Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!
This is a design I made for this year's christmas cards - hope you like it!

A Productions Xmas card!

A little festive commission for A Productions!
Great job to do as I love designing 50's style type
and the greeting card has also come out really
nicely in print - so am quite pleased with this one.
The copy was written by Mr Paul Hill!

Filming Driver Dan's Story Train!

Here is a picture of me, queen Suzanne and the rest of the
Driver Dan Story Train crew from A Productions and our fab
mini actors at a film shoot in a green screen studio.
At the end of the story book section of each episode we get kids
to imitate actions that the characters do in the story. We film them
in the green screen studio then composite the footage so that the kids
look like they are playing in the illustrations!
I love going to green screen days, a day out the office, fun times
getting the kids to act out silly things and lots and lots of cake!

SNEEKY PEEK - 'A Liar's Autobiography'

Here are some sneeky peek stills from the 3D sterescopic animated
feature film 'A Liar's Autobiography' that I have been working on
with director Jane Davies and A for Animation!
Due for release in Spring 2012 and produced by Bill & Ben Productions,
the film is about the late Graham Chapman, member of the
Monty Python....

Inspired by 70's colours and decor, I was lucky enough to be asked
to art direct and design the song section of the film.
I hand drew and painted all the backgrounds and characters of
this section (about 150 characters and about 20 different backgrounds)!

And these are the kinds of things you can expect to see in the film!
Especially our bit - its particularly rude!!!

New LOGO and new film project

It's been a very busy year, with lots of exciting projects.
The latest poo-in-your-pants exciting project I just completed was with A for Animation and Bill & Ben Productions where I was offered the AMAZING job of art directing and designing backgrounds and characters for the song section 'Sit On My Face' in the animated feature film 'A Liar's Autobiography' about the late Graham Chapman from Monty Python. The film is due to be released on the big screen in Spring 2012.
For this section of the film, I worked in close collaboration with the fantastic director and animator Jane Davies, the brilliant compositer Paul Hill, the wonderfully funky Peter Northcott (also compositor and motion graphics king) and the witty animator extraordinaire Chris Bowles (very good at animating pigeons)....
Watch this space for stills of the project, but for now I leave you with a revised 70's look logo I designed for A for Animation to match the style of our part of the film.
You can find out much more about the film here:
http://www.projectchapman3d.com/
http://aforanimation.blogspot.com/

Bristol Contemporary Art - Gallery Launch

This is a brand new giclee print available in a limited edition of 50
being showcased at the fantastic new online gallery
Bristol Contemporary Art - which has just had its official launch!
You can check out the work online here http://www.bristolcontemporaryart.com/
or visit the pop up gallery until the end of September at number 2 Park Street, Bristol, UK!

Jamaica Street Artists - OPEN STUDIO 2011

Not long now art lovers until.... JAMAICA STREET ARTISTS OPEN STUDIOS 2011!!!
Preparations are underway, studios are being cleaned, artwork produced
and cakes are being baked all for your enjoyment!
So come on down and see 40 artists in their natural habitat
during a fun evening or a relaxing weekend from
Friday 22nd of July 7pm until 10pm
and Saturday 23rd & Sunday 24th of July from 11am until 6pm.
For more info: http://www.jamaicastreetartists.co.uk/

I am furiously painting new material as we speak
- so make sure you come on down to take a peak!
Must remember to tidy up...

Driver Dan's Story Train

© Story Train Ltd 2009

© Story Train Ltd 2009

© Story Train Ltd 2009

Long time no blog! I have been really busy these past 6 months
having a fun old time working as part of the Aproductions animation
team for Cbeebies' TV series Driver Dan's Story Train.
So here are some illustrations I did on the last series for a story called
'We want to'.
You can catch some episodes here: Driver Dan's Story Train

Pixillion - Paper engineered rocket!

Bristol based Pixillion digital commissioned me last November to illustrate and design a pop-out rocket promotional card for their company. It was brilliant fun and great to do a bit of paper engineering - would love to do more.
Pixillion kindly gave me a feature on their blog - click here to see the whole process and feature:
http://www.pixillion.com/blog/2011/promo-rocket-article.html


A screen shot of the front of the card.

One of the designs put forward.

The Rocket all slotted into place.

The back of the flyer with building instructions.
To see more of Pixillion's work click here:
http://www.pixillion.com/

The Avon Wildlife Safari

Here is my latest painting completed in December 2010
in my cold cold studio at Jamaica Street Artists.
It is currently hanging and for sale in the RWA exhibition INSIDE OUT.
I have posted a few pics below taking you through some of the
creative steps....

Finished - just needs some varnish!

Details to paint...

Working late at night and messing around!

Laying out the different elements and
designing the typography on paper first.

Building up the colours...

Painting the first undercoat.

INSIDE OUT exhibition - Jamaica Street Artists

Our studio has got a huge spangling wonderful exhibition featuring new
work by all Jamaica Street Artists at the RWA in Bristol - UK!
A show not to be missed as it also features work by the late Matisse!
Woweee!!!
From the the 8th of Jan till the 8th of Feb:
Click on these links for more info:
http://www.jamaicastreetartists.co.uk/
http://www.rwa.org.uk/currexh.htm

Here is a sneak preview from the Story Corner at the Inside Out show
where you can see original artworks and samples of episodes
from Cbeebies' now famous TV series Driver Dan's Story Train - choo choo!

Special thanks to A Productions for making story corner possible!