New A-ha album

In case you didn't know I happen to be one of the worlds biggest A-ha fans(and proud of it) Back in 1985 the Take on me video inspired me to go on to become an animator and let's just say the rest is history. Anyhow they've just released their 9th studio album "Foot of the mountain", which although did take a few listens, I have to say I absolutely love.
This is the video to the 1st single from it of the same title.
It also prompted me to dig out a caricature I did of them about 5 years ago, which when I saw it again, I thought, hmmm it's not that bad. Anyhow enjoy or not, oh and I can take the slagging.

New live work

With a severe lack of posts from me lately, I thought I'd post some new live work. I don't generally take photo's at events anymore as it slows me up too much, although while working at Bloomsday in Trinity college last Friday I really wish I'd brought a camera, when I was asked to draw some lovely models who were at the event, I do have some I took on my phone, I just have to work out how to get them onto my PC. Anyhow back to reality, here's some photo's from various weddings over the last few weeks. These were taken everywhere from Bellinteer house near Navan, Markee Castle in sligo, the Bridge House hotel Tullamore, to the Galway Bay hotel.
Oh and in relation to the bottom picture of me, never stand near a chocolate fountain when there's a window open, unless of course you happen to have a spare set of clothes in the boot of the car!

I've been a busy boy.

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, things have been really hectic and look like they'll continue to be for the next month or so anyhow. The late Late show was a fantastic night, although I only got my ugly mug briefly on the TV, I met loads of interesting people including Gabriel Byrne, who's pictured below with my wife, she had great time posing with all the celeb's while I busy working. The highlight of my night was standing 10 feet from U2 watching them rehearse(check out this link, very funny), I also stood beside them backstage, but I didn't quite have the balls to go up and say hello, to be honest their minder was giving me evils and was looking at my pencil as if I was going to use it as a lethal weapon. I was also asked to do a caricature of Pat at the last minute which was presented to him on the night as a gift from his colleagues.
On another note, I sold 3 of my paintings last week which is always a great feeling and really encouraging, the ones that sold were the new Phil Lynott portrait style one (pictured in a post below) the caricature where's he's giving us the finger and my Leonard Cohen. I've also been incredibly busy with private commissions and gigging around the country at various events.
I hope to do some new paintings soon so stay tuned and thanks again for all your comments and feedback throughout the year.

Final Late Late show

I can barely contain my excitement as I type this, because tonight I'll be at the final show of the Late Late show for this season and much more importantly the final show for it's host Pat Kenny. I was lucky enough to be a guest on the show a few years back, and although I was very nervous I found Pat to the consummate professional and he did everything possible to put me at ease. I've been asked to come out and draw the celebrity guests which are supposed to include some up and coming band from Dublin which you may or may not have heard of called U2. I've also been asked to do Pat's going away present from RTE, but I can't say more than that for the moment (oh what could it be)
Anyhow wish me luck and I'll update this post as soon as I can.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/0523/1224247188263.html

Leonard Cohen caricature

Just finished this.
It's acrylic on canvas(no digital) and as always your comments are much appreciated.

Gift caricatures by Niall O'Loughlin

How I wish I had all day everyday to paint whatever I like, however as a full time caricaturist I have to make a living. Fortunately for me, peoples demand for gift caricatures has increased as as a result of the recession, mainly I think due to the fact that people need cheering up, and also most people when things were good tended to buy everything they wanted . Below is just a small sample of recent pictures I've done. They were commissioned for everything from retirement gifts to wedding and anniversary presents, and main thing was that everyone was happy with what I produced which inevitably leads to more business as a result of good word of mouth.
Hopefully I'll have a chance to post more of my personal work soon, I'm working on a Leonard Cohen acrylic which I'll post as soon as I get the time to finish it.

Susan Boyle aka the "The Hairy Angel"

Unless you live on Mars, you've heard of Susan Boyle, the incredible singing sensation from Britain's got talent (it obviously does).
With over 40 million hits on YOUTUBE I thought she deserved a quick sketch.
I've heard they're going to "sex her up" and give her a makeover for her next appearance. Leave her as she is I say and let's hope the hairy angel doesn't resemble my bottom sketch a "A Hairy Fairy".

Click to enlarge

Phil Lynott caricature.

This painting was done for upcoming Phil Lynott exhibition(see post below). When I turned up for the photo shoot with my first painting which is essentially a portrait, I thought I really should have done a caricature! so that's what I did because that's what I love doing most! c&c is welcome as always folks.

O'Loughlin in the news

Just back from an amazing week in Barcelona which was mostly spent checking out the amazing work of Gaudi.
it was nice to come home to quite a bit of press about myself in the Irish newspapers.

During the week there was a picture of me and other artists with Philomena Lynott in the Irish Independent, this to promote an upcoming Phil Lynott exhibition which I'm involved in.







Yesterday there was a half page in the Sunday World which is one of Ireland's biggest selling Sunday paper.



And I got a call this morning to say there's a piece about me in this months Business and Finance magazine, so I went out a bought a copy.

"The green giant" Paul O'Connell

Here's my latest caricature, this time it's Irish rugby hero Paul O'Connell, who in no small part was a major factor in Ireland winning the six nations.
It's acrylic on canvas and C&C is welcome as always folks.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!

This weeks Sunday Mirror cartoon.

"The Business" John Murray RTE 1

This Sunday morning the 29th @ 10 am, I'm a guest on the John Murray show on RTE radio 1. I'll be on the show for an hour, during which time I'll be discussing my work and drawing John live on air with the results to posted on the RTE website afterwards.
If you've nothing better to do this Sunday morning, you can listen live online by clicking here.

Brian Cowen painting in the National Gallery

Updated Wednesday 25th March

I've had 100's of emails asking if it was me who hung the portrait/caricature painting of Brian Cowen in the national gallery last weekend, I'd like to take this opportunity to categorically state "IT WASN'T ME!!!
However it certainly was a great way of generating publicity.

This is one I did last year, which was commissioned for the Nob nation CD cover, which has also been in the news lately for wrong reasons.
It's been out a few months now and so far no police have called to the door!

Sean Penn Milk caricature

Here's my latest caricature, again it's acrylic on canvas, and as always please don't forget to leave your comments good or bad!, It's your feedback that makes me want to do these, and if you really want to make my day, click on the folow button to the right!!!

Click to enlarge.

Paul McCartney and the Beetle !!!

Here's my latest painting of the legendary Paul McCartney. The idea for the ladybird on his nose which is form of Beetle! came from seeing photo's of him looking constantly surprised as if someone just pinched his arse or something just landed on his nose! and of course it was a perfect opportunity for wordplay!
Don't forget to leave any comments you may have.

Click to enlarge

Some new live work.

I don't post many pictures of my live work anymore, mainly because I usually forget to bring a camera and also because I really churn these pictures out, literally I try to keep one each to 4 minutes or under.
The pictures of the very pretty girls were taken Saturday night at the 21st party of Lydia Macari, who is the daughter of the famous owner of Macari chip shops and restaurants mainly based in Dublin. The party was like something from an MTV documentary, no expense was spared, and the clothes or lack of them really made me feel my age, I even said to one girl who was barely dressed "are you not cold in that" you sound like my dad she replied! The rest are from a wedding on Friday night and another from a few weeks ago.

Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

Barack Obama "HOPE" caricature

Here's my latest caricature, another Barack Obama! It's acrylic on canvas 40 x 60 in size. This one took quite awhile but I have to say, I really enjoyed doing it and I hope it shows.The idea came from me trying to come up with an angle of something he might do while he relaxes, hence the bottle of Barack O'Bourbon and the Obama Lights.
As always your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.

Jade Goody caricature

Love her or loathe her, you'd have to be heartless not to feel for this woman. For those of you not from Ireland or England you've probably never heard of her, if not you can you can read about her story here . Having already lost two good friends to cancer myself, both animators, it's impossible not to feel moved while you watch this woman die in front of our eyes.
So I did what I always do and express myself through my art.
Would she like it if she saw it? from what I know of her she'd get a great laugh!
It's watercolour btw, a3 in size.

Hulk Hogan caricature

I've been meaning to do this guy for ages, when I saw him on the TV the other night, I could see the caricature in my head, so I had to get it on paper while it was fresh.
Hope you all like it, love to hear your comments as always.

The painted version (click to enlarge)





This is the initial sketch (click to enlarge)

NEW COLDPLAY VIDEO!!!

Thanks to Ken Coogan for introducing me to this video, it instantly became one of my favourite music videos of all time, I really think it's pure genius! Hope you enjoy it even half as much as I do.

Danny Boyle caricature

Okay I know I'm on a bit of a Slum dog buzz at the moment, and maybe the Oscar statue is premature, but hey, great film, great director, and if doesn't win, at least he can have this caricature!! You're comments are welcome as always.

Dev Patel (Slumdog millionaire) caricature

Saw this film the other night and thought it was absolutely amazing, for once a movie lived up to the hype!
Here's a quick sketch of one of the main actors Dev Patel.
The drawing took about half an hour and then as you can see just did a quick wash in photoshop which took another half hour. I may finish it if I find the time.
C&C welcome as always folks.

Nicolas Sarkozy caricature

I've been meaning to do this guy for awhile. It's acrylic on canvas board, not digital!! the size is 12 x 16 inches.

As always your feedback is not only encouraged greatly appreciated.

Robbie Keane goes back to spurs!!!

His nightmare is finally over! poor aul Robbie must be delighted today to going back to club that sold him in the 1st place.
The whole affair feels a little like getting back with your old girlfriend, after you dumped her 6 months ago for a better one, only to find the new one is a bitch and she didn't really want to go out with you anyway.
Anyhow I changed the shirt again, hopefully he'll wear it for awhile! best wishes Robbie.


Robbie now!


Robbie six months ago

More gift caricatures

Here's a few more pictures of recent gift caricature's I've done over the Christmas and in January including a specially commissioned piece for Lord Henry Mount Charles, who owns Slane Castle. Not sure what's going on but this has been busiest I've been in years! maybe people just need cheering up and so caricatures are becoming even more popular, bring it on I say.
In relation to the reference photo's beside the caricatures, when possible I tend to work from many different photo's, these are just one of many I used.

Wedding fair in the RDS

Here's a couple of photo's of my stand at the Bride of the year show in the RDS last weekend.
For those of you who didn't know, a big part of my business is creating stationery and providing caricatures at weddings as form of entertainment.
This was my most elaborate and biggest stand by far, up to this I had a small space with a table that the cards were placed on, this was a much larger corner stall ,and as you can see I had proper display units and new pop up banners etc, however the piece that received the most attention was definitely my wedding guest board, I got the flower spray made during the week, and added a frame for the wow factor, and boy did it pay off! I also ran a competition over the weekend were-by everyone who signed their email address on it was entered into a competition to win their very own one free, so a huge congrats Elaine Hoffman in Navan who was the lucky winner.
I have to say I was worried that with the recession etc that the crowds wouldn't turn up and even worse they wouldn't book, but fortunately this was not case, my stationery is almost booked up for year and bookings for wedding caricatures are up on last year, although I found it very frustrating that 5 out of 10 couples are getting married on July the 18th which has been booked for me since last year!

Verne Troyer caricature

Anyone watching Big Brother 6 on Channel 4 will know Verne is star of the show(apart from Coolio) I had this sketch knocking around in my head for a few weeks,so when I got a spare half hour today and decided to put pencil to paper. C & C welcome as always folks.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Seen as how he won world player of the year the other night, I thought I'd have another bash at him. C @ C welcome as always folks.

click to enlarge

Will Ferrell caricature

Took a quick break from doing real work, to draw my favourite comedy actor at the moment. I only have to look at this guy to start laughing, if you haven’t seen Anchorman, Talladega nights or Step brothers go out and rent them now.
He’s actually very tough to draw which are why there are very caricatures of him knocking around, I think I nailed him but I’ll let you all be the judge of that.

click to enlarge

Dara O'Briain caricature

Was watching him on the box the other night and god knows why I kept seeing Jabba the Hut! I'm a big fan of Dara so I hope he doesn't see this, as I doubt his sense of humour will stretch this far.

click to enlarge

Stephen Ireland caricature

There's been allot of talk about this player, maybe too much talk, yes we all think he's a knob, but for anyone who loves football(me) you can't help but feel, he should/has to play for Ireland again, yes I've heard all the arguments, " he should be honoured to play for Ireland, we can live without him, but the thing is, Ireland has a very small pool of talented players to pick from, and as it stands at the moment he's one of best we have. Okay so the lads gave you a bit of a ribbing about your hair, but in the end you did the decent thing and shaved(took) it off, so from one slap head to another, come back we need your shiny head to distract the defenders so Robbie Keane can stick the ball in the net.

George Bernard Shaw sketch

Some of my most popular paintings, well the ones that have sold the best anyhow, have been those I've done of Irish playwrights.
In fact most have been sold before I've even finished them, so I'm hoping this one won't be any exception.
Staying in the theme of the others I've done, it's not very exaggerated but I'm sure you'll agree it's definitely a caricature.

Slumdog millionaire

This is been hyped as one of the best films of the year, but who cares because
A-ha's "the sun always shines on tv" is on the trailor!

FOLLOWERS

I've just discovered how to add a follower list, so if you visit my blog regularly, please click on follower list on the top right to add your name.

Happy new year!

Just a quick note to say happy new year to everyone, and huge thank-you to all of you who visited my blog in the last year and left comments, hopefully you'll continue to do so.
I've had a busy start already with some unexpected big projects which meant I've had to work over the Xmas, however I'll have lots of new work up soon, so stay tuned!

Alexandra Burke caricature

A quick sketch of this years winner of the X-Factor.
As with all my sketches at the moment, I'll hopefully get to add some colour when I get some time, c&c welcome as always folks.

Message from santa

Every now and then you come across something wonderful on the Internet, and then some ejit like me makes fun out of it! If you have kids you have make one these for them, and if your a big kid yourself , well you can be abit silly!

Message from Santa

Poor liggle piggies!!

This is my cartoon from this weeks Sunday Mirror, which if you haven't heard is based on the recent pork scare to sweep the nation.
Anyhow the little piggies are all fine and ready to eaten!
BTW this is the un-censored version, the editor asked me to take the blood reflection off the cleaver and make him less evil looking, so as not to upset any of the younger viewers.

click to enlarge

Caricatures of lovely girls.

Well as promised here's pictures of some of the lovely girls I've drawn at various events over the last few weeks. Hopefully these will go some way to dis-spell the misconception that caricatures only emphasise peoples bad points, this of course is not true.BTW keep an eye for the gorgeous Joanna Murphy who was in this years Apprentice on TV3, she was known as the "bitch" and fired for cheating, she turned out to be the nicest (well one of the nicest)woman I've ever met.

MY WEBSITE IS DOWN

Due to a technical difficulty out my control my website temporarily down.
Should you wish to contact me please email me at info@nialloloughlin.com
or phone me on 01 8253919 or 0876442947.

Kanye West caricature

This is an updated version, I think it's better????






Here's a quick sketch of Hip Hop's finest.
Hoping to paint this when I get a chance so I'd appreciate any feedback you may have.

Recent gift caricatures

I've had an unbelievable amount of caricatures on my desk recently, this is just a small sample of some I've done.
From caricatures of top CEO'S to wedding, Christmas, birthday and retirement presents, these caricatures make an ideal and personal gift which you can't buy in the shop!
I still have loads to do between now and Christmas including one of a very well known Irish politician, all of which I promise to post here! I'll also be posting pictures of all my live gig's including the lovely ladies at the Google and Vodafone Xmas parties, trust me they're worth waiting for.

I'm proud to say that I have been included in a digital caricature exhibition of eight top UK and Irish caricature artists, including Ken Coogan, Neil Davies, Mike Giblin, Mick Hollinworth, JP McCarthy, Me, Paul Moyse and Craig Rogalski. Our work is being exhibited through the generosity of Colin Knight at www.digitaldesignservices.co.uk . So if you're in Edinburgh between now and the 12th December, check it out!(thanks for the text Paul)As I don't really do digital anymore this is mostly my old work.

Hewlett Packard event

Here's some photo's from a gig last night in the Guinness storehouse, which I did with my good friend and colleague Ken Coogan.
The event was a huge success for the organisers, and I hope myself and Ken contributed in some way to it being a really enjoyable evening for everyone.
The main things is the client was delighted, saying we were the best caricature artist's they've ever used at a gig.

Barak Obama sketch

Probably the most drawn man in the world at the moment, so it's difficult to come up with something different.
After doing many sketches, this is one I thought was a good likeness, which hopefully I'll paint as soon as I get some time.

Spoof celebrity cards.

Must be a slow news day in the Mirror, Tom Prendeville writes today about these cards becoming an instant it! the cards have been out for over two years now with the only ones left being those that didn't sell well. Still it was nice to see my work in paper and I even got a call from the publisher saying "we must do a new range" so thanks Tom, even though this story is totally outdated, it looks like I owe you a pint!

Rihanna caricature

Had this in my head for awhile, it's acrylic on canvas, c&c welcome as always.

Back from the NCN!

Just back from the NCN convention, I had an absolutely fantastic week.
The standard of was just incredible with the overall prize being won by
Jason Seiler, an amazing artist and all round nice guy.
The dedication shown by some artists was incredible, with allot of them working for days and nights without sleep! I myself felt it too far to go and thought it would be rude not to sample the delights that North Carolina has to offer such as their great bars and restaurants, so with the help of a certain Mike Giblen, we managed to get through quite a few of them, all the while quoting Dumb and Dumber, National Lampoons vacation and Trading places to name but a few. It truly is an inspirational week, and I’d seriously recommend it to any caricature artist to experience it at least once, you’ll be truly blown away by the diversity of style’s, colours mediums from artists from all over the world. I did manage to do the a couple of paintings, the first being of Jason, the second Rock Cowles who was my best buddy for the week, and the third a lady from New York with slightly bulging eyes!

NOB NATION cd cover

This will be last post before I head off to the annual NCN caricature convention in North Carolina.
Last week I was asked by the multi talented Oliver Callan, to design the cover for the new Nob Nation cd .
The Best of Nob Nation 2008, stars Biffo, Enda, Bertie, Dunphy,Senator Norris george lee and all your favourite Nobs.
Anyhow hope you like it and talk to you all when I get back!

Oasis to headline Slane Castle, 20th June 2009.

Yes Oasis are headlining the biggest concert on the Irish calender, so I thought I'd dig out this picture I did a few years ago. Looking at it again, there's allot of things I'd change, too much black and white in the paint which I never use anymore, however that aside I still think it's a fun piece.