Biography

I am a freelance illustrator from Cork, Ireland, and I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. It’s been a long road, from copying children’s comics as a child, to drawing on school desks as a teenager, through to digital painting and sculpture as a young adult, to now again drawing and painting traditionally. These days, I work in the traditional mediums of pen and ink and coloured Ink painting. Form, texture and value are central to my practice, and when using colour, I contrast the shades of hatched ink blacks with the vibrancy of coloured Ink. The immediacy as well as the unforgiving nature of ink is what inspires me, it teaches me no mark is bad, each mark leading to the next, a process that blurs the line between creator and created.

My work focuses on aspects of Irish identity, whether that be Irish archaeology, language or typography. Exploring how language and the environment have helped shape our identity and culture and continue to do so. Since finishing my masters in illustration, in Hertfordshire university, UK, my work has been in various exhibitions in Ireland and has been featured in several newspapers and magazines, locally, nationally and internationally as well as various blogs and websites. I am also a co-founder of the Islander Art collective, a collective of Irish and English artists and illustrators. I take commissions from a variety of callers, if you’re interested in Commissioning me, don’t hesitate to contact me via my email or on the phone.

Artwork

Jonathan O'donoghue

• Member of Gothic Blackbird
• A member since Agust 2012

Writing