Tech Tee 2015

  




















This year's Tech Tee...making it's first appearance at the Body and Soul Festival this weekend.
I used Sharpie fabric markers to draw this time so hopefully there'll be no problems when it's washed. Also, whatever the ink is in the fabric markers, it doesn't run dry as quick so I didn't burn through markers as quickly on this Tee... only used three...nice :)

Tech Tee 2014

Drew this last year for the Young Fella for festival season and forgot to post.
Hand drawn on a white cotton tee with marker. Permanent marker bleeds after washing... apparently it can be fixed with salt like any dye... but I didn't know that :P
Planning this years tee and fabric markers have been ordered!

Space Station

© Deirdre de Barra 2015

Strange Woodwork

© Deirdre de Barra 2015

Rory's New Blog

Rory Mc Conville has a new comics blog. First story up: The Babymaker and The Belgian, written by Rory, drawn by Ryan Cody, coloured by me féin and lettered by John Robbins.
Check it out :)

Brian Boru and The Battle of Clontarf

There have been tumbleweeds blowing through this blog for the last few months but that's because I was chained to the ol' drawing desk. Now I can stagger out all pale and blinking into the light with a new comic, Brian Boru and The Battle of Clontarf, written by Rory Mc Conville, drawn by me and lettered by John Robbins.
The comic is €5 and will be available at the Battle of Clontarf Millenium Festival this weekend and hopefully in various shops as well. I'll post where when I find out.
In the meantime, anyone who would like a copy, just email puredaft@yahoo.com and we'll make arrangements. I'll just go feed the carrier pidgeons now.

TEDx Dublin 2013

Had a great time at TEDx Dublin yesterday. Myself and Phil Barrett were drawing up a storm.
Drawing on the spot while listening to the speakers, not knowing what was coming next, was a hell of a challenge but an enormous amount of fun too.
Thanks to Sarah and Shaun from the Science Gallery for having us and to Denise and the gang from Smartwallpaint for their cool paint that turns any surface into a whiteboard.
I took loads of photos but didn't realise how shaky my hands were from all the drawing.
So here are a few that are sort of in focus with bad lighting as an extra bonus : )

....and finally, a photo taken from the roof of the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.
Just because I could : )

Tech Drawing 001

© Deirdre de Barra 2013

© Deirdre de Barra 2013

A new Tech Drawing. This one is pen on A3 paper. When I scanned it into the ol' computer, I couldn't resist playing with it.
Sunday afternoon, cool choons and digital crayons, aww yeah.

The Cartoonification of Folks

A couple of recent drawings commissioned as gifts.
People cartoonified doing what they love to do :)

Techie Nerd Drawing

I just realised a chunk of time has passed and I didn't post anything about the finished TND.
It started as a doodle but has surpassed itself and become a drawing.
Here it is hanging on my wall and below are some detail pics. It's so big it's hard to take it all in even when you're standing right in front of it.
I really loved doing this......
The next one has started :)

Tidying - Wormwood Sketch

I was tidying through the ever-increasing piles of doodled on paper, trying to put manners on the mess, when I came across this quick sketch. It's a teeny tiny drawing at the bottom of a page and it was eventually transmogrified into a noodle I did for ICN a while ago.
I really like this little sketch :)

TechiNerdDoodle Update

...and so on it goes. Still doodling away in the stolen moments, when the kettle's boiling, while the dinner's cooking. I left the pens in for this photo to give an idea of the size of this doodle.

TechieNerdDoodle or TND

I am coining a new descriptive term for a particular type of drawing or doodle that I do, doobie doobie doo... it's called a TechieNerdDoodle or TND for short. I've been mucking about with TNDs on a small scale but the breakthrough came with a noodle I did for ICN, which you can see here.
I had so much fun doing this noodle that I had to keep going once that one was finished.
This is a photo of a small section of the next TND.
It's strange, but when I need a break from drawing other projects A little fix of TND-ing does the trick...calm, meditative, getting zoned in on the Now and still drawing... TND FTW!!!
I'll post some pics of this as I go and when it's done... It's about A0, maybe a little smaller, so it'll be a wee while yet before this one's finished :)

New Comic

This is American Independent Feature Film, mine and Gar Shanley's new little comic that we'll have at the Dublin Zine Festival this weekend. The comic is an adaptation of one of Gar's blog posts over on Fugger. It's a much more sketchy affair than what I usually do but I thought that suited the story.
Also, in an effort to push myself, I set out ten days to draw a twenty page comic. I managed to do that because of the sketchy style, hand lettering it in childlike writing; and making a rule to let each page stand as it is no matter how much I might want to tweak or change the drawings. It was an exercise in completing what I set out to make and  not being too precious or obsessive about it all. It's a challenge to learn to get out of your own way and simply tell the story.

Dublin Zine Fair - This Weekend!!

What: An annual event founded in 2011 to support and promote independent publishing, zines and artist books.

When: 11th & 12th of August, from 12pm -6pm.

Where: The Supafast Building, Great Strand Street, Dublin City Centre.

Why: To provide a platform for people to buy and sell independent publications and zines. To help zinesters to meet like minded people. To help the scene grow in Ireland. To inspire people to make and get involved.

Hat

Back to clean lines with inks for this pic :)

Cyborg

I'm playing with scanning my pencil drawings and then flinging textures and colours about to see what I can end up with. So, below is the drawing of a cyborg dude and above the end result of the digital sorcery :)

Hellboy Inks

These are the inks for Hellboy as he appeared on ICN
and below that is a pencil drawing of one of the Lil' imps he's been called in to deal with.
The imps were a lot of fun to draw, like a bunch of bold three year olds all hopped up on sweets and fizzy drinks.... explains Hellboys expression :)

Iron Man Inks

All the noodles I do for ICN are exclusive to ICN for a month from when they're posted.
I've now done several months worth and so I can randomly post some of the preliminary work for some of the older posts.
These are the inks for Iron Man has a Cold. The finished version is here :)

Holiday Snaps

It's overcast and drizzling, I have a rotten cold.
I hope it's a proper summer somewhere and
there's an alien on holidays.

This week is Irish Comics Appreciation Week, a celebration to mark the first birthday if Irish Comic News.
Check out the site for all sorts of fun stuff.
Part of the aim of the week is to get the comics out there. To that end Hilary has posted downloadable pdf copies of Longstone Comics last two volumes on the longstone blog for you to download and read for FREE!!

This is a page from a 2000AD script that I had pencilled a while ago.
Recently I've been experimenting with colouring directly onto the pencilled artwork, leaving out the inking step altogether. I like inked work but there's a very different feel to the finished piece.
So, I remembered this page and decided to use it for my ongoing colour experiments.
I'm liking this so far and having a lot of fun with it.

2d doodles 2012

Some doodles from the 2d Festival this year.
I did remember my camera this year, but then forgot to actually use it. Nevermind, I managed to take these in the midst of the day long doodle-frenzy.
So here's Nightmare from Soul Calibur V and Deadpool.

New Foldy Comic

A new Foldy Comic called CAKE will be peeking out from under the covers at the 2d Festival in Derry this weekend.
Really looking forward to a superfluity of comiky goodness thanks to all at the Verbal Arts Centre.

Hellboy

Got onto a bit of a Hellboy buzz after drawing him for an
Irish Comic News noodle post.
So went doodling again... and here's the big guy about to pound on some very shady looking characters.

Conan-pencil sketch

This is the pencil sketch I did for a drawing of Conan for the Noodlers section of Irish Comic News.
Always interesting to see how pencils are transmogrified into a finished pic, and not always successfully.
Need to get better at flowing through the whole process instead of it sometimes feeling like trying to walk through a waist deep lake of cold lumpy porridge.

Ninja Girl - detail

This is a detail of a pic I did for the Longstone Comics blog.
The full pic and accompanying Haiku (: p) are there.