Storyboard Artist
Today I dusted the cobwebs off my pencil and newsprint pad and sat down to do some gesture drawing! Todd Bright’s weekly All In Gesture class gets recorded, so I was able to take part at a time that suited me. It was so much fun to do, despite being very rusty.
Wild Child’s sketch prompt this week was ‘The Wizard of Oz’. My choice of character was Toto, played by a Cairn Terrier in the 1939 movie.
This week’s prompt was ‘fairytale’. I was inspired by the birth of my nephew and drew a scene from Thumbelina.
Wild Child has recently started a weekly Sketch Club with a prompt. This week’s was ‘Road Trip’. I had a lot of fun doing research and creating this little image of a family on the Oregon Trail.
A colleague took a video of some gorillas while visiting his local zoo, and I asked if I could sketch from it. The interactions between the gorillas were fascinating to study.
This character jumped out while I doodled today. I’m not sure who she is or what she’s holding, but she seems a bit worried about it.
For the last six months I’ve been a storyboard artist on The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, working for Wild Child as part of an amazing team. The series is based on Liz Pichon’s bestselling Tom Gates books. The first episodes are now on Sky Kids in the UK, either as part of a Sky subscription or through Now TV. Watch the trailer below!
Over the last few months I’ve been working on something really special – something a bit different from anything I’ve made before. Rachel Zylstra, a singer-songwriter based in Edinburgh, asked me to create a music video for one of the tracks on her new album On Faith.
You can watch the result below!
On Saturday I joined an online drawing class from Wild Life Drawing featuring five-week-old wolf-dog pups from Watermill Wolves. They were alternately incredibly active or completely asleep.
Liffey was the Irish Setter my family owned while I was growing up. She was a wonderful companion, if a little odd at times. I must have doodled these caricatures of her at some point last year, but I’d forgotten about them until now.
I made it along to some of the epic eight-hour life drawing marathon organised by Deryck Henley on New Year’s Eve. It was great to do some drawing from (digital) life – it had been a few months, and I was very rusty.
These poses were modelled by Anna and Mariano.
Five years ago I was in LA attending the CTN expo as part of an animation industry group from Scotland. Today, as part of CTN Live (sign up now if you haven’t already – it’s free!) we’re having a reunion to discuss the trip and where we are now.
It All Began 5 Years Ago: Scotland Animation Industry Reunion
The panel discussion is at 11am PST (7pm GMT) on Wednesday 18th November.
A recording may be available later – I’ll update this post with more information if so. View the schedule here to find out more!
Wild Life Drawing hosts live drawing sessions with animals in the UK. I sadly haven’t ever been able to go to any of their in-person classes, but I have now attended online!
Last week I joined in a Zoom drawing class featuring three wolf-dogs from Watermill Wolves. A lot of little mannerisms reminded me of my own dog, but I enjoyed studying and exaggerating the differences!
Last week, I attended a life drawing session where Safire and Andrew held beautiful poses. With three cameras to choose from, I enjoyed capturing the same pose from different angles.
Liquid Solid is now screening at DepicT! You can watch it in full here.
If you enjoy it please rate it out of five – your vote will count towards the DepicT! IMDbPro Audience Award.
Morna and Alistair are from a story I’ve been working at over the last few months. As they both get older in it I’ve been trying to find characters that work at different ages. These quick doodles I did after work are the first ones I feel capture their characters.
I’m thrilled to announce that my short animation Liquid Solid has been selected for Encounters Film Festival!
You can find out more about the film and the festival through the links above.
A couple of sketches of Naomi, from a session last month.
I’ve just started a new job with Wild Child on a children’s television series. Hopefully I’ll be able to show what I’m working on sometime next year!
John Mackey was completely in character at last week’s CTN Character Sketching session! It was great fun, and I came away with the desire to rewatch Pirates of the Caribbean …
My badger sketches have proved popular, so I’ve had some lovely A4 prints made! You can purchase them using the buttons below.
A4 Signed Badger Print – UK only
Print on uncoated 350gsm card. Signed in pencil. Price includes postage within the UK.
£20.00
A4 Signed Badger Print – Worldwide
Print on uncoated 350gsm card. Signed in pencil. Price includes postage worldwide.
£25.00
AJAiken