Jesus at the Well

A commission from Irish News in Belfast.

This was a commission from Jim Fitzpatrick of the Irish News in Belfast. He asked if I could complete a painting in oils of a scene from the Bible. The scene featured Jesus giving a Good Samaritan lady a drink from the well which would have been deemed unclean by his disciples.

After some research, I discovered this was the well where Jacob dreamt of angels ascending and descending the Golden Staircase where God finally appeared to him.

Using the concept of the divine trinity, I constructed the painting using a spiral or DNA style composition where Jesus as God and Jesus as the son of God appear to mankind at the same location in two different generations therefore displaying the eternal nature of the divine.

Oscar Wilde influences a Christmas card.

Making a little Christmas card using "The Selfish Giant" as the image.

One deep dark November I had a couple of free days after finishing the work for one of my books. So I thought it best to put my efforts into making a Christmas card to be sent out to friends and family. "The Selfish Giant," was an obvious choice for me so I forged ahead with no reference material and no thought to the medium I was going to use.

In hindsight, I feel it would have been better to use a model for the figures at least, and a more absorbent watercolour paper as the illustration board used for this image was not that responsive to the paints I was using. I forged on regardless of these fundamental flaws in the process. Needless to say, this led to a project which should have only taken a day or two being prolonged to over a whole week!

I ended up spending more time trying to draw the figure exclusively from my head and pouring over the painting techniques which if applied using the correct materials would not have caused me a second thought.

Sometimes a little "slow"patience at the beginning leads ultimately to a quicker outcome!

Time to Sketch!

Sketching can become an addiction!

Here are some sketches done with Conté Crayon from my college days which were (I must say) a very long time ago!

These drawings remind me of how engrossed I became in drawing directly from real life and the surrounding environment.The landscape work was done in and around the Lagan Towpath in Belfast and the other is of course a self portrait study.

Sometimes I would get lost in a drawing to the point where I would forget it was the middle of January. That is until I decided to move. Then I would find myself literally seized up and practically rooted to the spot from cold, joints unwilling to respond to my demands to stand up!

Sometimes you just feel like painting a dragon!

Smaug felt like a good starting place from which to venture into a dragon painting.

Over the years I have seen many illustrators complete the most brilliant paintings of dragons. Michael Whelan, Alan Lee and John Howe just to name a few. Therefore I decided to have a go painting Smaug from 'The Hobbit' by J.R.R Tolkien and I have to admit I didn't find it easy at all!

This was rendered in Acrylics which can prove to a very demanding medium.

Little sketching moments that just happen unexpectedly!

I was just doodling on day...

...and then this little girl appeared out of the page walking away from the box.This was an idea for a book. Initially in black and white, I incorporated a couple of Photoshop layers of some watercolour studies I had and Hey Presto!  

Fairy art.

A piece of fairy art from long, long ago!

This is a piece of art I did a long time ago with the intention of including it in a possible future book. Eventually it found its way into Balor...on of my titles from 2009.

Sometimes you are searching for the answers in the wrong place!

The start of a book called Ó Chrann go Crann.

I just found this in an old file and was an initial sketch for a book I did a couple of years ago with Caitríona Hastings called Ó Chrann go Crann.

It was shortlisted for the CBI Book of the Year in 2012 and won the Réics Carló of the same year followed by the RIA Award.

Drawing fairies

A time where I wanted to combine my life drawing with nature studies.

A number of years ago I became aware of the work of Alan Lee and Brian Froud through a book called Fairies. It is a book I still have a read through from time to time but I will always remember coming across it for the first time and my reaction to it. I immediately fell in love with the drawings of Lee who of course went on to illustrate the Tolkien Lord of the Rings books and act as concept artist for Peter Jackson's related movies.

If you haven't already seen the work of Alan Lee in other projects you should have a look at his watercolour illustrations for the Mabinogion.

Needless to say, when I came across this work I ran out of the house, pencil and sketchbook in hand, drawing all the nature I could possibly surround myself with.I then combined these studies with fairy drawings of my own. I will post more of these works in the next couple of weeks.

Trying out new illustration styles does no harm!

This is a character I was working on where I wanted to use a pen and ink style mixed with an antique look.The little character was very upbeat, but in the end I opted to move onto something quite different as I was not at all convinced of using pen and ink in such a restricted way. I much prefer the sketchier look which has been great for my sketchbook work.
In the end I only spent a little time on this venture choosing to log it as a practice in learning what I did not want to do in the long run.

Selling book rights at book fairs

How to sell rights at the Bologna Book Fair.

STEP1: HAVE SOMETHING TO SELL

STEP 2: BUY SOME SPACE TO DISPLAY YOUR BOOKS SUCH AS A SHELF OR IF YOU 

HAVE A BIT OF MONEY, GET A TABLE ALSO TO HOST ANY POSSIBLE MEETINGS!

STEP 3: SET UP AS MANY MEETINGS AS POSSIBLE WITH PROSPECTIVE BUYERS AND / 

OR AGENTS.

STEP 4: ATTEND ALL THE MEETINGS SHOWING OFF YOUR PRODUCTS AND ROUGHLY

 MINUTE THE MEETING TO FOLLOW UP LATER.

STEP 5: SOAK UP THE EVENT AND VISIT OTHER STALLS IF YOU HAVE SPACES IN 

YOUR DIARY.

STEP 6: FOLLOW UP ANY PROSPECTIVE BUYERS BY E- MAIL A WEEK OR TWO   

AFTERWARDS TO GIVE THEM TIME TO RETURN TO WORK AND DISCUSS POSSIBLE 

PURCHASES.

STEP 7: KEEP IN CONTACT WITH ANY INTERESTED PARTIES FOR FUTURE MEETINGS.

STEP 8: NEVER GET DISHEARTENED AS THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ANOTHER MEETING. 

STEP 9: IF AN INTERESTED PARTY WISHES TO BUY RIGHTS TO ONE OR MORE OF

YOUR BOOKS, MAKE SURE IT IS ONLY FOR THEIR COUNTRY OR REGION AND NOT

THE WORLD!

BALOR: The darker side of Irish Myths.

Balor is a well known "Baddy" from Irish myth and legend.

The prophecy had it that his grandson would come to defeat him and in an attempt to stave off the inevitable Balor locks up his daughter in an attempt to avoid this!

Sketchbook drawings used for an Old Irish Myth and Legend Book.

These two spreads were used for Mac Rí Éireann, a book which won the illustration category of the Bisto Book of the Year in 2011.

These spreads were collages put together in Photoshop using pencil drawings, home made papers and 

books.

Rilla cover design

This is a rough mock up of our new title due out later this year. It is by no means final but gives a general idea of where we are going with this new adventure!

Using pencil drawings for Myths and Legends book is quick and refreshing!

Here are a couple of spreads from my latest book called An tÉan Órga (The Golden Bird) written by Caitríona Hastings. I have to say this is my favourite medium by far as it allows me to cover so much ground by way of tonal studies and detail.

To do this through watercolour would take me a lot longer and as the deadline on this project was literally 16 weeks this could not be a consideration.

Little illustrations that you become attached to.

This little illustration was completed a number of years ago in an attempt to develop a little character called Danté.

It has always stuck with me for some reason and every so often when I open this file up it always without fail puts little smile on my face.....I don't know why...it just does!

You tube video of illustration being completed by Andrew Whitson .wmv

What to leave out of a book can sometimes be difficult to decide!

This design was earmarked to be a possible case cover for a recent book project called POP!

I really liked this design but it was finally agreed that this was just too busy and did not fully convey the nature of the three characters in the book.

Drawing and sketching Ideas: the backbone of illustration for children.

The most exciting part of illustrating for me is exploring ideas in a spontaneous and immediate way. Grabbing tools that are easily at hand such as sketchbooks and pen and inks can result in the most intimate drawings that reflect emotion and feeling unhindered by accuracy and careful draughtsmanship.

This is such a little sketch completed one night while sitting at the dining room table. I had this strong urge just to get something onto paper in my sketchbook before dinner and this is what happened.

Just pity the drawing on the following page is showing through!

"Looking for a new adventure" by Andrew Whitson

The new logo for An tSnathaid Mhór

This version of the new logo is for the signature image on our Gmail account.

SKETCHING BOOK IDEAS FOR COGITO

I am always surprised  how my doodles of ideas for books regularly capture the essence of the idea in a way that is extremely difficult to re-create in the final render. It is a real pity that these initial and spontaneous drawings do not meet the grade for the final statements that are eventually worked up for the final books.
Here is an example of this very phenomenon in three spreads for a recent title called Cogito.
See how the initial sketches capture the very crucial aspects of the final illustrations in a very spontaneous and direct way.

                         

A new logo for an tSnáthaid Mhór

Here is a new logo for An tSnáthaid Mhór (Dragonfly Press) which tries to condense the basic structures of the dragonfly to the bare minimum in the hope that the image will be instantly clear.

This format is for the i phone 5.