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\nIt’s the first Sunday of the month, which means I’ve got a newly-graduated illustrator visiting today to share artwork. Shane Cluskey<\/a><\/strong>, originally from Ireland, actually graduated in 2005 from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin (so, he’s not exactly newly<\/em>-graduated), but he’s currently working on his first children’s book, so I thought it’d be fun to showcase his artwork. As I understand it, Shane is currently living in London.<\/p>\n
Shane also says a few words below about his work, so let’s get right to it. I thank him for visiting. (To see even more of his artwork, here’s<\/a><\/strong> his Instagram page.)<\/p>\n Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n As you regular kickers know, we moved to a new home last weekend, so my seven kicks this week are that we finally have all of our stuff in ONE home, though unpacking and organizing are ahead of us. Sorry for an absence of seven separate kicks, but I think that will do. Happy that the moving part is behind us. <\/p>\n What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means I’ve got a newly-graduated illustrator visiting today to share artwork. Shane Cluskey, originally from Ireland, actually graduated in 2005 from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin (so, he’s not exactly newly-graduated), but he’s currently working on his first children’s book, so I thought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nFor as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved drawing. I never really saw it as a profession until I went to a creative \u200bconference in Dublin, called Offset<\/a><\/strong>. A number of illustrators showcased their work. It was very inspiring and encouraged me to pursue illustration full-time.
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\nGrowing up, I was obsessed with Disney movies. I could never get my head around how the characters were drawn and brought to life. I also remember staring at Coca-Cola ads at Christmas time! I loved the way Santa Claus was depicted. I would later learn that Haddon Sundblom<\/a><\/strong> was the illustrator and had the chance to see some of his work in New York two years ago while I was on a summer residency in the School of Visual Arts.
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\nOliver Jeffers<\/a><\/strong> and Kevin Waldron<\/a><\/strong> were very instrumental in inspiring me towards illustration as a full-time pursuit. I also love Ping Zhu<\/a><\/strong>, Yuko Shimizu<\/a><\/strong>, Al Hirschfeld<\/a><\/strong>, and Quentin Blake<\/a><\/strong>.
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\nI love working with ink and a splash of watercolour. I’ve most recently started experimenting with gouache, too.
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\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2016\/08\/scunnameduse.jpg\")
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\nAlong with a few interesting works in progress, I’m currently working on a kids’ book and will be sending it off to New York soon for revision. I’m also creating characters and storyboards for a tech start-up in London, helping them explain how their technology works in a fun way.
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\nAll images used by permission of Shane Cluskey.<\/em> <\/p>\n
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