New Prints!

I have just added two new prints and a 2011 calendar to my Etsy shop for very reasonable prices. The Mammoth and Tom Crean are the first of series I am working on called Green Giants. I'll post them here as I go.

Have a wander over to the shop when you have a moment.

Christmas Market!

I'm delighted to announce this years Christmas Market where I'll be selling prints, postcard sets, t-shirts and original paintings along with work by the wonderous Fergal Brennan and Renate Henschke's ARMS clothing. All under the roof

Prints from €10 and original paintings from €30.

Where?
38 Clarendon Street, Dublin 2, Ireland

When?
Opening night party Friday 10th of december 6pm-10pm

And then continuing Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th of December 10.30am till 7pm

Thinkhouse have kindly supplied us with some deliscious Heineken for the opening night so drop in for a tasty beer if you're nearby.

We'll be serving mulled wine and mince pies throughout.

More details after the break

Aaaaagh!

 

After 20 years waiting for decent snow I finally got to make a Calvin and Hobbes snowman scene last night. I even had coal for the eyes. And bamboo arms. Thanks to Cliona for the scarf.

Who's that Now?

My good pal Mark Wickham is having an exhibition of brand new illustrations and drawings and just had a sneak preview of some of the work, it is incredible.

If you are in Dublin next Thursday drop in to the opening night party in The Joinery in Stoneybatter. He will be selling original drawings and screen prints and there will be some sweet treats and beer to warm you up.

Details:

Where: The Joinery, Stoneybatter, Dublin
When: Opens Thursday 9th December and runs until Dec 17th

More details here

Scamp November

Scamp has just uploaded this months latest work for November by the usual suspects. Lots and lots of lovely work again.

Check it out

New Website at last.

I have finally finished my new website and have made it live on the internet (of all places).

I've been trying to get a new one that I can update properly for about a year so I'm chuffed to have a site that I can now keep fresh and up to date. I have included lots of new illustrations in the illustration section (as well as some older work).

There's still lots of tweaking to be done over the next week or two and I will be adding new sections like a sketchbook section and a case study of one of the bigger projects I worked on recently.

Have a look if you have a moment anyway. I would love to hear some feedback so please let me know if there are any issues (or typos!) etc.

www.chrisjudge.com

Pablo Picante part Deux!

Pablo Picante is opening his new Burrito Bar in the Clarendon Market in Dublin very soon and I've just finished some new artwork which you should see around the place soon.

Click here to see more about the first Burrito Bar I worked on with Mr. Picante.

Pablo's site.

Belle and Rollo

Meet Belle and Rollo!

I recently completed work on elements for a great new website called Belle and Rollo where you can purchase lots of lovely stuff for kids including clothes and nice hand made toys. Check it out of you have a moment.

Click Read more to see some more artwork

Happy Halloween

This is the first pumpkin I've carved since the 80's I reckon. I'm munching on the very addictive (slightly burnt) seeds as I type. Have a fun weekend!

LeCool Cover 2

My second in a series of two covers for LeCool which is online this week. Autumnal man will be leaving us soon as the Winter chills start creeping in...

HSE T-Shirts

I worked with the good folks in Ogilvy during the Summer on a Campaign making aware the Dangers of legal highs through posters and web. The concept was to create artwork for 10 different t-shirt designs which on first glance look like fun graphics but on closer inspection have a serious message regarding the varios dangers and side effects of these gross drugs. They are being used on posters and on the web here.

Click Read More to see the rest of the designs.

Big Issue

This is an editorial piece I recently illustrated for the Big Issue in the UK. The article was really interesting as the author tested himself by writing an article where each setence starts with a letter of the alphbet A-Z. You can read the full article after the break.

Two Magazine Covers

I haven't done a magazine cover in a long while and then two come along that are published on the same day which is most exciting.

 

The first is for the lovely online Magazine LeCool which should be winging it's way to inboxes this afternoon. Autumn is probably my favourite time of year and I really noticed it kicking in on the way to work the other day and wanted to capture the shift from greens to yellows and browns. I've represented Autumn with a large character called Autumnal Man sweeping through the city. The background is a photo I took in Tokyo in October 2008 just as the leaves were turning. I will also be doing next weeks cover which I'll post here. Thanks to Ciaran and Michael for the commission.

 

Also published today is my part in the cover of this weeks Dubliner magazine which comes free with todays Herald newspaper. It was a really fun commission that I worked on with designer Fiachra McCarthy. They had taken this photo of Mick Pyro and wanted to represent his various demons from his past in the background. I also drew all the type. I enjoyed this a lot.

Laundry!

Just realised it's nearly a month since I posted here! I'm terrible. I will get back on top of it next week.

Just a quick mention that Laundry exhibition opens tonight in South Studios as part of Offset which kicks off on Friday.

This is my 'contribution'.

More info here:

The Lonely Beast!

Update: I've just received the official final cover (which has a few minor tweaks) from the lovely folks in Andersen Press as well as the final version of the back cover which is very exciting.

--------------

Huge apologies for the lack of posts here on the blog if you check in regularly, I've been all over the place moving into our new little house (which I'll post about here soon) dealing with builders, sanding floors, erecting a shed, creating a garden, screaming at Ikea instructions and being generally busy in between with some really fun illustration projects.

But besides all of that, over the last year I've been working slowly on a BIG personal project that I spent years dwelling on and only recently went hell for leather completing. I finally finished a picture book based on the Beasts character that I've been playing around with for the last seven years or so with.

The Beast character actually dates back to some drawings that I used to do based on this strange tiny  character that used to appear in the old MAD magazine digest books from the 60's that my Dad would buy us as kids and I LOVED them. He only appeared a few times and I must try and find some images of him to post here. There's also a hint of the Yeti from Tintin in Tibet below that I was completely obsessed with as a child in there. This simple binoculars image completely blew my mind at this point in the story and is a big influence for the design of the Beast. I was a little disappointing we saw what the Yeti actually looked like on the following pages. However, I drew him religiously when I got the book from my Uncle sometime around 1985 for Christmas. Herge is probably one of my biggest influences in my illustration.

I also can't forget about Sweetums from the Muppet show that was a huge part of my childhood as a big inluence. I will admit that Animal was my main guy but Sweetums always had this special scary thing going on that I loved and I used to draw him constantly. In fact this photo had a big inluence on one of the pictures in the book.

Anyway, as my own drawings developed I started to drop these characters into photos I'd been taking over the years not really knowing what to do with them. He appeared on some gig posters over the years but mostly I drew him for pleasure after taking a photo I liked, generally with trees or the sea involved.

In May 2009 I decided I wanted to tell his story so I started thinking about a story that would bring him to life and began thinking about who this character and who is, what is his place in the world? Any of the drawings and scenes I dropped him into always seemed poignant so it made sense that he would be a solitary character but really seeked the companionship of other.

So over time a story developed that I was happy with but the main problem was finding the right tone of illustration that suited him as I had been using photographs as backgrounds. After many false starts I arrived at a style that I think suited him and began story boarding the whole thing.

After a year of late night drawing and re-drawing (the trees were a huge problem!) I finished the book.

I sent a dummy printed copy to Andersen Press in London off the bat on advice from PJ Lynch (amazing, wonderful illustrator and massively helpful individual) in May and heard back a few days later that they want to publish the book!

Over the last two months I have been working with the lovely people in Andersen Press redesigning the cover (which you can see above) and tweaking various elemnts until today when I got sign off. The book will be publish in the UK and Ireland on 3rd of February 2011. As you can imagine I am very excited!

It is now available for pre-order on Amazon here and WH Smith here.

I've just registered the site with a holding page but will be adding lots of stuff to it over the next few months including a wonderful trailer I'll be making with some very talented friends of mine.

I will be adding lots of stuff about the making of the book here also, as well as details about the launch in Dublin and other places.

Hooray The Beast!


PS I promise to get back on track with posting here I have loads of stuff to put up.

Carlsberg Comedy Carnival 2010

Another Summer another fun Carlsberg Comedy Carnival in the Iveagh Gardens. I'm delighted they've decided to use my artwork again this year I've just started spotting it around town on various media. Here's a few pics I managed to take of some out and about. I've seen a few on the sides of buses but haven't been fast enough on my bike to get a photo.

Skatelord

I forgot to post my Hit The Decks board from the show last week. Here is the fragile fellow. The show was reeeeally great I would definitely recommend checking out the show there was loads of very nice stuff.

Jidges Frudges!

Some poorly lit iPhone photos of the 4 fridges I customised for a competition for Heineken / Oxegen with Thinkhouse. Also a photo from The Metro Herald of some Krazy Kids jumping on them.

Thanks to Declan for the kool titles to this post.

Glen E. Friedman

Really looking forward to this, especially the screening of Fugazi's Instrument, can't believe I haven't seen it yet.

Hit the Decks

Hit the Decks exhibition opens tomorrow evening in The Bernard Shaw and I'm delighted to have a piece in it. 30 Artists were asked to customise a deck each and all will be on display until Sunday 4th of July.

I'll post a pic of mine here when it's done.

Drop in if you're in the area.

Beast in Wicklow

We had an AMAZING night in Wicklow last Saturday. Every year my sister has a Solstice party in her lovely garden, this being number 13, and the weather was amazing. This is a photo I took of the Sun going down looking over the Sugaloaf just before the bonfire was lit. I have some great news about the Beast in the photo which I will share with you soon here on the blog.

Dragon Hat Lad

I was cleaning the kitchen last night and the tea towel (manky tea towel I might add) was sitting on the counter looking like some kind of cotton dragon with a hat when I finished so I scrunched up bits of a bus ticket for teeth and balled up receipt for an eye.  I dunno.

Chimney Rocket

Rocket from the crypt in Portmarnock last Wednesday. Whilst eating bangers and mash of course.

Aer Lingus Magazine

Drawing in the Aer Lingus magazine on the way to London last month. I quietly tucked it back into the seat hoping someone would find it whilst reading...

Blogging!

Well, I've been blogging for two and a half years and just realised I've passed the 300 mark of posts! From day one I set rules out for myself that I'm only going to blog about artwork I do myself, commercial work and stuff for exhibitions etc, but recently the commercial works I'm doing are turning into bigger projects with a much larger gestation period and exhibitions are fewer and far between given the work I'm able to put into them.

I really love blogging but have recently found I don't have enough finished material to blog about given the large scale projects I'm working on and constantly itch to upload stuff so I've decided to start posting more photos, sketches as well as topical things that inspire me and interesting pics from other blogs and the internet.

I need some sort of liberal outlet so please let me know if you have anything interesting going on! I would love to blog about it.

So here goes.

Denny in the Metro today

Part of the lovely Denny campaign that I've been working on with Peter Snodden and Roisin Keown in DDFHB was a large map of Dublin highlighting various nice parks to have a summery picnic for The Metro Herald. I just picked up a copy and took some badly lit photos of how it turned out. They turned out great.

I've also uploaded the actual artwork for each bit. I'll post all 26 maps that are appearing on bustops around the city at some stage when I get a chance.

Pablo Picante Needs You!

This is the artwork for a poster I've recently completed for Mr. Pablo Picante inviting you to wear your green Irish jersey in support of Mexico in the Sugar Club when they play those scoundrels the French next week.

June 17th, Doors at 6pm in the Sugar Club, Leeson Street.

The tank Riot Gang!

I've been an avid listener to the brilliant Tank Riot podcast for the last two years or so and always relish a new episode when it goes live. The three lads, Sputnik, Tor & Victor have never revealed their real identities or what they looked like but I've always had my own idea of what they looked like in my head. So I drew up this sketch of what I think they look like and mailed it over to them a few weeks ago.

I was then listening to the most recent episode (93) on the way home the other day hoping for a mention and right at the end with about 10 mins to go they did a little piece on the drawing. I was whooping and laughing like an eejit on my bike as they spoke about it. I even got some uncanny likenesses by accident.

As an extra bonus they've added a new section to their site called Artistic Licence where they invite other listeners to do the same.

Thanks Tank Riot!

A day of Keith Haring

I spent a lovely balmy evening last Tuesday (1st of June which I always consider the first day of Summer harking back to the date we got our Summer holidays in school) making a really enjoyable 8x4 foot piece for a great new show influenced by the work of the great Keith Haring, who passed away 20 years ago, with street artists Maser, Will St leger, Sums and Inputout. The show opens on 6th of June in the Bernard Shaw.

These pieces will be auctioned for sale along with various prints by the artists also being sold on the night of the launch and throughout the month long run of the exhibition with all proceeds from the sale of the artwork will go to the Dublin Aids Alliance.

That's my piece above. I'll upload better shots of it in situ.

For more details click heeeore.

Denny Bustop

I spotted this fellow on the way to work this morning on my bike in Drumcondra. There's lots more stuff from this campaign going live in the next week or two so I'll be bombarding the blog with photos and pics when I see them in action.