Ghost towns

Here’s another sketch from a trip we took further North in Nevada. We visited Goldfield (with it’s derilict, haunted Goldfield hotel and weird locals) and stayed over in Tonopah at the Mizpah hotel (also haunted, but very nice!) The hotel was renovated back to it’s 1920′s mining boom charm and the 5th floor supposedly has a lady in red wandering the corridors at night.

Either way, it was very cold the day of leaving, with a snow storm moving in over night and a low of -16 celcius ahead of us. So we drove down from the higher altitude to warm Vegas, glad to have the cold behind us.

This guy was selling his precious wares from a roadside wooden shack on the way out of Goldfield. He told us to tell our friends and bring them on a road trip out just so we can buy his stuff. ‘I don’t want them to stay!’ he said, as though we couldn’t wait to move to a ghost town with a handful of occupants and not a full set of teeth between them.

Anyway, he was a bit of a character and when he tried to get us to enter his SAW building I knew I had to add him to the sketchbook (it was a gallery of sorts with more of his precious junk on display, built from corrugated iron and rusty salvage).

This guy was like something from a horror story

Galway and Moher

This weekend I’ve been away on the west coast of Ireland to see what Galway was like. It’s a small town (technically Ireland’s third largest city!) with a string of pubs and a harbour, but it’s fun when it’s not raining!

We escaped rain on Saturday and were even treated to some sunshine whilst at the cliffs of Moher, an added bonus! We stopped off at various other places too, so I did a few sketches. The one below will probably get the grey wash treatment when I’m back home. It’s of Dunguaire castle (pronounced doon-gu-ran).

Ahh Dublin!

Last weekend I visited one of my good friends, Jan with my friend from work. We met here in Dublin as he was working here too (but for a much shorter time) and I can honestly say he’s one of the nicest chaps around!

He now lives in Berlin so we had a great 3 days exploring the city and enjoying the mix of old and new. It’s a place like I’ve never experienced before and is still holding on to its bohemian image pretty well (and it’s lack of money but that’s all a bit boring).

After a manic few months I’m cracking on with various loose ends and the day job, which is getting rather exciting as we see the episodes come together. I’m currently animating a very sweet and gentle scene which, coupled with the music and lovely backgrounds, is going to look really top notch. I believe it’ll be out on TV in Ireland the end of this year and playing into early 2013. Then many repeats we hope! It’s looking fantastic and I’m proud to be involved.

Here’s a couple of sketches from recently, one drawn from the Ryanair flight experience (although I love them really!) and another doodled quickly at the end of lunch after another encounter with the most excellent yet quite intense paella man on this green isle.

The thousand yard stare from a delicious food stand and queuing intensity to make even Brits proud.

The Liquid Lover

Just had a quick bash at this competition Toon Boom have going on. They gave away Flip Boom Doodle (a simple animation program) for free during January, so I grabbed a copy! Then they published a Valentines Day contest whereby you can win an iPad, so I thought I’ll have a crack at that! I’ve wanted an iPad to experiment with sketching on since I borrowed one for a project. It would be a most excellent surprise if I won! You can vote on my entry from said link: Vote for my entry here!

Voting open 10th – 14th February . . . thanks in advance for your click!

In the meantime, you can watch it here.

Sweetchunks

It’s my friend’s birthday today. I did a swift digital doodle to celebrate his funky being surviving this planet for another year. You can listen to his ‘sweetchunks’ here too: take me to chunkington

He really does have a pair of trousers like that...

Seasons Greetings!

I hope your ‘tasks’ are all done and the tick boxes ticked. People seem to be a bit stressed out in the city centres. I’d rather be somewhere like here.

The fledgling model

One of my friends thought about becoming a life model, so I did a preview using the high end drawing package, MS Paint.

LIAF and London

Just back from a few days in the big town. It was a tiring, whirlwind trip but great for meeting new faces and the old festival inspiration.

London International Animation Festival’s British showcase was an enjoyable one, with only one film I didn’t warm to over the whole collection. There was a strong stop motion turnout aswell, which made a nice change to a few years back. Cool venue at the Barbican too!

I spent much time developing an idea, which will appear in good time. I did have my sketchpad out a fair bit though, so enjoyed capturing that steadfast breed, the London commuter. Here’s a sketch from the train: