Some old FNH backgrounds...

It's been far too long since my last update. Since then I've had the wonderful opportunity to work alongside some wonderfully talented artists on a Disney/Miramax film and have been pushing ahead doing boards for projects with a lovely bunch of people on a new BBC series.

Anyway, another reason for the lull was the panic over moving. Which, funnily enough, meant the occasional rummage around the hard drive. So just for kicks, here's a couple of backgrounds from Friends and Heroes last year.

Currently boarding in Flash...

... put this little gif together for no reason at all whilst doing so. Click to view.

A couple of storyboard images...

I've been told I've not been putting enough storyboard work on here! Here's a couple of sketches for you completed recently. They were done pretty quickly and intended to show fast work. I'll post some other, older works later (all work is copyrighted).

edit - Blogger's image upload isn't working. Here's a non-previewed colour for now, again done quite quickly.

(blogger is screwing up... give me some time!)

Crater

This crater is for a multi-plane push in packet shot for an advert a friend is putting together. The colours are lifted directly from the movie Stardust, which is where the inspiration from the shot came from. It was done pretty quickly over a few hours - annoyingly I would've done it sooner if the computer hadn't had crashed on the first try. Remember kids, save often!

edit - the advert is finished! Two backgrounds are done by myself, the crater and desert, I also do the main voiceover and a couple of others. Congrats to Ben Campbell (director and creator) along with Anne Moen (animator), George Plakides (CGI), Carlos Saini and Marnie Shipard for pitching in and creating this little gem in less than two weeks!

Background painting

Some background painting based on a Friends and Heroes design and a work in progress.

Tribute to Roger Dean

(changing as updated)

Practising the ol' digital painting...

Updated as and when I fix it up... will add more in future.

End of an era...

Well, it's been four years or so since I started out on Friends and Heroes, and now - for me at least - the series storyboards are at an end. Director Dave Osborne brought me in on it back in 2004 for the first series, so it's kind of sad to be leaving it behind after so long. As a cartoonist the more realistic action, subject matter and fantastic character designs by Alan Batson were at first a tricky combination to get a grasp of, but I managed to stick with it and last all three series! Producer Naomi Jones and her crew of Tracey, Victoria and Andrew have been a pleasure to work with, and meeting with original series one producer Gary Kurtz was, as a bit of a Star Wars nut, a bit of a headrush.

Thanks to you all, and series creators Brian Brown and Eric Danenberg, for giving me the opportunity to work on this fantastic project.

For more information visit - http://www.friendsandheroes.tv/

(candid photo by Amanda Stockley)