Northumberland sketchbook & rocks!

A trip to Northumberland to spend a week in a cottage meant lots of big sky beach walks, fresh sea air and castle views. Here’s a selection of pages from my sketchbook and some doodles on rocks too! Fave moments include seeing the dogs go crazy on the sand, end of day light and watching the world go home for tea from the castle walls, and seeing a half yellowing moon hanging over the dunes, backdropped with a star-pocked sky.

Sketches from a hot place

Several weeks ago myself and my partner, Josie went off to Lanzarote to visit her cousin and nieces. It’s the kind of location I probably wouldn’t head to as it’s quite rocky and barren looking in the photos, and I’m not much one for just lying on a beach (English skin ahoy..)

It was such an interesting little island though, and we had a great time! I took my sketchbook and pocket watercolours, doing little doodles when I got chance (we were only there for 5 days and the nieces were high energy!). Highlights included a cactus garden and falling asleep with the sound of the sea from our apartment window. Lush!

Evening doodles in the living room

Living room doodles

As has been the case for much of this locked down year, I’ve spent a fair few evenings in my living room, so I thought it was time to draw it! It’s not that I don’t sit down and watch TV, but in summer I’m normally much more out and about, plus we don’t have the social side available right now. Either way, Dan Gregory and his fab books inspired me once again to draw what was in front of me. If you haven’t read his stuff, I highly recommend it 🙂

Living room doodling

Distant sketching

Distant sketching of Melbourne, Australia

Whilst I’m here on lock down under the government restrictions, I thought I’d try a sketching game. I take a series of pictures from a friends story on Instagram and turn them into ‘location sketches’ as though I was there. This just means I sketch them quick and loose, then throw a bit of colour on (digitally this time but normally it’d be with watercolours). These photos spoke to me because they were from a friend in Australia, where the colour and light just feels so alien other-worldly. I love the trees and vegetation out there, and I can almost here the dry rustle of the bushes in the wind. I also liked the concrete underpass photo as it reminds me a bit of the ones were have here in Manchester, and the ones in the U.S.A. There’s something calming and peaceful about those smooth, futuristic columns in permanent shade! Life humming away overhead.

So here are the sketches coloured up. I omitted one of them I finished as it was a overly worked sketch and the colour didn’t do it any favours, but it was the first one I did, so 3 out of 4 isn’t bad!

Distant sketching of Melbourne, Australia

Chris Voss Masterclass

So far I’m loving the Masterclass series. It’s so well produced and edited, along with really interesting speakers and subjects. You can see a commonality amongst the best of any field. Recently I’ve been listening to the fascinating stories from ex-FBI negotiator, Chris Voss. The way he talks to the camera is very interesting and I feel myself getting sucked into his conversations when I know it’s all an act! Amazing stuff. Here’s the doodle, all made in Toon Boom Harmony (as that’s the software I had open) using a combination of vector and bitmap brushes (I love the software as a sketching program too).

Chris Voss sketch

A sketch of the expressive and captivating Chris Voss! From his Masterclass series

Summer life drawing

I’ve been heading to a few life classes recently, warming up that sketching muscle! Here’s a selection from a duo workshop in Manchester, U.K and two other classes with a male and female model.

Annecy Animation Festival 2019

It’s been a few weeks now but I’ve finally got a bit of time to sort my post-Annecy notes and sketches. I haven’t been for a while, this being my fourth trip. It never fails to inspire you and re-ignite your love for animation! You come away wanting to DRAW haha!

The ticketing system is a bit more high tech than when I last went…all QR code scanning and app booking. It took me a few days to get the hang of this as I seemed to have missed booking ANYTHING. Luckily I bagged an additional screening of ‘I lost my body’ (j’ai purdu mon corps) which was being produced at the last studio I worked at (Pipangai) on Réunion Island.

This film was EPIC. Exactly the kind of animation and storytelling I love to see in a feature at the moment, as it felt very fresh and engaging. It was a bit of a downer of a film. I mean, it’s French so of course it’s moody 😉 But it is beautiful in the way it was executed and blows the socks off anything else in the independent circuit right now. The first 5 minutes are sooo cool. It’s not the sort of shot choices you see in a 2D animated film (probably because of the directors background and the combining of 3D and 2D tools). Here’s a trailer:

I got my head around the ticketing eventually and saw a load of great short films (for me, these are the best bit of festivals). The range of styles and forms the storytelling takes is the big THING that inspires me. I wrote a bunch of notes along side sketches, hence why the long decode time as I’m often writing in the dark..! I met many lovely people there including old friends, which is always a big highlight. I got to chat away to many folks at Toon Boom whom I’ve never met in person, but I’ve recently completed some promo work for as part of their 25th anniversary. You can watch that below:

There’s a whole section of the Annecy festival called Mifa, which is sort of the business area. You can have meetings here, go check out companies who make software, studios who are recruiting, and so on. You’ll often get some freebies too! I did a fair amount of chatting here, so the week was quite busy all in all. I DID manage to squeeze some sketching in though. I’ve also got a collection of sketches from my half day in Geneva before I headed home, which I’ll aim to post soon. I’d like to add some colour to more of these, as the scenery was so bright and often I didn’t get time to paint on location. The storms rolled in for a few days, which meant there was a real contrast! Could’ve just spent a week there sketching and painting, never mind all the films! Here’s a gallery of sketches and many more photos (iPhone is just a bit too easy). I took a disposable black and white camera that I bought in the airport on a whim. When I get those developed, I’ll post a few! I met one of my heroes, Ronnie Del Carmen there. He as a lovely chap and I’ve been a fan of his work and comics for years. We have a lo-fi selfie, so I’ll be sure to post him one when the roll is finished 🙂

Trips in America

We arrived back from a 16 day U.S.A experience yesterday, going from Chicago, into Wisconsin, marriage things and then to New York for a final bit of fun. It was a GREAT holiday and we crammed in so much. The weather was everything from warm, sweaty and sunny to windy, stormy and tornado inducing (no really, we had an alert whilst in Chicago..!) I played golf at some amazing courses, met a lot of ace people (and dogs) and watched my brother get married. The U.S.A is always great fun for me, as for all its faults, it still holds this feeling of freedom for a little boy from old England. Maybe it’s all the Americana I grew up on, but you can’t help but share in a little excitement at the novelty of it all.

Sketches & photos

I made a few sketches amongst the madness, many of which were in New York when there was more time to reflect on things. I did snap a fair amount of pictures, practising with the new camera (low light settings ALMOST mastered!). For now, here’s a snippet of those things.

Unexpected moments from the trip

– Finding out that Sheboygan, WI is a beautiful town with a strong creative vibe (who knew).

– Williamsburg is cool. It was expected, but it was even cooler than I imagined and we had a great time there. The independent shops are awesome.

– Friendly New Yorkers. We met many helpful, kind people there just in passing on the street, at night, etc. Not the stereotype! Mainly off Manhattan island, it has to be said.

– Playing some of the best golf of my life at Whistling Straits G.C. That day will forever live in my memory and I shall not let anyone forget my long game prowess.

– Discovering that Dexter has a rival for the cutest dog in the world. Meet Katrink, of Old Town, Chicago.

Sketching flowers

sketching flowers

I’ve been doing a bit of The Artist’s Way as part of some creative discovery. Admittedly there have been some breaks in completing the 12 week course, but when I do get around to it, I love the little tasks!

It makes you look at the world with fresh eyes and be a bit more playful with your art. It’s easy to end up just doing ‘work’ when creativity becomes your job.

Flower watercolour sketches

Some watercolour sketches of the flowers in the living room. Thistles were a nice touch!

If you’re looking for a great book that’ll have you exploring your creative side, I can’t recommend The Artist’s Way highly enough! It’s really top class and as a bonus, the 12 week course structure is easy to follow and very inspiring. Even if you don’t draw, it’s a lovely 3 month side project 🙂

Spring sunset

Today apparently marks the start of Spring here in the U.K plus there’s something called a super worm moon whatever that is! The days are getting warmer and the rain has lifted, at least in Manchester, for the time being.

I was wandering around town today, looking at all the incredible development that is going on in this city. It’s like something out of a sci fi novel, except when I read about Hyperloop it makes me think we are actually IN a sci fi novel. It’s very cool but also maybe moving a tad fast. Capitalism doing its thing I guess! Just to be clear though, no Hyperloop in Manchester, just lots of cranes and shiny glass 🙂

Whilst contemplating life in the big ‘Northern Powerhouse’ I saw an ace sunset out of my window. I’ve sketched and drawn this numerous times, but it never gets boring, as the clouds are ALWAYS different. you notice little changes in the tree/building silhouettes, too. this sketch was digital (Krita again) whereas the others are normally in a sketchbook with mixed media. tonight had these wonderful, silky ink clouds that almost dripped across the gradient skyline. Here’s the sketch:


stretford-spring-sunset

Anyway, enough about skies! A little side note: my short film: Who moved my Penguin? recently got accepted into the Lift Off screenings run by Pinewood Studios. So here’s to the film’s first laurels..! There’s a few other festivals that it’s looking likely to get into due to its theme, so I’ll post updates when I get some 🙂 The work on the new film is going good now too, made some progress today! The trick I’m finding is balancing the time between different projects, keeping all the plates spinning, as it were. Oop, one’s about to drop, no more blogging distractions from me…

LiftOffLaurelsSessions

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