Fortunately my other half, Callum, knows all and informed me they’re called “motion comics”. I’ve been Googling away since and want to start incoporating this style and technique into a new project. It would be the ideal way to combine my digital painting illustration style with After Effects work.

You can see loads of stunning motion comics at http://www.digitalmotioncomics.com/ and here’s a blog with the top 10 video game motion comic cut scenes.

If you’re wondering how motion comics are made, then from a technical point of view, this “making of” video is a gem. Apparently they can be made in various bits of software but I like to see Photoshop and After Effects being used.

Now to find a way to incorporate my new inspiration into an animation project…

Recently I had the good fortune to work with an old school friend from Wolsingham School on a creative project. Lee is the editor of Degrees North – the University of Sunderland’s Student Union  magazine and asked me to illustrate an article about football hooliganism and create a TV ident for their upcoming student TV channel. Ben Haynes kindly created the audio branding for the ident.

I love the avant-garde and unusual editorial twist that Lee has brought to DN magazine. If you’re into art and design theory you can see a clear influence from the 1980s deconstruction graphic design movement.

So I tried to continue this theme in the drawing with the sharp, aggressive lines and broken composition. It was drawn with copic liners and marker pens.

You can read the DN magazine online at Issuu and visit their website at www.dnmagazine.tumblr.com

Here’s an old photo of Lee and I when we were both in our first year of University back in 2007. I had just arrived in Sunderland after a 5 hour coach trip from Derby and was as equally pleased to see him as I was to start eating that sandwich. Although I miss our student days, I’m happy that we’re both doing what we’ve always loved as jobs now. Who knew all those days messing about in art classes would pay off?

Because I have the memory of a fishy, I had completely forgotten about it but found out today it has been published and is released this May! There is even a GOSH monsters book launch at Hamley’s Toy Shop in London on 20th May.

I’ve ordered my copy from the official GOSH Monsters Book website and can’t wait to see it in print. This will be the first time I’ve had an illustration published in a book with an ISBN. If you can spare £8.99 why not buy a copy too? It’s for a good cause and pictures of monsters are awesome.

You can support the campaign by liking their Facebook page and pledging to switch to charity bank

You can watch the animation, read about the production and see the storyboards in my animation gallery.

I’m very excited to see how this campaign goes and how the animated web video can help!

storyboard for the animated web video for Charity Bank

The animated interview with Bill Bailey has been completed and polished after some rendering and video codec issues. It will be shown with many other animations at Aniscape – Leicester’s animation festival at Phoenix Square on 24th March 2012

The Bill Bailey animation DVD cover designed by Richie Phillips

Drawing is a skill you have to keep practicing and improving – like learning an instrument or language or sport. Since graduating, I hadn’t done much drawing on paper. Most of my recent work was digital and I was spending most days in front of a screen with a Wacom tablet or mouse in hand. So I wanted go back to basics and do some drawing simply for fun. Some good old fashioned mark making, observation and expression!

The course taught me many drawing techniques that I didn’t know. Such as why artists hold up their pencil and wink at the subject (it’s measuring the subject so you can plot it paper accurately) and the importance of capturing motion through the line of the body’s spine and joints. I apply these techniques in my illustration work now and am less precious with pencil drafts. At the beginning of an image I now focus on getting the measurements, composition and essence right than the details. The details can be done at the end of the image making process.

Sam Malone also gave me some valuable advice for drawing and creating motion as an animator. Over all, the course was well worth the price. I’ve come away with additional skills for my profession and felt refreshed and inspired to do more drawing and painting away from the computer.

You can view my drawings from the course below. I haven’t posted week 1′s as they are pretty similar to week 2′s still life study.

So after shopping around I bought the Acer Iconia A501 3G Tablet PC with Android (Honeycomb) 3.0 on. Not only is it a great little portfolio for my animations and illustrations, it’s useful for everyday tasks and entertainment. It’s made traveling a lot easier as I don’t need to lug my laptop around. Browsing the internet, emails, social media and playing games is more comfortable with the tablet than my laptop. No weird postures, burning lap or aching touch pad finger like with the laptop.

It’s also a nice little organiser with a calender, note pads, basic MS office, acrobat reader, Dropbox and I can easily transfer things between my PC, Blackberry and tablet.

Sadly it isn’t powerful enough to run Adobe Photoshop, InDesign After Effects and so on. The touch screen isn’t pressure sensitive like a Wacom Cintiq screen so in any paint application the brush size and pressure has to be changed manually. The stylus grip isn’t as natural as a pencil or Wacom Inuos 4. So I don’t use the tablet to produce any final illustration work. However it is great for sketching ideas, doodles and roughs. I find photographing work in progress and emailing it to clients with the tablet is faster than scanning it on my PC.

Useful Creative Android Apps

The apps I use most for my work flow are Adobe Photoshop Touch, Adobe Collage and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. I would not produce a piece of work from start to finish entirely on the tablet. I still need the PC, scanner, large monitor and Wacom Intuos 4 pen tablet, paper, pencils, drawing board and other bulky things found in my home studio.

Overall it is a very useful little thing but I’m still dreaming of a tablet powerful enough to run animation software and have a pressure sensitive screen for perfect digital painting. Doing all my housework would a nice added feature too.

The Adobe Collage app on Android is useful for arranging reference and research material for illustration projects

Adobe Photoshop Touch for android on Acer A501 tablet PC. The layers, selection and painting tool enabled me to clean up and arrange some sketches into a comic book panel alyout.

Autodesk sketch book pro has a great selection of brushes and a nice interface to digitally paint with.

Autodesk sketch book pro on the Acer A501 tablet PC has layer function with different layer modes, making it easy to paint different elements.

Handmade bespoke tablet cover

Llinos Hobson, artist and textile designer of Textile Deli created this beautiful bespoke tablet cover. I struggled to find a tablet cover to fit my Acer A501 and that I liked the appearance of. I met Llinos at the creative business start up course, Making Creativity Pay, at the Derby Enterprise Centre. She made this cover using handfelted methods with British wools and fabric printing. The design was all by  Llinos who based it on my logo and style of artwork. Not only is it pretty with a lovely soft texture but it’s practical. The lining is scratch resistant, padded and water proof. There is also a zip on the top. Another benefit is it doesn’t look like a conventional tablet cover so is less likely to be plucked from my bag!

If you would like a cover made especially for your tablet, just contact  Llinos at craft@textile-deli.co.uk.

Handmade bespoke tablet cover for the Acer A501 tablet PC by Textile Deli

Handmade bespoke tablet cover for the Acer A501 tablet PC by Textile Deli

Handmade bespoke tablet cover for the Acer A501 tablet PC by Textile Deli

Detail of the stitching and fabric print logo

Detail of the stitching and print of my illustration "Imagination"

So I needed my portfolio website redesigned to improve its accessibility, the load time, its Google search ranking, make it easier to update and to look professional. So quite a lot! Joke de Winter managed to do all of these things with her expertise. She made a website design tailored to my content and has made it incredibly easy for me to update my portfolio. I’m really pleased with how the layout design suits my artwork. Her services were professional, helpful and she has given lots of helpful advice for maintaining my website and increasing traffic and sales. I’m very happy with the results and highly recommend Joke’s web design services!

QUAD Derby – Don*t Panic! Festive Gift Bazaar

Free Entry QUAD is holding its annual Festive Gift Bazaar on Friday 2nd & Saturday 3rd December 2011. Stalls will be dotted throughout the QUAD building, situated on Derby’s centrally located Market Place.