Busy busy!

Hello all,

It's been a minute!! I’ve been incredibly busy since the last blog update as it has been full steam ahead on our latest animation. During the pre-production stage, I designed the main character Gordon, sketched several scene backgrounds & storyboarded the project, which could run as long as 4 minutes.

Thus far, the majority of the work has involved creating different assets that the character, Gordon, will be interacting with & digitising the background sketches. For backgrounds in this project, I've been influenced by the Chuck Jones style - a simple yet artistic look.

Since the last post I have also created artwork of Twechar Parish Church, which has ceased function as a religious building in the past few years. It has since been placed up for sale, which has been a bit of a contentious subject within the village.

This was requested by an Twechar ex-pat who was very specific about what she wanted, the church at night with a beautiful white owl perched nearby. This piece was printed onto 350 gsm A3 card and mounted in a simple white frame

I have also completed several edited versions of the previous Celtic Park designs, which I have also included below. These were created and delivered digitally, so there were no prints required in these examples.

As things currently stand, I intend to have the majority of the backgrounds and assets for the animation completed by mid September which is when our family is going to Florida. Upon our return, work will commence on the piece and it is my hope, best case scenario, that it will be completed by Halloween.

In addition to this, I’ll be sharing a few posts over the next couple weeks, breaking down some of my favourite animations, characters & influences. I'll post a brief description on Campbell Animation, my Facebook business page, and then will go more in-depth on the blog.

After the animation has been completed, I have a few works in the pipeline that I intend to get done on the run up to Christmas. More to follow soon.

Exciting few months to come!

Hello all! Once again I've not updated the blog for a few months longer than I would have liked - time just seems to fly by when you're insanely busy... and I've been insanely busy! 

 

 

Occasionally some edited versions of the Celtic Park project have been requested, which I've only been too happy to work on.

Firstly I want to go back to what I had mentioned previously, Mallorca - of Ultrasonic and Public Domain fame - whom I'd collab'd with for many years, has unfortunately passed away since my last update. His funeral was absolutely packed with mourners and he had an unbelievable send off, filled with love and emotion. Going forward, I don't really know where we're at with The Hashtag animation and graphic design, I know Scott is continuing the podcast but that is all at this time.

A lovely tribute set up to Mall.

Before I start covering off some of the work I've done since last time, I should mention that I have a big project, currently in pre-production, that l'm very excited to get stuck into. I will update more info on here in due course. Pre-production development has been made on the main character design and a shot list including thumbnails. If you couldn't tell so far, this next project will be an ANIMATION Huzzah!!

I've only recently sent across some of the pre-production materials for review, so in the meantime I am planning to complete a couple of custom print orders over the weekend.

I also recently completed work for a local softball team called "The Glasgow Isotopes", creating a logo for their shirts and for social media presence. The name is an homage to the team from The Simpsons, so for this design I pretty much immediately wanted to incorporate "Blinky" from the season two episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish." The finished design and shirts can be seen below. Overall I was very pleased with how these turned out and look forward to owning one in the future when my contact is able to provide it.

Finally, I worked on a stylised map of my home village of Twechar, detailing streets that were demolished in the mid 00's during a regeneration project. I created this for myself but also knew this would be appreciated by the people of the village. Thus far the reaction has been very good, which is a big relief as the approval of these works is important to me.

 

 

 

 

Some framed prints of the Twechar map, A3 size, with the street names around the border.

 

Going forward, I will continue to work on the aforementioned project and I will post any updates that I can on here.

Here we go again!

Wow! How has it been so long since I last updated the blog? Well to anyone reading this, hope you had a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Halloween, Happy Easter and any other holidays that I’ve missed since my last post.

Since the last post, I am still unable to share all the logo work Campbell Animation did at the start of 2023. For at least one of these projects it appears I may never be sharing it as the company has potentially changed their plans for the future.

Other than that, I have returned to creating artwork for print. Below is a recent digital drawing, created using GIMP, and then printed on A3 300 gsm card.

It all started with one drawing of a father & his daughter looking at Celtic Park, a Fathers Day gift. This was subsequently printed and mounted in a beautiful white frame as you can see below.

Additionally, I printed designs of the stadium on its own and by request I added the Peaky Blinders from the hit TV show, complete with their Celtic FC scarves.

I also created more poster artwork for The Hashtag Show, specifically for the Christmas special 2023 at Classic Grand, which I’ve included below. The show was cancelled due to illness as one of the hosts, Mallorca Lee, has been battling cancer. This was a massive shock, not just for me but for his thousands supporters, be it from his popular 1994 shows, his time with groups Ultra-Sonic/Public Domain, The Hashtag Show and his “Safe Trips” artwork.

 

Coming up, I have several more projects in production, involving printed artwork, which will be going to the printers very soon. Beyond this, I have a few more that will be getting underway in the coming months and so I’m pretty busy until around June at least.

My hope for afterwards is that I’ll return to animation since I haven’t created anything in this medium since December 2022.

Updates to follow.

Things to come

Hi all, I’ve got a few updates to add to the blog and a few more to come in future.

First up, I recently created a logo for a local business that I will feature on the blog when they are up and running. This design will feature on their unit sign & on vans.

I also recently completed this character design digitally, which was actually sketched up a few years back. This design, and others like it, are mainly to keep my graphic skills sharp, though I would one day like to create something similar as a comic. Below is an image of the original sketch, alongside the finished digital piece.

I’ve also created another 4 logo designs, which I will also be sharing on here in due course.

I’ve recently updated my site to make it more user friendly, & also removed a lot of the content, keeping only what I consider my best work. That’s all the updates for now. Next, I’ll be making a few changes to my showreel on the website & I have a few new ideas for graphic work.

(Another) Long Awaited Update

I’m finally getting around to updating the blog and giving a little rundown of what’s been going on over the last few months.

I’ve been majorly busy recently, which is not a bad thing, but it has meant that I haven’t been able to keep on top of updating the blog, & even sometimes updating content on Youtube & Facebook.

First up, I created another few “Coachy Bear”designs. These are just a little bit of fun that I create to share on Campbell Animation & another local page. Generally when I create these, I try to tie them in with a season or holiday, such as Christmas or Halloween.

I also have a few different logos to share since last updating the blog & I can do so now. These designs were actually first commissioned in 2020, but due to some unforeseen issues & then an NDA, they were only made shareable recently.

I can also proudly say that I’ve created another 2D animation recently too. Animation (though its used in the title of my blog AND Facebook page) had taken a slight back seat in recent years due to the more prevalent graphic design projects that were arising.

I created this intro video for Hashtag Live 10, the Christmas show, which was now my 3rd Hashtag Live intro & 5th Hashtag animation in total.

The content of the intro was… interesting to say the least. Written by Mallorca Lee & Scott Gibson, Hashtag Show creators, it involved their usual antics, introducing the audience to the show and, on this occasion, proudly showing off their cartoon genitals.

The request for this piece came in quite late- about 2 weeks before the show. With all the free time I could spare, I managed to get the animation completed by the deadline, sacrificing only a few intended visual jokes.

Overall, I’m pleased with the end result & the audience at the live show responded well to it - one of the biggest laughs was from a gag I’d added at the last minute to solve a pacing issue, which was a strangely encouraging moment.

Lastly, I dabbled in a bit of photo editing a few months back. Originally, the client had asked me to draw a superhero design, similar to the ones I’d done before. I suggested that I do it as a photo edit since I was struggling for time between projects & this was much faster than drawing. She was fine with this & you can see the finished product below, which the client was overjoyed with.

I do have some more updates to come in the next few weeks in regards to what I’m currently up to but will discuss this in due course. A range of work (with a well known figure) that I was hoping to have started by now is still in limbo but I hope will still go ahead soon.

Still Game Wedding!!

As promised in the previous post, here is the Scottish based artwork I created for a wedding a few weeks ago. Due to Covid the wedding kept getting pushed back & felt the work would never get shown.

This piece is based on characters from the hugely popular Scottish comedy Still Game. The characters used are Jack, Victor, Isa and Winston, alongside the happy couple, Nicola and Gary Keyes.

This piece was printed on A2 350 gsm high quality card then framed in a simple white frame. 

This was a very enjoyable piece to work on & may be the last drawing of this type for a while as I look to get back to animating.

My next update will most likely just be some graphic stuff for nothing in particular, so stay tuned. 

 

 

A long overdue update!

As promised, I’m back to update the blog with various projects that I have produced since June last year. Firstly, I have a piece of art that I worked on for a family friend, requiring her grandson Murray to be turned into a wizard in the Harry Potter universe. The final piece was printed in A3 on 250 gsm card. This was the first Harry Potter themed project I’d worked on but as fate would have it, it wasn’t to be my last of 2021.

Shortly afterwards, my next piece was also Harry Potter themed. I was tasked with turning Sarahanne into a Hogwarts witch, specifically for her 30th birthday. This was a great little project to get involved with & allowed me to explore the Hogwarts theme a little further. The final piece was printed in A3 on 250 gsm card.

I recently got permission to publicly display my past logo work for Moorlife & Moorbeauty, both based in New York. On this occasion, the work was left uncoloured as the company opted to complete this part themselves. We do not have the final coloured logos but will share as soon as they become available.

 

I created these fun little designs as Christmas/Halloween posts within my local community- these were not created commercially. These designs are based on the urban legend in the village of Twechar that a bear lives in nearby woods (known as the Coachie) supposedly named after a headless coachman, yet another urban legend.

 

 

Additionally I created a logo for BBM in Buffalo, New York. At present that design is still under an NDA so as such I still can’t say much about it or share images of the completed piece but will update on it as soon as it is cleared.

Finally, I am happy to say that another project, for a wedding, is nearly able to be shown off and I will update soon. This project was previously hinted at as a Scottish project.

So, as mentioned above, the next update will feature a wedding piece & I will also take that opportunity to update on what I have planned next.