knunk

The end of another year. Lots of great things to look forward to in 2008, personally and professionally. All the best to you.

I'm back.
They let me go.
Pictured is "The red wall". Pray you never have to see it.
Bless the Greykid gang. I'm amazed by the work these guys are doing. I'm sure the new year will bring them even more success.

Check out the size of their monitors too.

Many thanks for the invite Guys!

Safe and Sound won! In fact it won 3 times! Safe and Sound was shortlisted for Education and Training, Kids, and Government and Education, and scooped them all. Giving BBC, Channel 4, MTV, The Natural History Museum and the Ministry of Defence are good kicking! Yay us! Well done the lovely Stardotstar gang. Chuffed!

I was up too late and full of wine. I really should have gone to bed but I started messing in Sketchbook and Photoshop. I think its Frankensteins monster. Not sure about the blood splatter thing..bit cheesy.

A few poses from my sketchbook. I had a day last week where I couldn't stop drawing these blokes. This is one of many sheets. This may turn out to be the funnyest cartoon ever made. Or might not.

I had a look at One of the Skunk shows I boarded the other day. Had a look at half of it anyway. Very cool it was too. Beautiful BGs and animation.
Heres a board/final comparison picture. One of my fave shots. Hmmm...

I heard yesterday that the Safe & Sound project (I did with my chum guy and the boffins at Stardotstar) has been nominated for a BIMA award....in three categories. Whats a BIMA? Have a look here http://www.bima.co.uk/.
The picture is a reject design. They didn't pick him.

Early this morning, frustrated and tired, ratbird came along.

Works mad! I've a very long night ahead. I hate working hard. I want to retire now please. Somewhere sunny, where theres wine and food. And sun.
I'm full of coffee and coke. Hopefully I'm carrying enough fuel to get me through the night. Trouble is I have to do the same again tomorrow. Anyway a couple of days and it'll all be over. Drawings were done in record breaking time...mere seconds. Just now infact. I just had to write the word "metal" above them. When I drew the word "metal" I was shouting it really loud in an Arnie voice. Caffeines Ace! Wonder if the guitarist from Slayer would want to do a job share? Mess with me at your peril clients.

Oh....and I've been working on some cool projects recently. Hopefully I can post pictures from them soon.

Hail Satan anyway...cheers

Heres something else entirely. Doodles for my little show, and some hardcore sheep action.

I went down to London again. Great meeting up with Stu and the lovely Nickelodeon people. I thought I was busy until I talked to Stu. We ate lots of meat. Nice.
The day ended in Matt and Phreds back in Manchester. Very nice.

The image sums up my feelings of the last few weeks.

Yes I'm back from London.

Apologies for not going to see anyone while I was there. I said I would but dint.
Great to see K, Sam, Will, Ian, Carl and my pal Si at the Parthenon party.
Over 13quid for 3 bottles of becks though!! Weep for them my northern brothers!

The train down was like a train from the future.... or France or something. I drew half a sketchbook of nonsense, thumbnailed 2 boards and read a few pages of Stranger in a strange land. Which at page 400 and something has taken a strange turn and lost me a bit.

Back to work today though. Emails and funny animals.

Pictures are doodles from the train.

Apologies for the lack of posts. Fun things are a foot. Working on a fun new thing with some nice folks I've not worked with before, and my own shows are starting to click. One in particular has just fallen into place. So I can get it together and get it out there.
I was out and about last week. Great seeing my chums at Stardotstar, Kilogramme and Firestep. Kilogramme and Firestep are now working together and have a joint reel. They are doing beautiful things.
Also dropped in to see my pal at studio Liddell. They are doing ace stuff on Roary the race car.

I had a play around with the Punch and Judy characters yesterday. My friend Guy has a project he wants me to help with so I'm just researching really.
The Punch story is mental. He throws his baby out the window, then beats his wife to death. He kills a blindman, a policeman etc etc.....he even has a stick fight with the devil himself! No idea where a crocodile comes in. ...or sausages.

I dont know the direction my chum will be taking it as yet, but it would make a great short film.
Pictures are proper ink and Photoshop colour.

Guy I tried emailing but its playing up again. I'll get them over soon.

The sunny pictures developed into BG ideas.

I've got a bug in my head. Really! At least its dead now. I got in there at the weekend. Just flew right in without asking. I spent the afternoon screaming and pouring water into my ear to drown it. Its quite a strange feeling having something crawling inside your head. Anyway R.I.P little bug.
The nurse couldn't get it out, so there it stays until the ear pushes it out. Everytime I think about it in there I get all itchy.

Works slow, I'm awaiting the start of a new series. Fingers crossed its not going to stall over contracts yet again. Why cant people get along eh?
Anyway heres a picture of me and my pal Charlie. I turned 40 in May. Mad!

What a week.
I've been done with Skunk for some time now. Many thanks to the Cartoon Saloon guys.

Since then I've completed a pilot for someone. Not my project.
Anyway, it was done. My machine had output many gigs of targas ready to head off to the editors. When I get the call. "Are you sitting down"......I was. Turns out the producer wants to change one of the character designs. A design thats been okayed and signed off at every stage up until this point. Anyway I've 37 scenes that are okay and 21 scenes that have to be thrown out. Very depressing. It means more income but the idea of digging back into it makes me feel a bit sick.

Also my PS3 died last night. It lasted 5 weeks.

Also...
My pals at Star Dot Star are without a home. Their studio fell victim to the recent fire in Manchester. They are still working and are expecting to be up and running in a new space within the month. Glad you're all okay.

On a happier note. Safe and Sound has been nominated for (I think) 4 awards. Including a nomination for best animation at the bigchip awards. Fingers crossed.

I got my new machine too:) It’s got a window and a lime green light comes on when the fan spins!

Mint!

Images are a couple of Photoshop doodles from this morning.

I was meant to be having a shave but I started doodling abstract shapes. As often happens. They turned into these robot type things. No idea why the guys not talking. Nothing to say I guess.

Thunderbirds aren't go.

Heres some drawings that ended up as the paintings I posted here a while ago.

With a sad heart I got my last Skunk board today. I'll miss the little stinker when he's gone.

Picture here is from my little project still being developed in any free time I don't have. I'm trying to slow the pace down with it. Longer scenes...more art.

Also two dogs from a from little short I plan to make.

Following on from my last post I've had a few concerned emails. Just to let folks know I'm not talking about Cartoon Saloon.

My fault for not making it clear, its seem obvious that folks would associate my comments with the Skunk Fu posts.

Apologies to the Skunk boys.

Tell you what. I don't think its ever been this bad. Its not the work, there's plenty of that about. The problem is getting paid. Okay that was always a problem but this past few years its got worse and worse. Nobody wants to pay anymore! Its the same story for my freelance chums. All of them are owed money, huge amounts of money in some cases. Many of the folks are walking a financial tightrope. Growing overdrafts... remortgaging their houses.

Us freelancers are paid to do good work, on time. Frankly its insulting to wait 2 months then have to start begging for your money. I recently had work with a well known studio on a very cool show. The kind of thing you'd do cheap just to have it on your CV. Well I did do it for cheap. Very cheap. I gave them an awful lot for the paltry sum. They repaid me by making me wait 3 months then deducting tax and NI from me. I told them I couldn't conitnue because of this.



This stuff has almost brought me to my knees. I have kids and a house and bills too. I work like a bastard to give people my best. Look after your freelancers folks.



On a brighter note. My writer pal is free and has come on board to work with me on my own show. So its given me a push. Development on it has taken a jump forward. I think the look is getting there. The image above is some early development from it.

The latest Skunk is done. It was a great script. Dont think I've pulled so many faces drawing a board.

My Ex Mrs found this online for me today. Its one of my first comic covers done in the 80s. Its bloody terrible, but its great seeing it again. I haven't seen it since I drew it all those years ago. I remember being really nervous about it. I was only a young pup and those Marvel guys were like bearded gods. Bless them for letting a kid have a go.

Have a great year all!