Cindy's Secret

A couple of weeks ago I had a moving image project

We were working in pairs this time, and with a little luck I was paired up with my friend Katy, we spent 2 weeks working feverishly, day in day out on a 20 second animation on the theme of a secret.

We were given 4 words to work with, Extravagant, Bag, Sad & Radio. At the first sight of these words I never suspected we'd come out with anything as odd as this:







The guise of theater...


...followed by flying pigs & steam-punk radios.

I would put more screenshots up, but I fear it'll ruin the animation for people who like to read the full posts first...

Cindy's secret is no more.

Yeah that's right we named her Cindy, it's not like we went a little mad through two sleepless weeks, became attached to the character and thought up a name... honestly... We were just working, I mumbled something and Katy replied with "Did you just call her Cindy?!" And so the name was born.

I'm so glad I shared that story with you.

Basking in Perplexity

February has been a busy month, I've been preoccupied by various projects (of which I am yet to show you), along with the prospect and mental event of turning 20. Now to start revealing what the hell I've been doing this month:

I always mean to do extra projects, but always get struck down by my unintentionally lethargic approach to work, and run out of time. But not this time.



Dazed & Confused magazine had an Illustration project/competition which ended earlier this month. They wanted people to illustrate one of a chosen 10 covers from the last decade in their own way.

So I did an illustration based on this September 2002 cover, featuring Maggie Rizer:



The winner will be commissioned to do a piece of work for a later issue of Dazed, which sounds pretty awesome. You can see my entry page here.


Test can be enjoyable:


'Eye Test Delight' [Inks, Acrylics, Pencil & Gouache on HeavyWeight Paper]

It naturally took me far too long to figure out how I was going to do the Dazed cover, in the end I chose lady 3.

Next Time on the BTBS: Animation Returns!

Salute The Future

Finally we have new projects underway.



For the next week I'll be working on a illustration project all about depicting the future in 2010.
To begin I made this book cover for my sketchbook, and found myself taking some inspiration from the awesome Ren & Stimpy creator John K.

Looser character design for the win.

I hope I'll fill this sketchbook with some lovely stuff,
It's been a while since I had a highly sketchbook based project.

How good can it be?

How bad can it be?

Runaway Brain

Got to stop drawing myself, it's making me look vain.


'Becoming Mickey'
[10.5"x16.5" Inks & Monochrome Pencil on HeavyWeight Paper]

I don't know why but this feels like my first proper illustration in a while.

Oddly enough, dressing up as Mickey Mouse the other day has rekindled a couple of feelings.
For one, my fondness of the lil' fella.

Another thing that has been rekindled is my love for animation. Through researching for the costume I came across a few mickey mouse cartoons, old & new.

They are fantastic. Full of perfect motion, charming narratives & beautiful scenery.

One which really stood out to me was the Academy Award nominated short called Runaway Brain. Seeing as it came out in 1995 I'm surprised today was the first time I saw it.

Watch it here:



It's the little things that got me with this, like the rapid change and contrast in the characters' colour palettes during the fight scene.

This year I have the hard choice of choosing to do illustration or moving image next year. Over the holiday I was starting to edge towards illustration. But after watching shorts like this it's become a level playing field again.

I just love Mickey's freaky altered look




& now I desperately need to get hold of this vinyl toy.



I think I should give the Mickey Mouse theme a bit of a rest.
Well, for now anyway.

Epic Mickey

Over the holiday we had an optional photography brief/competition, we had to photograph ourselves in the style of our hero!

I chose one of my favourite characters, Mickey Mouse.
The photoshoot involved hitting the Brick Lane scene donning my best MM gear.
I think I may have slightly altered a few people's view of the happy rodent forever...

I was originally gonna do this shoot in the Disney Store on Oxford Street, but they wouldn't let me, for the life of me I can't figure out why.







The Final Image:



This creepy rendition of Mickey Mouse got nominated for 4 out the 5 categories,
including most humorous, most technical & overall winner,
but unfortunately won none of them, so close yet so far.

... sigh, one day.

But on the plus side my comrade Jamie won,
and got the prize of a brand spanking new camera!
I'm sure the picture shall be up on his blog any day soon.

Oh, and to close, for the hell of it, a sneak peek at an illustration I'm currently working on:

Sporadic Anxiety Deity

As the throat closes, the mind caves in on itself.
My mind's gone blank because I've suddenly gotten really worried about some upcoming projects, curse you Sporadic Anxiety Deity!

You strike again!

Welcome To London, Fancy A Race?

It's about time I put this up.

This is the London Project I was going about all those months ago, actually, I'd prefer to call it the London Project Redux. You see this holiday I basically redid the whole project, as what I handed in for the crit was to be honest a complete shambles... I'd say this is now about 90% better.

For this project we were allowed to do basically anything we wanted, as long as it was about the river Thames.

So I decided to create a fanzine about what the boat race would have been if boats had just been invented 7 years ago by a bunch of wayward traceurs. For a start they wouldn't be called boats...

Welcome to the crazy world of W.B.R.V Racing!























Did you read it? Go on, it's a hoot I assure you!
If this was the equivalent to rowing, I may have stuck to it...


The Real Thing:









Zines are cool.
Like everything I make, I'd like to make more of them.

MMX.I.N.I.F.S.

First drawings of the year.
I'm feeling lucky.

Oh and I shall definitely be painting more.