The Hand Drawn Creative Blog

Rewind… Summer 2015 and the Golden Greats Exhibition

So let's kick off the Hand Drawn Creative re-cap with last summer's exhibition as part of Bangor's Open House Festival. I remember the opening night's weather being atrocious – heavy rain & black clouds don't usually get people out at night. But I underestimated the draw of the Open House Festival and opening night was a huge success and Sync Space was packed out. Here are a few of the pieces that were on show on August 2015 along with a short video from local filmmaker Ross McConaghy…

'Sync Space Presents' - Neal McCullough from Ross McConaghy on Vimeo.

  

Triangles – a new Print

An interesting new direction with this new print. It's on display in Atelier in Belfast if you'd like a closer look, or click on the image and find out more on my Etsy page…

 

Be prepared…

I was quite the active Scout in my youth; Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Venture Scouts. Camping, kayaking, hunting, mountaineering all that good stuff. My Father still works within the organisation and I help him out occasionally with a few design briefs – it's a great feeling to work alongside my Dad, doing work you know will be around for a good few years. We've worked on two new badge designs for the Northern Ireland Scout Assoiation this year. What do you think?

On yer bike etc.

Long time no see Gang – I've been beavering away at a new corporate identity for Belfast's Titanic Quarter. Their fledgling Cylcling Club needed a cool new look to help them along. I think it looks the part, how about you?

 

 

 

Out & About with Wacom

I was thrilled to work with an old advertising colleague again recently in Holywood. I was brought in to help on a pitch for a prospective new client (which was a storming success by the way). It was great, also to work in a team for the first time in years. The design office were quite excited in my tecnical kit bag too. I'd brought along my Wacom intuos 5 touch medium tablet (ideal for in-situ freelance jobs like this) and the designers were all keen to try it out. Everyone got a go and everyone was impressed including myself. I don't get much opportunity to use the little guy these days. I think Wacom may have a bit more business after my week at Walkers :D

 

 

God Help the Troubadour…

My First Exhibition is currently on show in my hometown of  Bangor! Finally, I've made it out of the Wendy House and onto the streets (Dufferin Avenue to be exact) Local Gallery SyncSpace is hosting the show which will be open for the rest of the month.

We opened on Wednesday night 7 August to (thankfully) see a crowd of folks pop in for a look at my work, both old & new (we even managed to sell quite a few prints too). So a BIG THANKS is due to the SyncSpace Crew, Stephen Potter for taking some cracking photos on the night (some of which you can see here). And thank you to everyone who made it down on the night. It's been a career high point for me, I'm inspired to work on the next one as soon as possible!

     

 

Are you sitting Comfortably?

Okay, I'm pimping up my Society 6 page at the minute to include some slick new HDC merch (including comfy cushions) Why not invest a few bucks in some of your favourite illustrations (it doesn't always need to be framed)

Planet Pulp – RED Show

I've been a regular contributor at Planet Pulp for a few years now, so I'm honoured to be part of their first group show in Los Angeles tonight. Hero Complex i hosting and we're expecting a great opening night. Here's my entry – a reworking of the Silent Running movie poster, you'll be able to pick it up on the Hero site in a few days or so.

Extraordinaires Design Studio

Here's a project I participated in about a year ago with Belfast's Creativity Hub. I was asked to illustrate two of the Extraordinaires characters along with a host of Ireland's best known and talented illustrators. The final product is called  Extraordinaires Design Studio and is being marketed as a toy to help train our next generation of Designers – great idea. I missed last night's unofficial launch party, but I'll be in Dublin on Friday night to attend the official launch and put my signature on some prize giveaways as part of the OFFSET conference.

Here are the two Characters I designed for the Design Studio…

 

Fab News…

Fab Europe are running a four day sale of my prints from today (20 March 2013)! I'm really excited as to what may come from this, and am really chuffed that they've approached me. All print fulfilment will be carried out by my good buddies Brough & Ready in England, so all the prints will be much larger than usual and gallery archive quality too! If you've always fancied investing in one of my prints, now may well be the time to act.