Finished!

See what I'm holding? Its a DVD of the finished 10 episodes of my MTV Qoob series of short films, 18 months in the making!

It's been quite a journey, the biggest project I've ever tried to produce on my own, and I've learnt so much from it. Right now I'm completely exhausted, but excited because I'm getting on a plane in a few hours and jetting off to California.

But once I'm back I'll start posting up concept art and stills on here, and concentrate on getting the official site online, along with streaming versions of the film...

Doodled Arm Tactics

Thanks everyone that came down to the exhibition. It was a whole load of fun, and great to see so many friends and meet so many strangers (some more stranger than others). Hopefully all those that attended managed to scrub off whatever drunken doodlings I did on their bodies by now (I hear a bath full of bleach, tippex and fake-tan are the best way to remove them). 

If anyone has any photos of it all, or links to Flickr pages, blogs etc, let me know, as me and Brynley would like to collect them all together, to preserve the event in digital form.

Here's my arm, at the end of night two. It's waving you all goodbye until next time...

Shunted

The opening night of ArtInIndustry was an amazing success. People came, people looked, people made deformed sockmonkey monsters, people got drunk, admiring glances were made, music was played, people watched some episodes of my new Grip Wrench thing, and we got trapped in a lift with a fisherman and a copy of the London AtoZ.

 

And the best thing is, it's still on for another 3 days. So get yourself down there tonight, or friday or saturday night. I'm having a night off tonight, but I'll be back tomorrow to deface faces, and attack arms with my marker pens. Just like in this wonky photo:

Grip Wrench seemed to go down well, with the auidence laughing, and mainly at the bits that were supposed to be funny. Although many said I have a sick and diseased mind, and I should be put to sleep before I damage the world any more.

There was loads of beutiful artwork to see, although I need to look at it all again as I got completely caught up in Nickys Making Things Club workshop last night. It was quite surreal to see so many people in a club all sitting on sofas sewing and making. My attempts at drunken sewing led to all the eyes falling off our attempt at making sock monster conjoined twins, thankfully I had a talented seamstress to patch them up again before the blinded pair stumbled into box of pins.

Jaypeg got some better photos of this little corner of craftiness. And I'm sure there will be more turning up on the internets soon. Although, of course, it would be much better to get down there and see for yourself, and join in..

ArtInIndustry

Being Industrious

I've just been finishing off a canvas for an exhibition I'm exhibiting in next week - the show is called Art In Industry, in Shunt (in the amazing catacombs beneath London Bridge station) and features the work of several friends of mine, built round the loose theme of showing things produced away from of their main commissioned work.

I'll also be screening some episodes of my Grip Wrench show in the cinema area, which will be the first place to get to see them in the UK. Not only that, the now completely finished tent by me and the other members of 70p (7-Tipi) will be on display too.

And here's the extra canvas I've been painting for it. And if you're free next week come along to the exhibition, its going to be a fun one. Details here.

Tipi doodled

Thanks everyone that came along on Sunday to Stokefest, and to all those that offered encouragement while I carried on doodling with what felt like a broken hand. It was a great day: hot sun, cold beer, felt-tip pens, bikinis and spray paint. Thats what I call a good day.

Here's some of my doodling on the tipi. More photos on Facebook, and a few are starting to turn up on Flickr when I did a search earlier. 

It's hopefully going to have some more work done on it this week and then the final piece will be displayed in a exhibition very soon, watch this space..

Rexboxhornypants:

A glimpse of SteakZombies panel alongside mine:

Time to pack up and find a pub:

70p at Stokefest

If anyone is around east London this Sunday I'll be at Stokefest, the free festival in Stoke Newington, Hackney, doing some live urban art next to the stage. As the festival is a little oasis in the city we've decided to work on a different kind of canvas, a tent!

They'll be around seven of us working on the tent. Tortoy, one of the collaborators on this, came up with the genius name for our tent decorating collective: 70p (Seven Tipi). 

Hope to see you there!

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:

Eggman. CooCooCaChoo.

Happy Easter you rascals.

Vikings!

Not many posts from me lately, as I've been racing to get work done, and also just got back from a entertaining holiday in the deepest countryside, where me and some friends hired a cottage, and a bouncy castle. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to live without one now.



Anyway, just before I went away I got a call to do an editorial illustration. I love nothing better than doing some doodles and seeing them floating around the world on bits of paper, but I've been turning down these sort of jobs lately, as I'm so busy animating stuff. But I decided I needed a change for a day, plus the brief specified an army of SWEDISH VIKINGS (two of my favourite things), so I sharpened my Wacom pen and set to work.

So I started off with the rough, I wouldn't normally do a rough for anything I do for myself, as I like to keep everything spontaneous, and full of those weird little ideas you get when "Ad-Libbing". But understandably clients like to have an idea what they are paying for before its complete, plus I needed to work with the designer on how it would fit into the double-page spread. Here it is:



Its really rough and sketchy, but I don't want to get bogged down with too much final detail at this stage. I drew the rough in one single pass, to hopefully keep some of that spontaneity that I'm trying to cling onto. Here's a close-up:



And having got that approved it was full-steam-ahead with the final, which I tried to incorporate a few new ideas into that weren't in the rough stage to keep it fresh, whilst not deviate too far from what the client had actually approved..

Which turned out like this.



Which is far too small to see properly here, So here's some closeups:







Personally, I think the sketch version maybe has something that the final doesn't, especially when reduced down the restrictive size of my blog. But I'm pleased I managed to combine doodley style (how I wanted it to look) with a slightly more restrained vectory style (how the client wanted it). So everyone is happy. Well apart from the Vikings themselves, who stay perpetually angry, like the crazy, fish-fueled pillage-mongers that they are. And we'll love them all the more for that.

Design Museum: Designs of the Year

My eyes are going funny. I've been spending the last few days designing and animating in a retro pixel-art style, and now the world around me is talking on a 16-bit 2D videogame appearance; I'm walking sideways and picking up roast chickens off the ground to regain "health" but at least I seem to have unlimited credits. Anyway, all will be revealed soon, here's a teaser:



Anyway, back in the real, 3D, realistically rendered world, the Design Museum has revealed its "Designs of the Year" Award / Exhibition - and the Orange GoodThingsWillNeverEnd site I produced with Poke is in it. Blimey. It was quite odd to see my animated doodles of vikings and sasquatches featured alongside the iPhone, the Nintendo Wii, Peter Saville's identity for Kate Moss, the Helvetica documentary and the Dior spring collection. But I shan't complain..

I was celebrating far too much to point a camera at anything on the opening night, but since then I've sneaked back and recorded some evidence:













It's a nice exhibition, and worth attending if you're in London, even if you just spend the whole time playing with the Tenori-On machine:

Best Creative Campaign of 2007 is...

....that GoodThingsShouldNeverEnd site I did with Poke, for Orange Unlimited, at least that's according to the Internet Advertising Bureau & Microsoft Digital Advertising who awarded it at its Grand Prix awards, so thats nice. I might buy a iced bun to celebrate.

Armful of Smack

Thanks everyone that came along to SmackIII on Friday, it was a load of fun. Merf, Brother, Superstar PJ, and Forward-Thinking-Tam all did fantastic sets, and I was able to doodle on everyone that was too intoxicated to fight me off. I'll try and collate photos from anyone that has any (let me know if you do), but here's a couple to start with:



I got a bit carried away, doodling on myself.




An innocent piano-playing child is approached by DEATH.

Smack III

There's a bit of an event happening this friday, the third in the successfully riotous Smack series. Once again some friends of mine are going to be DJing and playing some handsome mixes (Expect wonky-disco, electro, fidget house, ghettotech) and I'll be adding vaguely to the proceedings by bringing my pencil-case and giving a temporary felt-tip tattoo to anyone that wants one. So come along, dance around, get drawn on, make happiness.

Here's the venue:
http://www.westburybar.com/

Here's the flyer I made for it:



Here's the back, with all the details:



And here's a zoomed-in bit, so you can see just how excited that pirate is by the turntablism on display in front of him:



And in other news I just updated the banner at the top of the blog, so that the little Hairy Tooth now occasionally blinks. So scroll up and look! Now!

Grip Wrench Premiere

My secret animated series, that I've been working on for longer than I can remember, is going to start being revealed this week, at the Future Film Festival in Bologna, Italy. Funded by MTV's Qoob channel (which also brought us all Grant Orchards exceptionally fun Love Sport series) its a show based around fictional 80's action movie star Grip Wrench.



While Grip maintains a Hollywood career, and acts in various iconic movies from the 80s, he also struggles with the memories of active service in Veitnam, and once the camera starts rolling he starts confusing make-believe with his war-torn memories, causing havoc for himself, his long-suffering director and any other cast members. All of which has some similarities with the happy-faced carnage I filled my 2004 short "Violence" with.

There's 10 episodes in all, although I'm only showing the first 3 this week, based on Vietnam movies, on cult movie The Warriors, and Miami Vice. So if anyone is making a trip to Bologna, hope you enjoy it, and come and say hello. And watch this space for more details, and news on the next 7 episodes.

Here's the posters for the first 3: