AMELIA

This will probably be my last blog post of the year and I reckoned what better subject than the little person responsible for turning our world upside down and for being the source of so much amusement and utter joy for the last 5 and a half months...........
Thanks a million to everyone who visited my blog in 2009 and for all of your comments too!!
Happy Christmas to one and all!

GOOD NEWS!

Recently, I submitted three sketches into an art exhibition that was organised by some students at Trinity College. The exhibition pieces, submitted by staff and students at Trinity College, comprised of works ranging from photography, sculpture, painting and the odd sketch or two!
Anyway, turns out that the Curator of the Trinity College Art Collection liked my sketches so much, she bought them as permanent additions to the collection to be lent out to various College departments and Schools across Trinity College.
Just thought I'd share that little bit o' news! I'm pretty chuffed to be honest!

LIVE WORK

Had a busy weekend with three gigs in two days, two in BT on Grafton St and another with Niall O'Loughlin in the exotics of Moate on Saturday night.
Here's a selection of photos........

PRINCE

Thought I'd keep up the pencil work for now and do another sketch. Underneath is a quick render in Photoshop minus the body which I have a few ideas for.

IRISH WRITERS

Here's a collection of sketches of some of Ireland's most famous authors and playwrights, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, Brendan Behan and Samuel Beckett.
These sketches were all done in pencil and took about an hour each.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Can't say I'm too familiar with his works of literature but I thought I'd give this fellow a try.
It still needs a bit of fine tuning which should bring me nicely into the year 2047.

YOURS TRULY

Yet another attempt at my big fat ugly mug. Think I'm getting closer to an actual likeness but it's still not 100%. Could it be that I'm simply too good looking? It's possible.

CHRIS WAHL

This is a very quick and extremely rough sketch of the insanely talented artist Chris Wahl. Chris is one of my favorite illustrators around today and his seemingly endless range of styles is purely inspirational.

ROBBIE COLTRANE

MICHAEL PALIN

Found myself with the luxury of a spare half hour the other day so decided to catch up on a bit o' sketching.
Michael Palin is another in a long list of my comedy heroes. He's responsible for writing some of the funniest sketches in the Monty Python series and his post-Python work has been hilarious.
If you're a fan and you live in Dublin, he'll be signing copies of the second part of his published diaries on the 7th November in The Dublin Book Shop.

RECENT LIVE WORK

Here's a small selection from a couple of recent weddings I've been working at.....
As always, thanks to Niall O'Loughlin!

U2

Here's a couple more U2 pieces that I'm currently striving to get finished.
At the beginning of 1990, after 10 years of gradual world domination, Bono declared that U2 would be 'going away to dream it all up again'. Quite how they were planning to do this was unclear but when they returned at the tail end of 1991 with the beast that is 'Achtung Baby' (in my opinion, their best album and one of the best albums of all time), it was evident that he really meant what he said almost two years earlier.
The transformation the band went through was immeasurable and what followed was without doubt, the most exciting period of U2's career to date.
On the release of the first single 'The Fly', Bono's suggestion that it was 'the sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree' couldn't have been more accurate.
Not sure which of these two I prefer most.

U2 WIP

I've been working on this for a couple of weeks but in total, I reckon I've spent only a couple of hours actually drawing it. The drawing of The Edge was done a few months back and I wasn't really happy with this drawing of Bono I had done from a while back so I decided to redo it along with Larry and Adam. My only concern is that some members of the band look more caricatured than others which is something I'm trying to remedy.
I have some other U2 related ideas floating around that I'd like to try out so I'll try to post what I can......

ANOTHER WEDDING GUESTBOOK

Here's a caricature I did a couple of months ago but due to impending fatherhood, completely forgot to post.
When doing illustrations for these guestbooks, I usually insert some sort of background like a church or have the couple in a wedding car or something like that but the couple just wanted to keep it simple and I think it looks pretty good....even if I do say so myself!

THE FOLKS

This is my second attempt at drawing my parents. It's their 40th wedding anniversary this weekend so I thought I'd give it another bash and I'm a lot happier with this version. I'm kind of surprised that I managed to get it finished at all what with endless nappy changes and bottle feeds 24/7!!!

AMELIA ROSE COOGAN

This beautiful little Princess came into the world at 10.59pm on Monday, 6th July 2009. She is utterly adorable.
As for my wife Karen, the amount of admiration I have for her cannot be put into words. She is one in a million, just like our little bundle of joy.

WEDDING GUESTBOOK

Here's a caricature of a couple who asked me to 'do' them for their upcoming wedding. This artwork has been used for their wedding invitations and will also be used for their guestbook on the day of the wedding.

ERIC CANTONA

Some people refer to him as 'Eric', others call him 'Cantona'. You've guessed it, it's Eric Cantona.

HENRY FONDA

Once in a while you come across a movie that is so powerful and so brilliantly directed and acted that you never ever tire of watching it.
For me that movie is 'Twelve Angry Men'. I've seen it well over 30 times and I could watch it another 30.
Here's a sketch of Henry Fonda's character, Juror number 8.

NINA SIMONE

Rough sketch in Photoshop of the late great singer/songwriter.....

BASIL FAWLTY

This week sees the 30th anniversary of the classic sit-com, Fawlty Towers.
There are are so many reasons why this TV show is so universally popular. Firstly, the characters are so believable. Also, I think we all have a bit of Basil Fawlty in us. Most importantly though, I think a lot of it's success and what makes the phemomenon all the more remarkable, is down to the fact that there were only two series made!

While searching for reference photos of John Cleese, I came across this You Tube clip of him on Parkinson during the 1980's, explaining how the character of Basil Fawlty originated.

LIVE WORK

Just a couple of snaps at a wedding I was working at yesterday at the Sheraton Hotel in Athlone.
Thanks to Niall O'Loughlin for the gig!!!!

ROY ORBISON

......or 'The Big O' as he was otherwise known in his day........

WOLVERINE

SAMUEL BECKETT

Here's another famous birthday that was celebrated recently. The Irish writer and poet, Samuel Beckett.

PETE DOHERTY

DAVE GAHAN

Been a fan of Depeche Mode for years, ever since the days when writing your favorite band on your schoolbag was a cool thing to do.
They've a new album out this week which will be added to my collection before long..........

'El Niño' (work in progress)

The season is drawing to a close and Liverpool are the closest they've been to winning the League in 19 painful years.
Torres is on fire at the moment and if he keeps scoring the way he is right now, we're definitely in with a good shout!! This being 'quietly confident' lark is hard work!!

WATCHMEN

I rarely do these types of drawings anymore as I don't really feel that copying directly from a photo or movie still does much to improve my drawing skills.
I still enjoy doing them nonetheless. This is based on a still taken from the 'Watchmen' movie. I've not seen it yet but I read the novel way back when I was a comic book nerd.
This one took about an hour in Photoshop.

WEDDING INVITE

Here's another wedding invitation recently completed.

GEORGE COSTANZA

Thought I'd continue the Seinfeld theme and draw his close friend and accomplice, George. He's neurotic, self-loathing, insincere, insecure, dishonest and a coward with no redeeming qualities......maybe that's why I like him so much!!

JERRY SEINFELD

This guy is one of my absolute heroes.
For eight years and 175 episodes, he co-wrote and starred in what must be still to this day, one of the best and funniest sit-coms of all time. That would be 'Seinfeld' of course.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON

Quick sketch of the by no means unattractive Hollywood actress.

Update: 4/4/09

ALAN SHEARER

He's either been offered a phenomonal amount of money or he's run out of bland comments as a pundit on 'Match of the Day', but Alan Shearer has shocked us all by taking the manager's job at Newcastle FC. He's such a legend up there which makes his decision even more baffling. If he fails to keep The Magpies in the Premiership, he's placing that legendary status in jeopardy, all for the sake of romanticism.
Personally, I don't think he's gonna pull it off. Newcastle are in freefall at the moment and the only hope they have is if the teams around them start playing even worse than they have been up to now.........yeah right.

KARL PILKINGTON

Whether you look upon him as Ricky Gervais's muse or the man who makes Ricky Gervais look funny, there's no mistaking Karl Pilkington's genius.
If you've not heard of him or seen him, just 'YouTube' him or download one of the hilarious podcasts. Pure comedy gold!!

Update 30/3/09: