Folktale Week

So as I didn't do Inktober this year, I decided to do Folktale Week - a great concept and a short challenge! I was very excited to do a set of seven paintings that followed a narrative for two characters I had created - Pan, and mother Nature. A few years ago I planned to do a set of art showing their growth together and falling in love. It was loosely based on the four seasons and how, every winter when they 'die' together they are reborn in Spring to meet and fall in love all over again. I did two out of those four illustrations some years ago, and intended to revisit them; 'Sleep' (the winter painting) actually sold at auction to raise money for charity! I still sell prints :) So Folktale Week seemed perfect to do it again! I was really pleased with the first four and in a great place to finish the last ones...but we were collecting our newest family member, my beautiful rescue pup Twig during this week. So...let's just say I didn't have time to finish the final paintings to their fullest! However, it's important to remind ourselves that art challenges are meant to be fun. They aren't meant to be a chore, and it doesn't matter if you finish them. It's the creativity, and taking part! Here are all seven in their final state - Birth, Ritual, Courtship, Solstice, Death, Harvest and Dance. Harvest was the one I sort of left as it was, half done and not perfect, but Dance regains itself a bit, with my dog asleep at my feet :)

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

I finished my Halloween short animation, just barely! I forgot how long it truly takes to color in frame by frame, definitely put me a day behind. I still want to add shadows too and tidy up here and there but over all I really enjoyed animating this little piece and am super pleased I got it done in time! Wishing you all a super safe and wonderful Halloween xxx

Happy Halloween!

Happy spook-tober everyone! It's been a busy time for me since wrappng up on JoJo and GranGran and I've been full pelt working on full days of my own projects; editing Tailbone (now with a new working title to be revealed!) and getting ready to reapply for agents again - continuing to rig Nyx for some sequences in Go Fish! and also developing animatics to music, telling short stories through action and pacing. Not only that but I've been painting a bunch, and we have been in super prep for a rescue dog we hope to welcome into our home really soon. It's been a long and nervous endeavour - I won't go into it much more than that but, we are hoping for good news to take on a young girl in the next week or so and give her the life she so richly deserves. I've not had my own dog before, only had family dogs, so it's a big thing and I'm both nervous and excited. I've made so many notes, spreadsheets, schedules and more! But it's up there with something I have always wanted to do one day. It's definitely a dream, so I suspect it makes sense for it to be a bit scary when it's coming together! Have some Halloweeny are too, I finally finished my piece 'The DollMaker' after having starting it literally years ago. It may take me a while to finish art but my golly I do finish it eventually! Stay spooky everyone! I've got Halloween Animation coming too!

Wrapping up on JoJo & GranGran

We wrapped up production on season one of JoJo and GranGran today at Aproductions. It's been an amazing project to be part of and I'm so proud of everything we have accomplished - it was also the first show I ever worked on in Toonboom, which I learned this year :) It means a lot to a great many people. I hope to work with the team again soon, they are a super talented bunch and I've made some amazing friends. I'm starting up with the preproduction team for another exciting show next week and can't wait to see where that takes me. It's always amazing to see how far we can go!

Happy Taurgust!

It seems like blogger is letting me post pics again, woo! Here's my pic for #Taurgust this year. I've started to record timelapses of my artwork and I want to set up a new youtube channel just for animatics and artwork. I think it'll be good for practise, and a lot of fun! I'm also preparing to set up a patreon. Why not? :)

New Designs and New Plans!

I'm finally figuring out what I need to do in order to get where I want to be. I've always wanted to make my own series but ultimately, my goal is always to tell stories - however I can, and since I graduated I've written two books which I am pursuing publication on. I've also enjoyed working on so many productions with great teams for television - I want to be in a situation where I can pitch my own shows, my own ideas too. I think now that I'm almost 30 I feel finally ready to do that! Especially as I have a better idea based on how I've seen some big inspirational figures of mine achieve this themselves in recent years. Starting work on my project 'Project Nyx' was a big step. I started that two years ago and learned very quickly that making a short film while working full time on a television project (and doing it hand drawn) is a big ask, too big for one person. I then put it on hold while I made the music video 'No Activity' for the band Karab, and it helped me focus to know I was working for a client. Again, I did this project while working full time on a television show. Now that I've returned to Nyx after doing a course in rigging, its still something of a struggle to get real traction on while working full time. That, along with editing my novel and working closely with my amazing editor, and writing a new book in the works, it's clear that you can't always find time for everything. And darn it I try. 2020 may have been a rollarcoaster of a year and I've achieved A LOT but it's always a fight for the attention on each project! So I have a plan - with saved funds aside, I'm going to put full time effort for a few months onto working daily on Nyx and making it the best I can. It's already undergone re-writes, redesigns and re-rigs but it's all helped to improve it. I want to achieve as much as I can with this project and share it, build up more of a reputation online, and share this project with the world, at festivals, and actively pitch it and other ideas next year. I want to build up enough funding to put together new pilots and conceptual trailers for series and pitch those actively. This will be my biggest goal coming through 2020 and moving into 2021. I am committed to another show for half of next year, one I am very excited to do, but after that I feel it's time to put full steam into something for myself. So watch this space, I'll be sure to share it when I can. It's slow burn on Nyx at the moment but I feel closer than I've ever been to really understanding and moving forward with what I need to do. It's all a learning experience! Rough design updates below!

Rigging Tests Making Great Progress!

We've got a rig really coming together and with little changes here and there Nyx is almost ready to go. I'm prepping the first scene today! While it has taken longer than I would have preferred, it's good to learn a lot in the process! It will make the more complicated scenes much easier. Besides, these things always take time :) Here is a low render test preview of the rig!

Wrapping up Mermay and moving into Pride Month!

Happy Pride Month everyone! This is not the last piece I created for Mermay but the last one I got done in time, so more mermaids to come but they will tumble into June. I got to end on a lovely entrance into Pride month with these gorgeous mermen doing a dance of love in the deep blue! <3 All joining in on some meme action with these SailorMoon redraws - one of SailorMoon herself and one of sona because frankly, he was born to cosplay a sailor scout! I may have to draw him more often as a sailor scout in fact haha!

Mermay critters and fanart

Even more cuties! It just keeps going! A seahorse chappy who merrily spent a day at the seaside attractions and some fanart of the professional mermaid, Mist. She gives off some Disney princess vibes on my instagram feed, so couldn't help but do a painting :) Stay chirpy everyone <3

More Beautiful Mermay Mermaids!

It's been so wonderful to paint so much. My editor begins editing Tailbone next week! Happy VE day everyone <3

Mr. Bobbit

Another Mermay for you! He only nibbles a little bit :) Inspired by a combination of the seaworm and the more aggressive bobbit worm for Mermay!

Family Day Out

Finally finished my first rigs in Toonboom Harmony! :D Ninetails taking her family out for a day trip :) This has been really good practise for my short film too!

MerMay and kitties!

Some Cats Fanart of my boy Skimbleshanks and another Mermay edition, 'The Fisherman's Wife'. I always did love those fairytales where the fisherman meets a mermaid and makes it his mission to woo her!

Happy MerMay!

Happy MerMay everyone! We are still currently in lockdown but that doesn't mean that I haven't been productive. I've been painting, drawing (digitally and traditionally) rigging, animating, writing and now have an editor! A real life editor working on my novel Tailbone with me! Isn't that crazy? What a milestone! Mermay is upon us and I have a plethora of mermaid artwork waiting for upload and finish. To kick off here is a selkie with her cuddly family! There will be more rig and aniamtion updates to follow soon once I have finished a painting for my father's birthday! Happy Mermay everyone and stay safe! x

Lock Down!

So the world is a little bit on fire at the moment, but, not dwelling on that, being locked in has given me lots of time to continue my work on my short film currently nicknamed Project Nyx, and also to keep writing! If editors are available, I shall seek out a professional one next week - or failing that, have to put that on hold until this all blows over. My rigging course complete, I am pleased to say I have learned quite a lot! Currently I am rigging the background character of my seagull, and improving my techniques. It may seem small but for me, it's a huge step, and the character designs are also coming together really well. Meanwhile, the 'Trophy' (or sometimes referred to as Princess, even though she isn't one!) is also taking shape. Some fabulous riggers I have had the pleasure of working with are up for helping me on the more difficult rigs, and I couldn't be more grateful. Stay safe friends and watch this space!

Happy 2020!

Bristol is great! I'm loving working on the show in A Productions, which I will be able to post more about when it airs in March for the first time. It's a wonderful show, really progressive and we have such a great team! That said, I've returned fully to my short film currently titled Project Nyx after a hiatus. A hiatus for good reason! So it turns out completely working in hand drawn animation is more time consuming than I realised - who'd a thunk, right? Simply put, I animate all day and then have a few evening hours at best to put towards my own animation...that's when I'm not writing, or painting or sewing of course. I've really been trying to only work on one project at a time and it's been tough, but a learning curve. With Nyx progressing much slower than I had wanted in TVPaint, I was approached by one of my brother's who, in his amazing developing band Karab, wanted to hire me to create them a music video. I agreed, and Nyx was shelved for a time. Well six months on (yeah that project was hand drawn too...) the music video for Karab's new release 'Corrective Therapy' is up and live, coinciding with their gig in Camden no less! You can watch the full finished video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rn5iE7rei0 Although this video was hand drawn as well, I worked with a client to a brief, and was able to manage reality much better with reuse scenes and repetition, as well as black and white imagery. Butterflies were the intended focus as they were a more forgiving frame rate and also could sympathetically handle any animation errors, due to their errative movements. All of this helped to push the project forward with the one man band which was I...I spent most of my life working on this when I wasn't at work on the Cbeebies show. The deadline initially was October but extended to January when I moved house and wasn't able to use my software for a month. Finishing Corrective Therapy was important to me and also helped me to fully develop my skills in Toonboom in the meantime, reassuring me that animating my own film would need rigs to become reality. So I'm now learning to rig! And I intended to go full ham with the Clockwork Cat story, but my partner reminded me that he "really did like the fish boy idea." So I return to Nyx, that little blue gem and, knowing I designed Nyx to be easier to work with in his colourful world - it feels right. With all that in mind! I am still persuing publication for my novel Tailbone and I feel like it's soon to go to the next stage of further edit, rather than being picked up. No matter, I knew publishing was a haughty mistress! I shall persevere, while returning to write as well. Darn, I miss writing. Next year I may make a writing year. OH and enjoy a lovely orc boy with some serious Dragonball Z vibes. More art to come for Nyx!