference for old set ups I worked on before and found this from studio 352 in Luxembourg. Must be six odd years ago since I drew it now. It was for a tv special for DiC, based on the Thor Legend. We worked on a few others that year too, The Time Machine, Treasure Island, Strawberry Shortcake, and more...
Anyways just posted for the hell of it.

Laters,
tom.

Greetings,

Some of Boulder's shorts were highlighted on the Cold Hard Flash site last week, thought anyone who visits here might like to give it a glance.
Meanwhile tryin to figure out what to get for me folks this yule. Wondered if something unsuburban like this'd go well in the livin' room!?!?

It's an old one, don't know if I've posted it before. An eskimo girl with a fish. Jacket like that would have gone down well yesterday on the golf course. Brass monkeys out there in the weather we're currently experiencing.
Laters,...

greetings, been a while sonce the last post. waiting on final designs for the next episode, and corrections and alterations on the first episode, so goin thru the board quickly doin some colouredy keys on gman. not gonna post 'em all up, heres one sample.

laters,
tom.

The joys of painting .... glad I'm not the one cleanin' up after her!

Warm down!

Therese likes to tease the dogs at feedin time.....

Greetings,

Another warm up sketch before startin off today. Gonna work tomorrow and on the bank holiday monday. Always find the first week on a new board is always a bit slow, gettin used to characters and stuff, so no worries. Gonna play a few holes on sunday in the winter league and have a few pints out there. Thing on in town with Boulder tonight.

Up there is Sophie on a bouncer. My brother's kid is startin to move around on her arse now, so thought something like this might help her! Ha ha!

Another invention for 'accident prone' therese!

On the phone there,

Can't really board when I'm on it cause I'll lose my place or shag something up that'll later need to be flipped or something, so doodled meself workin in the corner..

Laters..

Two in a row,

Just a warm up sketch this mornin before kickin in to gear for the day. My niece Therese fell off a stool (a 'tsool), after brekky this mornin' trying to get her paints off the counter. She looks a bit like a boxer now with a split lip. Anyway, I had an invention idea, I don't get many of these, but I think it might be on the road to a solution.... whatta ya think. Could call the fire brigade around in about fifteen years time to cut her out; when all ideas 'climbing', rock climbing have faded in interest for her!
Laters,
tom.

Needed a half hour away from the board and routed thru some photos on the laptop. Found a half decent one of my god-daughter Therese when we were watching her trying to catch bubbles in the backgarden - so just a quick twenty minute sketch.

Laters....

Boulder's answer to Seba Chabal. Took a break from boarding GMan. Added a couple of highlights with sketchbook pro.
Laters...

Moondog

Finished paintings for the exhibition at the end of the month, gonna have'em framed dowm the road tomorrow, should be ready for next friday.

That's it for today....laters...

Haven't posted anything in a long long time so with a couple of caricature things to draw up tonight here's one just finished, for a mate of my da's, i was told he was a fisherman, so that was the only requirement to infuse; and Tweedy if you're checkin this I'm doin your mate's one now.

Laters

Greetings again,

I've been looking at this one on and off the last couple of days, and I figure it needed a colour change. The poultry truck one is a lot stronger, colour-wise, so I readjusted the colours, with better, or stronger bolder colours. The knocked back oranges were a bit of a cop out, anyway i'm much happier with it now, and that i'm spotting crap before there's too much to deal with further on down the line.

Sunday Night, bugger all on tv. Another frustratin day on the golf course, here's the lower third of a screenshot of my project that I roughed up yesterday, it's a map, nothin excitin, just tryin to keep this goin for the blog.

Here's the same one again with characters.

Greetings again,

Here's another from my own project. Long long way from being finished, characters, et al still left to tackle.

a squirrel with the munchies.............

Greetings,

Here's a bear distracted by a fly. Flies are a bitch in this weather......better have a wash!

A lot of people would agree that I don't have a giraffe...... but now my blog does!!!!!

Lunchtime doodle rendered up. Just needed a break from this Funky storyboard. Two posts in two days, farking hell I'm proud of myself.

Greetings again,

I am gonna make it my mission to keep this blog updated. Been very lax the last couple of months, and even tonight I've so much work to do that I shouldn't even be tooling around on anything else seein as my time management skills are defunct. Anyways my little niece Therese has a fair grasp of a lot of words, elephant comes out 'ezephance', Padraig Harrington won the Irish Open today and Padraig comes out 'Podgegick' so whatever here's an 'ezephance'. I was thinkin of puttin a few together for her for the bedroom, and unlike the friendly shark I previously posted, this one has the more suitable beginings for a poster!

Laters, and sorry neglectin ya Mary but since the big day I've just been swamped.

Greetings,
Been a long time so here's a work in progress kinda thing I picked away at on Saturday. It's a porterait of my year and a half old niece Therese. Lookin at it now, I set up the page wrong, if she'd been a bit more to the right it would have complimented the page better, but I was happy enough with the outcome. It's nowhere near as good as the pencil work you'd see on the likes of David Malan's site but it's a start, and I really enjoyed it for a change. Any comments or whatever muchos appreciados as per the norm. Laters...

picked at this a small bit after spendin the day boardin on twisted. Don't know if I should keep pickin, seein as it was the first attempt, and start a new piece from scratch with what I've been pickin up. Ah I'll keep pluggin until I think I've finished. Still the surface water to tackle not sure where to start there..

Feelin a bit congested!

A couple from a pitch I made to FAS a few years ago. Was in Luxembourg at the time had an idea about makin' interactive cd-rom educational presentations, based on Irish mythology. Got blasted, but the guy I was talkin to in there knew what he was on about, so point was taken well. I was in there for a few other things aswell, and if you get the wrong person, you get the worst possible gobshite of all time. Came back from Luxembourg anyway and made the pitch, so like all the others, wasn't picked up, it was gonna be kind of Jim Fitzpatrick inspired, similar to the layout, but a lot less understated. When you start into framing every picture with a page outta the Book Of Kells, you're either incredibly stupid, anal, or big-headed. His stuff is great don't get me wrong, but people don't buy the artwork to admire the frame at the end of the day!

Listenin to old BBC radio Sherlock Holmes dramatisations, still fantastic, even though I've listened to 'em a thousand times; great when you're boarding and havin' a tv or dvd playing is too distracting for work.

Found this drawin' a while ago. Drew it between scripts in Studio 352. A mate approached the BBC way back then and suggested animating an episode of one of the dramatisations, seeing as for animation purposes, the dialogue, effects and music tracks were already recorded. The dilemma they threw back at him was that animated shows are given twenty minute slots, whereas these were three quarters of an hour in length - so with production costs etc., it probably wouldn't have made sense. Still though, they beat the shit outta the twenty minute shows Gielgud/Richardson did in the fifties; and better still than the Rathbone/Bruce episodes recorded in the States in the forties. Maybe if they'd seen an animatic, it might've changed their minds, but seriously who has that kinda time? Drfinitely not myself - top it off I guess they'd make better sense just as live action, there's not much scope there for animation, animation-wise in the sense that they're not cartoons, they're more period pieces. Still though I'd've given my left arm to work on The Red-Headed League or one of them - I'd'a needed the right hand for drawin obviously!

Workin away on Twisted Tales Episode 8 - 'Anarchy in the Kingdom' - a lot cooler this time cause no pressure to get it done in a short couple of days, so enjoyin' the work much more for it, and sleeping well for a change.

Didn't find Art's Pink Panther cartoon. Here's a few roughs for somethin' or other when I was tryin' to come up with ideas for shots for whatever they were for.

Think I posted the coloured up one of this way back when I started the blog. It's a prototype for a kid's remote control transformer-robot type thing, that works in a radio controlled fashion of a way. I'd begun building it until I accidentally hooked the central motherboard with the wheel pump, and ended up with a robot with an inflated ego, and delusions of taking over Ireland. I nicknamed him Enda Kenny, but all he seems to be able to do talk through his arse. It's a start anyway!

Fuckin' really seriously fuckin bored workin at home. End up talkin to yourself a lot, thinkin way too much, and the dog is stinkin out the room thanks to havin the radiator on. Another weekend of long workdays-nights to get this episode done for monday.

Took a break from boardin when I saw the milkman doin' the rounds, don't know what his story was or anything, but he looked a bit off, from what we've come to expect from the guy. Tony Waldron or somethin' his name is. Anyway here's a quick sketch of him...... think he could have a bout of the bird flu or somethin?!?!?!?!?!???

Greetings,

here's a drawin i did up when I was pushin an idea in an old job. Best place to work on the planet - Dunnes Stores where better value beats them all!

Season's Greetings,

I have the week off next week from boarding so i'm planning to do some of my own publishable stuff on the blog. The last couple have months I've been consumed with work. So keep tuning in whoever you are and I'll be postin' very soon! In the meantime check out the incredible new links update on the John Nevarez site, unbelievable talent on display.

So with that I'll leave you with the inimitable Jimmy Stewart reading one of his classic poems. Probably seen it before but it's priceless ....bring an ol' tear to the eye.............

thanks to the talented heads at the drawin' board for some helpful comments here's the finished sketch, i darkened the rear leg to make the front leg stand out so here is

tryin out somethin different altogether. Needed some life drawin pointers from Ed but kept at it and came up with this. I like the cahracter against white better than the others but i was happy enough with the way it turned out. I threw the sketch in aswell for no reason.

not my favourite band but the song mixed with an old classic is prett cool

f***ing bored thought i'd post up an old one, part of a series i posted earlier of the plane crash, here's the approach ....... oh no......... it's coming in way to fast ...... pull back pull back

later

Greetings this fine friday. Boulder Foster's rap party tonight, fancy dress so i'm goin as eminem! No i'm not i don't dress up not mah thang!

I don't multitask well!

these were a couple of panels from a dvd store competition. They opened up the playing field for anynoe interested in submitting an idea fopr an advert for their store. I had the whole idea that it could been based around the three jaws characters renting out a dvd for their boat trip. So like obviously they strap the boat to the jeep to go to the dvd superstore, only when they're outside they don't have enough room, prompting the infamous quote 'we're goin' to need a bigger boat!!
never heard back but they didn't rip off the idea anyway...

from a ruff doodle, it's a king of a futuristic cockpit type thing

Another character from the kid columbo thing, this is the real Columbo who happens to be the kids ol' lad, who's always around to dispense some sound advice, while chokin on a fat Cuban.

Have been pretty much inactive over the last couple of days, postin some kid columbo bits and pieces

Messin' around with that cowboy in illustrator thought I'd post it. I wanted to put $5 reward on it but the font I downloaded had symbols instead of letters on it so shag it I didn't bother, cause it's not a serious thing anyway.

Thought I'd post these, they're old enough sketches, did'em about a year or so ago. Not much of a zoo man myself, went to that stuffed animal place in town, it's easier when the animals don't move, but, the biggest drawback is the smell of rotting flesh, and there's an odd drifter urine type smell in a couple of corners. Anyway, we march forth and keep pencil pushing! Gotta plan another trip out there because it's a lot of fun and you can take your time.

Another doodle, nothin much to do so scribbling takes over....

Howdy, doodlin' away.....

monday night doodle somethin different

doodling today, always have this f***ing urge to smudge when I'm usin this paper, bit of fun though whatever Happy Tuesday!

brother asked me to do him a favour for a presentation in his job, they're proposing top build a warehouse for something or other, they gave me just a rough sketch and a floorplan and basically as long as the loading bays were all accounted for as well as car park and gateway I could do what I wanted. only thing was was that they wanted bugger all perspective just barely enough. I cut a couple of corners, sorry the post isn't the best copy, it was a3 size so I took an iphoto of it.

late now gonna hit the sack,

tom.

in the meantime some more sketching

A couple more from the vault....

Greetings, no drawing tonight so I thought I'd post this pitch for a tv show idea I keep pickin away at. Kid Columbo, based on the original Columbo series but with a kid. Yeah ... I know ...... groundbreaking idea ... and like really original .... well the whole thing came to me in realising that I've probably on a very few occasions figured out who was behind murders in Poirot, Sherlock Holmes or Jessica Fletcher tv shows, so here's one for kids who like meself are a bit simple, and don't think while watchin tv. I blame the radio waves comiong from the screen, or brainwave killers as I like to call them myself... Anyway it's somethin different. It's like Alan Partridge said 'revolution not evolution!!!'

Spent the entire weekend painting the walls of the kitchen, sore arms and everything now. Still it's always worth the pain for the satisfaction of the coupla beers aterwards. Here are a couple more roughs from Troy Ride - didn't get a chance to work on any new stuff over the couple of days.

Thought I'd throw this on the blog, It's my cousin's group, Messiah J and the Expert, they're startin to kick off here in Ireland and abroad, looks and feels like a really good tune, video's not bad either. Enjoy!

Had a few pints tonight, Spurs got to the next round of the UEFA cup but no-one gives a shit. Here's one from the sketchbook......

Watchin Liverpool scramble a win against Galatasaray. Not worried the Gunners sailed past Porto last night. The Hex of the Emirates Stadium is behind them and they're scorin freely again, just like Highbury. While I was watchin I drummed up a couple of Golfer sketches. One is standard enough the second was tricky with the foreshortening, but they're the ones you never give up on because if life was that easy, nobody'd grumble. Cheers for the comments and feel free to check back anytime for updates.

a caricature doodle of stewart cink I was pickin at durin work. It's not a great likeness or anything but sure it's all fun

lift off tuesday....... an early design for disney short program, Troy Ride, drew it back in May sometime.

a lost 'inspired' doodle..

Here are a few sketchbook doodles. And after the tremendous Ryder Cup European victory, I've included the ruff sketch I did up before begining painting the Paul McGinley portrait.

pencils down stop workin it's the weekend

here's one from germany again. I was comin up with house designs for streets and stuff. I based this one on a colleague's place in Burbank. His garden was raised and it had a stepway down from the porch to the garage. I just liked the whole idea that there was a basement and loads of other features about it. The perspective's pretty wild but sure who gives a shit!

a few of the better caricature attempts I've had a stab at

Ryder Cup time upon us and Europe, despite the fact that Woosie is not a brilliant spokesperson or whatever, will still have enough resolve to beat the Americans for a third time in a row. Here's an oil painting I did last year and still never finished of the great Paul McGinley.

These are a couple of early reference bgs I did for Troy Ride, another Disney short we made back in May sometime, I think. I have a couple more but they managed to look a bit cold and sterile, compared to the bubbly show. I have a couple more that I can post from home this evening. In the end I was happy enough with the way they looked, I was working with the incredibles 'Art of...' book beside me, hence the ol Pantones. But yeah; ye win some and ye lose some as somebody famous probably said once.

Sunday mornin, just about to get me teeth into the work.

Saturday night, early to bed work again tomorrow. Just watched Thunderball on the box has one of the strangest lines of all times in it;

" This is Mr. Vargas. Mr.Vargas does not drink. Does not smoke. Does not make love."

Good enough movie as Bonds go, although Goldfinger is my personal favourite. As a golfer, I found the matchplay well thought out and shot to perfection. Gonna recreate it someday out in the local club.

Her's an old sketch from back in college times. We had a great layout instructor, Owen Fitzpatrick, whose weapon of choice was a set of Pantone markers and a pencil. We all tried to imitate and impress but failed miserably in the masters presence. I'm adding a link to a gallery of his work on the right so definitely if you have time check it out.

Later

yeah here's a couple of drawins from around the desk. Superman looks gay and his feet are too big - I would never sleep with this version of womderwoman, I don't like big eyebrows - and a little scared girl!

A couple of my backgrounds for Got Your Nose, the Ragnar/Disney short we worked on here in the studio at the begining of this year and the end of last year. Great to work on and the reference we were provided was top class, hopefully the short will be received well. Here's Ragnar's blog http://symptomatica.blogspot.com/

a couple more

a couple more

here are a few bgs I did for a short film, 'The Big Rock Candy Mountain'. Creator and director Ian 'Benny' Kenny, also an award winner thanks to the beautiful people at the Galway film festival.

some more ..

some story sketches

these were some sketches I did for a group thing in the job...

these were done for stardust entertainment in Berlin, best city on the planet. They were hand painted by these really talented brush-heads and used as backdrops for 3d characters for a show that I don't think ever took off called Stevie Stardust. Maybe it did I never saw it, but it got a write up in Animation Magazine back in the day and we all thought we were headin for super stardom. One of the guys though, Ben Dishart, got to work on Lord of the Rings on the other side of the planet. Lucky *@™t!

a couple of layouts from film kameratene, oslo. done years ago now. The black and white was from '96, the magic marker one was from '99/ 2000 not sure

later on this evenin I'll post one or two production layouts, background drawings I worked on.

just postin loadsa previous stuff and then I'll just post sketches as they come along

added some links to the links section

i liked the way this one turned out

storyboard stuff

some posters for my niece's bedroom not really girly... eh

a greyhound racing meet poster

dog doodles

Drawn to the west....

Greetings,

This'd be my first ever blogspot. I think I tried to set one up before but I never stuck with it, but now it seems everyone and his dog on the planet has one of them so I'll set to do my best to keep it up to date, either with rambling about life in general or some of my doodling done either in work or in my spare time.

So I'll introduce myself. My name is Tom Galvin, been working in the animation industry for a fair while now, and currently working for Boulder Media in Dublin where it seems at the ripe age of 31 and three quarters I'm practically an old man. I've been converted to the tech era and use a couple of progams now without too much difficulty, still the traditional pencil never crashes, or gets infectedd. The only danger is, is that the mind would become infected, but that's another story.

Anyhoo enough of the waffle, and on with some art, so here are a couple of scribblings from last summer. Members from the great sketchbooksessions website may recognise some of the work.

g'luck,

Tom