Hello, lovely to meet you.
I am Sinéad Woods, an illustrator, designer and printmaker living in Dublin, Ireland, not far from the sea.
I graduated in in Industrial design from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and then went on to do a MSc. Computing and Design. Since then I have amassed over 20 years of experience as an illustrator and designer. I have worked for clients such as Folens, The Ark Theatre, Sing Ireland, HMH, Gill and MacMillan, UCD, Trinity, and Breacadh. I worked for 19 years for my own company Baboom Design mainly creating digital illustrations, designs and animations.
My freelance practice now consists of a mixture of hand drawn work, combined with digital illustration and printmaking. I love being able to switch between hand drawing, digital work, and printmaking and would hate to have to choose one technique.
Most of my commissioned work is for digital illustration. My expertise lies in the creation of vector illustrations for children’s books, and I particularly enjoy the interplay between text and illustration. My portfolio also encompasses character design and illustration for various learning resources including posters, flashcards, and interactive activities. My skills in animation mean I can also infuse illustrations with life, fun, and energy and I have created animations for games, learning resources and marketing animations, and stage animations for Theatre. Some of my clients have included Folens, The Ark Theatre, Sing Ireland, HMH, Gill and MacMillan, UCD, Trinity, and Breacadh.
In my personal illustration practice I have built a collection of illustration prints inspired by my love of local Dublin wildlife, iconic architecture and landscapes. In these I like to play with scale and perspective so that animals appear larger than life. I use a mixture of pen illustration and digital work, and minimal bright colour palettes, giving these prints a unique aesthetic. I like to minimise detail and work with white space. Sometimes knowing what to take out to simplify is actually the hardest part, and picking the colours that work best can be tricky too!
I also so love to create illustrations using hand printing techniques such as lino printing, etching and dry point tetra pak printing. It is very therapeutic to relax in the lino carving process once I have an idea drawn up. Mixing up inks and rolling them on to a plate is always fun and it is exciting to reveal the final print. Well, sometimes it is disappointing, but that is were more fun begins. There is usually trial and error to make a print work, but it usually does in the end! I have been lucky to attend some really great print courses at Graphic Studio Dublin in etching, so that has also become a new interest. My latest obsession it tetra pak printing. It is amazing to be able to create a printing plate from something that would go in the bin.
My husband Barry McAdam is also an artist and Naniken Studio is the name of our home studio and our online shop where you can buy our work. www.naniken.com
I am member of Illustrators Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland
