Drawnography

R.I.P. Christopher

2011-12-16T03:15:00.001-08:00

The world has lost one of it's greatest Thinkers,
leaving a hole that might never be filled.
Good bye Hitch...

Did the earth move?

2011-04-26T05:45:00.001-07:00

It did for me...
I hope you like my dungarees, they were too big for Miss Hathorn, so I inherited them...

New Showreel

2011-04-26T05:43:00.001-07:00

I finally managed to cobble my stuff together into a new, shinier showreel.
And here it is...

Felix Sputnik Animation Showreel from Felix Sputnik on Vimeo.

Old dry marker

2010-01-22T12:39:00.000-08:00

I was animating a computer bee on a computer and found an old dried up marker behind the monitor.
These are the last lines that old marker was capable of producing, so I guess it was it's swan song, so to speak...

Me & my gal

2010-01-12T15:07:00.000-08:00

Dinner for one

2010-01-10T12:38:00.000-08:00

Just in case you didn't know, there is a theater-play that has been broadcast in Germany every New years eve for as long as I can remember.
It was recorded in 1963 and features Freddy Frinton and May Ward.
I still find it funny after all these years.
I remember the New Years eve party grinding to a halt each year and everyone crowding into the living room of whoever was hosting the festivities to view this.
New year wouldn't have been right without it...
Enjoy, or, if you are German, reminisc...
By the way, this is what you have to know.
Miss Sophie is celebrating her 90th birthday.
Her usual birthday guests are Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr Pommeroy and Mr Winterbottom.
Unfortunately she has survived them all but is reluctant to give up this treasured tradition.
Luckily James, her Butler of many years, is ready to step in and take over the roles of her late friends...

Too big for her dress

2010-01-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

If you've seen the Alice trailer, you may have noticed that the girl does her growing and shrinking without the benefit of her dress doing the same.
So I'm not giving anything away I hope.
So here is one more setup from my pitch, in 2D and 3D, just in case you found some goggles in the meantime...

Iz

2010-01-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

If there is one thing that 2D goggles proves to you, it's that you can never draw enough Brunels...

Tiny Doodles

2010-01-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

All of these setups usually start their lives as minuscule sketches on the margins of some storyboard pad or other.
These were a mere inch or less in height, before I let the Photoshop vector tool loose on them.
There is also an anaglyph version of the rabbit-hole illustration from 4 posts down.
(I hope you have goggles)

Beware the Jabberwock my son...

2010-01-06T06:01:00.000-08:00

Here is a setup of the Natural history museum in Oxford.
The Idea was to introduce all the mad bits from the books by means of variations of everyday occurrences, some real, some made up.
(Read the annotated Alice by Martin Gardner for more information.)
So here we have displays of angler-fishes, lizards and dinosaurs, which, 6 seconds in, line up to form the Jabberwock.
I hope you can see.

Drink me...

2010-01-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, another setup, based on the same principle of using the basic shape of the spade as the head of little Miss Liddell.
Note the dark hair, as that of the original Alice, not in keeping with the Alice in the film...
Maybe that's why they didn't pick it.
Below you also find the 3D setup...
Both Cyan-red and Green-red should work.
I also did some moving setups, which I shall blog later.

Good bye titles...

2010-01-04T09:14:00.000-08:00

I've been waiting to hear back from the Burton camp, if there was a chance, they might let me animate the end credits for Alice in Wonderland...
They won't, apparently it went to someone else, which means I can blog some of my pitch artwork, so here is number one...
Others soon to follow, some in 3D, so get your red and green goggles out of their drawers...

New Poem

2009-05-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

ORIGINS:

Are Bungalos from Bangalore
Do pears come from Peru,
Pencils from Pennsylvania
Timber from Timbuktu?
Are Sardines from Sardinia
do you find Wales in Whales,
Do they make cans in Canada
does the Isle of man make males
Does Jam come from Jamaica,
Is washing done in Washington
are Albinos from Albania,
Do they make bonbons in Bonn
Is Turkey full of turkey farms.
Is Botswana famed for Boats,
Are Rubik's cubes from Cuba,
and do they build roads in Rhodes?
Is pole vaulting a polish sport,
is one born in Borneo,
Are you from Yugoslavia,
Am I from Idaho?
The answer to the lot of them,
is, without question, No,
It matters little where you're from,
no more then where you go.

Renato

2009-03-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

Mr Pesci turned 60 today, so we went and made sure he wasn't taking it too hard... and indeed he wasn't.
I made him a card, just in case he was, but as I said, he wasn't.

I hope spike would be proud of me...

2009-02-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

Mr Milligan was an unabashed supporter of the good old fashioned pun and so am I.
So I couldn't resist this one...
Enjoy, or at least try to...

Snow

2009-02-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

We took the day off due to adverse weather conditions, as the above pictures will prove...
Gave me some time to do more doodles, like this curious one...

Phoenix

2009-02-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

About 10 years ago I bought a bicycle from a little shop in Battersea.
I liked the shop and it's owner so much I designed a logo for it, based on the Phoenix bird and the image of a small wheeled folding bike, like the ones Mike specialized in.
So here is the logo (spot the bird), a small flash animation of the logo and a demo of how to fold your Brompton, if you have one, and if you don't, then you should...

About God

2009-02-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

I have few heroes I look up to, this man is one of them.
Read his book: "The God Delusion" even if out of shere curiosity.
I'm currently reading the King James Bible out of shere curiosity...
let's see where it leads...

Curiouser and curiouser

2009-02-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

There is one film that is responsible for me becoming an Animator and, based on a book that is infused with mathematics (my great love) and puzzles and conundrums (my other great love), I find it somewhat curious that I am now storyboarding on it's remake, together with Miss Hathorn (my other, other great love).
It's all quite miraculous...
and that from a bloke who doesn't believe in miracles...
By the way, the above picture has nothing to do with the project, it's just me doodling with vectors again...

Mail

2009-01-28T11:47:00.000-08:00

I sent a parcel in the mail,
to my friend in Spain called Dale,
so that my mate in Barcelona,
can finally be a parcel owner.

I sent Canadian friend Jean Paul
a tiny cloth peg for his wall,
so some small house in Winnipeg,
has on it's wall a mini peg.

I sent my friend Jose to stay,
way out in Californiay,
the little town of San Jose,
does now at least have one Jose.

I sent my U.S. friend Justine,
a tiny apple made of tin,
so out in Minneapolis,
is where my tinny apple is.

I sent a squeaky flute of wood,
to a Chicago neighborhood.
some lovely folk in Illinois,
can now enjoy it's silly noise.

I sent a four leaf clover to,
a bunch of guys in Waterloo,
so that these southern Londoners,
know luck did not abandon us.

I asked my lady friend and mate,
to move together rather late,
for which I do feel sorry still,
we now share a house in Forest Hill.

All fogged up

2009-01-22T12:38:00.000-08:00

A couple of month ago I did a series of wood cutouts, that sit in frames with frosted glass, so they look like they are pressed against a steamed up window.
This was the first one, I'll photograph the others and post them here later...

St. Josefs school for little nippers

2009-01-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

When I was tiny, I went to a school in Warendorf, Germany, and now, some 34 years after I left, they ask me to design a logo for them, so I did.
Here it is, I hope someone likes it...

You've got to get in...

2009-01-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

...to get out.

Kintyre

2009-01-19T14:34:00.000-08:00

Last November, Miss Hathorn, Izambard, Nevsky and I went to the Mull of Kintyre, in an attempt to get as far away from things as we could.
We stayed for 3 nights at Saddell shore cottage and then for 4 nights at Cul Na Shea, a little corrugated iron shack, 30 feet away from the sea.
I ruined the logbooks of both places forever by drawing in them...
And here are my sins...

Shouting into the storm

2009-01-19T14:29:00.000-08:00

There is something quite nice about the fact that no one comments on my posts.
I've not been blogging for almost 2 years and everybody has finally given up on me.
So, now, with no one listening out there, it's like standing on a cliff and shouting into the storm.
But isn't the shouting ultimately because we need to shout, not because we need someone to hear us...
I ask thee

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh

Ukulele

2009-01-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, one more for tonight.
I've always liked Peter Gabriel, but never more so than when he released So in 1986.
So here is my poor attempt to be more depressing than he is, armed with a Uke and an accordeon and two versions of my own vocal chords...
Enjoy, if that is at all possible...

Steampunk

2009-01-14T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm back and I have to get used to coming up with stuff again.
It's not like I haven't been doing things, but last year was all digital and now it's back to pens...
I worked on a CGI feature and though it looks nice, it's somewhat pointless.
Much like this design, made from acid edged metal sheets, designed to make my Ipod more retro...
Looks nice but is ultimately pointless.
Here is the concept, I'll post a photo of the finished item once I've put it all together...

Octopus vulgaris

2007-03-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

I noticed a pair of octopi, roosting in the large oak behind our garden.
This maybe good news, last year we had a couple of squids, nesting in our hawthorn, but the magpies got their baby, so they didn't return this year.
I know the common octopus is nor usually found this far north in the spring and is usually seen in Kent only, but I guess that's global warming for you...
Anyway, I was so delighted, I wrote a poem about them...

Spaghetti:

A lovely pair of Octopi
were roosting in a tree
and it was not just any tree,
it was a tree near me.

Whenever they held tentacles
they seemed, at dusk at least,
to be one hexadecapus,
if there was such a beast.

When baby octopus was born
they did look to the eye
like one Duodecaquadropus
or two Dodecapi.

I'm not too good at math, you know
'cos this is what I see,
when I look at that mess up there:
Spaghetti in a tree.

Palindrome

2007-03-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

So here is one of the arty things I'm working on
This here drawing, which has palindromes written all over it, and a nude from behind, will be mounted in a frame with a double sided mirror placed in the middle of it, so you actually get 3 prints for the rice of one.
I will fiddle around with the actual palindromes I use in the final, as I have just discovered some corkers...
Anyway, the video should explain things a bit better...

Silly Poetry:

2007-03-10T05:41:00.001-08:00

Hairy:

There was a girl called Mary-Ann,
who married quite a hairy man,
with hairy chest and hairy back,
and very hairy scrotal sack.

But what most people never knew,
was, that she was quite hairy too.
With hairy legs and hairy pits,
map of Tasmania and tits.

They married in a hairy way,
in a small church in Haringey.
The wedding feast was bean compote,
the beans, of course, were haricot.

Their house in Harwich by the sea,
was wee downstairs and upstairs wee,
but first below and then above,
they took to making hairy love,

both reaching hairy pleasure peaks,
and after forty hairy weeks,
the birth looked like a hairy 'un
so they chose a cesarean.

The little runt, who's name was Paul,
was born without a hair at all.
Despite his parents hope for hairs
on Paul they did remain quite scarce.

But luckily at twenty five,
he bumped into his future wife.
A lovely scotch girl called Alicia,
with full blown adult Alopecia.

Despite their bodies shiny buff,
adventures, they did have enough,
which, I admit, should all be told,
if only more things rhymed with bald...

And another one

2007-03-09T07:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry but you will only get this one if you are familiar with the advertising campaign of a British supermarket chain that specializes in deep frozen food.

Single parent family:

Age: 35
Hight: 6 foot 2 inches
Built: athletic
Job: Biologist
Name: Fjalar Stefánsson

That's why mum's gone to Iceland

New Poems

2007-03-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

Just spent a week in Suffolk trying my old motorbike out on roads that are not straight and more than 200 yards long. There are castles everywhere and in the evenings (we stayed in an old forge which still had the bellows and tools in it) I revived my habit of writing insane poetry. So here is a new one called:

Police report with SFX

At eight fifteen in the morning
Tick tock
after leaving his lover,
fick fock
who's hair he was fond of kissing
lick lock
and who he had treated to a candlelit chinese meal the previous night
wick wok
he was asked by a mugger for his money
pick pock
and when he failed to take the request seriously
mick mock
found himself on the floor, savagely assaulted
kick cock
the only thing on his mind being that he hadn't changed his footwear since yesterday...
sick sock
...and what sort of impression would that make on the emergency services.

Chinese propaganda poster

2007-03-04T15:20:00.000-08:00

Hello all you patient ones...
I am sitting at home battling with my creative demons on a daily basis now...
It's surprisingly difficult trying to reinvent the way one draws...and while I'm still afraid of the blank paper, I do think vectors are my friends.
Today, as a byproduct of my attempt to sketch the erotic relationship between a lady diver (not Lady Godiva) and an octopus, I inadvertantly sketched a portrait of Miss Hathorn, the lady I share a toothbrush with...
I think this sums her up quite nicely and from her reaction I gather she is not entirely displeased...
I will probably turn this into a painting of some sort and when I do, I will post that as well, shamelessly exploiting the same artwork twice...
Also , as of tomorrow, you can see my little fingers doing Riverdance© for St patricks day.
If Guinness doesn't put it on Youtube, I will...
See you there...

A mauritian surprise

2007-02-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

I was shooting my fingers again, for another commercial, this time at a small Rostrum camera place in Fitzrovia and, what do my tired Eyes see, a small brass Dodo.
Someone apparently brought it back from Mauritius as a present for Ray, the rostrum cameraman. Ray immediately offered it to me as a present, and, being the Dodo fiend that I am, I accepted. He will receive a Dodo umbrella as compensation, but let it be known today, that Ray (and I don't even know his surname) has made me one of the happiest people on the planet...
This picture does not do Ralph (I christened the brass dodo Ralph, as it's latin name is Raphus cucullatus and I felt that...)
Anyway, it doesn't do her justice ...

Rant

2007-02-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

The other night I started writing down all sorts of things I didn't believe in in order to establish what I believe in.
It's a bit like the Mark Twain story in which, after having been to the opening of a new hotel, he wrote in the papers that "about half the hotel staff seemed to be totally incompetent".
After the hotel threatened the paper with legal action for libel, Twain had to revoke his statement and issued an article that stated that "about half the hotel staff seemed to be competent".
Just to prove you can say the exact opposite and mean the same...

Here is my rant...
Enjoy

Something for young ladies

2007-02-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

I did this a while ago as a pitch for a friend of mine and a product she was developing.
She has since gotten her company off the ground, and, as she hasn't used my packaging design, I feel it to be safe to, at least, blog part of it.

Short Guinness Ad

2007-02-01T02:44:00.000-08:00

Ok then, they finally put a shortened version of the Guinnes Hands on Youtube and one viewer seems to think it's a disgrace they didn't spend more money and he wants the white horses back.
Let's hope not everybody aggrees...

Sugarfoot

2007-01-29T11:35:00.000-08:00

We finally put sound to that TV trailer I worked on for the last 6 month.
There, that's done, and some of it looks quite tasty. Here is a comp of all the shots in the desert sequence, all in reds and purples...
The guy underneath is an early ancestor of, what would later become "Harlan"
If the trailer turns up on the net, I'll post the link here...

Och aye the noo

2007-01-29T02:40:00.000-08:00

This morning sees me bleary-eyed, warming up last nights haggis for my breakfast.
Yes, indeed, with 3 days delay, we did finally get around to celebrate the hero of Scottish poetry with a feast and some reading with questionable accents.
There were 4 Girls and 4 Boys, and as the "Address to a haggis" has exactly 8 verses, we took over a verse each.
I also decorated the blackboard with this portrait of a live haggis, bemoaning his predicament.
You will have to know "Address to a haggis" and "Ode to a mouse" at least partially to get the joke... (if that is indeed what it is)

Vot is it mit ze Dschermans

2007-01-25T02:39:00.000-08:00

Vot is it mit ze Dschermans and zeir anty Aids kampains?
Twize now have zey approached mein Boss Mister Meyer to pitsch on Kommercials to edjukate peeples to be more responzibble but zen, when you've dun ze work,
you nevver hear from zem evver again...
Zankless lot...

Anyway, here is a pitch based on the idea of a series of movie spoofs (That would of course be more effective if shot in life action, in the style of the original film), this one being Alfred Hitzkopfs* "Psycho".

It was fun trying to compress stuff into just black white and grey, and I think with a moving camera and the resulting parallax shifts, the moving version could have been done using black and white only...
Maybe I'll try doing a test some day. That would be a good excuse to learn "MOHO".

* German word for hot-head, clever pun, no?

Raphus cucullatus umbrellicus

2007-01-24T04:42:00.000-08:00

Well, ever since watching Mary Poppins I wanted one of those parrot umbrellas.
Having since acquired a taste for all things extinct and flightless, I decided to make my very own Dodo umbrella. It's actually quite comfy to hold, once you find your preferred hand position and I might go and show it to the guys at the Horniman museum at the end of our street. They have a reconstructed dodo there and maybe I can sell these through their shop...
I let you all know when I go into production.
Until then, let's hope it stays dry...

Apologies

2007-01-24T02:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry, working on a trailer for a TV series has stifled my other creative drives for the last 6 month and I am ashamed...
But now I'm getting ready for a 3 month sabbatical (if the taxman allows) and plenty a silly artwork should be posted soon.
I was also lucky to sell my old fingersnapping tricks to those purveyors of fine black frothy stuff, Guinness, and a 2 minute version of the Ad should be online before the month is out, followed by Cinema and TV ads.
Here meanwhile is the story of one of our swarms...
I hope the bees are snug in their boxes, I am worried about one colony, which might not make it this winter. But, I'll keep you posted...

10 dimensions

2006-07-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Try this one, it's lots of fun, despite the fact that it lost me somewhere around the 7th dimension...

http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php

Meanwhile, here is my own explanation about the 4th dimension...

Condoms

2006-07-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

Health campaign pitch, trying to teach german football supporters to fxxx responsibly.
I liked the teat wobble...

Looping

2006-07-21T03:55:00.000-07:00

Here is something fun to do on hot summer nights.
Design a little logo (It's the E4 logo here, a london based TV station)
print it out once normal andon the reverse in reverse.
Get some matresses and fall into them holding the logo:
normal,
upside down,
upside down and flopped and
normal and flopped.
Film yourself and
Cut the whole thing together in After fx or whatever they use where you work.
I did some others wich involved hopping, but never put them together.
Hope you like it...

Peter Sellers

2006-07-19T07:48:00.000-07:00

The Story:
About 4 years ago I was approached to pitch on the title-sequence for "The life and death of Peter Sellers"
After several runs on the design, I finally animated the test you see here in Flash. It was just meant to show that you could do something graphic on a budget and it took a couple of days to complete. Steve Hopkins, the "director" kept asking me to do more and more work on it, including getting fellow designers involved. When I finally asked them to involve a production company as I could not carry this any further on my own finances, they told the production company not to bother, as the job was likely to go to another company.

Something they could have told me before I spent all that time.
Ah, Mr Hopkins, another hero of mine...

The final titles won at least 4 major awards and I honestly don't know why.

Check them out here:
http://www.voodoodog.com/
or don't bother.

Lenticular

2006-07-18T05:26:00.001-07:00

And here, to test whether that video thingy works, a 3D print I am planning to do based on an old drawing of mine...

That's him

2006-07-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

Met this guy last night, who was all fuzzy and out of focus...
One of those mad nights, where simply everybody's out...

I love summer

Paisley

2006-07-13T03:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry, must be the sweltering weather or the hormones.
To those of you easily offended by paisley patterns I apologise profoundly and profusely...

Apis cucullatus

2006-07-10T02:57:00.000-07:00

Had our first proper honey harvest last week and will be spinning our way to sweet happiness again tonight, celebrating the purchase of our very own extractor.
So I spent some time on the weekend, coming up with a design for our honey labels.
This is work in progress, don't like the type yet. will keep you all posted about the quantities we nick off the little nippers.
Also, got stung for the first time yesterday, a mosquitibite is worst...

Weather

2006-06-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

And another one...

Holmes

2006-06-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being so lazy lately, but I was busy.
Got my Skinnydippers into the Royal Academy summer show and sold the lot on the first day.
Life is good.
Meanwhile some old Eurovision illustrations I never posted here

Prog Rock

2006-05-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

When I first came to England I proudly pronounced to be into the sort of music, that this green and pleasant land has produced in the past. It was then, I found out that Englands love affair with Progressiv rock was well and truly over...

Dirigible

2006-04-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Look, what I found at the local fleamarket...

(Just kidding, It's new)

Arabia

2006-04-06T04:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my slow response to all your lovely comments, bit overworked but will answer them all some day...

Meanwhile, the housing marked is taking a dive out east...

Skinnydippingprints.

2006-03-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

There seems to be some Interest in my Skinnydippers.
Here is the deal, there are 23 prints of high enough Quality to be usable. They're all signed and come in 3 colours, Green, Dark red and Violet.
There were originally 12 greens, 5 reds and 6 violets.A number of them are already given away or need to be kept for a period of time but some are available.
I have scanned one of the green prints and that's what you see here.
It's 23x59 cm give or take a mm.
I will post thumbnails of the other colours over the weekend and let you know how many are left. So if you want one, you can have one...

Buster

2006-03-24T08:37:00.000-08:00

Did this for a pitch resently and... didn't get chosen, which is just as well, because that way I can stick it on my blog without upsetting some multinational corporation with regards to secrecy...

I thought he looked like Buster Keaton...

Underpants

2006-03-09T04:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long silence, but they are working me to the bone at Passion pictures.
Anyway, looked down when on the loo the other day and discovered that my Marks and Spencers underpants were:...

Made in Egypt.

Just thought you might want to know.

Skinnydipping02

2006-02-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

Started Screenprinting last week, great fun.
I decided to do a 2 colour Dodo first and do the Skinnydippers on the second weekend.
So I added some Details and split the whole thing up into 4 colours, but to look like 6 different ones, by overlapping transparent paints.
I hope it all works in the end. I'll keep you posted

Totally pointless poem

2006-02-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

Bessy is messy
but
Heidi is tidy
Molly is jolly
but
Christof is pissed off
Brad is bad
but
Manuel has done well

and some contributions from our special
friend in Toronto:

Wendy is bendy
but
Neville is level
and
Zoe's too showy
but
Dwight's outta sight

One more Poem

2006-02-13T03:42:00.000-08:00

The Baker's wife:

When baking cake, she blew it,
by adding too much fru...it
but once when baking muffin,
she didn't put enough in.

Close Encounter of the nerd kind

2006-02-10T03:52:00.000-08:00

My favourite Mr. Bean setup...

Hindenburg

2006-02-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

I was trying to leave this Poem anonymously on Seans Airship blog but forgot to switch anonymous on, and so gave the game away...
Ah, what the hell, I might as well show off with it now:

Hindenburg:

Great whale of the sky
I'm wondering why
do you not now fly?
Is it because thy
Hy...
drogen was to blame,
for so large a flame
that blew you assunder,
I wonder.

Great phallus of gas
low weight but high mass
keep thrusting about
make love to a cloud
No fire of lust
competes with thy thrust
I must
admit
I envy you
a bit.

If I live to be gray,
I still never may
experience or ponder
silver sex in blue yonder
'cause you burst
in Lakehurst
Blam...

damn!

Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin,
Poet, Tragedian and Twit.

National Gallery

2006-02-08T01:45:00.000-08:00

When working on Mr. Bean I needed to go to the National gallery, for research, as one of the episodes played there.
I was not allowed to take any photos as that is against their rules, so I asked if thy had photo material that I could use. I was told to contact the Press department which refused to help me as I was not a member of the press.
Jill, our producer, then rang, asking if we could have archive material and was told to submit the episode's script for approval by the galleries director, before they would consider our request... good grief.
In the end I just took a morning off and went sketching, which you are allowed to do in pencil, ballpoint and crayon, without special permission...

Another one...

2006-02-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

...that never happened, I wonder why...

Ernest Vincent Wright

2006-02-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

If youth, throughout all history, had had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn’t constantly run across folks today who claim that “a child don’t know anything.”A child’s brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult’s act, and figuring out its purport.

This is the first paragraph of the novel GADSBY by Ernest Vincent Wright, written in the late 1930's which contains some 50,000 words but not the letter E.

Read it on:

http://www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby/

Fleas

2006-02-05T15:57:00.000-08:00

This isn't mine, but it's too good not to share:

Big fleas have little fleas
upon their backs to bite 'em
and little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so at infinitum.
And the big fleas themselves, in turn,
have bigger fleas to go on.
And those themselves have bigger ones
and bigger still
and so on.

Bir whorls have little whorls,
that feed on their velocity
and little whorls have lesser whorls
and so on to viscosity...

Bye Eddie

2006-02-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

Sadly, Animation Legend Eddie Radage died earlier this week in his house in Deal.
Me and Miss Hathorn were lucky enough to spend several weekends down there with him and his wife Pauline, marveling at the content of his attic.
Eddie animated on Yellow Submarine, Watership Down and Animal farm and in this photo is trying to get some acting tips from the real Napoleon.

I'll miss him...

Walckvogel

2006-02-01T06:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, here is another contender for the silkscreening do in 3 weeks time.
Discovered in 1598 by Portugese sailors and later dubbed Walckvoegel or Doddarsen by the Dutch, the Dodo (Raphus Cucullatus, large flightless pigeon) is a bird we know almost nothing about for certain. except that by 1681 there were no more Dodos...

Peppa Pig Proto Pype

2006-01-31T07:04:00.000-08:00

These were made as reference for the toy manufacturers in China by Miss Hathorn and me.
We had to change Daddy pigs spectacles in the end as they had to be molded onto the face...

Narrow, yes but loooooooong

2006-01-31T06:56:00.000-08:00

You really must go on a Narrowboat holiday once in your life. There really is nothing that can compare to the rush of moving through tunnels of green foliage at a dizzying 2 miles per hour, miles away from the things I don't like, like cars, and being like a snail with ones house on ones back...

Hathorn

2006-01-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

Miss Hathorn and her teeny folding bicycle...

Whatshisface

2006-01-30T03:40:00.000-08:00

Famous film director,
Forgot his name...
Done for a FILM 4 pitch.
Many thanks to the mighty Dave S. who supplied me with devine caricatures to work from.

The mighty rulerphone

2006-01-28T07:10:00.000-08:00

Every New Years Eve, Miss Hathorn and I meet up with our friends Isambard and Nevsky with the aim to create something before dinner hits the table. In 2003 it was an Automaton, in 2004 Masks, which I will publish in some future post, but in 2005 it was to make a musical instrument on which one could play Auld Lang Syne by midnight.
Here is my Instrument, tuned to the Key of A.
I figured, by twanging the rulers along the table edge, that a length difference of 30 mm would result in one octave pitch shift, so the whole rulerphone, which has a range of 1 octave and 1 note needed to have 35 mm slope build into it to make all the rulers come to the same point at the front.
And, it all worked and we made sweet moosic...

Not the smartest joke...

2006-01-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

But I laughed when I drew it...

TV Ideas

2006-01-25T03:16:00.000-08:00

Here is a design that was cobbled together for another TV show idea.
I don't think it'll ever get made, but we came up with so many story springboards, I might turn the whole thing into a series of comics and then get a TV show on the back of it... dream...

Mr Limbolo maintains that the 2 character resemble Miss Hathorn and me, (the tall blond one being me)

Ha ha ha ha
What are you on Mr. Limbolo

Skinnydipping

2006-01-24T09:55:00.000-08:00

So Miss Hathorn and I decided to give ourselves a Silkscreen printing course for Christmas, so I decided to do a large crowd scene as a print.
So I doodled them all in small and stuck them together in Photoshop.
Then I drew them a bit cleaner in pencil but didn't like the look of it.
I do like the overall composition, just not the way the drawings look, so I went back to what I always do, vector it, which worked fine, but now I don't like it at all.
Will keep trying and post any future artwork, successful or not.
If this doesn't work, there's always Tie dye...

Atomaton

2006-01-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Chrixmaxx gave me some time to make more Automata.
This one is called Atomaton, and when you cranks the handle, li'l electrons fly all over the place. It's really quite cute...

Braggart

2006-01-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

I am dead chuffed to have won the Eurovision art challange, and here is some more bragging about it.
Theme was "Celebrity death"...

Passion Pictures Party

2005-12-21T10:56:00.000-08:00

Went to Passions ExMexPaardy and this is what I looked like this fine morn...

More Crimbo Madness

2005-12-17T06:11:00.000-08:00

If I don't see ya, have a lovely christmas...

Sputnik and Hathorn

Silly old doodles

2005-12-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

More doodles, and, according to Uli, I am nominated for a Bafta as the voice of Underlink (First round only so far)
If you're a Bafta member, please vote for me, make me a star... ha ha ha ha ha...

Frederic

2005-12-17T05:57:00.000-08:00

This is a doodle I did whilst working on Warners: Magic sword. It refers to Frederic du Chau, the single most talentless and incompetent film person I have ever worked with. Needless to say, it didn't make it into the studio magazine...

Prototype

2005-12-15T03:08:00.000-08:00

Made a prototype of my naughty little book, 44 illustrations in all, now trying to get it printed somewhere...

Oh no, more stoopid gags

2005-12-14T03:16:00.000-08:00

Ha, just found some old silly doodles, I thought you might shake your heads at...

Graham Reaper

2005-12-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

Have taken some weeks off paid work to start a series of little comics about our friend the grim reaper. It's not the greatest job, but someone's got to do it. (Grim reaping, not taking time off work.)
Here is a setup with Graham as an artists model (death and the maiden) and one page about Mary queen of Scots. Vorgive me if I've been inaccurate with the costumes. I will research more in the future.
More adventures to follow soon.
Miss Hathorn and I are trying to get Gruntle press off the ground and some of these things may just get published in the future...

Where is the winter

2005-12-12T08:49:00.000-08:00

Hi, well, I wish it looked like that in the garden now, but it's a snap from last January.
The weather frogs say it'll be a cold'n so I hope we get scenes like these again...
Merry pre winter solstice time to ya all...

Update on hippies in boxes

2005-12-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

I promised to post some stuff about naked hippies in boxes, when I posted my people in boxes earlier.
Well, I found a postcard of them, and then, I also found more hippy type things in boxes from our friend Mr. Crumb.
And to top it all, a guy I worked with in Ealing also did sculptures of people crammed into li'l boxes.
Ah, what the hell, I'll just do them anyway.

New poetry

2005-12-06T16:21:00.000-08:00

Hey, there are 2 new poems, one inspired by almost being knocked off my bike by an SUV, the other by spotting two Cormorants on the regents canal near Mile End.

To savely transport child and wife,
he bought himself a 4 wheel drive.
But now, that little Theodore,
's been mangled by a 4 by 4,
I hear him gripe about the state
of urban traffic, but, too late.

Three rather shaggy cormorants,
were sitting on the floor morants.
Then one came through the door morants,
now, count them, there are four morants.

Thanks for listening.

2005-12-06T16:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long silence, but I had to go home to the fatherland for family matters.
Anyway, had some time to finally work on stuff I wanted to do for a while.
I managed to register Drawnography.com as a domain name and am currently throwing some sort of website together.
In order to properly inaugurate Drawnography, I did just that, a pornographic short story, which I will try to publish myself, in an artsy type book sort of way. Don't worry, it'll all be in the best possible taste...
(Mature readers only though...)
Here's a mockup of what the finished booklet will look like.
Anyone interested, let me know, might be the ideal Valentines present.
Also been working on a comic series, called "Graham Reaper" but more of that tomorrow...
Bye for now...

New hobby

2005-11-02T04:09:00.000-08:00

I've invented a new hobby.
Start any drawing, and whilst executing it, think of artsy titles that refer to the artist, thus making it sound more important.
It makes you feel like Salvador Dali, who I think actually invented this game...

Anyway, this one is called:

Self-portrait of the artist as a young man with extended nose and a headcold.

Look out for tomorrows Art:

Self portrait of the artist as a blank piece of paper...

Ambitious plans

2005-11-01T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hi again, too busy getting a neckache in front of a computer to think of blogging recently, but now I'm back.
These here drawings were made as scetches for a bunch of small sculptures, crammed into little wooden boxes, that my dad helped me fabricate. (He used to be a carpenter)
So I did the first one in a couple of weeks and have been staring at the unfinished second one for the last 6 month. What I ultimately wanted was people you could stick into boxes in different directions, finally coming up with a wall of little naked cramped in individuals. but there is always someone faster than oneself, I found out that a bunch of famous hippies took photos of themselves with no clothes in cardboard boxes. I forgot who was behind it, but I let you all know when I remember...
More soon

Tablemat

2005-10-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

When working on Valiant, and after month of mouse, instead of pencil pushing, I decided to cover my desk with large pieces of cheap paper and then ruin them with a pencil.

Back

2005-10-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

After a brief holiday in the :
Land of the silver birch,
home of the beaver,
where still the mighty moose,
wanders at will,
and
having seen
silver birches,
beavers
and moose poo
Felix Sputnik is back on line with more meaningless waffle...

Dodo

2005-09-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

You're gone,
and I am missing you,
your waddle and your crow,
you might have been an ugly bugger,
I guess, we'll never know.

Deputy

2005-09-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

Little drawing of the Deputy, Bob Marley didn't shoot...

Captain Flint

2005-09-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

The worlds unluckiest Pirate

Poetry again

2005-09-28T07:21:00.000-07:00

I never met a manta-ray,
I never wish to meet one,
but I can tell you anyway,
I'd rather meet than eat one.

Treasure Island

2005-09-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

As everybody seems to be posting things from the never realized musical version of Treasure Island, so will I.
These are sketches for Logos I did for Uli...

Drawnography finally lives up to it's name

2005-09-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of tasty girlie drawings on some of the neighboring blogs, so I thought it was time for some willies...