Updates all around for the end

ive been so busy lately having to look over and review all of my 4 work related projects that my blog has been neglected lately.

update on the dragons:

I was asked to design all of the dragons den characters after they were realyl happy with my initial design for deborah meaden, and they went ahead and filmed it with the painted versions of my designs. Turns out that they loved them! and they will be appearing on the official dragons den BBC website! also the aired episode will be appearig sometime in june, ill be sure to embed it.

Update on final show:

I have planned most of my final show and I will be buiding a huge maascot suit of my container character gila tyson the lizard. i wont be wearing it, but be sure to spot him wandering around the classroom for the final show. I am also making lassic cartoon poses of my lizard and making them like a set of posters for the wall. IIf i have any extra time I would like to make a short animation starring him, but time is looking desperate right now so it probably wont happen.

DRAGONS!!! an update on my progress

I had gone through quite a few design stages with the Deborah meaden illustration... at first it looked too ugly, and fierce.. but I finally got a design and style I was happy with...

with the comission I contacted the shop, and showed them a few of my designs

Berlin part 3 the FINAL CHAPTER

drumroll please.....

okay, this is the last update of the Berlin trip

Focusing on inspirative animations and artists that have an effect on me or my work for whatever reason....

Firstly, 3753% TORDAL - PAPP

now this wasn't an animation at all, but rather, it was a very cute, very simple character, created with the ability of being a blank canvas for artists. I thought that the idea was brilliant, and I had a chat with the creators afterwards about the possibility of them hosting a website or blog where users could upload their own ideas and designs for the box-shaped character, in which there could be competitions, or comissioned characters for sale!

well, I was quite exited about it It seemed like I was suggesting a lot, but i felt that this thing could grow to be quite a big deal!

they told be to try my hand at designing a character box art and emailing it to them whenever I get one done, so ill be trying that out next week if I have the time on my hands to do it, it shouldnt be too hard! I could even do box versions of my already designed characters and put them along with my final show exhibition.

here are some screenshots of their exhibition, and the little working robot, they had scurrying across the floor (took me quite a few tries to capture a shot oof it because when you got close to it it got freightened and ran backwards.... it made me look daft following it around)

oh, and before I forget, I spoke with the guy behind all of this at the exhibition and he told me you can buy those blinnking eyes from geekthink.com! (or something along those lines)


2 - Secondly, I finally got to meet David O'rilley!!

i told him i diddnt realize he was in the show, and he replied with "me neither" :) well, after watching his new animation at the end of the final screening, I managed to get his autograph and snapped a stalker photo of him!

David O'riley's sense of humour always gets me, and it seemed everyone else too because the entire audience laughed all the way through his 11 minute animation short, and I felt that I would like to try my hand with an animation piece that is made up of all short jokes, compiled together as different stories and perspectives that ultimately come together as one world filled with my own characters lives etc.

3 - other things worthty of mention:

The speaker Ryan Quincy came up on stage in a huge furry suit of his character he is portraying in a hopefull new series. sadly, he had to take it off part way through his talk because "its too ------- hot in there!" but I thought his talk was exellent and hopefully we can see more of his new series if he can get funding for it!

lastly.... THE MISSING LINK SHOW!

well... as the main even it was a truly weird experience... the fuzzy monsters you can see on the pictoplasma main site were the main starts of course, and they pranced about doing rude gestures now and then giving the audience a bit of a shock. They then had this poor german guy on a piano who seemed to go on forever, no seriously.... it felt like hours! people started leaving left right and centre everytime he slowed down to finish, then just kept going, it was like one big joke! again, this shocked the audience.... finally there was a huge DJ party down on stage, so i got down there like the rest of them and pranced about like the DJ told us all to run in circles etc... there were lots of cameras on the stage, and filming the audience too....

NOW I HAVE A THEORY!!!

... After seeing that the cameras, during the entire show were pointed at the audience, I believe that they were studying peoples reactions and the entire thing.... WAIT FOR IT........ was all an experiement ont he audience!! well... thats what I think, because it was very odd, and with the cameras filming ONLY the audience's reactions, NONE of them were pointed at the stage, ....then there was the crazy part that brought about 200 people onto the stage, to run about and rave, then have a dance off, and a sort of, follow the leader game where we all had to copy one guy. Well... maybe im looking too far into this, but im sure it was all an experiment on the audience!

oh yeah, and the chandelier was huge, if it fell we would have all probably been crushed...

FINAL THOUGHTS:

overall, its been a great visit, though next time Id like to see some local animation sometime! why cant newcastle have a focus on art as much as berlin? :(

Berlin update part 2

this is part 2 of the berlin week summary, this ones all about the artists! the ones i liked, diddn't like.... update 3 will be particular ones that will inspire my work, so stay tuned for that one :)

anyway, here are the artists in no particular order:

1 - The Black Heart Gang - Deep Deep below us

I really loved the crazy character designs of this group of artists and animators, and after watching their talk, i found out that there was a really deep storyline full of rich characters that were yet to be introduced or shown, they had even comissioned someone to create a huge wooden statue of a Cockrel character who looked fantastic!

the gallery however i felt diddnt have much in the way of characters at all, for something that is based along a novel-like story, I would have liked to see a host of the characters. But anyaway, the paintings were mostly bland like these two here:

This last one however, was one of a short series of paintings in the style of the animation shown, and I couldnt choose which one i preferred, they were all available to buy for a cheap price too! I feel that the style of the paintings are so detailed they are facinating to look at.

2 - Te bee kingdom - Bee invasion

this collection of work was mainly focused on glasswear which I wasnt trule interested in, but the paintings and designs used for the glassware reminded me of that cute character design you see a lot in japan and korea, and places like Tado specialise in this area.

They gay bomb is just in there because its FAAAABULOUUUUS !

3 - VILLE SAVAIMAA - dangerous bees are not animals

This artist diddnt really catch my eye much with the gallery, the images were very alike, however it does interest me that the subject matter is, according to the artist, supposed to be representations of the bad experiences in her life, shown as an art form because she felt that was the only way of releasing them. On that note, I think the pictures work, and I can see a sense of fear in all of the pictures.

4- MCBESS - the pirates are dead

another artist that uses a single style for all of his work is McBess. he was kind enough to hang around the exhibition and talk to people, while painting a huge picture on the wall of himself as his own character (he even has the tattoo!)

there was also small figuringes, t-shirts, an overall heavily merchandiced echibition of work, with odd things such as surf boards etc. reaching the thousands £££!!!

end of update !

Flattering Dragons Den

I have been comissioned by a shop (cant name untill after broadcast) to redraw Deborah Meaden from dragons Den as a cartoon dragon :)

of course, Deborah Meaden is known for speaking her mind over anything, so I have to be doubly carefull to make sure the dragon is flattering enough to get away with as a gift to her.

I have been asked to create something similar to the dragon from Shrek, but 'nicer'

heres a comparrison:

oooh I can already think about the possibilities!

Pictoplasma berlin

Part one.. the street art

I chose to include this picture because i thought the idea was hilarious, Julia has no idea that she's a piece of art now, thank you google!

Id first like to talk about the amazing street art around Berlin. I was surprised at the amount of graffiti all around berlin. there was in fact tons of it plastered all over hotels, and any building with a spare wall or two... it was a really different atmosphere from home, where graffiti is just a load of 'tags' and swearing referencing to the police.

over in Berlin, its pretty much 98% artwork, character drawings, and humor :)

interview and new work

the interview went well... but the main news is...... i've been commissioned to draw a design for a shop that are making an appearance on dragons den. the design must be one of the ladies from the show drawn as a cartoon dragon! time to work on that..... as well as finishing and sorting out my class work.

updates are coming soon... pictoplasma!