Sketchbook highlights: January - May 2014

I post photos from sketchbooks a lot and all over the internet (mostly on my Facebook and Instagram). So here is a collection of my personal favorites posted so far this year.

Jessica Rabbit.

Callum and Jack watch cat bum TV. 

A rickety laboratory set up for a children's book. 

Drowning hand in Hokusai's waves.

Daenerys Targaryen. Game of Thrones fan art.

The first two pages of a graphic novel project which didn't continue. 

Practicing drawing anime faces with copics and other manga pens. 

Playing with a new set of felt tip pens. 

The first page of my Vietnam travel journal. 

Final Fantasy fanart. 

Fanart of the film Gravity.

"Get that bug out of your butt!"

Gender equality. We're all just flesh and blood with a few chromosome differences.

Zombie soldier pin up sketch for the "Classic Undead" photo project. 

Snow and Bigby wolf from the Fables game. 

Bubble tea and moon face doodles.

Horror drawing challenge #2 - decapitation. I mixed selfies and decapitation here though. 

Urban sketch of Vines Bar entrance on Sadler Gate in Derby. 

Tree lady. 

Hula girl with authentic grass skirt. 

Hipster visual pun. 

Playing with ink and calligraphy pens. 

Playing with Derwent colour soft pencils on black paper.

Clear skin - a watercolour painting. 

Snake man. Inspired by Dark Souls. 

We’ve been busy working on a big project for a client who has commissioned our animation studio to create an educational and environmental animation for young people. Names can’t be mentioned yet but the animation is due to be released in September 2014. So far the project has been a blast and we’re loving working with this client to produce various animation concepts.

As part of the project we presented a few concepts and some animation examples to a group of young people and gathered feedback.

The results showed that our target audience engages most with animations with the following traits…

• comedy (preferably edgy and slightly dark),
• a catchy tune
• bright colours
• character animation
• a funny voice over
• a speedy delivery (between one and two minutes)
• a clever message.

Now it’s our job to take our client’s messages and turn it into an animation with all those qualities!

Have a look below for photos of our animation production works so far.

Animation concepts printed out and ready to present to the audience focus group.

Animation storyboard drafts printed out for a team meeting and song writing session.

Our music producer, Ben Haynes, coming up with animation song ideas on his guitar.

Creating character designs and concept art in Adobe Illustrator with a Wacom Cintiq.

Rendered animation style concept illustrations to accompany the storyboards we sent to our client for review.