Category Archives: Background Design

Thatched Cottage Studies

At the moment I’m gathering reference for a personal project, and I’m learning a lot! The way medieval houses were constructed depended so much on where they were built – stone or wood? Heather or straw for the thatch? There are the well-constructed houses, some of which are still standing today, and then the onesContinue reading “Thatched Cottage Studies”

Move Summit 2019

Move Summit is an industry-focused animation conference in Edinburgh now in its third year. In 2017 and 2018 I was a volunteer, but this time I was able to attend. This year it was a three day event jam-packed with speakers from Pixar, Axis, Aardman Animations, Blue Zoo, and many many more. The first day,Continue reading “Move Summit 2019”

Sketchy Trees

The first two drawings, in charcoal, are from a workshop on an artists’ retreat back in February. It was (just) warm enough to sit outside, though I remember my hands freezing. Both charcoal sketches were drawn half looking at the paper, half looking only at the object. The top one has several under-drawings that haveContinue reading “Sketchy Trees”

Study Squares #1

If you’ve been following me for a few years you may remember that back in 2015 I drew ‘Pieces of Sky’, small squares of the sky I saw that day. (Here’s an example.) I’ve been thinking about starting to draw small colour studies again, as I enjoyed the challenge. However I feel only drawing theContinue reading “Study Squares #1”

Tree Seasons

There’s a little maple tree outside my window in the new house. At the beginning of the year when we had quite a lot of snow I did a quick study of it because I loved the way the snow blobbed around the branches. A couple of weeks ago, I did another study. It’s funContinue reading “Tree Seasons”

Glencoe

It’s been over a year since I last updated my portfolio and showreel so (thanks to the prodding of others) I’m finally sorting through my work. In doing so I uncovered this painting of Glencoe. From what I remember I abandoned it in frustration, but I quite like it now! It’s loosely based on aContinue reading “Glencoe”

trypraying Concept Art

I designed, storyboarded and animated this video for trypraying. The trypraying booklet is a seven-day prayer guide which encourages people to try praying for a week and see what happens. Some of my concept art for the project is below. I began with some rough character sketches from the script. From the outset I wanted designsContinue reading “trypraying Concept Art”

Pieces of Sky #1

I love looking at the sky and seeing how different it appears every day and night. For a while I’ve been wondering about doing quick little colour studies of what a piece of sky has looked like, and today I managed to sketch one! After a bright, clear day heat haze fell. Now it’s reflectingContinue reading “Pieces of Sky #1”

Bird Animation – Development

For a while I’ve been scribbling down ideas for this bird project. This weekend I began to do some more research into the location and character design. Here are some of my sketchbook pages! These were all sketched using Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens by Kuretake. I like how they give a good variationContinue reading “Bird Animation – Development”

New Portfolio and Showreel

I thought it was time for an update of my portfolio and showreel! Here’s a peek: click on the image to view the full portfolio. My latest animation showreel, featuring Maya and paper animation: Music: “Dial Up” by Kris Oliver http://www.krisoliver.com Paper Animation (Photoshop / ToonBoom): All character, background and colour design by myself. MayaContinue reading “New Portfolio and Showreel”

Deer Background and Breakdowns

I returned to my deer animation today, changing quite a lot of the ending and adding more breakdowns and inbetweens. I’m planning to clean it up in Photoshop, something like the deer shown below: quite loose and free, hopefully keeping some of the rough nature of the original.Here’s one of my favourite breakdowns from today:

Landscape 01

I’d like to get into the habit of drawing daily so I’ve come up with a list of short exercises to do, one each day. Today’s was a landscape study. Mountain landscape 478216 from http://wallpaper-kid.com/mountain-landscape-backgrounds.htm I did a B&W study first to try and understand the tones in the photograph. In my sketch it’s difficultContinue reading “Landscape 01”