Here Be Treasure

Bit busy at the moment so the weekly cartoon is on hiatus. Here's one from the archives. You can see more cartoons here!

More Cartoons:

- Chewbacca Ciabatta - See-ThroughPio - Cartoon: Dune - Alfred Hitchcock Presents… - Hellraiser: The Box. (Do leave a comment if you've liked this cartoon!) Want to order a caricature? Click here. Want to make an enquiry? Click here. See my reviews here. See even more examples of my art at the bottom of this post! I'm Allan Cavanagh, Ireland's highest-rated caricature artist, and I have been professionally producing caricatures and cartoon art for over 20 years.

Mark Zuckerberg Cartoon: Mark Zuckerberg is a MAGA. From the Guardian: 'A specific injunction against calling transgender or non-binary people “it” has been deleted. A new section has been added making clear that “we do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation”. It said this was a reflection of “political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird’”. It also says the policies are designed to allow room for types of speech including people calling “for exclusion or insulting language in the context of discussing political or religious topics, such as when discussing transgender rights, immigration or homosexuality”.' 'Mark Zuckerberg's Meta donates $1m to Trump fund' (BBC). 'Meta currently has around 72,000 employees globally (with about 2,000 people based in Ireland), which means that this change would result in around 3,600 people being let go from the company.' (Silicon Republic) Billionaires are burning the earth. We need to get rid of them before they get rid of us.

More Cartoons by Allan Cavanagh:

"I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now." Solidarity with cartoonist Ann Telnaes, as the American press preemptively assists the orange hitler. You can subscribe to Ann here.

Last Wednesday I presented my third animated short to the Little Cinema Galway audience. It was a packed house and a joy to be part of. The theme was Christmas funnily enough, and with time being tight I decided to fleece out, I mean, flesh out, this cartoon. You can see my other entries in the cartoon list below. I got such a great reaction and it was lovely making a crowd laugh like that and getting to chat to the other film-makers. Here it is: Fleece.

Fleece - an Animated Short by Allan Cavanagh

More Cartoons by Allan Cavanagh:

- Cork Satellite Launch ESA European Space Agency Onsemi Proba-3 mission - Friday Cartoon: Oisin’s Return - Friday Cartoon: Comes At You Fast - Friday Cartoon: A Rift in the Lift - Friday Cartoon: That time Hitler was spotted in Dublin dressed as a woman! Want to order a caricature? Click here. Want to make an enquiry? Click here. See my reviews here. See even more examples of my art at the bottom of this post!

The first of a couple of seasonal cartoons I've planned this week featuring a sheep in the festive spirit with its Santa hat and Christmas garland wishing you a "Fleece Navidad".

More Cartoons from Irish Cartoonist Allan Cavanagh:

- Why Snowmen don't drink mulled wine! - Christmas Colouring Pages: Sleeping Elves on Christmas Eve - Merry Christmas! Here's a Santa to colour! - Friday Cartoon: Christmas Comes at You Fast - Bruce Wayne gets triggered at the Christmas Concert Want to order a caricature? Click here. Want to make an enquiry? Click here. See my reviews here. See even more examples of my art at the bottom of this post! I'm Allan Cavanagh and I have been professionally producing caricatures and cartoon art for over 20 years. Want to follow my socials? Click here for Caricatures by Allan Cavanagh on Facebook and click here for Allan Cavanagh's Instagram.

Cork Satellite Launch ESA: A European Space Agency (ESA) mission will be launched into space later today using technology partly developed by a Cork-based company. Proba-3 will see two satellites sent into orbit to create the first man-made solar eclipse. Now these satellites contain Cork-made sensors. You know what's most important to Cork people right? Cork. So here's an artist's impression of how those sensors will be working:

More Cartoons by Irish Cartoonist Allan Cavanagh:

- Friday Cartoon: Oisin’s Return - Friday Cartoon: Comes At You Fast - Friday Cartoon: A Rift in the Lift - Drone Taxis Cartoon - Friday Cartoon: Non, je ne regrette Snozzcumbers Yes I usually do these cartoons on a Friday but I wanted to be topical with the launch! "The crafts will fly with 1mm precision and this will be made possible by technology developed in part at the Cork office of US sensor and semiconductor developer, Onsemi, which bought the Cork based start-up, SensL, in 2018. The silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) allow the two satellites to fly in millimetre-scale formation at a speed of 22,000mph." So they can know where Cork is at all times. Want to order a caricature? Click here. Want to make an enquiry? Click here. See my reviews here. See even more examples of my art at the bottom of this post! I'm Allan Cavanagh and I have been professionally producing caricatures and cartoon art for over 20 years. Want to follow my socials? Click here for Caricatures by Allan Cavanagh on Facebook and click here for Allan Cavanagh's Instagram.

Cork Satellite Launch ESA Cartoon

Personalised Retirement Gifts Ireland: here's another of my caricature commissions for retirement presents which ship all over Ireland. This chap was retiring earlier this year and the company decided one of my personalised framed caricatures was the right fit for this retirement gift and so they got in touch! They provided me with recent photos of the subject from which I created this caricature likeness, that I then combined with a list of his interests such as scuba diving, fishing and DIY. This piece was then hand-framed and shipped to the customer for the presentation on the day of the retirement, and they were absolutely delighted with it! You can see the finished framed piece below, just before it was packaged and shipped, in this case, heading off to Cork!

More Personalised Retirement Gifts Ireland and Leaving Gifts for Offices by Caricaturist Allan Cavanagh:

- Bord Na Móna Retirement Gift Caricature Cartoon Portrait - Retirement Gift Ideas Rory Gallagher Fan - Group Caricature Gift: Office Leaving Present from Colleagues - Office Leaving Gift Caricature with Personalised Details

Client Feedback for Gift Caricature

Word was I had done a good job on this caricature gift! "We got the caricature this morning and are absolutely delighted with it!  You’ve captured him perfectly 😊"

Framed Caricatures from Photos Ireland

Below you can see the finished piece, framed and ready to be shipped!

Want to order a caricature? Click here. Want to make an enquiry? Click here. See my reviews here. See even more examples of my art at the bottom of this post! I'm Allan Cavanagh and I have been professionally producing caricatures and cartoon art for over 20 years. Want to follow my socials? Click here for Caricatures by Allan Cavanagh on Facebook and click here for Allan Cavanagh's Instagram.

Castletroy Park Hotel Wedding: during the summer I travelled to Limerick for a very sunny wedding in the Castletroy Park Hotel and oh boy what a day! Everyone there had such a great laugh with me, it made the day seem even sunnier! I got to draw the couple of the day too and they were absolutely delighted with the result, and of course being the VIPs of the day they were surrounded by their guests watching the drawing craic happen in real time! Big thanks to the Castletroy Park Hotel wedding coordinator who could not have been more helpful to me on the day.

More Limerick Wedding Caricatures by Allan Cavanagh

- Devon Inn Wedding Entertainment – Caricature Artist for Weddings in Limerick - Mustard Seed Limerick Wedding Caricatures - Christmas Wedding in the Radisson Hotel Limerick! - Live Wedding Caricatures, Radisson Blu Hotel Limerick - Dunraven Arms Hotel Adare Caricature Wedding Entertainment

Live Wedding Caricatures: How It Works

When I'm booked for a wedding I check in with the couple a few weeks ahead of the date to confirm start time and any other details that need taking care of. On the day I arrive around an hour ahead of the start time and set up with my easel, display stand and lights, and three chairs. 99% of my sitters come in pairs so I make sure there's enough seats, although I do draw one person from time to time! I also occasionally draw 3 people (often the bridesmaids like to get drawn together!) Once the guests arrive I'm all ready to go, and I'll either get an enthusiastic "Oh my god a caricature artist!" followed by a hasty sit-down from my first subjects (this is usually what happens!). If on the rare event of not getting sitters straight awat I'll go around and introduce myself and once people see what I'm up to I am drawing straight through for the next 2 hours! I really love my job and I try to bring that with me through the drawing process, I'll chat and joke with the guests while I'm drawing them and I get great reactions!

Reviews for Allan Cavanagh's Live Wedding Caricatures

Here's a sample review from a recent wedding that I feel really captures what I bring to a wedding drinks reception. You can see more reviews at the link at the bottom of this post. We booked Allan for our wedding reception on the 15th November. Allan was amazing, easy to speak to and so funny. Our guests are still raving about him and loved having a keepsake from the wedding. Thank you so much Allan for the incredible drawings and entertaining the guests! I would highly recommend Allan to future couples.

Castletroy Park Hotel Wedding Photos

Oisin and Tír na nÓg: Here's a 2 minute long animation I created this week in about 8 hours for Little Cinema's Buddy Cop-themed night on Wednesday, which has returned to its ancestral home in The Loft venue above Seven Bridgestreet. It's my second "animation", again not a whole lot of movement but I'm getting to know what I'm doing a bit better! I was also acting in another short that appeared that night by Little Cinema's own auteur Kenny Gaughan, I played Goon 1, I had four whole lines, and I'll post that short film here once it's up on Youtube. That was another barrel of laughs, an hilarious short with a ridiculously brilliant concept. My short animated film is based on the myth of Oisin and Tír na nÓg from the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. I realise I've left out the fada on Oisín but these things happen under time pressure so my version is definitely called Oisin. I'm not sure everyone got the reference but it got great big laughs all the same, which is very rewarding when you've made something terrible like this. I spent a few hours painting scenes and characters and using animation assist in Procreate, and when each scene was complete I'd drop them into iMovie, which is a terrible app for movie-making but it's all I know (and even then I'm not great at it!) I get some phonetic help with the Irish pronounciation from a Mastodon user so big thanks for that @seanleaid. You can watch Oisin's Return in the embedded video below. Hey if you can see your way to sharing it it would be much appreciated!

Oisin's Return, an animated short film by Allan Cavanagh

The version that was shown on Wednesday night had some harder language but I found that killed the mood for the audience, they ended up taking it very seriously when the cursing comes (even though I laughed my ass off when I made it, and it's only one F-bomb!), so for this version I've softened the language. Hope you enjoy!

More Cartoons by Irish Cartoonist Allan Cavanagh:

- Christmas Comes At You Fast Christmas Creep Cartoon - A Rift in the Lift Halloween Cartoon - Drone Taxis - Christopher Nolan gets inspiration for Inception - That time Hitler was spotted in Dublin dressed as a woman! Want to order a caricature? Click here. Want to make an enquiry? Click here. See my reviews here. See even more examples of my art at the bottom of this post! I'm Allan Cavanagh and I have been professionally producing caricatures and cartoon art for over 20 years. Want to follow my socials? Click here for Caricatures by Allan Cavanagh on Facebook and click here for Allan Cavanagh's Instagram.

Woodford Dolmen Hotel Wedding: I was in the Woodford Dolmen Hotel, Co. Carlow at the weekend drawing caricatures and eliciting big laughs from this happy crew during the drinks reception! From the moment the guests arrived in the hotel there was so much enthusiasm for my live wedding caricatures. Congratulations guys! You can see a gallery of all the fun below! More wedding caricatures by Allan Cavanagh: - Step House Hotel Carlow Wedding Caricatures - Connemara Coast Hotel Wedding Entertainment – Live Caricatures with Caricaturist Allan Cavanagh! - Abbeyglen Castle Hotel Wedding Entertainment: Live Caricatures by Allan Cavanagh! - Mount Druid Wedding

Carlow Wedding Entertainment:

I travel to the hotel the day of the wedding and once I have located the drinks reception (usually not too difficult, I just follow the clink of the champagne glasses being delivered!) I set up my easel and three chairs (one for me and two for my sitters, although I do occasionally draw three people if my arm is twisted!) I'm on site about an hour before arrival so I can pick a good spot and be very visible to the guests as soon as they arrive. I have a roller display and a coloured light to help focus the attention! Once I get my first sitter(s) (usually straight away) that's me drawing until the dinner bell goes 2 hours later! Each duo you seen in the gallery below was drawn in under 4 minutes from sitting to standing! I print the paper with the newlyweds' names and the date of the wedding so my caricatures make a great memento of the wedding day!

Photos from Woodford Dolmen Hotel Wedding:

Connemara Coast Hotel Wedding Entertainment: here's a blast from the past (well July 2023 anyway) in the not-too-distant and very lovely Connemara Coast Hotel. Below you'll see a gallery of photos which is a selection of the live caricatures I drew on the day. As you can see I got some great laughs!

More Live Wedding Caricature Entertainment by Allan Cavanagh:

- Abbeyglen Castle Hotel Wedding Entertainment - Salthill Hotel Wedding Entertainment - Ardilaun Hotel Caricaturist for Weddings - Galway Bay Hotel Wedding Entertainment Ideas - See even more examples of my art at the bottom of this post! Each two-person caricature you see in the gallery below took less than 4 minutes from sitting to standing up again. I set up in the drinks reception for 2 hours prior to the call to dinner and in no time I have an audience and a queue! There's nothing like the reveal when I turn the caricature around and show the people who've been sitting for me. You can see some of the great great laughs I get in the gallery below. They sat down and all they got was this lousy caricature and that huge smile! My live caricatures are the ultimate ice-breaker for wedding drinks receptions all over Ireland!

Gallery of Connemara Coast Hotel Wedding Entertainment Caricatures

Click an image to enlarge:

How to Contact Allan Cavanagh:

Business Gifts Ireland- this caricature was part of a two-piece commission from an office for a couple of people who'd worked there and were moving on to other projects. Working from supplied photos and a brief of what references the client would like included I created this A3 print. This was then framed by The Framing Loft on the Tuam Road here in Galway, and packaged and shipped by Carabay Packaging in Liosban Industrial Estate, two suppliers I'm lucky to have so close by! This caricature depicts a woman in cycling gear and helmet in front of a bike, holding a Diet Coke and her mobile phone, and surrounded by calendar pages. A football, a tennis ball and a rugby ball whizz by at speed in the background, as she is a big sports fan and there is a signpost for Glasgow. Below you can see the framed piece all ready for packaging and shipping. Frames are all hand-made to order by Mark & Sandra in the Framing Loft, and great care and attention is taken in the careful packaging and shipping by Graham and the team in Carabay. If you'd like to find out more about the process of ordering a caricature please drop me a line! I'll be hitting one of my busiest periods soon and usually have a full book for commissions by start of December, so if you're thinking of presents for that time of year I won't event mention until December, you might want to get on that soon! Yes the irony of that is not lost on me. More Caricature Gifts and Business Gifts Ireland by Irish Caricaturist Allan Cavanagh: - Leaving gift for this Rory Gallagher fan! - End of School Year Teacher Thank You Gifts Ireland - Caricature Gift for Father - Caricature of Boy with Dog - Gift caricature of Chelsea fan playing poker with Frank Lampard and John Terry