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 a corpse laid on the grass being pecked at by crows.
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.
Richard dropped out of college and taught himself to draw and paint by copying the masters, as in the two examples above.
Back in the 80's Richard was a fabulous cartoonist, winning the Young Cartoonist Award twice. 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. Some of the prosthetic work he did on friends is something I hope he digs out. I know they're old now, but they still deserve to be see as examples of his early work.
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 further down the page.
The above piece was one of many collaborations between Richard and long-time friend and colleague Uli Meyer
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... This Blog will showcase some of those illustrations from Film and TV.
Richard used to work solely in oils, but he now sketches his pictures in pencil, which he scans and then paints in the computer. He can occasionally be found down in the garden shed sniffing Turpentine for that old school high, mind you.
He really is 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 campervan, that's a mate for ya !
All artwork here is Copyright 2007 Ricard Dolan
