eye on dublin

13.7.09

R.I.P. E.O.D.

It is with a sad heart that I report the demise of Totally Dublin magazine and with it, at least for the time being, The Eye on Dublin. I've really enjoyed working on it. It was a fantastic outlet for topical doodlings and a playground for my silly imagination.

I have plans for at the very least a last hurrah for the eye, if not a full return, so stay tuned and I shall hopefully have some news soon.

I'm going to leave up the blog anyway just as a gallery of all 38 installments.
Cheers
BC

9.5.09

Spend and save!!!

Lazy double post or bumper two-for-the-price-of-one post, depending on your outlook.

April's eye on dublin was a comic cover homage which tried to flip things on its head and present the worst of the celtic tiger over spenders as the potential heroes of the recession. Afterall, when you think about it, it's not the poor, scrounging working class mother of nine that's going to kick start the economy but the coked up ditzy PR girl willing to spend hundreds on a haircut.

May's eye on dublin was once again money centric, this time with those who have become obsessed with saving it. Its oh so hip to go to flea markets, car boot sales and charity shops but staying at home and eating toast is actually probably going to cost less. A pretty teapot for only 5 euro is not a bargain if you already own 14 teapots and this one is made out of paper.

19.3.09

Pied Piper Paddy

This is going up a tad late considering Paddy's Day was Tuesday but no harm. I've done paddy's day themed nonsense before but he's a saint who keeps on giving. This year he's taken the form of a pied piper luring the younglings away with his sweet booze. Despite tales to the contrary, there is something decidedly serpentine about our patron saint. But the only apple this snake is offering is in a two litre bottle of cider.

This also has the honour of being eye on dublin number 36. So I've been at this malarky for three years now. Oh how time flies! It seems only like yesterday I was producing Celtic Tiger themed doodles and wondering where we'd spend our massive personal fortunes.

7.2.09

Valentine Dole Queue

Just can't avoid recession influenced fun at the moment. This month's eye on dublin takes on romance and poverty in one fell swoop. So like many other national institutions, Valentine's Day has just been nationalised due to a shortage of dates. The resulting queues can take hours for a paltry Government hand out. A second date is out of the question.

15.12.08

Job Creation Scheme no.666

Ok, I've already referenced the Tower of Babel in an eye on dublin a while ago (Babel Royale - the leaving cert tower of death - in the June issue) but it's just too good an image not to revisit.

There's also the influence of stunning manga and anime Tekkon Kinkreet and it's western/eastern hodge-podge shanty town metropolis. Go see it/read says I.

This combines to make the eye on dublin's recommendation for job creation, the Celtic Tiger Commemorative Building. Job creation, the building industry, possible collapse, it's all a very subtle metaphor you see AND it gives me a chance to draw cute cat heads.

25.11.08

Naughty and Nice

Obviously a Christmas special was unavoidably for December so I decided to add a small dose of humbug into the mix by introducing the Anti-Claus, complete with tommy gun carrying Penguin sidekicks (he's based in the South Pole you see, so no reindeer). Still fun and seasonal though; he's not a serial-killer or anything. Just a curiously attired burglar. Go Santa.

Merry Christmas one and all. Except you. Yes, you.

3.11.08

GAME OVER, MAN. GAME OVER

Slightly odd one this month. I was away in middle of nowhere in wildest England when I did this one. So no scanner and a long panicked hunt for an entrance to the interweb. As a result it was done in double time all in illustrator vector glory, no scratchy pencil lines to fall back on.

Straightforward idea of the celtic tiger as a broken down 80's arcade machine. With the arcade game reference I could have overloaded it with various elements if I'd been drawing everything by hand but because of my vector drawing limitations I kept it fairly simply. Worked out alright as a result, I think....

26.9.08

All Hallow's Evil

Shock! Horror! I've never taken advantage of this time of year to do a Halloween based eye on dublin. That is now rectified with a jolly rejigging of the traditions with the scary monsters as the victims and the kids as the super creeps.
I've done some Halloween themed stuff before that came in handy. In particular was this poster for a college ball

I remember spending ages looking up wacky old horror film posters as reserach, stuff along the lines of 'I was a Teenage Frankenstein'

So I had all that preprogrammed into my brain by the time I had the idea of evil hoodie kids hassling the classic Universal monsters. It was pretty straight forward after that. All that was left was a slight nod to count von count from sesame street

and viola

A scary eye on dublin!

26.8.08

Sunshine R.I.P.

Admittedly last summer was bad but there's something about two wet summers in a row that seems to officially hammer the global warming nail into the coffin of the Irish summer. Been very busy of late so this month's pic is more of a pin-up than the usual detailed diagram. Still the grim simplicity kind of matches the subject matter.

Hope there's something good on the telly.

Please God let the rain stay away at least this weekend as I'll be stuck in a field at the Electric Picnic music festival. I'll be drawing on some boards along with a number of great artists throughout the weekend, so say hello if you're down too. BC

28.7.08

Olympic Shames

This month I just couldn't resist using the one in four year opportunity to riff on the Olympic games. As usual I'm far too cowardly to tackle any political issues, particularly serious ones that might be associated with the Beijing sports fest. Instead I stick to what I know, Nick-Nacks, chip shops and pints of Guinness. So here you go:

In other news, if you're looking to waste some time wandering the interweb, I've relaunched my website with a new layout and some lovely pictures. And I've also started another blog just for my general illustration stuff (and some rambling). Check it out. BC

30.6.08

Lovely, Lovely Recession

Pretty straightforward this month. Just took all the pessimistic talk about the imminent economic collapse of the country and then tried to present it in a positive light. Hazy, dreamy recession days are back again, here ya go:

28.5.08

Leaving Cert: Babel Royale

Poor teenage souls across the nation will be sitting the Leaving Cert this month, so something exposing the cruelty of secondary school is called for. Influence-wise I have to give a nod to

the wacky Japanese
uber-violence and
school uniforms
combo that is
Battle Royale,

also the perspective
bending genius and
odd architecture of
M. C. Escher
particularly this one,
the Tower of Babel,

and while we're at it
some classic
Spock vs. Kirk.

So here it is,
Leaving Cert:
Babel Royale

29.4.08

Summer in the City

1st of May is supposedly the beginning of the sunny season. Unfortunately that's not always the case here so maybe I'm being a little optimistic but anyway. This month's tips are based around the typical Irish concerns during sunny weather, trying to look good and getting drunk.

Also worth a mention is the dandy new site from Mr. Frankenstyles aka Stephen Kelleher, check it out.

4.4.08

Sgt. Hieronymous

After much recent unpleasant behaviour about the city, this month's installment takes on the cries of social apocalypse. We're not quite yet at the stage of giant police robots, luckily enough.

Don't know if it's noticeable or not but this one owes a nod to

the cheery
monsters and
supercreeps
of the
Where's Wally
landscapes of
Hieronymous
Bosch

Jeff Soto's
stunning paintings

and Ashley Wood's
robots, particularly
this charming chap,
Bertie the Pipebomb

And here's my
pale imitation,
with a Smiths
reference thrown
in for good measure.

3.4.08

It Begins...

Hello all and welcome, I'm in the process of redoing my website and I thought that, seeing at it's been going for over two years now, the eye on dublin should be capable of pulling off it's own blog.

In the future I'll update each month as I finish one and maybe throw in some sketches and such if anyones interested. Till next month enjoy wasting a few minutes; here's all 24 rambling installments so far: