Long Overdue Update

I have been unable to post to the blog for a while due to other commitments but I am happy to have returned and hopefully back to posting frequently again.

You know, I realised recently that this blog isn't really for the people reading it (if any) it's more for me to just recap the period since the last post and to review what I've been getting up to. Sometimes I'm quite surprised by how much I've actually achieved in that time too. I have been on two wonderful trips to Florida since my last update and I feel that my energy levels have now been completely rejuvenated.

As I had mentioned in my previous post, I was working on a Hashtag Show comic based on the character “Geordie Captain America” who is discussed in the show. The comic shows a violent and obnoxious parody of the famous character. The storyline for the short comic came from Mallorca Lee. This was a fun little piece to work on and I was particularly pleased with how the final frame looked.

 

Comic books were my first passion, and what sparked my interest in becoming an animator/illustrator.

During my period of silence I created this tribute to the legendary comedian Robin Williams, one of my all-time favorite actors. This was a piece of work that, similarly to the Stan Lee before it, I had always wanted to create. I was very pleased with how this final piece looked and hope that I did Robin some justice.

Robin passed away in 2014. Given that he was my favourite actor, this really affected me more than a celebrity death ever had.

Additionally, I did some work on character design again, which I hadn't done in quite some time. All of this played a vital part in me finding my motivation again and creating new animation. The two characters below were designed during this period. I may possibly use the heavy character (whom I'd dubbed "Egg in a Cup" due to his strange shape) in a future animation, as he would work very well in that medium.

 

The updates in this post take me up to around September 2019. In my next post, which will be within a few days, I will update everything else I have been doing since September and what the future holds for me and Campbell Animation.

Hello again!

A common trend with my posts to the blog are that I tend to update it for a period, followed by a few months of silence. During that period though, it usually doesn’t mean that I haven’t been working. In fact, usually the opposite is true and I have found myself far too busy to put my thoughts down on the page.

This recent period of absence has unfortunately been down to some seriously bleak circumstances for my family. My grandmother sadly passed away after a battle with cancer. She fought amazingly and I am proud of how she defied the doctors every time. This has quite naturally been a particularly devastating time for me - my gran was always a massive part of my life growing up and I lived with her for ten years.

However, she was a strong lady and would not have wanted me to wallow in darkness after her passing. In the time since my last post I have created a few different pieces of work, including both artwork and animation.

Through my Facebook page, Campbell Animation, I connected with a new client from Buffalo in New York. He reached out to me to digitally re-create a sketch that he had made for one of his music business ventures. I created the piece and he was pleased with the final product, so much so that he contacted me recently to work on another design. This recent piece is for a clothing line he will be launching and the design is quite a unique one. Unfortunately, I won't be able to show any of these designs for the time being as the client has asked that these remain confidential. I will remain in communication with him and if he later allows me to present these I will do so.

In addition to this freelance work, I created a few one shot comic strip based on a joke I'd read online (below.) Once I'd completed the first strip, I got an idea for a second one and was able to create that fairly quickly after the first. These ideas were just for a bit of fun to post on Campbell Animation, so I may or may not create more based on these characters in future.

These projects re-developed my taste for creating comic strips. Drawing and reading comics had been my first passion and was what led me into the creative fields in the first place. I have always had it in the back of my mind that I would like to create an action-adventure comic book. The character pictured below is one that I have recently started to develop. I have sketched him many times now and really enjoy working on him.

I recently completed a test for a company called Education City, based in Oakham, England. I was in Leicester for a meeting with the team down there, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of touring their offices, though I felt that the type of work they done didn't quite fit my own style. I was a front runner for a position within Education City and was tasked with completing a learning module in the final stage.

After much consideration I decided to complete the task since I'd travelled all the way to meet them. Unfortunately, in the end, I was not the candidate chosen for the role but I am happy with their decsion, I would have felt awful declining the role and I was very much on the fence about it. In the end, I am glad I completed the module as through it I learnt more about Adobe Animate, which is not my native program.

I also created a unique character, that I named Arty, in their style to show that I was more than capable of creating assets in that style.

In addition to all this, I did more work for The Hashtag Show, bringing to life the Geordie Captain America, a character they had invented in their fortnightly podcast, and a frequent topic. Lately my work for The Hashtag Show has moved from animation towards more design work, which has allowed me to look towards other projects. The Hashtag boys are looking to arrange a date for another Hashtag Live event, which would be my 3rd show doing the intro animation. I will update the blog if there are any developments on that.

Going forward, I will be travelling to Florida on Monday for two weeks and getting a much needed break from everything that has been going on in my life. I will return with fully charged batteries and ready to look to the next project. As before the BBC project is going through a lot of development changes so my involvement has been delayed again. I have been speaking with The Hashtag Show about doing a possible comic strip so will probably get that completed once I'm back and move forward with once of the many animation ideas I have swirling around in my brain.

 

Updates

After a whirlwind January where I posted three different times, I have been a little off the radar. I had taken a break from creative work for a while, mainly because of some personal circumstances within my family. I am now getting back into the habit of creating content again and my two most recent pieces are graphic design work. The first piece is a gamer character based on myself which was created for the Campbell Gaming Youtube page . This channel was created by my good friend Jon Campbell for game streams and that I will be appearing on every now and again.

The second piece is a Raccoon warrior piece that I created for a client who had actually seen this as a sketch and commissioned me to colour it digitally for his own use.

Going forward, I have a few things planned out. I seem to be pushing myself more in the design direction at the moment which doesn’t overly faze me, despite being a specialist in animation. It is not due to a lack of ideas, as I am brimming with those, but more so time.

I organise my projects in a list of importance and I work through it that way. Sometimes projects get totally moved to the bottom of the list and some get pulled forward. This technique isn’t for everyone, however it is a technique I have found very useful and works well for me.

Going forward from here I have plans to do a one shot comic and see what the reaction to that is. However I have also designed a character recently that I would very much like to use as a comic and take a chance with that. My first interest in the creative business was actually in comic books and I really want to attempt it.

Animation wise I have a few ideas in the works, I have almost finished planning stages in the BBC project that I have been working on and it will be moving into full production very soon. 

I will be sure to post updates as soon as I am able to. I have also storyboarded an idea for a sequel to my Saul & Pepper cartoon and this may be the next animated piece I work on.

Captain Avery Scythe

As I promised, the digital character design that I have spent part of today working on. Avery was planned to be the main character in my pirate comic, created as part of a university project. However, the project didn't really evolve into anything. I decided to just convert my sketch of Avery into digitally inked to get some practice in.

Next, as previously mentioned, I will get back to working on the next "Gump & Gil" episode, which I will hopefully have finished at some point next week. In-between working on this project I will also continue to design and digitize characters in order to build up my website.