Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Richard Dolan Artwork

When I first met Richard Dolan in 1983 at Sixth Form College I knew he was going places, first he said he was off for a piss then it was lunchtime. He sat near me in Art class, I remember one of the tasks set by the art teacher was to do a picture entitled 'Tea on the Lawn' now I suppose people might envision Victorian ladies sat in the park sipping Tea from China Cups. Richard's picture was of an old man's corpse laid on the grass being pecked at by crows, tearing out eyeballs and flesh. It was when we were given the task of 'Mechanical Operations' that I first remember talking to Richard, I'd started drawing a line up of robots whilst most people were drawing Cranes and Engines, and Rich said "Those are neat, do you like Star Wars ?" This was at a time when it was cool to be a Star Wars fan. :)

The thing that's always amazed me about Rich is he can turn his hand to anything art wise, draw, paint, sculpt etc... all with what looks like no effort at all, though if you look closely sometimes a small bead of sweat starts to emerge just below the hair line. Back in the 80's Richard was a fabulous cartoonist, winning the Young Cartoonist Award I think 3 times, eventually they told him to stop entering and give someone else a chance, either that or Boss Hogg would be sent round to break his fingers. He also had a fascination for Horror movies and made Super 8 gore pics which surprisingly are pretty gruesome even by todays standards.

The reason I've posted these here is it's a crime that Rich doesn't have a Blog or a Website, so I've took it upon myself to spread the word. When he's not missing somewhere in the wilderness shitting behind the nearest bush Richard works on Film, TV, Advert concept work and also does his own original pieces if he has time. Rich's film work has included working on The Frighteners for Peter Jackson, some of the work from that can be seen below.

The piece that a lot of people remember by Richard is the cover of 2000AD comic featuring a mate of ours from college called Dean Roberts, see his Blog here http://tinyurl.com/2plflw

I suppose like a lot of concept artists Richard has worked on many projects over the years that have never seen the light of day, due to creative, financial reasons etc... But a website or Blog would be a great place to finally get this work shown.




I really love the Domestos pics that Richard has been doing recently, this little fella fishing in the painting below is great. Rich still tends to sketch these pics in pencil but then scan them in and paint them in the computer. I got these pics of Rich especially to post here on my Blog, so I want some pestering here for Richard to start his own Blog. He really is possibly one of the most talented artists I know, and he won't chuck me out of a moving vehicle on the A19 Motorway when I fart in his Caravette, that's a mate for ya !



All artwork here is Copyright 2007 Ricard Dolan

16 comments:

paulhd said...

didn't he paint the Mean Machine story in 2000ad? Loved that artwork and always wondered what happened to him, more even better stuff obviously.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

He did indeed, I appeared in that story as the student who gets Mean Machine to break into the lockers.

Matt Turner said...

BLOG! BLOG! BLOG! BLOG!

The thing which always strikes me about Rich's work, and what i think makes it noticably different from other people's, is the way he has such an amazing grasp of the nature of light and shadow in all their forms. It gives his pieces real depth and character.

How much of his work could he actually show? I'd love to see his Lord of the Rings work for example.

A* to the Dolan!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Although Richard was at WETA during the period when they were first announced LOTR and he visited the miniatures dept during the filming of 'Fellowship of the Ring' he never actually worked on the films.

Richard is one of those people who is a natural artist,from day one of picking up a pencil he's developed his own look and style.

Chris Weston said...

Wow... you know Richard Dolan. If you look in one of the old 2000ad Yearbooks from the nineties you'll see that I selected his Mean Machine painting as the best cover of the year.

Richard, heed the call of the blog... because we want to find out more of what you've been up to.

Respect.

Chris Weston.

Moonwatcher said...

I have some old Games Workshop books with Richard's artwork in, I think one is of a troll of some kind, I'll have to dig it out. Superb style you have Richard, do you animate the work for the Domestos adverts !?

Andrew Glazebrook said...

The Games Workshop books you mention are maybe 'Something Rotten in Kislev'and I think there was a Runequest book with a cave troll and a dog running from the cave and an archer stood near by,there was also one of a giant/troll in a corridor.
Richard doesn't do 3D work,the first few Domestos ads were animated by Passion Pictures.

DELA said...

It was really pleasure to check this,more ,more !

Tom Kidd said...

Thanks Andrew. It's nice to see Richard's work. Beautiful stuff, full of character and wit.

This is a good idea. When things settle down I want to create a separate art-of-friends' blog myself. I know some incredible artists out there hiding in the bushes and I'm certain they'd get a nice response.

Matt Jones said...

I grew up admiring Richard's artwork in 2000 AD & it was a pleasure to meet him years later at Ui Meyer's studio in London. He is supremely talented. Great photographer too.

Machinistscott said...

Cool stuff.

They have taken over my toliet and are advancing on the shower.

Marcelo Vignali said...

Those anthropological drawings are very nice.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Marcelo I know the female of the two was done for a TV documentary that was scrapped, it was going to be about primitive man etc... Similar to what the BBC did with it's Walking with Cavemen TV show.

Antimatty said...

those are great! your buddy really should get a blog or something.

Tim Robson said...

I was in the Mean Machine strip too along with Andy - it was me in the Reliant three wheeler (when everyone knows I have a 2CV!) !!

Michael said...

Yeah, Come on Richard!
Get your kit out for the lads!

You shy boy, you!