Art styles for—or suited to young readers and viewers
Book Illustration
I’ve illustrated novels and a poetry book for 8—18 year olds, and an interactive book app for very young children.
My most frequent illustration commissions for young audience books would be for 8—18 years. The styles for those are closer to my adult-oriented illustration which I’ve been concentrating on more and more.
Story Apps & Games Art
Working as an artist on digital games and digital interactive stories has been some of the best fun I’ve ever had.
The highpoints were while working with the Irish software and app company, Marino Software. Most notable projects are the Three Little Pigs story app (also the most fun) which is narrated by Roscoe Orman—yep, Gordon, of Sesame Street—and the IrelandTown Facebook game app for Discover Ireland which has nearly 19 thousand followers. The work also included some simple, but effective animation. My first foray into this type of work was actually while I was a Web designer at the Dublin digital agency, Fluid Rock. Before they hired me they asked me to create design/illustration concepts for an AIB Banking Kids’ Site. Partly on the strength of that, I was hired full-time. The project—AIB Kids—was terrific fun, and I designed, illustrated and animated everything on the website including its fun games.
Animation
I actually began my career in animation, even before I graduated from film school! My first student freelance animation gig was for RTE Television on the opening title for The School Around the Corner. From there I worked in 3 Irish animation studios and then started my own animation and illustration business with my wife to be. So much of my work in this portfolio is geared towards or relevant to animation pre-production especially.