Goblins and Witches

Some work from a recent pencil session. It has been decided that along with the story illustrations I will be doing for the Irish Faerie Tale book I'm currently working on, I will also do a page of Faeries and critter designs from Irish mythology. Here we have a few pages of potential characters

These designs are all in the goblin-witch category. These are a lot of nasty and unclean things lurking around in the shadowy hills and murky forests of Irish Lore and we're just getting started.
More soon.

Peace be with you.

More Brownies and Leprechauns.

Another page of possible characters for the new Irish Myths inspired book project I will be starting in May. I'm just trying to get a bit of a head start on some of the character designs. I'm anticipating the need for a variety of colourful bit players to populate the backgrounds and border regions of some illustrations.

Brownies

A bit more of the pencil work done for the Irish Myths project - just designing and drawing and trying to stay loose and open to whatever may present itself.

Title Page - The Secret History of Hobgoblins.

This image is the title page for the soon to be released book, The Secret History of Hobgoblins by the fine, old UK publisher, Templar. I was starting this project just about a year ago and it's now at the printers and due for a spring release. The blank area in the upper right will have text over it which is why it was left so unfinished, although I suppose a full moon would also explain a bright are like that in the evening cloud cover. The book will be concerned with the Hobs which are good and the Goblins which are bad that live in and around our homes, bringing either a helping hand or a nasty prank. Many of the mysterious things that happen around our homes every day will hopefully be explained. Please look for it in your local book shop  :)

The Secret History of Hobgoblins

Two Illustrations from the soon to be released book, The Secret History of Hobgoblins by Templar Press in the UK. This was an absolutely terrific project to work on - really fun. It was written by Ari Berk who also wrote The Secret History of Giants a couple of years back which I was also lucky enough to have had the opportunity to work on. In Hobgoblins we're dealing with all the little critters, good and bad who may be found in and around the home. Above we have a wee goblin spreading mold up the walls and a rather more helpful chap banging the dents out of an old plate.

Things that go Bump

Our main graphics computer has been acting up lately and I haven't been able to scan anything new in the last couple of weeks - very frustrating because I have just completed a personal piece I'm rather happy with and can't share. In the meantime I'll post a couple from a recent project concerning mythical characters that should be out in the spring.
I hope to have something new up shortly.

Seasons greetings everyone.

More Sketchbook

I'm back on the book project I began nearly 2 years ago with Jim Tague called Teeney O'Feeney King of the Leprechauns. Here we have some more character studies and development work. Watercolour soon to follow - hopefully. I'm also starting a new Arctic Myth project so there's lots to do - lots of drawing.

Sketchbook Faun

Some recent drawing activity concerning a long running book project.

larry

Sketchbook

Some of the doodle work for the project I'm currently on. Nothing too specific here - just thinking and exploring.

Sketchbook

Some rough character ideas for the project I'm working on at the moment. There's still a lot to figure out - keep on drawing :)

Leprechaun

This is one from last year. This is my first take on the Teeney O'Feeney character from the book I've been working on for the last year or so and will be finishing up later this summer if all goes well. This version was rejected because we felt he didn't quite capture the spirit of the character as we wanted to portray him. I still like this one - perhaps more now that enough time has gone by that I've been able to seperate him from the story.

Sketchbook - Hobgoblins

More of the prep work I've been doing for the Hobgoblins project I'm on. Part of my morning warm up routine - stream of consciousness work - just sit down and go :)

Sketchbook - Characters

More character studies for the project I'm on at the moment. Nothing final yet - just thinkin

Sketchbook - More Characters 2

I posted these pages a couple of days ago along with a third but then decided I didn't like the third one, so I yanked them all down and am now re-posting these 2 pages which I am still relatively happy with. More prep work for that which must not be named. Sorry for any mix up with the disappearing posts. Sometimes I just change my mind and decide I was too hasty in posting a piece or page that wasn't, for whatever reason, ready to go up.

Sketchbook - More Characters

Some more recent pencil work - character designs and pose ideas.

Sketchbook - More Crusty Old Gnomes

More drawing and gearing up for the new project. I can't really talk about it of course but it is for the same UK publisher as my current project and will involve drawing lots of fun, mythic characters.

Sketchbook - Old Gnomes

Some recent activity. Gearing up for a new project that will likely involve drawing some pretty earthy characters - can't wait.

Teeney Too

Here is another version of Teeney O'Feeney for the book project I'm currently working on called Teeney O'Feeney King of the Leprechauns. I think this one may end up being the cover.

The Jack

The Jack is for Jack O' Lantern of course. Inspired I'm sure by our recent foray through the Hallowe'en season which I love so much. The leafless trees, the early sunsets, the windy nights - autumn !
This painting is small, really small. It's about 4 by 7 inches - gouache. Just a quickie for my own amusement.

Unfinished

I drove this painting into the ditch. It happens - it started feeling wrong at about the half-way point. I decided not to put myself through the pain of trying to fix it. However I was kind of happy with these characters so I scanned them anyway. One of these days I hope to get back to it when I'm feeling a bit better about it. Until then .....