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Simon O'Carrigan

Specialities

Cover illustrations
Editorial illustration
Emotive
Line/B/W
Portraits

Intended audience: Middle primary, Upper primary, Lower primary, Adults, Editorial, Family, Young adult, Young teen

Subjects: Animals, Cartoon, City, Humour, Weather, Children, Fashion, Country, Environments, Holidays, Nature/Botanical, Characters, Industrial, Machines, Transport, Architecture

Styles: Cartoon/Comic, Humour, Line work, Stylised, Surreal, Black and white, Cute and cuddly, Loose/sketchy, Conceptual/Interpretive, Naive, Decorative, Detailed, Floral, Impressionistic, Painterly, Silhouettes, Figurative, Fantasy, Design

Media/Technique: Collage, Digital, Mixed media, Pen and ink, Watercolour, Brush & ink, Cross-hatching

Website:

http://www.simonocarrigan.com.au

E-mail:

simon@simonocarrigan.com.au

Telephone:

0403 885 988

Simon O’Carrigan uses his energetic, fast and fresh drawing style to create whimsical, lively illustrations.

He freelances in editorial, book, and product illustration, as well as murals, animation, story boards & animated GIFs. He teaches occasional classes on sketching in ink.

His current favourite things to draw include portraits, urban landscapes, mountains, antennas, and consumer/domestic objects. (And Norbert, the Norwich Terrier, who accidentally flew).

With a background in both animation and fine arts, Simon prefers to work with pen and ink on paper. He occa... read more

Simon O’Carrigan uses his energetic, fast and fresh drawing style to create whimsical, lively illustrations.

He freelances in editorial, book, and product illustration, as well as murals, animation, story boards & animated GIFs. He teaches occasional classes on sketching in ink.

His current favourite things to draw include portraits, urban landscapes, mountains, antennas, and consumer/domestic objects. (And Norbert, the Norwich Terrier, who accidentally flew).

With a background in both animation and fine arts, Simon prefers to work with pen and ink on paper. He occasionally adds watercolour washes, and occasionally adds digital colour. He is also technically proficient and adept at making his handmade images web, print, and device ready.

Simon studied for Bachelor of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, and completed an Honours graduate year at Monash University. Since graduating in 2007, he has staged fourteen solo exhibitions, and shown his animated films in over twenty festivals worldwide. He has been invited to judge the Melbourne International Animation Festival, and he has been awarded a number of Arts Grants from Australian government and industry bodies.

Simon O’Carrigan was born in Bendigo, Victoria; raised in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, and now lives and works in Melbourne. His studio is on Easey Street in the heart of Collingwood’s creative precinct.

–May 2017

For commissions or to license use of existing work get in touch

Follow his newest drawings on instagram

For limited edition fine art prints, check out Big Cartel

For merchandise (greeting cards, tote bags, throw cushions etc) head over to Redbubble

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Click to enlarge

My Dog

This is personal work, illustrating a poem by Max Fatchen, that I found in the Hutchinson Children's Treasury. The poem reads:
My Dog
My dog is such a gentle soul
Although he's big, it's true.
He brings the paper in his mouth,
He brings the postman too.

Intended audience: Middle primary, Upper primary

Media/Technique: Collage, Digital, Mixed media, Pen and ink, Watercolour

Styles: Cartoon/Comic, Humour, Line work, Stylised, Surreal

Subjects: Animals, Cartoon, City, Humour

(Personal work)

Click to enlarge

Flight Paths

This double page spread was part of my submission for an ASA mentorship. I was awarded a mentorship and have 25 meetings with my mentor, Sue deGennaro, over 2017 to help me develop the picture book. It is about Norbert, a Norwich terrier who accidentally flew.

Intended audience: Lower primary

Media/Technique: Brush & ink, Watercolour

Styles: Black and white, Cute and cuddly, Line work, Loose/sketchy, Stylised

Subjects: Animals, Cartoon, City, Humour, Weather

From

Flight Paths

by Simon O'Carrigan

(Personal work)

Click to enlarge

Bearly dressed?

I enjoyed keeping a very loose initial sketch through to the finished work, adding polish by collaging in watercolour textures I had made, until the piece felt finished without being overworked. Also, I love puns.

Intended audience: Lower primary, Middle primary, Upper primary

Media/Technique: Collage, Digital, Pen and ink, Watercolour

Styles: Cartoon/Comic, Conceptual/Interpretive, Humour, Line work, Loose/sketchy, Naive

Subjects: Animals, Cartoon, Children, Fashion, Humour

From

Bearly Dressed?

by Simon O'Carrigan

(School Magazine)

Click to enlarge

Rosehip Campground, Chena State Park, Alaska

In 2016, I spent four weeks travelling through Alaska, making sketches of the many places I camped there. This is a forest of birch trees, lit by a sideways light at the darkest time of day around 2am (in the Alaskan endless daylight of summer time). I used the sketch as an excercise in reducing the landscape to patterns, and contrsting lush colour with bold blacks.

Intended audience: Adults, Editorial, Family, Upper primary, Young adult

Media/Technique: Brush & ink, Watercolour

Styles: Conceptual/Interpretive, Decorative, Detailed, Floral, Impressionistic, Loose/sketchy, Painterly, Silhouettes

Subjects: Country, Environments, Holidays, Nature/Botanical

From

Personal Work

Click to enlarge

Rain

This illustration was inspired by a poem by Jackie Hosking, about rain racing down a child's nose. I decided to instead pretend it was the umbrella speaking the poem, so now it is the duck handle that looks at the rain inquisitively. I worked with pencil, pen, brush and ink, watercolour, and digitial collage to create the final work.

Intended audience: Editorial, Family, Lower primary, Middle primary, Upper primary

Media/Technique: Brush & ink, Collage, Cross-hatching, Digital, Pen and ink, Watercolour

Styles: Cartoon/Comic, Cute and cuddly, Figurative, Stylised

Subjects: Characters, Children, Environments, Weather

(Personal work)

Click to enlarge

Holding hands

This is from a series of illustrations I made, as a personal excercise, inspired by a story that Sara Matson published in School Magazine called 'Goldilocks Goes to Camp'. It is intended as a chapter or spot illustration.

Intended audience: Upper primary, Young adult

Media/Technique: Brush & ink

Styles: Black and white, Cute and cuddly, Fantasy, Figurative, Loose/sketchy

Subjects: Animals, Children

(Personal work)

Click to enlarge

Blue Truck

The neighbours of my studio building have been restoring this truck for some time now. It never looks much more restored, but they love it, and they keep it working. I like the idea of keeping old things in working order, rather than throwing them away.

Intended audience: Adults, Editorial, Lower primary, Middle primary, Young adult

Media/Technique: Brush & ink, Pen and ink, Watercolour

Styles: Cartoon/Comic, Line work, Loose/sketchy, Painterly, Stylised

Subjects: Industrial, Machines, Transport

From

Personal Work

Click to enlarge

Traffic Lights, Fremont, Seattle

A journal sketch of traffic lights hanging froms wires in Seattle. I imagine using this as the basis for a scene in the future. It was an excercise in reducing and simplifying a bustling view, and in capturing the wind that rustled the trees, wires and signal boxes.

Intended audience: Editorial, Family, Young adult, Young teen

Media/Technique: Brush & ink, Pen and ink, Watercolour

Styles: Conceptual/Interpretive, Design, Line work, Loose/sketchy, Silhouettes, Stylised

Subjects: Architecture, City, Environments, Transport

From

Personal work

1. My Dog
2. Flight Paths
3. Bearly dressed?
4. Rosehip Campground, Chena State...
5. Rain
6. Holding hands
7. Blue Truck
8. Traffic Lights, Fremont, Seattle