Bennessy's Blog

Commission

2012-02-13T18:42:00.001Z

Yo so here's a pic of the Plaque I designed for a mate of mine. My mates trainer and close friend had a surprise birthday party and my mate and the guys at the gym got together and organised this Plaque.

I was given a pretty cool theme, something along the lines of 'The Last Irish Warrior' with some Samurai influence to it for good measure. It was a fun easy gig to do, I'd be happy to do some more.

My mate and his trainer do Mugendo, if you don't know about it you should check it all out here, it's a class Martial Art. And the guys training here are some of the best.

Just got this photo the other day, I hadn't seen the final result until now. Well happy with how it turned out and more importantly my mate ( the client) was too!

Thanks for the gig Fergal

Sketchbook Doodles

2012-02-11T12:46:00.002Z

So it's been a while since I posted anything. Believe me I have good reasons but lets get started with some new posts. Since I haven't had the time to do any finished or digital work outside of the studios/jobs I'm working in at the mo, I'm going to post up drawings from my sketchpad to keep the blog more active. These drawing range from good to fail, some are just ideas, me exploring a shape anything really. So here goes a few doodles and I'll talk about em as I go. If you follow me on twitter, you'll have seen most of these before but there are some new ones that I've only done in the last day or so that I haven't tweeted or anything with other than post here. Hope you like.

These three heads are three figure studies I did while waiting for a friend. Goes to show it's always handy to keep a sketchbook with you at all times. these range from about 3 to 5 mins

Just wouldn't be a sketchbook of mine without some Spidey doodles

Another figure study. Saw this guy on the bus, pretty happy with the shapes I used in this. And considering it was drawn on the bus, pretty happy with the line quality too.

Random eye in my Pad... my 'eyePad' a hur hur hur

Seen this guy reading the paper on the bus. I was really pushed for time on this one as I almost had to get off at my stop, pretty happy with it tho even if it is rushed

I was watching 'How to Train Your Dragon' thought I'd have a go at drawing sum vikings. I don't really like this sketch myself but its been received really well on twitter. I'll be drawing more Vikings so! This is Pro-markers, tippex pen and a sharpie

Two more people who I actually see pretty regularly on my bu. Always keep that sketchbook handy

Some swallow studies. African or European, that's up to yo. Some prelim studies for a tattoo design I'm working on.

More figure studies, people I drew while waiting around in town. That woman actually had a freaky long neck

Some doodles I did in front of the telly

Another tattoo design I'm working on

Some more telly doodles. When I finished drawing this guy on the left I realised he looked really pervy, so I gave him something to perv on.

Been watching Supernatural, I dig this show so here's Bobby and a Leviathan... and a strange dark figure cloaked in shadow

Another telly doodle, quite happy with this one, I reckon I'll ink it up soon

This is a submission for the collective thinking blog. the theme was 'The 7 Deadly Sins" I went with a pretty Wrathful Hulk. He's choking the security guard for letting Rick Jones into the testing grounds, Banner is watching in the background.

Been having some crazy dreams lately about the Witch from Left for Dead chasing me down Patrick street in Dun Laoghaire. Its good for me that zombies don't know any Ju Jitsu, but she packs a crazy amount of cardio, she never stops running.

Tried something new here, not ecstatic about this one yet, but I want to bring this into PS and paint it up.

and here's the last one. This is Jack the Ripper. Poor composition here, really missed my marquee tool and paste option here, but i do like the idea here. I'll draw up some more of these soon and get em all right.

Here we go, more posts soon! Maybe even tomorro!

Blue Pencillin' It

2011-12-03T14:11:00.001Z

yooooooooo

Long time no post, apologies, I've up to my eyes in work for the past while and very happy to be able to say that. I've got a tonne of these types of sketches at the ready, been doing some traditional work for a spell now as my Wacom is left in studio most of the time.

Here's Marcus, I'm going to paint this up in a similar fashion to my Cuchulainn post. stay tuned, I havent gone anywhere, I'll blitz the blog with posts around Christmas!

Page 1

2011-10-07T14:12:00.002+01:00

Due to the last few months being kinda mental I'm getting back into a comic I started. I tweeted some of the designs a while back. Here's page 1 it's still in progress but I just wanted to post it. More so because now that I've blogged it I'll definitely see it through. It's written by a good friend of mine Eamonn O'Neill, check out his work here he's an amazing writer.

What we see here is Jim, a detective based in Dublin and Skull Boy, a person that only Jim can see and interact with. The story begins with a pretty major event in Jim's life, he's just had to shoot a young boy in order to stop him from blowing up himself and everyone else in and around the school. The story follows Jim as he tries to get over the whole situation, while dealing with an extremely violent group of 'soldiers'. I'm being vague on purpose, I'll sell it better when I have more to show.

It's a great story and promises a lot. As ever Eamonn's dialogue is pure genius. I'll keep u all updated with it as the comic starts to take shape.

Ben's Birds

2011-10-03T16:23:00.002+01:00

Here's my collective post for the theme "Birds Birds Birds". It features Black and White from Tekkonkinkreet, a favorite film of mine. I've wanted to draw these guys for a while now and I haven't drawn a city-scape in ages so I thought I'd try do the both here.

And as always I tried something new here too. I reversed my halftone dots, so instead of using the actual dots themselves I used the area around them. Just thought it would give me a more 'square-er' feel when sorting out the building silhouette.

I had a lot of fun with this one. I kept it B&W for obvious reasons. Since the theme was about birds I tried my best to keep them as much a character as Black and White are in this piece. I like the idea of the crow resting on blacks club and White playing with the only dove in the whole city.

White's imagination is a great element to play with. In the film about half the things he's interacting with aren't really there and some times he just floats in mid air. I thought I'd have him play with a dove that may or may not actually be there, that's up to you.

I'll blog again soon, laters!

Commision Christmas Card

2011-09-22T11:27:00.001+01:00

Hi folks,

Here's an update on the blog that isn't just from the Collective Thinking Blog. Brent Pope got in contact with me again to produce a Christmas card for the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght. I thought I'd throw a non 'texty' version up on the blog, just the illustration itself. Here's George Hook and Brent Pope with their snowman. Hope you like.

Merry Christmas!
Ben

Mythology with a Modern Day Twist- Cuchulainn

2011-08-25T22:34:00.001+01:00

Okay so it's another collective thinking blog post and it's another new style im trying out. I tried it with Spidey last month but I couldn't really get my head around it, I think it's starting to click with me now though. As soon as I started painting over mistakes rather than erasing them it all started to work out. I'll definitely do a few more of these, I really enjoyed it, and it's always great to learn a new style. Lots o fun to do and pretty handy to have professionally.

Here is Cuchulainn. I freakin Love Cuchulainn! I've been drawing him and reading about him since before I can remember. But I've never drawn him like this. Actually before I drew this I would have thought it to be near blasphemy to produce something like this about Cuchulainn. Well here we are, the piece is finished and I actually kinda like it, so it cant be that blasphemous.

My original idea about this was to have a close up on him sitting down with "Gae Bolga" ingraved into his gun. Gae Bolga was the name of his spear, it was a weapon that pretty much killed whoever and smashed through whatever got in its way. I really wanted to involve it in my painting and since I've been looking at a load of Ashley Wood lately I thought what a better way to involve it than as a big honking robot. And with the Ashley Wood influence so to came the Steampunk style.

Hope you like it!Until the next post, laters!

Childhood hero

2011-07-22T10:21:00.001+01:00

Alright so i figured yesterday that my main idea for the this months post is taking me a little longer to crack, so on the odd chance that it takes me a little longer to figure out than the months deadline here's something I knocked out this morning.

I think I was only kid to prefer Leo over Raph, I just thought he was the best. and when i thought about it as I was drawing this, there are some Leo and Spidey character similarities, that maybe the reason why I love both those guys. But if anyone ever aks i'll say its cause Leo had swords! :)

Tried something new with this as well. I like the ink spatter and roughness of it all i reckon ill do more of these in the future and also go on to take em a lot further, watch this space.

The other post im working on is obviously Spidey (there's no way I'd be leaving him out), he'll be done in a different style alltogether

Go check out the rest of the posts under the same title here http://collectivethinkingblog.blogspot.com/

"Remember what master splinter thought us" - Leonardo

Hip Hop - Children's Book is FINISHED!

2011-07-06T11:28:00.000+01:00

Here's some illustrations I did for a new children's book called 'The Hip Hop Opotamus". It's in collaboration with Brent Pope, all is left is printing it. I'll be sure to give an update when its in the shops.

I did a pitch for a cartoon series of the same characters with a great bunch of people, I'll post up the finished bible and animations as soon as they all get the go ahead.

Please pick up the book it's for a good cause. Brent and I want to do it for a suicide prevention group, when we decide on the particular group I'll let you know and you can support em all you want by buying as many copies as you want ;).

Anyways I hope you like what you see, I posted up some more of the images, obviosuly i didnt post up all of em cause I want you to buy the book.

I'll in touch soon with the name of the charity that we have chosen, laters!

Dinosaurs

2011-06-11T20:01:00.003+01:00

So I was pretty sly this month, managed to knock out a monthly post with a well over due favour for a friend of mine. My mate does a lot of racing and he asked me before Christmas would I do some kind of dinosaur design for his racing helmet. So months n months later here it is. Sorry mate, turns out I don't have as much time as I thought I did. At least u get the rest of the racing season out of it.

His racing helmet is white so I kept the bg white and the rest of his racing gear is red so, red felt like the right colour for the dinosaur.

Above is a test with a font and the bottom is a bigger version of the raptor for the blogs sake. Nice and early with the monthly post this month so anything else I post will be bonus points!

This is the main graph for the helmet I should get the finished design up after a bit more work with my m8, maybe by the end of the month... I've kept him waiting long enough.

Alright so below is iteration1. painted in a scale-ly texture on the dinosaur head just to bring a bit more life to it. Obviously its no longer gonna b a white helmet

21st Century Heroes

2011-05-31T17:16:00.006+01:00

Above is cartoon I saw last month, in and around the time the SEALS got Bin Laden (duh!). I just thought it was cool, so when anna picked the theme for this month, I thought I would do my own version of the piece. Just got informed that the artist of the original piece is J.D. Crowe. It's such a powerful piece.

Turned out referencing these two guys was pretty tuff, couldn't find the same Helmet that's in the original one, but while looking I saw that the SEALS also used another hat so I thought I'd use that one (I was also pressed for time). This is just my interpretation is all. I put the two towers in the BG cause thats pretty much what I saw when I looked at the original, it's almost like America is complete again... I dunno, The cartoon really worked for me, just hope I did some kind of justice to it.

Kinda found the time to do this one from my breaks away from complete frustration, went back to pencilling a few pages l8ly for my folio and one day it just wouldnt click (one of those days), I didn't give, I just turned to the monthly post for a breather. I kinda feel like moving away from something can usually lead to a break through as well, so here's hoping the breakthrough will come... still waiting.

I'll post those pages I'm pencilling up asap.

Also go check out the rest of the posts for this month here http://collectivethinkingblog.blogspot.com/ . theres a few up already and there will be more before the end of the day.

L8rs

Doodling a crazy hobo

2011-05-23T12:00:00.002+01:00

here's a doodle from my sketchbook, was workin on a crazy hobo theme for the monthly blog post but work got int the way of me finishing it (a good complaint). but here's the doodle anyways, i was playing with the idea of one of those crunchy nut weirdos u see on the ads. this guy has just gotten so addicted to them he is now homeless, unshaven n unhealthy.

this is Eric. Eric was once a really successful business man, but now Eric has lost everything and has actually sold the shirt of his back just to get his hands on a box of crunchy nut corn flakes. he is now the worst kind of junkie... a crunchy nut, poor Eric

Hip Hop - kids book

2011-05-04T15:44:00.000+01:00

Here's some teasers of the kids book I'm working on for Brent Pope.

The above one i did for Brent, he brings round some of my art to readings for kids. The kids get him to sign the pictures so i did this one for him to sign rather than just have a page from the book.

This is a page, 3 of the boys wrassilin'!

Here's another page, sum monkey's making fun Of Hip hop

Schtuff!

2011-04-17T14:17:00.000+01:00

Hi folks,

Here's some work I did yesterday while winding down from Pegbar and blitzed in inspiration from The Book of Kells. I try do some figure studies as often as possible, but usually end up having my ambition being beaten up by a thing called life. But yesterday i got a chance and I took it. I really find that this kind of drawing exercise is really important and immediately you can find it helping you out in a number of ways. As David Colman says figure studies are as important to the artist as weightlifting is to the footballer. so here's some very rusty 'lifts'

no:1

Memory drawing - This girl was really interesting, clearly very into fashion. Great haircut, thick framed glasses, skinny and reaaaaaalllly tight clothes. she also seemed to have some kind of staring competition with the car parks pay machine

no:2

Figure study - This girl was really summery, a back half slung over one shoulder and kept tugging on her cardigan, don't know why. She was standing around waiting for her bf to come back from the pay machine. its the only figure study that I'm posting up, the rest were pretty shocking. Used pen on this one, as it makes me more decisive with my line. which is kind of important when you're drawing people who aren't posing or know that they are being drawn.

no:3

Memory drawing - This dude saw me drawing people, he didn't approve soooooo i drew him... he looked angry

no:4

Memory Drawing - my favourite drawing of the day by a long shot. I left the carpark and did some drawing outside (it was actually nice out in Dublin) and when i did i saw this oul fella. He walked out of a shop and started rolling up a smoke. Not once did he actually look at what his hands were doing! not once! he just kept looking all around him n before u knew it he was smoking his way down Henry street. awesome. In my figure study i did something i thought was interesting where i scribbled in his legs while having no outline, didn't really carry that idea the way i wanted to in this sketch but here it is anyways

laters!

Plants Take Over in progress

2011-03-31T23:38:00.001+01:00

Hi folks here's this months monthly post, it's still a work in progress, I really rushed this so I reckon when I actually go to colour it I'll prob start from scratch again, I just put blacks and grey more so just to have something in to hit my monthly deadline. watch this space I'll prob do a full break down from start to finish with this post when its completed. Back soon

New studio and a revamped home studio

2011-03-15T22:19:00.000Z

Here it is! our (Flip n Roll and Pegbar's) new studio in the media cube, massive big space, plenty of light, kitted out and rent free for one year! Boom! more pictures to follow as soon! theres a whole other side of the room!

aaaaaaand heres my home studio

still rockin the animation disc

aand the newest addition, band spanking new iMac. hanging up above it is stills from Spidey 2 and a signed Romita Snr and Alex Ross Spidey print. and of cource wanda wacom. and my big lebowski mouse mat... it really ties the room together

2 constant sources of inspiration

set up an-mhaith!

Happy Birthday Post for Micks Blog

2011-03-02T11:25:00.001Z

Hi folks!

a piece i did for the awesome artist Will Sliney for the Eclectic Micks Birthday is up! Go over to their blog and take a gander at their awesome posts and wish em a Happy Birthday! http://eclecticmicks.blogspot.com/

Nosce Te Ipsum - monthly post

2011-02-27T23:10:00.001Z

BIG NOSE BIG NOSE BIG NOSE! Okay this months post was really hard, struggled to find the time for it these were the best i could muster, by the by i submitted a piece to the eclectic micks blog for next week, if/when it goes up ill post it up here too, its a tad more interesting to look at than 28 sketches of myself, did my best with em to make it as interesting as possible tho.

laters

Ben

Aliens, first contact

2011-01-29T02:06:00.005Z

here's this months piece. turns out that as soon as the aliens come down and start to blitz us, the only thing you can depend on is you robot butler. Kinda liked the idea to this one, may do a short story or sumthin with it. Kept it black & white for that monster movie feel

be sure to check out the rest of the months posts on http://collectivethinkingblog.blogspot.com/

Also im posting up on a new blog as well. theres a load of cool short stories and poems on it, the dudes are sound enough to let me draw on their blog. You'll find them at http://inkkillers.blogspot.com/ check em out if u get the chance

Bad Santa - very late

2011-01-29T02:02:00.000Z

Here's some very late posts for December, someone else in the group can pick a demotivational poster for me. really enjoyed doing this, i might revist it later on and tweak the ending a little. it was drawn in a big rush as i didnt have any free time before christmas. any kind of free time that i did have was spent getting christmas presents and general chrismassy stuff. and then during my hols i scored waaaaay more time off than i thought i would, so i spent it in Wexford, away from my laptop so i couldnt edit the drawings. then as soon as i got back up it was hell for leather, so im only posting it up now.

Any ways here's my Bad Santa, sending a load o fake santa dummies down chimneys, with loads o fake blood so he can scare the living crap of those on the bad list... and maybe the good list too.

Monthly post -incompetant assassin

2010-12-07T01:16:00.003Z

No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!!!!

really wanted to do a really good post with this as i knew what i wanted to do from the very start, however time was most defintely against me here, this was the best i could do in teh time I had. will do a better post for December

Bennessy!

Monthly post - Horror

2010-11-09T10:07:00.003Z

Octobers theme was Horror. Having seen a few Hammer films during the month I thought I'd try do something like a Hammer film poster. Then tried drawing some zombies etc but wasn't satisfied with any of my rough sketches. But I'm not one to give up on a zombie. Soooooo I tried a number of things, watched The Walking Dead, got well inspired and then I randomly fell across the trailer for the new The Goon film, which I haven't seen in ages, and if you haven't seen it go to YouTube right now n watch it, you wont be disappointed. From there everything seemed to fit into place. I must draw The Goon, and since the Goon is smashing zombies up most of the time, I get to draw my zombie as well.

Here's my version of the The Goon. I hadn't really drawn him before but I had as much fun drawing him as I usually do drawing Spider-Man. Needless to say then, that I will be drawing a lot more of The Goon and Frankie! I'd better go and start this months post, I don't want to be late again.

Oh yeah the group got a new blog http://collectivethinkingblog.blogspot.com/

check it out so you can see all the posts for the month!

Mix media & a new studio space

2010-10-27T19:58:00.002+01:00

I've been 'Kinging' it with the mixed media lately.

Above is a man named Eric. Eric used to live the high-life. Never paid taxes, he was a wealthy and dangerous man, he had money to blow on mansions and fancy cars. Then one day he was taking a stroll through Stephens Green shopping centre and suddenly Eric was bursting for a piss. So he ran up to the front of the que to use the toilets and he refused to pay to get in, ( I hear yeh buddy)so he barged right into the toilets and got a stall. The attendant then rang the Gards who were only looking for an excuse to catch Eric as Eric had avoided them for years. Eric was then caught with his pants down.

Eric was drawn on a crunched up bit of yellow A4 paper, and drawn with (anything I had lying around) a couple of black markers, coloring pencils and the white was drawn with a tippex mouse, the eyes tinted with a paint pen. it was a good bit o fun!

Here's my pumpkin this year, not as good as the Gears of War, one i did last year, maybe as good as the Jack Skellington one i did the year before that, nonetheless i decided to post it up. Its Sally from the nightmare b4 christmas, ( or atleast its meant to be). Must give props to the internet for the design.

And... Here's my new Home studio.

Here's the lot, new desk, new chair, lots o space, its the business

Still using some traditional media, n if u look closely u can see my herobear coaster and books im referencing at the mo. I think I have actually had that animation disc for 7 years now, its a trooper.

And here's my bread and butter, Laptop, a simple but brilliant Dell Precision with L intuos 4 wacom tablet. Should have a nice big Imac soon for working at home.The wire from my iphone hanging from the laptop there as i was using the iphone to take the photo. My handy Epson printer that never seems to have ink on the right.

And right at the side here is my big telly that I can now hook up to my laptop and draw from. hmmm on 2nd thoughts prob would have been a better idea to show me using it, ah ill do it another time.

apologies for the shody photo's all were taken using my iphone and my shakey hands. I'm gonna hav a few more posts soon ( b4 the end of the month), all will be digital pieces.

G'luck!

Lost In Space Monthly Post, Venom

2010-09-26T01:17:00.002+01:00

So here's this months post. This months theme was "Lost in Space" and to me, there's none more so than Venom. I bet he just wants to go home, instead he's stuck on a strange planet, homeless and hooked on a drug called Spider-Man.

Despite the fact that I'm a huge Spidey fan I haven't actually drawn a lot o Venom. This will be the first of many, this was a lot o fun to draw, just kinda threw caution to the wind, tried some new things, Hope you all like. Anyways I'm off to watch the UFC, those of you who call yourselves MMA fans should check out this site its awesome http://www.mmareel.com/.

1950's Pin Up Month, Tip That Waitress!

2010-08-31T12:06:00.003+01:00

OK so here's this months group post (just in time before the month is out). I've been really busy lately doing character designs and illustrations so I really got into this, as it was something to draw for myself as apposed to drawing something for cash. What the group is gonna do is, produce something for the blog (animation, design, storyboards, comic, collage, photo, anything) with a different theme for each month. This months theme was 1950 Pin Up Girls!

Mucked around a lot with a rake of poses tried all sorts of mega ambitious stuff, then yesterday that little nagging voice in the back of my head got really angry, bet the ambitiousness out of me and reminded me to keep it simple. So I lashed out a few quick poses, I really liked the flow of this one (hence I called the girl Flo) so i stuck with it, cleaned it up and coloured it. Originally I was just planing to do a Black and White but I haven't drawn anything for myself in ages so I sorta just let myself get carried away and have some fun. And I'm pretty happy with this considerin I'm so stuck for time lately.

This was the first time our group tried something like this, Let's hope it continues. Here's some links to the others in the group so you can check out their pieces
http://nicholakehoe.blogspot.com/
http://danielspencer.ie/blog/
http://haydenbrian.blogspot.com/
http://sunnysully.blogspot.com/

Thanks for all the gud times Sketchpad

2010-08-06T23:22:00.001+01:00

I'm just about to retire my current sketchpad. Its just about done. I was trying to leave it at home a lot more lately so I'd be forced to do sum gestural stuff on my iphone, but 9/10 times the pad is with me. Sssoooooooooo here's a load o sketches from the pad, sum wobbly drawings that are done on the bus, on my break, or just trying to think something out. Also there's a lot o stuff in it from pegbar meetings and studio work, so there's prob sum scrawlly writting on the reverse side of the page showing through the drawings.

Figure study of a guy in Dun Laoghaire using a Japanese brush pen. I try to get these lashed out on the page in about 20 to 30 seconds. Definitely not one of my best, struggling to do sum gestural stuff with the brush pen, I think I get too sloppy with it, esp if i have to draw quickly. Having a lot o fun with those pens tho. I'll post up sum stuff I have done with them thats good soon.

Another one from the same day, this one is slightly better but still not great.

This one's not bad, it was done in my fav pub in Dublin while I was waiting for a few mates. Just thought the girl was really interesting.

Here's a quicky I did of Spidey, doodled this while I was on my lunch in Kavaleer.

Back on the bus again. Gud oul 46a, its such a pity I hate drawing on the bus.

Thinkin something out, didnt like it.

Still trying to think it out. Started to get better, still not right. I'm pretty happy with the shape on that neck tho.

GRRRRRRRRRR! Obv liked this character at the time. Originally he was meant for something, but now I'm not so sure.

And here's one I did that was the 1/10 time that I didnt have my sketchbook with me.

Hulk Smash!

Thanks a mill Sketchbook *shakes Sketchbooks hand and passes on a golden watch*, u were awesome.

a little inspirational experiment

2010-07-28T23:01:00.002+01:00

I was mucking around tonight, didnt get n e thing drawn that I liked felt like i hit a block sooooooo, i tried drawing white on black, came up with this. pretty happy

Mandy, coz its Dean Yeagle's Bday 2day.

2010-07-27T20:53:00.002+01:00

so i didnt post up anything last week, to make up for it, heres a B&W n sum colour this week. just started doodling after dinner, ended up doodling Mandy, Dean Yeagle's character cause I'm a big fan n I found out this mornin due to the power of Facebook that its Deans Bday today. mucked around a bit with the half tone as well, just being playing with it a lot this last while, so i thought I'd jus continue to play with it as im havin a lot o fun with it. I liked the effect it gave the above B&W. will try more things like it. hope it does Dean n Mandy sum justice.

Happy Bday Dean! Thanks for all the years of inspiration!

n e ways until the next dose of inspiration, laters!

Black cat in dat new style im using lately

2010-07-12T11:16:00.002+01:00

Here's where that new job is taking me. Its making me use a realistic style over my usual cartooning. Havin a lot o fun with this its nice to be challenged to do something new. Its even nicer to rise to the occasion. Here's hoping it keeps goin well, I'm really enjoying it.

The job has nutin to do with Black Cat and noting to do with the marvel verse at all. This is me jus mucking around with a style im using professionally at the mo.

Gorillaz

2010-07-05T14:02:00.000+01:00

Muckin around with a lil bit o spare time again, (wasnt goin to post anything today but did cause i was aked to by Niki http://nicholakehoe.blogspot.com/ . Thanks a mill Niki!) i think the designs for all the characters in the Gorillaz are awesome! n yet ive never actually drawn them, so here's a sketch o 2-D. Really just lashed this guy out had a lot o fun, ill prob draw the rest o the band eventually. Hope u like it Niki!

Yippee Kiyay Mother Fudger!

2010-07-01T01:37:00.000+01:00

Yo was looking for sumthin to draw this mornin to warm up into an illustration for a book I'm doin, n after a load o looking up sum artists, Colman, comics, imagine fx, gris grimly, blogger, Niki's ( http://nicholakehoe.blogspot.com/ ) blog n stumbled on a post my mate Dan ( http://www.zero-capital.blogspot.com/ ) put up,

http://zero-capital.blogspot.com/2010/06/summer-is-hot-hot-hot.html

These drawings he did r full o energy big twisted lines, some of my favourite drawings that he's dun n for the first time i looked at sumones sketches n thought, if i had to do that in my style how would i do it, wat wud it look like, wud i ruin the other persons sketches? sooooooooooooooo i had a stab at convertin this guy into sumthin I'd draw.

He turned out v different, I was drawin cowboys at the weekend so I def went dwn the cowboy route with him ( instead of the introverted bus driver) n left out the crest on his t shirt, n changed his boots. but kept the elongated neck n head, and I stretched him out a bit more. I did a version o him with sum stubble, (i think cowboys shud have stubble) but keepin in with Dan's style i also did sum fresh faced sketches o him too. also liked how high Dan kept the hat sitting high on his head so i did that too, usually i have the hat covering the eyes n such. My design looks a great deal darker than Dan's happy designs, but I'm pretty happy with the end results. Cheers Dan!

I Scream!

2010-06-29T18:39:00.003+01:00

Was mucking around after doing sum work today on my children's book and I had this little joke in my head. might actually refine it, make a nu blog header or business card outta it.

apparently it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to excel in a particular area so I'm heading back to the drawing board!

G'luck!

more iphone gestural stuff

2010-06-28T12:52:00.000+01:00

Another gestural sketch from my iphone. I spent ages on this one to tell truth, cleanin up on the iphone with sum clumsy man hands aint easy. this is of a girl i saw on friday, cool dress sense, very cool pose and expression that sed "i dont care". im goin to try n draw sum more of her im def goin to draw full body complete pose, ive actually never seen n e 1 sit at a bus stop using a pillar and stop sign to prop herself up and actually look very comfortabel b4.

i doubt my iphone drawings will ever b this clean again this took a lot o patience, did an awful lot more drawin with the eraser than n e thin else. i ended up using my laptop on a few lil bits but i wudnt let myself do too much, felt like i was cheatin r sumthin. def more of this kind o stuff to come

Zoolander's reaction on BP oil spill

2010-06-23T11:46:00.000+01:00

A wise man once said that "Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty." - not in BP's case tho. There's been soooooo much oil spilled into the sea i think it's really really ridiculous.

I started this this morning while waiting for feedback on a job I'm doing, thought I'd throw it up. I'm actually happy with the likeness.

laters

More Life Drawing

2010-06-17T23:48:00.000+01:00

Here's sum more Life Drawing, still really rusty think i even had a better week 2 weeks ago in the class. but how n ever here's some work. top one is a gesture n the bottom 2 are sustained poses. all drawings are conte on sugar paper

warm up

2010-06-09T13:06:00.000+01:00

startin a new gig today n its requires me to tone back my really cartooned style. heres a warm up i did to get myself started. still not completely realistic but realistic enough

figure studies

2010-06-04T15:27:00.000+01:00

Trying to do more n more of these I don't usually post these up but I'm relatively happy with this one. Especially since it was dun on the bus ( the gud oul 46a) n i hate drawing on the bus cause of all the bumps etc i usually get the worst linequality in the world! n the line quality in this isn't at all the best could be but, I'm doing these more n more just make my library of designs grow. Some people in Dublin (esp the women and even more so now that the sun is out) have an amazing dress sense and I'm just trying to see all the shapes, cuts n colours that I can so I can use em in my designs. I'll post up sum more soon whether they r gud r bad

Sum new Life drawin'

2010-06-03T13:10:00.000+01:00

Attending new life drawin classes at the mo, here's a couple o pics

The model we had was awesome, still feel pretty rusty tho as its been years since my last life drawin class, dont feel im doin the model any justice, but i have to start sumwhere.

G'luck!

pastels

2010-06-03T13:05:00.000+01:00

Here's a big drawing I did for the Art n Hobby last weekend. It was originally supposed to be loads o kids flying kites and soaking up the summer sun, but wen I woke up that morning it was lashing rain ( gud oul Irish weather) so I thought I'd draw a long armed monster keeping the kids dry while they eat their Mauds Ice-cream n play with toys from the Art n Hobby ( Mauds ice-cream is amazin! check it, n Yo-Yo's r always fun, if u do not have a yo-yo go to ur nearest art n hobby n pick one up!) this was done on 8, A2 royale blue canford sheets n sum pastels. twas fun.

Now time for something completely different

2010-05-19T17:04:00.001+01:00

So here's something i finger painted on my iphone using the sketchbook express app. it was a gud bit o fun, i reckon ill do a few more of these gestural sketches... wonder who i'll draw next? I'm gonna update this blog soon wih all kinds of visual goodness and more links to awesome places, i should be gettin a lil bit more time mid-week now soooooo in theory i should be able to start next week

a new post

2010-03-18T22:24:00.000Z

yo guys sorry about the lack of posts, but i have a legit reason... work. recently ive been up to my eyes. which is great cause being busy is the best complaint ever! esp in this recession. so i cant put up a lot of the wrk ive been wrkin on for obvious reasons but heres sum wrk i can pop up. The thing is tho its a wrk in progress its no where near finished just the sketch (cleaned) and some colours im wrkin on. i tend to wrk strangley with colours due to my partial colourblindness. it takes me a lil while to create a palette. so heres a piece im wrkin on that i can hopefully fill u all in on the details of the project in a few weeks.

bu heres sum wrk all drawn on sketchbook pro n coloured in the usual joys of ps

laters

concept piece

2010-01-20T21:56:00.006Z

It wud appear that i havn't finished studying the area of shadows, i still have loads of ideas based on shadows and mirrored images. I'm revisiting one concept i came up with about a year ago and I've really started developing it in the last few weeks. It's about a boy who in the middle of a game of cowboys and indians shoots and accidently kills his shadow. The rest of the story focuses on the boy and we see how he continues his life without his shadow. Storyboards to come soon

heres a concept piece that I tru sum text on to help get the punchline across.

My Film, at long last

2009-10-13T01:08:00.005+01:00

yo, ive wanted to put this up on my blog for a long time, its finally finished in the film fest circut and i can now do wat i want to it. I watch it today and im still reasonably happy with it.

I was lucky enuff to show it to the amazing Ed Hooks, at animex last year. he sed that i should rearrange my quotes, and although i completely agree with his critique, i was just unable to find somewhere to re-record the music, since i dont have the college facilities anymore. so wen i went to re edit i found myself coming across quite a few sound problems, so i ended up leaving it as it was.

Thanks Ed, i really appreciate the critique, im jus sorry i dont have the equipment.

so here it is reprieved, i hope you like.

BUSY, WORK AND HOLIDAYS

2009-10-13T00:19:00.009+01:00

Yo guys

please pardon my absense again but i have been busy. ive actually been wrkin on a number of projects but most of which are still hush hush, and i cant post up n e of it yet, bu one of em i can.

these are designs i did for a series written by a friend of mine for a pitch to a company, so he can have sum visuals to go along with everything else he has, heres the wrk. I wont go into the story too much ( as i cant), but i was given pretty specific but generic character descriptions. so i stayed with what the creator asked for as much as i could, found out what way he wanted these characters designed , then redesigned if i went too far with the designs. But i was happy enuff with the end results, so here they are

i have loads more stuff to put up but i got to get my hands on an A3 scanner ( just means that ill go to Dans Gaff again) but i wont be able to put them up for bout 2 weeks r so as im going to New York! yep im off tomorrow for the big apple comic con! can wait!

until i get to post again,
all the best guys!

BUsy busy busy

2009-08-06T09:53:00.005+01:00

hey guys im jus puttin up a post here to say that ive got sum stuff to put up, its just that im in the middle of a lot o stuff right now n hvnt been able to post up any thing. not to worry tho coz there's loads on the way. sum work as usual n sum not so usuall n sum you wudnt even asscoc. with me. just stayin fresh!

n a by the by here, the new Peg Bar event is happening this Saturday i suggest you all go n check out the page http://www.pegbaraffair.blogspot.com/ and then go n check out the event! theres some great stuff happening and is the biggest event we have held so far. I hope to see you all there!

all the best

Bennessy

Wolverine

2009-06-13T21:55:00.003+01:00

Hey guys here's another piece that I had with me at the Derry con but i was reluctant to put it up coz i have the intentions to paint it. But considerin' this sketch was well received in Derry, i thought i'd put it up n e how.

So here's Wolverine, a character that i still want to develop sum more. I kinda started with the whole trying to make him look like a cat, to try n keep him feral lookin'. and i think i achieved that at one stage in my ruff work, but as soon as I went to add on his Chops, this gorilla look came out. He even looks more like a gorilla when i went and elongated his forearms (purely just so i cud go n give him sum pretty long claws). And in fairness i like where im goin with it. But i do want to make him shorter and stockier, for me he's still too tall right now. So watch this space for a stocky, gorilla lookin painted Wolverine in the near future.

The Derry Con

2009-06-09T11:43:00.004+01:00

Hey guys, just posting up sum work i did for the Derry comic con/ the 2D Fest
( http://www.2dfestival.com/). here's 2 pieces that i was selling at the con. turns out i could've dun with more Marcus prints, unsurprisingly there's a huge demand for n e thing that's Gears of War.

And here's a virtually unknown character but fills the category of comic book tottie. This is 10/ Melenie from the Batman beyond cartoon. i think I'm one of few people who actually liked this cartoon, but I'm definitely one of few people who even knows of this character. There's a great relationship going on between her and Terry/Batman, u know a kind of Romeo and Juliet theme. Any way Mel is part of the royal flush gang a group o baddies who dress up like playing cards, and so i did a lil playing card idea on this piece.

any way the con was great, it was the first time i was busy the whole day doing sketches for people. I actually had a que for a while and had to make a list, sadly not being used to a demand for sketches there was one or two people that i just couldn't do sketches for as the con closed up, sorry guys. But I had a blast and i think all the guys from Longstone comics did too, Dee (http://www.puredaft-delineavit.blogspot.com/)was even in one o the panels on the Friday. I think we all have our sights on going back again.

All the best guys

Ultimate Spider-man, #119, test script

2009-04-23T11:35:00.011+01:00

Okay so here's a fully finished test sript. I really enjoyed this one too, i felt that these characters kinda suited my animated style a bit more. I had tons of fun wrkin on the designs, and this was the first time i ever had to draw double page spreads, which was also pretty fun.

The basic story here is, (and emphasis on basic) all the guys are out having a laugh, all of a sudden one of them bursts into a ball of flames, everybody is sorta stunned by it, as nobody knew that Liz had mutant abilities. Johny storm kinda gets the blame for it, n then he has to go n do sum Fantastic 4 work. Admist all of the confusion we see that Kong tells Peter that he knows Peter is Spider-man which leads to more confusion. Spidey and Iceman catching up with Liz and having a long talk trying to hellp Liz come to terms with her new powers. And then we have a big intro From Magneto! Gud stuff!

Oh yeh n i almost forgot to mention. Liz (the girl whos on fire) tries to cover herself up thru most of my take on this script for a gud reason. As most of us who read comics know and are used to fire and all kinds of other powers naturally covering the body, but Liz the character does not know this. She has just turned into a big ball of flames infront of her friends all her clothes were burnt so it would be a natural reaction for her and anybody else to try and cover themselves up. as the story progresses you will see her not trying to cover herself up as by that stage she has realised that she does not need to. that is all.

so here's the test scripts , n here's hoping.

The Punisher #55 test script

2009-04-23T11:18:00.004+01:00

This is The Punisher #55, it's part of a trial script i've been workin on, its one of the opening scenes, i'll get into this n finish it off pretty soon.

I had a lot of fun with this, its Frank n Nick in a bar, Frank being his normal 'too cool for school' self n Nick is getting pissed, and is pretty ticked off about the war n starts a fight that ends with him goin tru a window. Gud healthy fun.

I'm a big MMA fan so when the script asked for a number of hard lookin people sitting at the bar, i characatured sum of the MMA greats. From left to right theres Anderson Silva, Rampage Jackson, Randy 'The natural' Couture, Ken Shamrock and Wanderlei Silva. im happy with the characatures as everybody has been able to identify em almost immediately. Im also very happy with pages there some of the best I've dun to d8.

Animal Studies

2009-04-09T15:20:00.004+01:00

As expected not really get much time to get sum new exciting stuff dun so here's a few zoo studies i still refer to every once in a while for as bit o inspiration. I kinda like my line in these despite my sense of weight being a lil flimsy, ... i love the way monkeys move n vary between looks of curiousity, boredom and mischievious. They're awesome

doodle

2009-04-07T21:14:00.003+01:00

Here's a quickie that i did today on my awesome A3 Wacom. Im a huge Gears fan, n i really enjoy drawin Marcus. I think i'll wrk on finishing this at a l8r d8

Aplomb Sketches 2

2009-04-06T21:09:00.004+01:00

And here's Apomb. He's a really interesting character. He's got his own version of justice, that police like Jim and Staunton have to take a stand against. Aplomb has taken a lot o study n trying to make the story and characters adhere to our own world a lil easier he's "uniform" is a variety of numerous available and practical items of clothing. Body armour similar to the canterbury stuff, "Gi", Tabi boots, Balaclava, and MMA gloves( sumwhat inspired by Ryu).

He's extremely intelligent, extremely interesting, excells in MMA, u'll also see him with Kali knives.

Considerin' hes a vigilante (and all the things he's goin to do) he's got to be pretty buff. But at the mo im favouring him being more toned than buff. I like this one here, this flat rectangular shape, im oin to explore this a lil more. But at the same time he's got to be big. he HAS to be incredibly intimidating.

My m8 Eamon wants him to move like a dancer, quite elegantly so im getin stuck into that idea and trying to incorporate it in the Kali knife system

Aplomb Sketches

2009-04-06T20:55:00.004+01:00

Aliright heres sum long over due post. I did these sketches around the summer, its a great script that my m8 Eamon has written and I really hope to finish these designs soon and get stuck into this comic. Its a great collaboration and theres sum really great ideas in it.

Heres Jim. he's tons of fun to draw and he's one o those guys that i almost got completely right on the first draft. He takes a lil after Donald Sutherland.

This next guy is Staunton. He's Jims partner, he's an all around nice guy, just trying to get by and live as gud a life as he can. He's the only person Jim gets on with. Stauntons design still needs a lot o work.

May and Nancy, well... May and Jim have a fairly disturbing and strange history, thats all i say on that for the time being. as for her design im still not sure where to go, ive got a millon sketches ranging from her looking similar as she does her to being asian. i got to sort out a finished design for her soon.

Nancy is Stauntons wife, whos been very sick ever since herself and Staunton have had triplets, which kinda leaves Staunton a lot to deal with.

Longstone Comics' "Planet Dave"

2009-04-06T19:09:00.006+01:00

This was a cool lil story that was written by Peter Loftus a friend of mine at the Longstone comics group, and later inked by Gavin Marks another good friend of mine.

This story was done for the Free Comic Book Day. And we (Longstone Comics) have another publication on the way, and this one looks even better. The story is about Mankind sometime in the near future trying to populate other worlds. Only to be foiled by a scientist working in the organistaion that deals with the sperm and egg samples from the the best of the best that Mankind has to offer. It was the first time I ever did n e thing Sci-fi n i really enjoyed it.

Planet Dave Pencils

The break up

2009-04-06T19:01:00.004+01:00

Here's the silent conversation part of my folio that i presented to Marvel, I shud have sed earlier that the Spidey pages were 5 pages of action.

The break up

comics, comics, comics n the odd sketch or two

2009-04-06T18:31:00.003+01:00

Hey guys

Ive been up to my eyes l8ly wrking on so many projects at the mo. The one taking up the most time is wrking on sum trial scripts for Marvel. ( fingers and toes crossed itll wrk out) so its taking up almost all of my time, n i hvnt put up my "With Aplomb" comic that im wrkin with a friend o mine, nor have I put up the other stories im wrkin on for more comics and other short animations.

I have however been able to make the lil changes that the Awesome Ed Hooks advised me on at the Animex fest. to my film Reprieved, that i can put up on my blog round November according to the festival circut.

so what im puttin up is the folio that i showed C.B. of Marvel at the comic con. It shows a short Spidey comic and a couple comic and a comic I worked on with my great friends at Longstone comics.

Heres The Spidey Story I did. I'll post the others in a separate post. Hope u like

Spidey V. Green Goblin

Showreel

2009-02-09T16:30:00.004Z

sorry about my absense, no excuses, bu heres my showreel, maybe soon ill put up my graduate film, "Reprieved". It's doing the festival circut at the mo and has been screened in France and the Czech Rep. with great reviews. I'm delighted and really proud to hear that it's doing so well.

and if you guys are keeping in touch with the pegbar blog u'll see that we got to Animex last week. And not only did i get to lectures from Ed Hooks( and Mark Walsh, who's also a bit of a legend), but Ed Hooks was nice enough to look at my film "Reprieved". he enjoyed it and said it was a good piece of storytelling and that sorta made my week.

Theres a few scenes from it in my showreel at the mo. bear in mind this reel is currently being updated, but im reasonably happy with the work displayed.

Pegbar

2008-07-29T10:28:00.004+01:00

Hey Guys sorry about not being on this more but ive been floating between Wexford and Dublin, n i just havnt got any where near a scannar, but i shud pretty soon and i have a load of material to put on the Blog so please stay tuned.

Any way Peg Bar!

Peg Bar is a new animation event taking place in Dublin, Ireland. Any body with an interest in art is welcome to attend. It's on upstairs in Murrays on O'Connell St. on the 7th of August 08. There will be shortfilms/showreels on 2 projector screens and 7 widescreen t.v.'s. It is not a screening event or an animation festival, its just a night where anyone with an interest in animation can show up have a few drinks with their mates and have the choice of showing their work or just looking at other peoples work.

Its Free, to attend, just those who will be showing work on the screens will be asked a donation of 6 - 10 euros. And there will be a selection of work shown from Irish and UK artists.

If you have any questions feel free to use the comments section, ill get bask to u asap.

The event has been organised by Ben Hennessy, Daniel Spencer, Anna O'Sullivan and Ben Harper and we hope to see you there.

Life drawing

2008-06-21T20:19:00.005+01:00

Heres some Life Drawing. Life Drawing is a big deal in my old college and it has been one of the best methods of informing myself about draftmanship and developing my own style.

The Washing Machine Junkie

2008-06-21T19:46:00.005+01:00

Hey guys heres sum pieces i put together a while back. I was putting together a pitch for a short traditionally animated film. I found Rufuss to be loads o fun to draw. The film itself would have been a load of fun too, but another film of mine was chosen instead. Im gonna come back to this guy some day soon tho