Monday 5 February 2024

Here we go again!

Wow! How has it been so long since I last updated the blog? Well to anyone reading this, hope you had a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Halloween, Happy Easter and any other holidays that I’ve missed since my last post.

Since the last post, I am still unable to share all the logo work Campbell Animation did at the start of 2023. For at least one of these projects it appears I may never be sharing it as the company has potentially changed their plans for the future.

Other than that, I have returned to creating artwork for print. Below is a recent digital drawing, created using GIMP, and then printed on A3 300 gsm card.


It all started with one drawing of a father & his daughter looking at Celtic Park, a Fathers Day gift. This was subsequently printed and mounted in a beautiful white frame as you can see below.



Additionally, I printed designs of the stadium on its own and by request I added the Peaky Blinders from the hit TV show, complete with their Celtic FC scarves.


I also created more poster artwork for The Hashtag Show, specifically for the Christmas special 2023 at Classic Grand, which I’ve included below. The show was cancelled due to illness as one of the hosts, Mallorca Lee, has been battling cancer. This was a massive shock, not just for me but for his thousands supporters, be it from his popular 1994 shows, his time with groups Ultra-Sonic/Public Domain, The Hashtag Show and his “Safe Trips” artwork.

 


Coming up, I have several more projects in production, involving printed artwork, which will be going to the printers very soon. Beyond this, I have a few more that will be getting underway in the coming months and so I’m pretty busy until around June at least.

My hope for afterwards is that I’ll return to animation since I haven’t created anything in this medium since December 2022.

Updates to follow.

Sunday 19 March 2023

Things to come

Hi all, I’ve got a few updates to add to the blog and a few more to come in future.

First up, I recently created a logo for a local business that I will feature on the blog when they are up and running. This design will feature on their unit sign & on vans.

I also recently completed this character design digitally, which was actually sketched up a few years back. This design, and others like it, are mainly to keep my graphic skills sharp, though I would one day like to create something similar as a comic. Below is an image of the original sketch, alongside the finished digital piece.



I’ve also created another 4 logo designs, which I will also be sharing on here in due course.

I’ve recently updated my site to make it more user friendly, & also removed a lot of the content, keeping only what I consider my best work. That’s all the updates for now. Next, I’ll be making a few changes to my showreel on the website & I have a few new ideas for graphic work.

Saturday 21 January 2023

(Another) Long Awaited Update

I’m finally getting around to updating the blog and giving a little rundown of what’s been going on over the last few months.

I’ve been majorly busy recently, which is not a bad thing, but it has meant that I haven’t been able to keep on top of updating the blog, & even sometimes updating content on Youtube & Facebook.


First up, I created another few “Coachy Bear”designs. These are just a little bit of fun that I create to share on Campbell Animation & another local page. Generally when I create these, I try to tie them in with a season or holiday, such as Christmas or Halloween.



I also have a few different logos to share since last updating the blog & I can do so now. These designs were actually first commissioned in 2020, but due to some unforeseen issues & then an NDA, they were only made shareable recently.





I can also proudly say that I’ve created another 2D animation recently too. Animation (though its used in the title of my blog AND Facebook page) had taken a slight back seat in recent years due to the more prevalent graphic design projects that were arising.


I created this intro video for Hashtag Live 10, the Christmas show, which was now my 3rd Hashtag Live intro & 5th Hashtag animation in total.


The content of the intro was… interesting to say the least. Written by Mallorca Lee & Scott Gibson, Hashtag Show creators, it involved their usual antics, introducing the audience to the show and, on this occasion, proudly showing off their cartoon genitals.

The request for this piece came in quite late- about 2 weeks before the show. With all the free time I could spare, I managed to get the animation completed by the deadline, sacrificing only a few intended visual jokes.

Overall, I’m pleased with the end result & the audience at the live show responded well to it - one of the biggest laughs was from a gag I’d added at the last minute to solve a pacing issue, which was a strangely encouraging moment.


Lastly, I dabbled in a bit of photo editing a few months back. Originally, the client had asked me to draw a superhero design, similar to the ones I’d done before. I suggested that I do it as a photo edit since I was struggling for time between projects & this was much faster than drawing. She was fine with this & you can see the finished product below, which the client was overjoyed with.



I do have some more updates to come in the next few weeks in regards to what I’m currently up to but will discuss this in due course. A range of work (with a well known figure) that I was hoping to have started by now is still in limbo but I hope will still go ahead soon.

Wednesday 11 May 2022

Still Game Wedding!!

As promised in the previous post, here is the Scottish based artwork I created for a wedding a few weeks ago. Due to Covid the wedding kept getting pushed back & felt the work would never get shown.

This piece is based on characters from the hugely popular Scottish comedy Still Game. The characters used are Jack, Victor, Isa and Winston, alongside the happy couple, Nicola and Gary Keyes.


This piece was printed on A2 350 gsm high quality card then framed in a simple white frame. 


This was a very enjoyable piece to work on & may be the last drawing of this type for a while as I look to get back to animating.


My next update will most likely just be some graphic stuff for nothing in particular, so stay tuned. 

 




 

Thursday 28 April 2022

A long overdue update!

As promised, I’m back to update the blog with various projects that I have produced since June last year. Firstly, I have a piece of art that I worked on for a family friend, requiring her grandson Murray to be turned into a wizard in the Harry Potter universe. The final piece was printed in A3 on 250 gsm card. This was the first Harry Potter themed project I’d worked on but as fate would have it, it wasn’t to be my last of 2021.



Shortly afterwards, my next piece was also Harry Potter themed. I was tasked with turning Sarahanne into a Hogwarts witch, specifically for her 30th birthday. This was a great little project to get involved with & allowed me to explore the Hogwarts theme a little further. The final piece was printed in A3 on 250 gsm card.




I recently got permission to publicly display my past logo work for Moorlife & Moorbeauty, both based in New York. On this occasion, the work was left uncoloured as the company opted to complete this part themselves. We do not have the final coloured logos but will share as soon as they become available.






 

I created these fun little designs as Christmas/Halloween posts within my local community- these were not created commercially. These designs are based on the urban legend in the village of Twechar that a bear lives in nearby woods (known as the Coachie) supposedly named after a headless coachman, yet another urban legend.

 


 

Additionally I created a logo for BBM in Buffalo, New York. At present that design is still under an NDA so as such I still can’t say much about it or share images of the completed piece but will update on it as soon as it is cleared.


Finally, I am happy to say that another project, for a wedding, is nearly able to be shown off and I will update soon. This project was previously hinted at as a Scottish project.


So, as mentioned above, the next update will feature a wedding piece & I will also take that opportunity to update on what I have planned next.

Wednesday 20 April 2022

Long time no see!

I can’t quite believe how long it has been since I last posted my thoughts on Life in Animation. I hadn’t even realised that almost a year had passed, probably my longest absence from the blog in a few years. Obviously since I last posted I have been going through the joys of bringing up my son, so the blog posts, which are always secondary to any work I’m doing anyway, haven’t been kept up to date. 

I have quite a number of updates to discuss from last year regarding past projects and also some upcoming ones. I’ll leave it at that for now and post more updates soon.

Saturday 26 June 2021

Elias has arrived!

Hi everyone, it has been a mental few weeks, just trying to wrap up projects & clear my schedule for my son being born.

We welcomed our son Elias into the world on June 23rd at 11:45 - coincidentally enough Elias was Walt Disney’s middle name. He is doing great, he had us all worrying for a little while, needing some extra TLC in Special Care, but he has came through it now.


As stated on a previous post, I was working on a football related piece, which I can now reveal as the piece below. The work features Scott Brown and Billy Mcneil, two influential captains and players during their time at Celtic FC. The effort that went into this artwork was huge seeing as there are four separate elements - each of which could be their own featured print. In the end, I am happy with how it has turned out and have a few ideas for what to do with it.

 

 



I will now be taking a break from any creative work for the next few weeks as I focus on settling Elias into our home and taking care if him. I have two other projects that I need to wrap up so these will be my priority once I return from paternity.


I will also be focusing on completing the animation that my oldest son Logan & I were previously working on. 


As I also mentioned before, I have been sketching some character designs too, so I have included these below too - they may one day find themselves being digitised in some form, as past sketches have.

 

Until next time!