Work Work Work

I'm working like crazy at the moment, trying to finish off my Grip Wrench animated series and clear the decks of work before a much needed holiday. So very nearly there, I'm currently putting together the final episode, number 10, and it should be quite a finale. 

Here's a crop of a background I just drew for it, not very dramatic, but I'm pretty pleased with it. I think I'm gradually getting the hang of this drawing thing. Practice, practice, practice. And you certainly get plenty of that working in animation...

I'm looking forward to getting all this out of the way, not because I'm not enjoying it but because this, along with my other major projects lately (a show for Disney, and the design of the LittleBigPlanet game for PS3) have all been longer than a year in duration. So really wanting to do some quick projects after this. First up will be animating my film for this years PSST! Which I'm looking forward to getting my (hairy) teeth into.

And then finishing the new version of my main website that has been sitting motionless on a harddrive for months. And do a new showreel. And go on holiday (look out California, we're coming to visit next month). And make some puppets. And build a animatronic sasquatch. And get tattoos. And practice growing a bit taller. And writing it all down in a big to-do list.

In other news I've decided the size I'd picked for all images on here was stupidly narrow. So from now on they all going to be a bit wider. Which will look a bit ugly until all the old-sized images fall off the bottom of the opening page - by which time I will have probably decided I want to go for an even wider standard...

 

Webby Winnah!

Yay! Thanks for voting everyone. Orange Unlimited won the peoples vote for the Webbys for Best Visual Design (awards which Vanity Fair calls "Better than the Oscars") so thats nice. I shall now drink drink some beer, rip off my clothes and dance with strangers. East London will probably be evacuated shortly.

Unitard

I knew my latest episode of Grip Wrench needed a unicorn scene, so during the weekend started sketching some whilst sunbathing, which brought on much amusement from my lazing-around-in-the-sunshine companion. I couldn't see what was funny until she pointed out I drew my unicorns with the horn on the end of the nose, rather than on the forehead.

(the other unicorn on that page was drawn after being shown the error of my ways)

I'd never thought about this before, and had always drawn them that way. I must have been been the laughing stock of the Fantasy Arts Guild. I don't know if they have a Guild, but I expect they do, and spend many a fun-filled evening in the tavern ordering flagons of ale from the "barkeep" and taking turns with the Cloak of Invisibility(+3). I better make sure I don't draw my dwarves too tall or my dragons with fur or I'll get punched on the nose by invisible assailant smelling of Real Ale.

Anyway, thanks to her input I've managed to draw a proper Unicorn now. Here's the final result which I'm currently animating. Horses (and horses with mythical horns) are a nightmare to animate, but a nice challenge.

Funny how all girls, no matter if they are artistic or not, seem to be able to draw perfect horses, when its the one thing that most artists say are particularly hard to draw. I guess it comes from huge amounts of doodling in the back of school-books before discovering they were more interested in having a boy than a pony.

Gripping Myspace

The main character from my forthcoming MTV QOOB series Grip Wrench has made himself a Myspace page, which he knocked together on his Atari ST, with a bit of help from me. Yes I know, Myspace is so 2006, but thats fairly appropriate for someone who's still trapped in 1986.

Here's his page:

GRIPSPACE

So you can go and befriend him online now, although he's a fairly messed-up character, so be careful. He's into death and grooming.

Webby

The great gods of the Internet (I've decided they are called LOLZ & PRON) have decided to award the Orange Unlimited site I made with Poke London a Webby nomination in the "Best Visual Design - Aesthetic" category. 

It's a public vote, so if you feel like voting, or checking out any of the other finalists (all of which are amazing) go henceforth here.

Ladyflesh of the Ancients

Snow is falling, I'm attempting to watch Renaissance with one eye (not my sort of animation at all, looks like a load of Poser models bumping into each other), and I'm typing this on my new Macbook Pro, surrounded by all the scattered manuals for my newly purchased Adobe CS3 crate of software. 

All this new kit should really speed up my, what I think professionals call, "workflow" - which is just as well, as animation is probably the slowest and most time-consuming artistic medium of all... And what am I using all this new equipment for? Making an old ladies breasts jiggle about. Big lumps of eighty year old ladyflesh pressed up against the screen are probably exactly how Apple Computer Inc were hoping I would unlock my creativity. 

Here's a still of her, before the top comes off. You wouldn't want to see a static shot of her after that happens, trust me.

Its taken from one tiny scene of my MTV QOOB animated series Grip Wrench, that'll be hitting screens soon (both on the telly, and online). 

...And then all will be revealed (consider that a warning).

BAD-EGG

Todays egg-based theme inspired me to doodle a egg wrestler. He's warped from years of performance-enhancing drugs, with a bulletproof shell and yolk-stained underpants: