Sunsets & April Doodles

Posted on August 7, 2013 by quirkyjoe

Sunset

So the sun has set on the production of the latest Kayosoul music video. ‘Fly With Me’ is a track from the forthcoming Kayosoul EP and it’ll be released with a big fanfare and everything in September 2013. I provided four short sections of animation which punctuate the live action parts like dream sequences. It was a hefty amount of work which dominated my time from late May through to late July but I’m happy with how it’s turned out and looking forward to showing it off once it’s online. Especially the bit where the guitarist (in live action) emerges from the animated clouds. That’s my favourite bit – cloud guitar!

In the last few days I’ve been attacking some personal projects (including anteaters and comic submissions) and met with a friend who’s interested in having some of my drawings on the wall of his new apartment. So I’ve scanned all my doodles for him and finally posted the April ones below.

april doodles

 

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Paper Planes & BMX Bikes

Posted on June 4, 2013 by quirkyjoe

Last summer I created animation sequences for the Kayosoul music video Don’t Put Me In A Box directed by Amy Matheison of Jet Set Films. You can see the finished video here. I was really pleased with the animation – the blend of a cartoon style in an urban setting with moments of dream-like morphing pencil shapes seemed to work really well and compliment the live action sections of the video. And both Amy and Kayosoul seemed happy enough with the animation to want to work with me again.

At the start of this year I animated sequences for Amy’s feature length documentary One Way Up 3D – the story of Peckham BMX. The film follows the teenagers who train on a BMX track on rival gang turf in a notorious crime-ridden area of South London. It’s a co-production with Oscar winners Shine Global. You can find out more about the film (due for release late  2013) and watch exclusive clips on the Kickstarter page here.

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Currently I’m working on animation for a new Kayosoul video for the song Fly With Me from his upcoming EP. With Myles Sanko directing, the video is a story of daydreams and escapism as airport dwellers become paper plane pilots, flying to far off beaches. It has meant that I’ve been trying to find different ways to animate paper planes tilting and moving through space – including hanging plasticine characters seated in card planes from the ceiling and filming them for reference/part-rotoscoping them.

Fly Blog

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March Doodles & Anteaters

Posted on April 27, 2013 by quirkyjoe

I’ve been working with artist and writer Greg Allum, developing illustrations for his story ‘The Anteater That Didn’t’ – a tale of love, loss and cake. I’ve included some Anteater images below, along with my collected daily doodles from March. Greg’s last illustrated work, The Sail, is now available in store at Brighton Waterstones and online here

Coming Soon Caps

Colour versions01

MARCH

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Free Mind & Free Books

Posted on April 10, 2013 by quirkyjoe

My Drawing From The Imagination course starts again next Monday at Evolution Arts. It’s a course that uses various prompts and starting points to develop ideas through drawing and imagining rather than through observation. I’ve found it has served as both a confidence boosting path into drawing for those who have felt intimidated by the idea of learning to draw and also a refreshing and fun challenge to those who are experienced drawing course attendees.  Students on the course described a freedom in drawing they hadn’t felt before. The course is divided into five themed sessions, each with a series of starting points that build a path from which images develop and ideas are explored. More information about the course and Evolution Arts here 

Illustrated Digital Colour Version

I went to a double book launch last week for two books published by Brighton Nightwriters. I picked up copies of these two books and a third I’d missed the launch for, having designed the covers for all three.

The Shorelines anthology is available here

A Feeling For Crows is here  

And A Gallery Of Husbands is here

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February Doodles & Drawing Inspiration Awards

Posted on March 20, 2013 by quirkyjoe

Yesterday I attended the Big Draw’s award ceremony at two temple place in London. It was an afternoon of celebrating the innovative and inspiring activities that made last October’s big draw events so successful. I felt very privileged to be collecting a ‘highly commended’ award for the Big Draw event I’d organised with Natalie from Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion. And I was pretty pleased to get my hands on a certificate designed by Big Draw patron, Quentin Blake (see image below). I’ve continued my own drawing project, a daily doodle, and have included February’s efforts here.

FEBRUARY

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Cris & Erica

Posted on February 26, 2013 by quirkyjoe

This was probably the biggest and most challenging  illustration project I had last year. A set of 32 Illustrations for two books in Gary Wassner’s ‘The Adventures of Cristopher and Erica’ series. The first book in the series had already been published with the work of another illustrator (the awesome Adam Gustavson) and originally the client was looking for someone who could match his light, painterly, naturalistic style. I was concerned that it would be a struggle to try and fit my work to someone else’s style. But I was soon encouraged to explore the mystery and drama in the stories and found that my responses to the adventures of Cris and Erica were very much my own.

Five illustrations from books two and three in The Adventures of Cristopher and Erica are below and the books are also available on Amazon

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Daily Doodles & Finding the Time

Posted on February 17, 2013 by quirkyjoe

Oh! It’s my first blog post in over a month. I have been very busy, mainly working on BMX-based animation sequences for this – One Way Up 3D – but unlike last year, I’ve found that the busyness hasn’t overwhelmed me. I haven’t had to drop everything else to focus solely on animating (although I have dropped quite a lot of sleep). I’ve been making time for other things and other people to fit along side the demands of an animation project.  On Monday’s I’ve been delivering this course – Drawing from the Imagination – and every day this year so far I’ve drawn a kind of ‘daily doodle’. It’s been challenging to be so disciplined to do this kind of drawing everyday (especially on days when I’ve already done 100 or so drawings for animation), but also it is so relaxing, letting go and drawing without expectations, finding a path into an image and exploring. It is like yoga. I expect.

Below are my daily doodles for January, collected together in all their chaos

JANUARY

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Doodles & Rainbows

Posted on December 23, 2012 by quirkyjoe

Recently I’ve been doodling more. Some of these drawings have been little notes or sketches expressing how I feel about something (like when I was excited about the Big Draw – I did the sketch with the pencils and big eyes below). It’s made me wonder if I could do a sketch like that every day, a kind of doodle-diary. Also below, some development images for The Boy Who Lived in Rainbows cover design. The book is now available here 

doodlesIn RainbowsIn Rainbows Photo

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KickStarter & Developing a Dog

Posted on December 5, 2012 by quirkyjoe

In the last couple of months I’ve been very much involved in developing an animated dog called Gus. He’s the narrator of a proposed ‘dogumentary’ about the doggy obsession booming in New York City and around the world. The animated story of Gus will run alongside the main story points of the real-life contributors, providing commentary and a something of a dog’s-eye-view. Director, Rani Khanna, has set up a KickStarter to provide funding to ensure the project can be continued and completed in the New Year. So if you are interested in the project or can even spare some money to see it to fruition – have a look at the links to the trailer, website and KickStarter page and some of the development images below…

Oh My Dog! Trailer

Oh My Dog! Kickstarter

www.ohmydogmovie.com

ImageImage

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Animation & Illustration

Posted on November 10, 2012 by quirkyjoe

I’ve been trying to strike a balance between the animation and illustration jobs I take on. I enjoy doing animation but it is, it seems, really ineffective when it comes to paying bills. In this freelancing game I’m finding that the cost of animation isn’t a cost people are willing to pay. It means I have to be very careful about when I take on animation jobs and what size they are, and I do want to take them on, but only when I can afford to. Illustration projects have provided me with the main backbone of work this year. I’ve been looking for other ways to stay connected to animation. At the end of October I ran a three day stop motion Big Art Club at DWLP for 8-12 year-olds (where we experimented with claymation, cut-outs and pixilation) and last week I attended the Brighton Animators Networking Group and enjoyed discussing animation related events for the future. I don’t ever want to be too far from my next animation job though, and I want to make sure there is always one of those on the horizon.

In the summer I provided some animation for a music video for the track ‘Don’t Put Me In A Box’ by Kayosoul (see the video here) and I’ve included some of the animation for it in the video below. At the moment I am creating some animation for a documentary about dogs in New York called ‘Oh My Dog!’ and an image of the main character, Gus, is below

Test Animation for DPMIAB

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